Mon 17 Oct 2016
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: NORMAN FORREST – Death Took a Greek God.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[6] Comments
William F. Deeck
NORMAN FORREST – Death Took a Greek God. Hillman-Curl, US, hardcover, 1938. Detective Novel Classic #16, US, digest-sized paperback, 1942. First published in the UK by Harrap, hardcover, 1937.
It is time for the execution scene from The Case of the Flying Knife. Epoch Films, an English movie studio, is filming the hanging of actor Raoul Granger, the handsomest man in Europe. Someone makes it a real hanging when the lever of the trap is pushed by one of a group of people who had no great love for Granger.
Inspector Grief is called in from Scotland Yard. Fortunately for him, he has the assistance of John Finnegan, the most brilliant medical jurist of the day. In a case with few real clues, Finnegan traps the murderer with cameras rolling in a reenactment of the hanging scene.
Not fair play, and the writing leaves something to be desired, but the investigation is a good one and the outcome a surprise.
Bibliographic Notes: Norman Forrest was the pen name of Nigel Morland (1905-1986), a prolific British mystery writer who wrote dozens if not hundreds of detective novels under his own name and several other pseudonyms. There was one earlier outing for John Finnegan, that being Death Took a Publisher (Harrap, 1936; Hillman-Curl, 1938).
October 17th, 2016 at 9:12 pm
I read this one a long time ago and remember very little about it, but I do remember enjoying it.
October 18th, 2016 at 1:03 am
Jim
I’m delighted but surprised to have found someone besides Bill who has actually read this book. I’ve had the paperback edition for years, but it never tempted me. Next time I come across it, I’m going to think about it.
October 18th, 2016 at 5:30 am
The Forrest books were also published – and easily available as late as the 1980s and 1990s – in British Cherry Tree paperbacks, skinny, somewhat abridged (with very small type) books that were published during WWII for the most part.
October 18th, 2016 at 1:28 pm
I have a few of those Cherry Tree paperbacks, but only those (as I recall) that are originals. You’re absolutely right about the type face being small. I think the books must be an eighth of an inch thick.
October 18th, 2016 at 9:08 pm
Morland’s Miss Pym was more a female J.G. Reeder than detective. He was very much in the Wallace vein.
October 19th, 2016 at 2:24 am
A quick count tells me that there were 28 Mrs Pym novels and collections, and I haven’t read a one of them.