Sat 26 Dec 2020
An Archived Review by Bob Adey: JOHN BOLAND – Negative Value.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
JOHN BOLAND – Negative Value. Boardman, UK, hardcover, 1960. No US edition.
The Earl of Staves is being blackmailed on account of some compromising photographs of his daughter. She commits suicide and he gives the job of investigating the matter to an employee, John Poynder. Poynder, although not a professional sleuth, soon discovers that other members of the debutante set have also been blackmailed and with the help of attractive Druscilla Lane, he eventually unmasks the criminals.
The first part of the book is by far the best and the author paints a convincing, if unattractive, picture of the deb scene, But the investigation itself is a little disappointing and rather fortuitous (though Poynder is of course only an amateur). The Earl himself came over as rather an unsympathetic character and one might have hoped for a twist in the tail [sic] that gave him something of his desserts. There isn’t any.
Light, undemanding, relatively uncomplicated.
UPDATE: John Boland, who died in 1976, and who is not the John [C.] Boland still active today, has over two dozen crime novels in Hubin under his own name and two as James Trevor. Practically unknown in the US, he was the author of The League of Gentlemen (1958), which was filmed in the UK the next year. If ever John Poynder appeared in another novel with a case to solve, Hubin does not know about it.
December 26th, 2020 at 7:42 pm
Boland is best known for THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN and COUNTERPOL, the former about a team of ex soldiers who turn criminal and the latter about a criminal version of INTERPOL (which is ironic considering INTERPOL’s criminal history).
December 26th, 2020 at 7:45 pm
The two Trevor titles feature John Savage an eyepatch wearing secret agent along very tough lines that live up to his name Savage. There was at least one sequel each to GENTLEMEN and COUNTERPOL that I know of.
December 26th, 2020 at 8:29 pm
You’re quite right:
Series books by Boland:
The League of Gentlemen (n.) Boardman 1958
The Gentlemen Reform (n.) Boardman 1961
The Gentlemen at Large (n.) Boardman 1962
Counterpol (n.) Harrap 1963
Counterpol in Paris (n.) Harrap 1964
and as James Trevor:
* *The Savage Game (London: Gibbs, 1967, hc) Award, 1967.
* *The Savage Height (Tandem, 1970, pb)
Thanks, of course, to Al Hubin and his BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CRIME FICTION.