Tue 8 Jun 2010
Reviewed by Jeff Meyerson: Two Locked Room Mysteries by JOHN SLADEK.
Posted by Steve under Characters , Reviews[11] Comments
JOHN SLADEK –
â— Black Aura. Walker, hardcover, 1979; paperback, 1983. UK editions: Jonathan Cape, hc, 1974; Panther, pb, 1975.
â— Invisible Green. Walker, hardcover, 1979; paperback, 1983. UK edition: Victor Gollancz, hc, 1977.
In the excellent introduction to his Locked Room Murders and Other Impossible Crimes, Bob Adey calls John Sladek “the main, if not the sole, contender for the crown that John Dickson Carr wore for so long,” that is, the king of the impossible crime story.
On the basis of these two books, I’d certainly agree. They are clever, ingenious problems that recall the atmosphere of the 30s, while being firmly based in the 70s.
Sladek, like his detective Thackeray Phin, an American living in England, won the Times Of London detective story competition in 1972 with his short story ”From an Unknown Hand.” Part of his prize was a contract for a full-length novel, Black Aura, which Bob Adey says is far superior to the short story.
Phin, a sort of deliberately eccentric private eye, is intrigued by a death involving the Aetheric Mandala Society, a sort of occult commune based in a big house in London. He manages to get himself invited to join the group and eventually solves two further deaths, a disappearance from a locked, watched lavatory, and a levitation from a fourth story window.
This he does cleverly, and Sladek handles both problems with a nice bit of misdirection worthy of Carr. The characters are eccentric and well-defined, the atmosphere is suitably Carrian.
Invisible Green, though written and published second in England, appeared first here. It concerns a planned reunion of the Seven Unravellers, an ill-assorted group of mystery fans who last met in 1940, more than thirty years earlier.
Miss Deborah Pharoah, the only female member of the group, has planned the reunion, and it ls she who calls in Thackeray Phin when a number of petty crimes involving the colors of the spectrum (stolen violets, an orange thrown through a window, etc.) culminates in death.
The solution is very clever and well worked out, and probably the best part of the book. I enjoyed it, but would rate it slightly below Black Aura. I do recommend both of these, and hope Sladek writes many more.
Editorial Comment: Alas, these are the only two novels in which Phin appeared. Besides the short story that Jeff mentions above, there was one other, “It Takes Your Breath Away,” printed in theatre programmes for a London play sometime in 1974. It can be found in Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek, edited by David Langford. More information can be found here.
June 8th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Sladek gave up mystery fiction for sf and collaborated with Thomas Disch on a Gothic parody CLARA REEVE. His two novels about a robot named RODERICK are classics.
June 8th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Sladek was a lot more known for his science fiction (NOT sci-fi), and even so perhaps more for his short stories rather than novels — he wrote only six of the latter, including the Roderick books.
He was a thinking man’s kind of author; I don’t think he ever wrote any space opera, for example, unless as a parody.
Which is probably why he never became very popular and neither his name or work are widely known any more. He died in 2000.
All my sources, including Hubin, say that Disch wrote CLARA REEVE alone (as Leonie Hargreave). The book’s in Hubin as having only marginal criminous content.
Sladek and Disch did collaborate on a paperback gothic called THE HOUSE THAT FEAR BUILT, as by Casandra Knye. Sladek wrote another alone under the same name, THE CASTLE AND THE KEY.
Both were written in the style of Gothics back then (mid-1960s) but quite tongue-in-cheek, I’m told. I’ve often wondered if the women who bought the book ever noticed. (I’m assuming that not many men did. Bought it, that is. They probably wouldn’t have noticed either.)
Sladek and Disch also collaborated on a book called BLACK ALICE, as by Thomas Demijohn. This might be one that you confused the other one with. It’s a satirical look at a thriller novel which I’ve yet to read.
Me, I wish Sladek had written more the Pinn books, but I don’t suppose there was much money involved in doing them. I wonder how people have heard of them today.
— Steve
June 8th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
BLACK ALICE is the book I was thinking of.
As for Clara Reeve it was also the name of Gothic novelist to add to any confusion.
I did read BLACK AURA, but not the other Phinn title.
Ironically I was reading a comment the other day by Sladek about giving up writing obscure locked room mysteries because editors were better about buying science fiction. Too bad.
This is from an interview by David Langford that can be found here:
http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/jsladek.html
” I’m sure more people have read my two little detective puzzles because of the SF connection. Those two novels suffered mainly from being written about 50 years after the fashion for puzzles of detection. I enjoyed writing them, planning the absurd crimes and clues, but I found I was turning out a product the supermarket didn’t need any more — stove polish or yellow cakes of laundry soap. One could starve very quickly writing locked-room mysteries like those. SF has much more glamour and glitter attached to it, in these high-tech days.”
It’s also quoted by Langford in a good article on Anthony Boucher’s work.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Now that was an interview worth doing — and reading. Thanks for the link.
There’s nothing like an interview with an author where the interviewer is as knowledgeable about the author and his work as the author is.
It requires some work on the part of the interviewer and some preparation, which is so seldom the case.
June 9th, 2010 at 4:50 am
Has it ever been determined who wrote Steps to the Grotto, a 1974 gothic by “Cassandra Nye” published by Berkley?
June 9th, 2010 at 6:11 am
Thanks for reprinting this, Steve. I really enjoyed both Phin books. They remind me a little of the atmosphere in some of the early Jonathan Creek episodes.
June 9th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I know that I have read “Black Alice,” but when I checked my list of reviews that were published in Dapa-Em I found only a reference for “By an Unknown Hand.”
I enjoyed the story immensely, and commented that it “gave me more pleasure than many of the novels I have recently read.” I’m delighted that you reprinted Jeff’s fine review of the novels featuring Thackeray Phin, which made me regret that I didn’t keep the copies I read what now seem to be eons ago.
June 9th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Jerry
Re Cassandra Nye, Hubin says…
“Is this book by Thomas M. Disch and/or John Sladek, as were books published as by Cassandra Knye, or is it by Cassandra/Sandy Nye, the writer on beauty, horoscopes, etc.?”
…which means that up to now, he didn’t know.
But according to the online Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1974: January-June
http://books.google.com/books?id=QUMhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1801&lpg=PA1801&dq=Cassandra+Nye&source=bl&ots=IrgpIAFCQH&sig=hbGxDOLGRx0FLPF0ozb2_5Hzhzo&hl=en&ei=frgPTNaTBJLOM_Tr9ewM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=Cassandra%20Nye&f=false
Cassandra Nye as the author of this book is stated as being the pseudonym of Thomas M. Disch.
This does not seem to have been general knowledge before, although a few booksellers have picked up on the Cassandra Knye/Nye connection.
In any case, I’ll pass it on to Al to have him confirm it. Thanks for asking!
— Steve
June 9th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Walter, thanks, and I’m sorry I didn’t keep the books either. I also had Black Alice – it was recommended to me by Dilys Winn when I asked her to recommend “something different” – but that’s long gone as well.
June 9th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
The first Cassandra Knye novel was by Disch and Sladek. The second was by Sladek alone.
“Steps to the Grotto” was written by Disch’s partner, Charles Naylor. When Disch edited a series of science fiction anthologies, there was at least one story by Cassandra Nye which was actually by Naylor
November 7th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
I have just finished INVISIBLE GREEN in an Italian translation published back in 1979. Although I quite enjoyed the long and complicated explanation at the end, what really made me happy was the prologue set in 1939 London, with so much clever reference to the classic era of mystery fiction. Tongue-in-cheek as it is, that chapter makes marvelous reading even now. I found the bulk of the novel a bit disappointing after the brilliant prologue because the focus shifts from literary fancy to “reality”, as a series of heinous crimes – petty and not much so – happen in the mundane London of the Seventies. Although I appreciated the comedy and the intention – making a parallel between flights of fancy and sordid fact – I still regret the abandon of the literary charm set at the beginning. I’m no expert of locked room or impossible crime stories, but this had some impossible twists all right! As to BLACK ALICE, I had read it before this and found it more powerful, although in a completely different mold (the sordid crime story from start to finish, with a charming little girl in the leading role). Recommended!