EDGAR WALLACE – The India-Rubber Men.

Hodder & Stoughton, UK. hc, 1929. Doubleday-Doran Crime Club, US, hc, 1930. UK reprint paperbacks include: Pan 204, UK, 1952; Pan G605, 1964; 3rd Pan printing, 1967. Film: Imperator, 1938, as The Return of the Frog.

   Of the film, the New York Times had this to say: “Following a string of mysterious robberies, Scotland Yard assigns its best detective, Inspector Elk, to bring the crooks to justice. The only clue the villains leave at the crime scene is a rendering of a frog. Still that is enough for intrepid Elk to solve the case, but not after considerable danger, excitement and comedy. This is the sequel to 1937’s The Frog.”

   The latter, according to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, is a film based on:

   The Fellowship of the Frog Ward, UK, hc,1925; Small Maynard, US, hc, 1923. Silent film: Pathe, 1928, as Mark of the Frog. Sound film: Wilcox, 1937, as The Frog.

   But I digress. If the Times is correct in its description of the plot line of the film, it differed in several ways from the book, which I just finished reading. Inspector Elk is in the book, but he’s a relatively minor character, a colleague only of the major player, Inspector John Wade of the London Police, with his general jurisdiction being that of the waterfront area along the Thames.

   See the first Pan cover image for an illustration of that.

   There are also no frogs in The India-Rubber Men, the book, only a powerful gang of burglars, bank-robbers, and thieves plaguing the river district, their distinctive m.o. being their garb: rubber masks, rubber gloves and crêpe rubber shoes.

   See the second Pan cover image (below) for an illustration of them.

   Nor is there much in the way of comedy, but movie-makers (as you know) have never hesitated for a moment to add funny stuff to their films.

   I enjoyed the first half of the book, which in the first Pan edition consists of nearly 200 pages of small print. The writing is picturesque, with the reader traveling with Wade as he makes his way up and down the river looking for clues, and stopping in every so often at the “Mecca,” a disreputable officers’ club and lodging house whose only attraction is the beautiful Lila Smith, a ward of some sort of the proprietress, Mum Oaks.

   The mysterious goings-on in and near the “Mecca” also suggest that a significant amount of criminal activity is going on there as well, as – without revealing anything to you of any great importance – it is.

   But with no great progress ever being made in coming upon the trail of the India-Rubber Men, eventually the investigation becomes tedious, if not outright stagnant. The telling of the tale is episodic, with major small crises (my words are deliberately chosen here) followed by lulls in which the coppers regroup and head their investigation off in yet another direction, while the bad guys seem directionless – but still very dangerous and deadly – in return.

   It is as if the tale were originally told in serial installments, and perhaps it was, although I have no evidence in this regard, but the lack of any forward progress in the case, except in very small increments – three steps ahead to two back – is what contributes so greatly to the lack of thrills in the overall affair, at least from one reader’s point of view.

   Let me be more specific. In spite of Inspector Wade’s being gassed in his own home, nearly drowned in a secret cellar under the “Mecca,” and being shot at from ambush, there is never any great sense of urgency on his part – even, mind you, when Lila is kidnapped from under his very eyes, figuratively speaking. He doesn’t blink an eye. A milder reaction could hardly be imagined.

   Nor none on her part either. Nor, in fact, on the part of the titular gang of crooks and thieves, who are — when it comes down to it — little more than a squabbling bunch of incompetents, hardly worthy, as it turns out, of being called a gang.

   But here’s what it is that’s missing. It’s any sign of intellectual curiosity on the part of the characters. Except for mere sparkles here and there, they’re as dull as ditch water, even the villains. Nor is there any great ingenuity or cleverness in the twists and turns of the plot. This is a deadly combination. There’s nothing much left in the telling of The India-Rubber Men to grab or hook the reader’s interest, at least not this one’s.

   I no longer assign stars or letter grades to books anymore, but if I were to tell you that I skimmed the last third of the book, that may tell you all you need to know.

   But for the record, Edgar Wallace published on the order of 24 novels or story collections in the same year, 1929. While perhaps known today to only a small coterie of fans, his reading public at the time was enormous. On that basis, I’m willing to call his writing an acquired taste, one that I’ve haven’t acquired myself — or perhaps it’s one that I’ve lost and haven’t yet re-acquired. On the basis of the first half of this book, while not making promises I cannot keep, it’s possible — just maybe — there’s a chance that I’ll try again.

STEVE MONROE – ’57, Chicago

Miramax/Hyperion; hardcover; First Edition, 2001; trade paperback, August 2002.

   Boxing and organized crime, unfortunately, go hand in hand. And when you think of organized crime in this country, mid-20th century, you probably think of Chicago. (Unless you’re a born-and-bred New Jerseyite, of course, and then all bets are off.)

   There is very little detective work in this solidly constructed pulp novel — when there’s a murder done, and there’s big money involved, it’s the mob that did it, whether on the direct orders of Sam Giancana or not. Otherwise, the crimes are generally minor: illegal gambling, extortion, dope-peddling, prostitution and the like.

   Ex-convict Robert (The Lip) Lipranski is trying to work his way into big league fight promotion; he has a black heavyweight who could go all the way, but Junior (Hammer) Hamilton has a recent history of mental problems.

   And Al Kelly has been a successful bookie for nearly 30 years; why all of a sudden are things going wrong — unable to lay off bets, unable to access his safety deposit box?

   Their paths, not unexpectedly, converge and collide. The book starts slowly and builds to a crunching finale, led along the way by dialogue that takes both vulgarity and the internal workings of the mob for granted, and punctuated by moments of intense violence.

   Meant for the movies, you say? Absolutely. There is no doubt.

   [UPDATE] 06-06-08. In spite of that final upbeat statement, I was wrong. As far as I’ve been able to determine, no movie has ever been made of this book. Some Googling suggests that for a while one was in the works, but for whatever reason, it never happened.

   Steve Monroe has written but one other book, ’46, Chicago (Miramax, 2002), and I’ve never seen it. But posting this review has reminded me that I do want a copy, and I’ll be ordering one as soon as I sign off from here.

DAVID GIBBINS. Atlantis. Dell, paperback; 1st US printing, September 2006.

      —, Crusader Gold. Bantam, paperback; 1st US printing, September 2007.

   Gibbins is described as a Canadian with a Ph.D. in archaeology from Cambridge, a university lecturer, a “world authority on ancient shipwrecks and sunken cities,” and “currently divid[ing] his time between fieldwork, England and Canada.” He’s also writing adventure novels, but I suppose that goes without saying.

   I have included Gibbins’ professional achievements, only because they are substantially reflected in his fiction as sometimes interminable descriptions of scientific and other data that lend the works some authority (I suppose) but also tend to weigh them down.

   Marine archaeologist Jack Howard works with a team of experts to discover the site of Atlantis and the lost golden menorah of Jerusalem. He is of course up against powerful and unprincipled opponents, and there’s a great deal of derring-do in exotic locations, with Howard and his companions ultimately besting the dastardly villains who dog their every move.

   A more hard-science series than the more romantic adventure series by Paul Christopher, reviewed here not long ago.

   I could trace my affection for this stuff all the way back to my adolescent infatuation with Jack Armstrong and the Don Sturdy series, but that sounds too academic for my present non-academic role. It’s enough to say that, for the nonce, I can’t get enough of these adventure series that keep proliferating, and when you see me setting off on one of these treks, I wouldn’t blame you if you headed in another direction with all due haste.

JOYCE CHRISTMAS – A Better Class of Murder.

Fawcett, paperback original; 1st printing, Dec 2000.

   Question. Did Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple ever appear in a story together? I don’t think so, but I might be wrong. I know that Perry Mason and the detective duo of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam never appeared in the same book. But think about it. Wouldn’t have either one been quite an event? Crossovers like this used to be rare in the comic book field, now it’s so common they do it all the time, even between DC and Marvel, two different publishers and direct competitors, if you will.

   But for mystery fiction, it’s not an everyday occurrence. (*) So to have the first appearance together of Joyce Christmas’s two main characters, Manhattan socialite Lady Margaret Priam (ten previous books) and retired office manager Betty Trenka (four earlier mysteries), well, when it first came out, her fans must have been grabbing the book right off the shelf.

   For me, though, this is the first of either series I’ve read, and it’s (in a word) disappointing. The two characters could not be from two more different worlds, but that’s not the problem. Poirot and Miss Marple are equally opposite in many ways, but just consider the puzzles they might have solved together — I think Agatha Christie could easily have come up with a couple of absolute knockouts. They would have been doozies.

   That’s not the case here. In fact, there’s very little case to be solved, and neither Lady Margaret or Miss Trenka get within 50 miles of the crime itself. Betty Trenka is asked by a neighboring suburbanite, a computer expert by trade, to do another job entirely, one that takes her into New York City, and thus into Lady Margaret’s social set, almost incidentally so. The connection turns out to be a dead woman whose body had been found earlier, back in (further) upstate Connecticut, involved somehow with a missing and essential computer disk.

   As crimes go, this is a rather mild one, and the solution is unravelled more or less perfunctorily, with no further ado or commotion. Lady Margaret has nothing to do but show Betty Trenka around the city, which the latter’s naiveté does make amusing, and perhaps even mildly interesting. All in all, though, what you should expect from this book is a lot more talk than there is action, of which there is none, neither physical nor mental.

COMMENT (*). 06-05-08. It wasn’t true then, and while it may be more true now, crossover appearances between mystery characters still happen only about .01 of 1% percent of the time. Of course in comic books it happens so often that it’s taken for granted, and it’s boring.

         JOYCE CHRISTMAS: A Checklist —

[Expanded upon from her entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. All of her mysteries were published as paperback originals by Fawcett, or in the case of the earlier ones, Fawcett Gold Medal.]

   Lady Margaret Priam

1. Suddenly in Her Sorbet (1988)
2. Simply to Die for (1989)
3. A Fete Worse Than Death (1990)
4. A Stunning Way to Die (1991)
5. Friend or Faux (1991)
6. It’s Her Funeral (1992)
7. A Perfect Day for Dying (1993)
8. Mourning Gloria (1996)
9. Going Out in Style (1998)
10. Dying Well (2000)

   Betty Trenka

1. This Business Is Murder (1993)
2. Death at Face Value (1995)
3. Downsized to Death (1997)
4. Mood to Murder (1999)

   Lady Margaret Priam & Betty Trenka in tandem

1. A Better Class of Murder (2000)
2. Forged in Blood (2002)

   The following entries will appear shortly in the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. The annotations, links and images have been provided by me (Steve) as usual. Note that the bulk of this post is taken up by novelizations and other tie-in’s connected with the BBC television series, Between the Lines.

GRANT, GRAEME. 1961- . Born in Aberdeen, Scotland; occupation: writer. Pseudonym: Tom McGregor, q.v. Under his own name, the author of three novels included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, all novelizations of either a film or television series.

McGREGOR, TOM. Pseudonym of Graeme Grant, 1961- , q.v. Under this pen name, the author of 15 books cited in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, most of them novelizations of various television series, including Cracker, Due South, Kavanagh QC and two for the BBC-TV police drama series Between the Lines. Add/revise series characters in each of the latter two: Complaints Investigation Bureau (Tony Clark, Harry Naylor, Maureen Connell). [The C.I.B. is the department responsible for investigating other police officers.] See also author Diane Pascal for one other novelization of the series.
      The Chill Factor. Warner, UK, pb, 1994. Novelization of the “Between the Lines” BBC-TV series.
      Close Protection. Warner, UK, pb, 1994. Novelization of the “Between the Lines” BBC-TV series.

MANRING, E(RNEST?) H. 1931?-1998? Add as a new author entry.
      _Man Alone. Belmont Tower, pb, 1975. Retitled edition of Steve Douglas of Sleepy Cat Ranch (Belmont, 1971).

      Steve Douglas of Sleepy Cat Ranch. Belmont, pb, 1971. Reprinted as Man Alone (Belmont Tower, 1975). “Steve Douglas could have walked away and let the Mafia goons take over his ranch for their own dirty reasons, but this stubborn wild horse tamer … didn’t take kindly to having city trash telling them what [he] could and couldn’t do.”

PASCAL, DIANE.
   Between the Lines: Breaking Point. Warner, UK, pb, 1993. Setting: Liverpool. Novelization of the BBC-TV police drama series Between the Lines. Add series characters: Complaints Investigation Bureau (Tony Clark, Harry Naylor, Maureen Connell). [The C.I.B. is the department responsible for investigating other police officers.] See also author Tom McGregor for two other novelizations of the series.

NOTE: At the present time, the book below, another tie-in with the BBC-TV series Between the Lines will not be added to the Revised Crime Fiction IV unless supporting evidence in its favor can be found or is provided:

ZUKOWSKA, KRYSTYNA.
   Between the Lines: Tony Clark’s Dossier. Boxtree, UK, pb, 1994. According to a description provided on one website, this book purports to be “a collection of case reports assembled by Clark [a character in the TV series] while he was trying to work out who had been sending him death threats. There [is also] a collection of photographs from the first two seasons, pretending to be from his own photo album.”

   I was going to add data about one additional author to the online Addenda this evening, but it’s early morning, and the entry for Kel Richards has already become longer than I’d expected. Perhaps it’s common knowledge and I just hadn’t heard about it before, but the existence of G. K. Chesterton as a series character in a pair of detective novels came as quite a surprise to me, and a pleasant one, at that.

   And of course I now have to see about finding the books. Don’t I?

RICHARDS, KEL(VIN BARRY) 1946- . Noted Australian journalist and radio personality. Among the twelve books included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV are three novels plus one story collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures published in a series of “Tales of Terror” books designed for older children. Other series characters are talk-show host Mark Roman (two novels); Ben Bartholomew, a P.I. in Roman-occupied Palestine, 1st century C. E. (four novels); and G. K. Chesterton (two novels, one post-2000). Additions to the author’s previous entry can be found below; while only Australian editions are listed, some of Richards’ work has been published in the UK. (The Sherlock Holmes link above leads to full summaries of his contributions to the canon.)

      The Curse of the Pharaohs. Beacon, Australia, pb, 1997. SC: Sherlock Holmes. Add setting: Scotland, 1890s.

      Death in Egypt. Beacon, Australia, pb, 1996. Add SC: G. K. Chesterton, the noted British author, to appear later in at least one post-2000 novel. Setting: Egypt; early 20th century. (Add the time period.)

      Footsteps in the Fog and Other Stories. Beacon, Australia, pb, 1999. SC: Sherlock Holmes. Collection of three novelettes. Add setting: England, Scotland; 1890s.

      The Headless Monk. Beacon, Australia, pb, 1997. SC: Sherlock Holmes. Add setting: England (Cornwall); 1890s.

      The Third Blood Stain. Hodder, Australia, pb, 1995. SC: Mark Roman. Add setting: Sydney, Australia. [A young man seeking on-air advice from Roman is later found murdered.]

      The Vampire Serpent. Beacon, Australia, pb, 1997. SC: Sherlock Holmes. Setting: London; 1890s. (Add the time period.)

WILDING, PHILIP. Add as a new author entry.
      Murder with Merit. Banner, UK, pb, 1959. Setting: London. Leading character: PI Nick Crane. [Crane comes to the rescue of a beautiful blonde whose sadistic husband is found with a knife in his back.]

ANDREA PICKINS – The Hired Hero .

Signet, paperback; c.1999; 1st pr., June 1999.

   The mystery in this regency romance is not of the detective variety. It’s more of a spy or adventure thriller, with plenty in romance department as well, but more of that later.

   The father of Lady Caroline Talcott, who is a bit of a tomboy (or harridan, if you will), is off fighting Napoleon, and the papers he sends to his daughter, to be delivered to London, are vital to the war effort. But when the messenger with the parcel collapses and dies on Caroline’s front doorstep, she is the only one who can complete the task. Waylaid on the way (hmm) by an unknown assailant, she reluctantly enlists the assistance of the dissolute Earl of Davenport. Unknown to her, however, the gentleman with the bad reputation is dead, and the new earl is the dead man’s twin brother.

   She hires him anyway — he is dreadfully in need of money — hence the title. Caroline is not only a great horseback rider, she is also a crack shot with a pistol and a terrific boatsperson, all of which come into play. The romance between the two also begins to grow in intensity, but in fits and starts.

   This is a fine, fine adventure, with an underlying feminist theme that (for the most part) makes it largely unlikely, given the time period, but the narrow escapes and the near misses certainly provide a lot of fun.

[UPDATE] 06-02-08. Yes, once again this is a book that’s in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. Even though The Hired Hero was billed and sold as a Regency Romance, there’s always the possibility of overlap into “our” field, no matter the primary genre, and this is a prime example.

   Of the dozen such Regency Romances written by Andrea Pickins, I’ll concede, however — that being the primary pen name used by real author Andrea DaRef — this is the only one which could be really considered for inclusion in CFIV. See her website for covers of them all.

   But of her recent historical romances, taking place in very much the same era, the following trilogy might be prime candidates as having sufficient criminous content to also be invited in, save for one fact: they’ve all been published after CFIV‘s cut-off date of the year 2000, or will be. All are also adventures of various members of “Mrs. Merlin’s Academy for Select Young Ladies, a secret school for Hellion Heroes.”

The Spy Wore Silk. Forever, paperback original, June 2007. “On her first assignment, the resourceful Siena is charged with sniffing out a Napoleonic spy while posing as a courtesan in search of a new protector.”

Seduced by a Spy. Forever, paperback original, March 2008. “Shannon is the most daring of ‘Merlin Maidens.’ Her assignment: stop the fiendishly cruel assassin who is targeting a top British ballistics expert’s family.”

The Scarlet Spy. Forever, paperback original, October 2008. “The most ladylike of ‘Merlin’s Maidens,’ Sofia possesses a natural grace and grandeur to go along with her deadly arsenal of martial skills — which makes her the perfect choice for undertaking a dangerous dance of deception through the highest circles of London Society.”

JULIETTE LEIGH – The Fifth Proposal.

Zebra, paperback original; 1st printing, July 1999.

   Detective mysteries come concealed in the strangest places. This one, for example, was published as a regency romance, and if you didn’t look closely when it first came out, you probably missed it.

   When Shelby Falcon is summoned to her dear grandfather’s home after learning that he’s gravely ill, she doesn’t know it, but she’s about to become an heiress. Or so he announces, with all the other family members circled around him. In his own mind, though, he has no intentions of dying yet.

   Someone intends to change those intentions, however, and a series of suspicious and potentially fatal accidents begins to happen to the old gentleman. Shelby suspects one of her four cousins, all debtors and heavily in need of money. Another possible perpetrator is the mysterious Gill, whom she’s never seen before, the old man’s new companion and bodyguard.

   As the story goes on, the four cousins in turn make proposals of marriage to Shelby — ah, you do know where this is going, don’t you?

   Well, it is a regency romance, after all. Frothy and light, with only the mystery of Colonel Falcon’s unknown assailant to give it a little added substance. The historical period is adequately evoked, at least within my limited experience in such things, but the dialogue (at times) seems a trifle forced to me, and (if this makes sense) artificially created to fit the time period.

   PS. It all ends well.

[UPDATE] 06-01-08. And in case you were wondering this as well, yes, the book above is in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, and in fact, here’s the complete entry for the author, under two names. (Not all of her books were mysteries. Others were Regency Romances only, and are not listed below.)

LEIGH, JULIETTE. Pseudonym of Dawn Aldridge Poore, 1941- .

      The Fifth Proposal (Zebra, 1999, pb) [England; 1800s]
      Sherry’s Comet (Zebra, 1998, pb) [England; 1800s]

POORE, DAWN ALDRIDGE. 1941- . Pseudonym: Juliette Leigh. Series Character: Rozanne Sydney, in all.

      The Brighton Burglar (Zebra, 1993, pb) [England; 1800s] “When it comes to unsolved crimes and unmatched hearts, Miss Roxanne Sydney is on the case! When Miss Sydney’s late father leaves her with a bed-ridden estate and three younger sisters to marry off, the unsinkable Roxanne decides to keep her family afloat by taking in boarders. But opening her home to strangers becomes a dangerous enterprise indeed when Roxanne finds herself embroiled in the current Brighton mystery: Someone is stealing valuable painting from the wealthy country estates…”

      The Cairo Cats (New York & London: Zebra, 1994, pb) [London; 1800s]. “Miss Roxanne Sydney travels to London to attend a wedding, and when one of her two exotic cat statues–artifacts from her father’s Egyptian travels–is stolen, she has a mystery on her hands.”

      The Mummy’s Mirror (Zebra, 1995, pb) [Egypt; 1800s] “With her three sisters finally wed, Miss Roxanne Sydney is free to pursue her favorite pastime: a mystery! Accompanied by Miss Flora Rowe, her poor but proper traveling companion, Roxanne is off to uncover the grandest of all mysteries, the land of Egypt. […] …something decidedly odd is going on between the pyramids and the burning sands. And a missing mirror will soon turn the desert into perilous territory for a genteel detective in distress…and in danger of losing her heart!”

      The Secret Scroll (Zebra, 1993, pb) [England; 1800s] “When an invaluable ancient scroll vanishes on the eve of her sister’s wedding, Miss Roxanne Sydney looks among the visitors at the Sydney estate to find the culprit.”

PAUL CHRISTOPHER – Rembrandt’s Ghost.

Signet, paperback original, 2007.

   It’s been a while since I’ve read a really good adventure novel, with a search for a fabulous treasure, an island that’s concealed in uncharted seas, and with “ruthless adversaries” pursuing an archaeologist and her newly acquired relative and co-heir to the ends of the earth (i.e., those uncharted waters in the South Pacific).

   I suspect that fans of the TV series Lost might enjoy this book, but so would pixilated armchair adventurers eager to find a legendary island like the one in King Kong, and anyone who finds the novels of James Rollins and Clive Cussler to be guilty pleasures and is longing for something a bit more grounded in believable characters and without the fate of civilization hanging in the balance.

   This is number three in a series that began with Michelangelo’s Notebook and The Lucifer Gospel, and is promised to continue in 2008 with The Cortez Mask.

   I’ve since read The Lucifer Gospel (Onyx, 2006), which is perhaps even nuttier, with a lost gospel, fallen angels, and Nazi fanatics (yes, I know that’s a redundant expression), culminating in a grand chase and flight sequence in a cavernous maze in a remote area of Illinois where the last Keeper of the Lucifer Gospel is sequestered with his incalculably precious manuscript.

ANNE ROWE – Too Much Poison.

Detective Book Club; 3-in-1 edition; hardcover reprint, January 1945. Hardcover first edition: M. S. Mill, 1944.

   I love old mysteries. It’s like taking a small time capsule into the past, a past seldom written about in history books. The past that people actually lived in, everyday people, in all walks of life.

   Including the Manhattan social set. Strangely enough, the war is never mentioned in this wartime mystery, a cheery sort of world, yet with a hint of tragedy hiding behind the curtains. Mona Carstairs, the secretary-nurse to a doctor slowly establishing himself, has secretly been married to him for three years, supporting and nurturing him. And now, as he is on the verge of success, he has found a new lady friend, very young, petite and silvery blonde.

   That’s the story as it begins, and it probably has you yawning already. The mystery itself, two deaths by exotic cobra poison, is much more complicated. I won’t go into it in any more detail, but there are quite a few suspects, all in social circles that wouldn’t allow me in, but it’s quite a pleasure to read about them.

   Coming to Mona’s aid — as she gradually becomes Inspector Barry’s primary suspect — is Cliff Mallory, a son of one of Barry’s former colleagues on the force, as well as a cousin of Dr. Carstair’s new flame, a renown polo player, and now a knight in armor and an amateur detective to boot.

   Any resemblance to actual police procedure seems purely coincidental, although I would admit that standards may have differed then from what I see on NYPD Blue now. But the mystery is definitely taken seriously by Anne Rowe, with lots of clues and false trails scattered throughout, giving the fan of amateur detective fiction quite a bit to puzzle over.

[UPDATE.] 05-29-08.   I’m going to assume that not only is the book is forgotten, but so is the author. While this is the only book of Anne Rowe’s book that I’ve read, posting this review from over seven years ago makes me want to read more of them.

   To that end, if you’re also so inclined, here’s a complete list, thanks to Al Hubin and his Crime Fiction IV. Except for the one marked UK, listed are only the US editions and titles. (I have a feeling that some of these are going to be hard to find.)

ROWE, ANNE (Von Meibom) (1901?-1975?)