ROBERT L. FISH РIsle of Snakes. Captain Jos̩ da Silva #2. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1963. Avon G1241, paperback, [1964?]; Ace, paperback, circa 1971.

   It was never merely that Robert L. Fish was an accomplished writer of suspense, a gifted purveyor of mystery plots, and had a wry sense of humor that ran through his work. He was always something more: a damn good writer who chose to work in the mystery genre.

   Isle of Snakes is in Fish’s best known series featuring Brazilian policeman Captain José ‘Zé’ de Silva, a charming, intelligent, and often swashbuckling adventurer liaison between the local police and Interpol (*), a swarthy pock faced figure in a red Jaguar who is often aided by American Wilson (just Wilson “He was a stocky, nondescript man…”) security officer at the Embassy who is also tied to Interpol, and who, while a valuable ally, always may have his own goals and motives (spelled CIA) in any collaboration with da Silva.

   The book opens with a man on the bus/truck above headed for the coast. He notices killers are after him, but manages to reach Rio before he is murdered. His body ends up in the morgue (the Instituto Medico-Legal in the Rua dos Invalidos), a case for Zé, and a weird one when a package shows up delivered by the dead man to an American hotel containing a stuffed coral snake.

   Nothing directly ties the case to Interpol and da Silva, but he is intrigued, as Wilson notes,“Speak of having imagination! You could start with a damp bar rag and build up a distillery!” He’s soon proved right though when it becomes clear someone is willing to kill for that deadly little stuffed snake and his beloved red Jaguar is blown up in the garage when the attendant starts it.

   Before it is over Wilson and Zé will realize why a man was murdered for a stuffed snake, smash a powerful criminal conspiracy, and of course find themselves on that island of snakes from the title before a rapid paced finale and chase.

   It must be mentioned that the very best of Fish’s books move so rapidly you can hardly catch your breath. The da Silva novels come in around sixty thousand words, this one only has seven chapters, and the action, repartee between Zé and Wilson, and unveiling mystery will leave you breathless.

   They are one of the best Holmes/Watson teams in the genre, only below Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, their wry humor and fast paced action still a model of the perfect way to write a modern thriller.

   If you like your mystery novels clever, funny, fast moving, and delightful Fish is the right mix for you, and he goes perfectly with red or white wine.

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    (*) Interpol in these books is an entirely fictitious version of the real private police organization whose troubled past as a Nazi front organization who then helped Nazi War Criminals escape after the War and has since had a checkered history with many of its top officials charged and convicted of various crimes has never had active agents and was mostly useful for issuing information on Persons of Interest (Yellow Sheets) and wanted criminals (Red Sheets) to member organizations. Contrary to television and movies many Federal police agencies have never subscribed to Interpol here because of their history.