Wed 6 Dec 2017
A Mystery Review by William F. Deeck: JOHN COURAGE – Made to Murder
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
William F. Deeck
JOHN COURAGE – Made to Murder. John Long, UK, hardcover, 1957. No US edition.
Five top mystery writers are invited, and even commanded, to spend a weekend with Sir Arthur Troon at his remote estate. The five are (and these are all pseudonyms):
— The narrator, Richard Dawn, who invents a new detective for each book and yet whose character, Michael Crombie, “brilliant Eton-and-Oxford sleuth,†is described as having a significant following. (I merely pass on what the author has to say; I don’t attempt to explain it.)
— Marion Courlay, creator of Roger Drake, “the tough American detective with breeding and brains.â€
— Wallace “Valentino†Peck, who created Gaston Torr, “detective-cracksman.â€
— Roderick Black, whose stories about Spike Regan have been compared with both Simenon and Chandler, a comparison considered by some a libel on Black.
— Dodo Fenn (whose place is taken by her husband. Paul), who writes about Archibald Creme.
Sir Arthur has a dossier on each writer, with information therein that will destroy each of their careers and possibly send them to jail should the facts be divulged — or, in one case, lead to severe embarrassment. He has called them together because he has discovered that one of them is responsible for his son’s kidnapping, and his son’s resultant death, and thus for the suicide of his wife.
Sir Arthur says he will give the information in the dossiers to each writer when four of them have discovered who the writer responsible for the kidnapping is and have disposed of, by some perfect crime, that individual. Otherwise, he will turn the information over to the authorities.
As is to be expected under the circumstances, Sir Arthur is murdered. So is his secretary. So is his butler. So is —
Some questions raised by this novel: will the compositor run out of exclamation points? Why doesn’t the Colt .45 that Dawn carries in his hip pocket cause him pain or at least discomfort when he sits down? Is there such a thing as a five-chambered revo1ver?
An amusing work, though perhaps not intentionally, and flaw seekers should enjoy themselves.
Bibliographic Notes: John Courage was — not surprisingly — a pseudonym, that of Richard Goyne (1902-1957); according to Hubin, other pseudonyms Aileen Grey, Scarlet Grey, Kitty Lorraine, Paul Renin & Richard Standish. As Courage, he was the author of some 25 mysteries, none published in the US. Under his own name, he wrote over 50 others, with one or two of them indicated as marginal entries. None of these were ever published in the US, either. Information as to the output under the remaining pen names will be provided upon request.
Readers wishing to find a copy of Made to Murder, here is a head start: There is one offered for sale on Amazon.com in Canada, with an asking price in the $75 range.
December 6th, 2017 at 11:06 pm
I sometimes wonder if there’s any point in posting old reviews like this one of even older books that are almost impossible to find, especially when they’re, say, not very good.
But I do in certain cases, as this time around, when, for example, Bill’s review may be more fun to read than the book he’s talking about.
And, reason number two, I’m a big fan of mystery novels with characters in them who are mystery writers themselves. If I had $75 to spare at the moment, you wouldn’t even be able to find that copy on Amazon.com in Canada.
December 7th, 2017 at 7:30 am
I used to pick up Goyne and Courage books – sometimes for Bill – in England, where they were, if not plentiful, certainly available at a lot cheaper than $75 each.
Never read one, of course. And of course Bill’s reviews are always worth reprinting, IMHO.
December 7th, 2017 at 1:47 pm
You probably found this one for him, Jeff. I’d like to think so. It’d make for a nice connection between then and now!
December 7th, 2017 at 1:57 pm
Amazon UK has a copy at around GBP20.00 ($27.00). His books used to be fairly common in the UK, as usual some books were harder to find than others – this one was not one of the easier ones to get. Nevertheless, he is not much collected or read these days, mainly because the books aren’t very good. I am sure I sold some to Bill and Jeff. I did sell a Richard Goyne this week (for around $10) but it had been on ebay for months
December 7th, 2017 at 2:37 pm
You probably sold me some books by Goyne (and Courage) too, Jamie. There was a window of time several years long in which I was buying all kinds of unheralded British writers like him, including many from you.
December 7th, 2017 at 4:27 pm
Bad books have their own cache in the genre. And their own lovers and collectors.
Even the worst book deserves review, the reader you save maybe one of your own.