Thu 15 Dec 2011
Reviewed by Marv Lachman: ANDREW GARVE (2), NICHOLAS GUILD (1).
Posted by Steve under Reviews[11] Comments
ANDREW GARVE – The Ascent of D-13. Collins, UK, hardcover, 1969; Harper, US, hardcover, 1969. Reprint paperbacks include: Popular Library, 1968; Perennial Library, 1986.
— Two If By Sea. Harper, US, hardcover, 1949; first published in the UK as Came the Dawn, Hutchinson, hardcover, 1949, both as by Roger Bax. Reprint paperback: Perennial Library, US, 1986, as by Andrew Garve writing as Roger Bax. Film: MGM, 1953, as Never Let Me Go (with Clark Gable & Gene Tierney).
It’s good to see Garve being reprinted, and, these two books, published almost two decades apart, will serve as a splendid introduction to a writer who wrote more than thirty novels, no two of which seem cut from the same pattern.
The only similarity in these two, books is that both are about the Cold War and both are genuinely exciting and suspenseful. In The Ascent of D-13, rival Western and Russian mountain climbers “race” up a rugged peak on the Turkish-Armenian border to recapture, a secret weapon on a plane which has crashed.
Two If By Sea, which Garve originally published in 1949 as by Roger Bax, grabs the reader quickly with its tale of a British correspondent’s efforts to rescue his Russian wife from behind the Iron Curtain. Garve’s effective use of a sailing background is a bonus.
NICHOLAS GUILD – Chain Reaction. St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1983. Berkley, paperback, 1986.
Forget you know the results of World War II. This is one of those books in which the author wants you to guess whether Herman Goering will throw out the first ball at the 1946 World Series.
Actually, it starts out well enough as in January 1944, an anti-Nazi, but loyal, German officer is landed in New England on a mission which can possibly save Hitler’s beleaguered War effort.
The early chapters are quite good, but then evidence of careless writing and poor research (frequent anachronisms) creep in. There is a switch in character focus midway which weakens things even further, so that by the end we really don’t care how the book will end.
Incidentally, this was a book with eleven swastikas on the cover. That, alone, should have deterred me from reading it.
Vol. 8, No. 4, July-Aug 1986.
December 16th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
This is a question that always occurs to me when look at the writing career of someone like Andrew Garve.
I assume readers enjoyed his work while he was actively writing, but the fact that he never concentrated on a single series character seems to have made his decline in popularity later on all the more precipitous. (He lived until 2001, but his last book was in 1978.)
As Marv says in his review about his books, “no two of which seem cut from the same pattern,” is/was this a Good Thing? Then, or in the long run, now?
December 16th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
PS. Those who have known Marv for a long time are well aware of his aversion to books with swastikas on them.
December 17th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
One of his books as Roger Bax BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER has recently been re-issued in paperback in the UK by Arcturus Publishing. NO TEARS FOR HILDA, the first book under the name Andrew Garve, is planned for re-issue by the same publishers in March 2012
December 17th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Martin Edwards gave BLUEPRINT a fine review on his blog
http://doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.com/2011/09/forgotten-book-blueprint-for-murder.html
I read the review when he wrote it, but I’d forgotten about it till you reminded me.
I tried to browse through the Arcturus catalogue, but I couldn’t get it to load for me.
http://www.arcturuspublishing.com/
December 17th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
I meant to say something about this earlier, but I was distracted until now. It seems impossible to me that a movie with both Clark Gable and Gene Tierney in it is not available on DVD, but it’s true.
The film is NEVER LET ME GO (MGM,1953), based on the Bax book in Marv’s review. Here’s the IMDB page, where nine people have left comments:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046124/
There was a VHS release, and you can get a foreign DVD withe Spanish subtitles, but no DVD here in the US.
December 29th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Nice to see Garve getting some attention for his tight mysteries with not a word out of place. I read someplace that he wrote on a commuter train, going to his job as a solicitor. I agree that because he did not have a series hero to be remembered by, he is now a neglected writer.
Like many of his novels, The Riddle of Sampson has a unique setting. The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the Cornish coast of the UK. John Lavery, a typical Garvian protagonist, is just an ordinary guy, an archeologist looking for traces of Royalist strongholds from the English Civil War. Problems arise when the jealous husband of a beautiful woman meets an untimely demise. In a panic, she lies to the coppers. The islanders can not help but gossip. Trouble for John Lavery.
The Far Sands is a 1960s thriller. Foreign office diplomat meets comely woman on vacation. Love blooms. Meets sister- and brother-in-law to be. Charming people. But in a shocking turn of events brother-in-law is seemingly done to death by sister-in-law. Evidence says so but comely woman can’t believe it and works to clear dead sis’s name. FO dip between rock and hard place: the evidence versus bride-to-be’s determination and ingenuity.
His love of sailing comes out in his stories In A Hero for Leanda (1959), engineer Mike Conway finds himself on the beach in Ghana after his boat is wrecked. He accepts a dangerous proposition: sail to a remote English colony in the Indian Ocean and aid the escape of a freedom fighter imprisoned there. Excellent pace, with a crackerjack ending.
December 29th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Matt
Thanks for the long comment. You have a knack of summarizing a plot in only a single paragraph — and of making me want to read the books you’re reviewing!
Garve is not alone among authors of his generation in being neglected and/or forgotten. It takes a special talent for an author’s work to stay popular once their writing career is over, and only a few, such as Christie, Hammett and Doyle, seem to be in the small percentage who do. Having a series character helps a lot, but as I’ve been thinking it over, even if Garve had used one, it probably wouldn’t have helped him remain known today all that much.
Gavin Black, for example, wrote a series of 15 or so spy-adventure novels in the 1960s featuring a recurring character named Paul Harris, and he’s probably even more forgotten than Andrew Garve.
Garve, by the way, has about five novels still in print. Arcturus has done one and has another scheduled for 2012, while the others are in large-print editions designed for library consumption. All in all, maybe that’s about the best most older authors no longer with us can hope for.
December 30th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Steve
Thanks for the response. Gavin Black (Oswald Wynd) did write good ones like You Want to Die Johnny and Suddenly at Singapore, with series hero businessman Paul Harris. I read them in the late 1980s, Per Amazon, The Langtail Press has re-released a couple of them.
On Best Lists nowadays, I often note the absence of Ross Macdonald, creator of Lew Archer. Admittedly there is a certain sameness in Macdonald’s broken families, bleak SoCal haunts, and past transgressions haunting the present, but I still think he’s a better plot-weaver than Chandler and as good a writer as Hammett.
December 30th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Time will tell, of course, but I too am concerned about Ross Macdonald gradually being forgotten.
Maybe he’s teetering on the edge, but many of his books are still available new in paperback, so at the moment, I’d have to say that everything’s going as well for him as it could be.
March 29th, 2012 at 3:53 am
As a Garve fan – I have all his novels except RED ESCAPADE (if anyone can find a copy pls email me on johnmballard@gmail.com !!) – and reread them regularly – any mention of his superb author is good news to me.
His plots are all unique, plus in many of them he has skilfully incorporated his knowledge of sailing, potholing (spelunking), the Fens, and mountaineering.
December 7th, 2014 at 4:39 pm
I am a huge fan of Andrew Garve, and greatly regret not writing to him.
I wonder if it would mean something to his wife and children if this belated fan mail were conveyed to them?
Perhaps my very favorite book is The Cuckoo Line Affair, partly because the plot is wonderfully engaging, but also because of the central character Edward Lattimer, who reminds me of my father and other thoroughly decent human beings.
So please convey my thanks for many hours of pleasure in the company of Andrew Garve!
Best regards,
Manjari Chatterji