ANN CLEEVES – The Seagull. Inspector Vera Stanhope #8. Minotaur Books, US, hardcover, September 2017. First published by Macmillan, UK, hardcover, 2017.

First Sentence:   The woman could see the full sweep of the bay despite the dark and the absence of street lights where she stood.

   An old enemy of Insp. Vera Stanhope, John Bruce asks that she visit him in prison where she helped put him. He wants to cut a deal: information on the whereabouts of the body of Robbie Marshall, a long-missing hustler in exchange to Vera looking out for his daughter and grandchildren. There is a very personal element to this case for Vera as Bruce, Marshall, and a man known only as “the Prof,” were close friends of her father, Hector Stanhope, bringing back memories Vera would prefer remain buried.

   Cleeves creates such a strong sense of emotion— “Sometimes it felt as if her whole life had been spent in the half-light; in her dreams, she was moonlit, neon-lit, or she floated through the first gleam of dawn,” —and place— “The funfair at Spanish City was closed for the day, and quiet. She could see the silhouettes of the rides, marked by string of coloured bulbs, gaudy in full sunlight, entrancing now.”

   Those who follow the BBC television series Vera and may be disappointed by the departure of some characters, it’s nice to see that her assistants Holly and Joe are still here in the books. The description of Vera’s team is done in terms of their relationships to Vera. What is lovely is her understanding of what drives them, each member’s strength and what motivates them. Vera and Joe’s visit to the mother of a missing man is a sad reminder of the pain through which families go without the closure of knowing what happened.

   There is honest police work here. The investigation is conducted by legwork as well as technology; getting out and talking with people. The case is worked step-by-step, without flash.

   Vera’s self-awareness is admirable— “then she thought she was making a drama of the situation. She always did.” Yet, to her— “…the law matters. All those little people you despise so much have to abide by it, and so do you. So do I.”

   The Seagull is such a good book. Beyond the excellent plot, what one really cares about is Vera and her team.

Rating:   Excellent.

The Vera Stanhope series —

1. The Crow Trap (1999)

2. Telling Tales (2005)
3. Hidden Depths (2007)
4. Silent Voices (2011)
5. The Glass Room (2012)

6. Harbour Street (2014)
7. The Moth Catcher (2015)
8. The Seagull (2017)

  HUGH PENTECOST – The 24th Horse. Dodd Mead, hardcover, 1940. Popular Library #82, paperback, no date stated [1946]. CreateSpace/Bold Venture Press, softcover, May 2016.

   This is the second of five recorded mysteries solved by Inspector Luke Bradley of New York City’s Homicide Division. He’s called in when the young boy friend of a girl finds the girl’s sister’s body stuffed in the rumble seat of the car belonging to his girl friend. Complicating matters is the fact that his girl friend’s sister used to be his girl friend, but after he broke up with her a few days earlier, she had mysteriously disappeared.

   It turns out that the dead girl, while quite beautiful and popular with the men in her life, also had an unpleasant streak to her personality. Bradley soon suspects that she was not averse to a little blackmail. A letter left to be sent to the police after her death turns out to be blank. It then becomes a matter of not only who had a motive but who had access to the desk when the letter was kept.

   The background for this vintage detective novel is that of indoor steeplechase racing, with the title referring to the stages of 24 horses that people learning to jump must master, with increasing degrees of difficulty. There are, in the end, also 24 clues that Bradley gives to a friend, that when interpreted correctly, will add up the killer.

   Pentecost, aka Judson Philips, was a long time pulp writer, so it’s no surprise that when he turned his hand to writing book-length fiction, such as this one, the results were smoothly written, with solidly constructed characters.

   That it’s no classic that fans of fair play detective fiction will remember, is probably due to the fact that — in spite of the clues — does it not quite establish what Bradley knew and when he knew it. The killer is quite obvious, too, if you take the time to think about it.

      The Inspector Luke Bradley series —

Cancelled in Red (n.) Dodd 1939
The 24th Horse (n.) Dodd 1940
I’ll Sing at Your Funeral (n.) Dodd 1942
The Brass Chills (n.) Dodd 1943
Secret Corridors (na) Century 1945 [also with Dr. John Smith]

FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE. Twentieth Century Fox, UK, 1970. National General Pictures, US, 1971. Robert Shaw, Malcolm McDowell. Screenplay: Robert Shaw. based on the novel by Barry England. Director: Joseph Losey.

    Figures in a Landscape isn’t exactly the type of movie to grow on you, but it’s one that lingers in your mind for a while after you’ve finished watching. Part of this has to do with the fact that, at least on one level, not all that much happens in the movie.

   There are two primary characters — the only two characters with real dialogue — and the movie follows their journey through fields, villages, canyons, and mountain peaks as they attempt to outrun a mysterious black helicopter in a deadly game of cat and mouse. The other reason that the film lingers in your mind’s eye after watching is because there’s actually a lot happening in the movie, albeit on a symbolic level. Indeed, much of the movie is an extended metaphor about the basic human quest to be free from constraints and rules. The movie also has a lot to say about warfare, borders, and government power.

   Robert Shaw and a young Malcolm McDowell portray two British men in a hostile territory. We don’t know who they really are or why they are on the run and who may be on their trail. The movie opens with the two of them in handcuffs trying to evade an omnipresent black helicopter constantly hovering above them. It soon becomes clear that the helicopter, operated by two men dressed all in the black, is not simply interested in capturing the duo. It, or at least its pilot, wants to torment them.

   As the film progresses, the viewer learns that Shaw’s character, Mac, is a gruff, crude sort, while McDowell’s character, Ansell, is a more sensitive type whose good with the ladies and who isn’t afraid to cry. Both men need each other to evade the helicopter and, even though they clearly have little in common, decide to forge a partnership for the time being.

   Their journey takes them through all sorts of terrain. It’s here that Joseph Losey’s direction really shines. The natural vistas presented here are breathtaking, and all serve to remind the viewer that duo are small figures upon a larger naturalistic canvas.

   But what is the point of all this? For a movie rich with existential themes and which attempts to say a lot by saying very little, the dialogue is eminently forgettable. Although the banter between the two at times resembles that of a bickering old married couple, neither of duo has all that much interesting to say about their plight. More is said by their actions than by their words. This is particularly true for Mac (Shaw). By the time the two men are almost free from the helicopter, he is increasingly mentally unbalanced and erratic.

   All told, Figures in a Landscape definitely isn’t a great movie, but it’s a good one. It’s boldly experimental and benefits from not only Losey’s direction, but from exceptional cinematography and a haunting score by Richard Rodney Bennett.
   

ERNEST LARSEN – Not a Through Street. Grove Press, paperback; 1st “Black Cat” printing, 1986. First published in hardcover by Random House, 1981.

   Something I didn’t know: Grove Press once published a private eye novel. (And perhaps others?) Something else I didn’t know (or didn’t remember): this book was nominated for an Edgar for Best First Mystery in 1982. Larsen must have taken the award and run. He (as far as I know) never published another mystery or crime novel, even though this one ends with Emma Hobart, an ex-radical cab driver, nicely set up as a semi-legal, unofficial, street level PI.

   And that’s what in essence she is throughout this book as well, except that her only client is herself, and her boy friend, who is seriously involved in an “accident” concerning her taxi and two men who desperately want the film in his camera.

   It starts slowly. The first two chapters are spent with two people sorting out their feelings for each other, obviously in love but not able to say it to each other at the right time. The blurb on the cover of the paperback edition calls this an invasion of “Chandler territory,” but as far as this beginning is concerned, I have a strong feeling that collectors of the complete works of Raymond Chandler would not care for it at all.

   This is “hippie country,” no doubt about it, a leftover from the 60s, with dialogue that every so often sounds like psychological/philosophical jargon — sorry, I can’t tell which — and there is a definite haze of psychedelia clinging to the rest of the story, which is all about some dastardly corporation plot that was cooked up during the war in Vietnam. It’s no wonder that Grove Press decided it was their cup of tea.

   Originally published by Random House in hardcover, this book may prove to be hard to find. If you ever spot a copy, though, it’s worth picking up. The plot is a relatively shallow one, but Emma is a tough lady, and even though this particular adventure takes a lot out of her, it’s a shame there wasn’t ever another one.

[UPDATE]   It is a correct statement that this was the only work of crime fiction written by Ernest Larsen. I do not know if it is the same Ernest Larsen, but he may also be the author of a well-regarded work of non-fiction covering the movie The Usual Suspects in considerable detail (BFI, 2002).

DOLORES HITCHENS – Fools’ Gold. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1958. Included in Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1950s. Pocket #1239, paperback, 1959. Library of America, hardcover, 2015.

BANDE À PART. Anouchka, France, 1964. Released in the US as Band of Outsiders. Anna Karina, Danièle Girard, Louisa Colpeyn, Chantal Darget, Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur. Based on the book Fools’ Gold, by Dolores Hitchens. Director: Jean-Luc Godard.

   A nasty piece of work about a nasty piece of work named Skip, barely graduated from juvenile delinquency, who has enthralled a cute blonde named Karen and a dim ne’er-do-well named Eddie with whom he hopes to pull a major caper. But this thing has wheels within wheels, and when a big-time professional crook gets wind of the deal and decides to hijack it, that’s only the beginning of the complications that ensue.

   I never read any Hitchens before, but I found this quite well done. She has a good feel for letting the characters shape the plot, and she isn’t bothered by a bit of clutter and untidiness as things play out in a nicely cluttered and untidy finale.

   Fools’ Gold was turned into a rather unlikely film called Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) in 1964 by the legendary and quite mad Jean-Luc Godard, who threw out half the plot but stayed surprisingly faithful to the rest. Bande stars Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur and the lovely Anna Karina as the aspiring felons, played out on actual locations rather than sets, giving the thing that rough, seat-of-the-pants look typical of Godard and perfect for a gritty crime movie.

   There’s also a bit more attention to the characters here. Hitchens’ cast was well-drawn and believable, but – how shall I put this?

   You know how in pornography, the characters just think about sex all the time? Of course you do. Well in crime novels the characters are pretty well preoccupied with crime. So it is in Hitchens’ novel, but not so in Godard’s film.

   Here, they have their secret thoughts, playful moments and private ambitions. And sometimes they break out of the story just to be young. The result is a film worth coming back to: mysterious, exciting, and highly satisfying.

SPECIAL AGENT K-7. C.C.Burr Productions / Puritan Pictures, 1936. Walter McGrail, Queenie Smith, Irving Pichel, Donald Reed, Willy Castello, Duncan Renaldo, Joy Hodges. Based on the radio series character created (or played) by George Zimmer. Director: Bernard B. Ray (as Raymond K. Johnson).

   The espionage adventure radio series referred to appeared on the NBC network between 1932 and 1934, as I understand it. This is a long time ago, and information is hard to come by when it comes to radio this old. No copies of any of the episodes are known to exist. This movie was made in 1936 or 1937, and another radio series came along in 1939, one called Secret Agent K-7 Returns.

   This second series was carried by CBS and starred Jay Jostyn, an actor best known by OTR fans for his long-running lead role in the program Mr. District Attorney. The second series of K-& adventures lasted for 78 episodes, many of which are generally available and in circulation. See The Digital Deli website for more details.

   Any resemblance between the movie and the second radio series is next to none. In the movie, agent K-7, by name “Lanny” Landers and played by Walter McGrail, is not a spy of any kind, but an undercover agent for the FBI. Home from abroad, he’s asked to help crack down on organized crime in a city filled with hoodlums, gamblers and gangsters of all sorts.

   Most of the activity in the film takes place in and around a nightclub owned by Eddie Geller, who has just been the beneficiary of a hung jury. When he is killed in his office, it is the fiancé of reporter Olive O’Day (Queenie Smith) who is the primary suspect. She, of course, asks Landers for help.

   The detective story that follows is a complicated one, with lots of suspects and false trails, as many as can be squeezed into a cramped 70 minutes worth of running time, which also includes a song by one Joy Hodges, later known for helping Ronald Reagan launch his acting career. The killer is obvious, though, from the very first moment he appears on the screen, taking the sheen off most of what follows. There are glimpses of what otherwise could have been, but “could have been” never counts for very much.

JOHN CREASEY – Hunt the Toff. Richard Rollison (The Toff) #26. Walker, US, hardcover, 1969. Lancer 74658, US, paperback, no date stated [1970?]. Originally published in the UK by Evans, hardcover, 1952.

   There were 59 books about The Toff, 50 with Patrick Dawlish, 47 about The Baron, 43 with Inspector West. and a paltry 34 featuring Dr Palfrey. Even so, this totaled up comes to less than half of John Creasey’s prodigious output of over 600 detective novels. (You can do the math.)

   This one begins in fine fashion, and once begun, the action never seems to flag. While taking a much-needed vacation at a seaside resort, Rollinson rescues a young woman from a swim that becomes far too dangerous for her, thanks to a missing buoy.

   Not only has an obvious attempt been made on her life, but when that fails, she’s framed for the murder of her previous companion in crime. (She’s that kind of young woman, as it turns out.) Worse, Rollinson’s alibi for her does not hold up when she’s positively identified as the killer, putting The Toff at direct odds with the police for lying to them, and soon he’s even accused of being an accomplice.

   Hence the title of the book. Luckily Rollinson has a lot of friends to help keep him undercover long enough to clear his name. It’s a simple tale, one told without a lot of glitz and glamor, with just enough twist in the ending to make the 173 page journey, and a couple of hours on a flight from L.A. to CT, all the more worthwhile.

MICHELLE SPRING – Every Breath You Take. Laura Principal #1. Pocket, US, hardcover, 1994; paperback, 1995. Ballantine, US, paperback, 1999. First published by Orion, UK, hardcover, 1994.

   Spring is a Professor of Sociology at a British university and has published several non-fiction works. This is her first novel in a series featuring Private Investigator Laura Principal.

   Laura and her male partner-in-all-senses operate a private detective agency in London. She and her best ladyfriend co-own a cottage on the Norfolk coast, and for financial reasons decide to share the cottage with a third lady. She is an artist and Cambridge art instructor who occasionally seems to be nervous and fearful without apparent reason.

   That there were reasons becomes apparent when she is discovered brutally murdered in her flat. Laura is consumed by guilt because she didn’t pay attention to the dead woman’s fears, and begins probing her past to find answers. She finds she may not have known the woman at all.

   I didn’t dislike this, but I didn’t like it as much as I wanted to. I think my primary problem was with the prose. While the characters had the potential to be likable, the first-person narration seemed to lack immediacy and involvement, and to be almost didactic. There was a bit too much HIBK.

   A more concrete flaw was the depiction of the police, and Principal’s relations with them; it’s obvious that Spring didn’t concern herself overly with realism in this regard. The plot was eventually resolved by a device all too common, but nonetheless annoying and unsatisfying.

   After detailing all the things wrong with the book, I’m not really sure why I liked it even as much as I did while I was reading it. I guess because of the characters — but I wish she had done more with them.

      The Laura Principal series —

1. Every Breath You Take (1994)
2. Running For Shelter (1995)
3. Standing in the Shadows (1998)
4. Nights in White Satin (1999)
5. In the Midnight Hour (2001)

JAMES R. BENN – The Devouring. Lt. Billy Boyle #12. Soho Crime, hardcover, September 2017. Setting: France/Switzerland, World War II.

First Sentence:   Light is faster than sound.

   Captain Billy Boyle and Lt. Piotr “Kaz” Kazimierz are headed to Switzerland but crash-land in France, meeting up with Anton Lasho, a Sinti (Gypsy) determined to kill every German he meets. The three do make it across the border and connect with members of the OSS. Their task? Investigate Swiss banks that are laundering looted Nazi gold.

   Benn throws one into high drama and action from the very start and it’s great. One feels the anxiety of the characters as we are immediately introduced to Billy, “Kaz” and Anton Lasko, who is new to us but who proves to be such a good character, one wouldn’t mind seeing him in the future. Billy and Kaz are truly wonderful characters. One can very much appreciate the way in which Benn sprinkles information on their backgrounds throughout the story. It is through the trio that Benn creates such painful, yet honest scenes that they touch one’s emotions. That’s the mark of a truly fine writer.

   Benn has an excellent voice. He includes the vernacular of the 1940’s— “You’re all packing, I assume” … “Can you get us shoulder holsters?” I asked. “It’s clumsy carrying these six-shooters around in a coat pocket.” —without overdoing it. He includes just the right touch of wry humor— “All we had to do was avoid imprisonment and long-range rifle fire. All in a day’s work.”

   This may be Benn’s most complex book so far. It is filled with historical information. One may find it makes them quite angry. Not toward the author, but because of the information which one may not have previously known, yet is important to learn. And that’s what makes this a particularly good book.

   The Devouring is a really well-done tale of duplicity, stolen gold, and a not-so-neutral country.

      The Billy Boyle World War II series —

1. Billy Boyle (2006)

2. The First Wave (2007)
3. Blood Alone (2008)
4. Evil for Evil (2009)
5. Rag and Bone (2010)

6. A Mortal Terror (2011)
7. Death’s Door (2012)
8. A Blind Goddess (2013)
9. The Rest is Silence (2014)
10. The White Ghost (2015)
11. Blue Madonna (2016)
12. The Devouring (2017)

DASHIELL HAMMETT – The Big Book of the Continental Op. RICHARD LAYMAN & JULIE RIVETT, Editors. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, softcover, 28 November 2017. 752 pages.

    “Now for the first time ever in one volume, all twenty-eight stories and two serialized novels starring the Continental Op — one of the greatest characters in storied history of detective fiction.”

    What else do you need to know? I’ve been waiting for this book for almost 60 years. And now here it is, at last, all but three stories appearing first in Black Mask magazine, and all reprinted as they first appeared.