I suspect that the spy-adventure thriller will always be with us. That’s fine when books of this type are as good as Gavin Lyall’s Shooting Script (1966). Using a commercial flier as protagonist, Lyall makes a Caribbean setting and a “banana boat” revolution seem new. He provides the kind of crisp, funny first person narration many authors attempt but at which they seldom succeed.

   On the other hand, I found Dark Blood, Dark Terror (1965) and Vice Isn’t Private (1966) in Brian Cleeve’s spy series re Sean Ryan to be over-rated. However, the former does provide some insights into the dilemma of modern-day South Africa. It also gives us one hilarious “Typo” when in one of the many violent scenes we read: “Sean … finished the swing of his body with his right fist hooking hard and very low into his groan.”

   I enjoyed William H. Hallahan’s Catch Me: Kill Me (1977), a thriller which won the Edgar as best novel. Still, if this is the best book of any year, we’re in trouble. Though this story of the kidnapping of a defecting Soviet poet “grabs” the reader, it contains gratuitous violence, a lot of padding which reduces the suspense, and a weak, albeit action-filled ending.

   However, Hallahan is one writer who, while using many metaphors, uses them well. Thus, one character says: “Life plays a game – like tennis… And until you die, it just keeps playing to your backhand.”

    Books reviewed or discussed in this installment:

GAVIN LYALL – Shooting Script. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hc, 1966. Charles Scribner’s Sons, US, hc, 1966. Paperback reprints: Pan, UK, 1968, plus several later printings; Avon V2309, US, 1969.

BRIAN CLEEVE – Dark Blood, Dark Terror. Series character: Sean Ryan. Hammond, UK, hc, 1966. Random House, US, hc, 1965. Paperback reprints: Mayflower, UK, 1968. Lancer 73-543, US, 1967.

—, Vice Isn’t Private. Series character: Sean Ryan. Hammond, UK, hc, 1966; Corgi, UK, pb, 1969, as The Judas Goat. Random House, US, hc, 1966; Lancer 73-621, US, pb, 1967.

WILLIAM H. HALLAHAN – Catch Me: Kill Me. Bobbs-Merrill, US, hc, 1977. Victor Gollancz, UK, hc, 1978. Paperback reprints: Avon, US, 1978; Sphere, UK, 1980.

   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.]

HOLLYWOOD MYSTERY. Fanchon Royal Pictures, 1934. Originally released as Hollywood Hoodlum. June Clyde, Frank Albertson, José Crespo, Tenen Holtz, John Davidson. Directed by B. Reeves “Breezy” Eason.

   It is a mystery – if for the sake of the review, for this and nothing else – why bottom of the barrel movies like this exist and are distributed on DVD, and films that people really want to see are either available only through collector-to-collector conditions or cannot be found at all.

   At least it’s short, just over 50 minutes long, and at least the people making it seemed to be having a good time doing so. As hinted at above, there is very little mystery to this strictly Grade D movie, only the fact that the head of publicity for a small time movie outfit (Frank Albertson) gets the grand idea of persuading a director of a gangster film (John Davidson) to hire a real gangster as its star.

   Only thing is, the gangster (José Crespo) is no gangster, but the guy he socks in a nightclub really is. Much hilarity results, or it was supposed to have, and even so, it might have, if the plot really made any sense.

   I should of course mention June Clyde, who plays the leading lady in the film within the film. Like Frank Albertson and some of the other players, she had a long career in movies and TV, but as a bright spot on any of their careers, this wasn’t it.

   One additional warning: On the DVD you can easily find of this movie, the picture is so poorly cropped that in one scene with two people at either end of a table, you see the table but neither party to the right or left of the screen. It made me smile as much as anything I saw, and I’m almost embarrassed to say I saw any of it. Or that I’m writing this review of it.

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.

R. AUSTIN FREEMAN – The Cat’s Eye.

Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hc, 1923. Dodd-Mead & Co, US, hc, 1927. House of Stratus, UK, softcover, 2001.

   Dr Jervis [Dr Thorndyke’s usual Watson] being away advising on a case in New York, Robert Anstey, KC, narrates the mystery of The Cat’s Eye as the complicated affair unfolds.

   Anstey is crossing Hampstead Heath one night when, just after a man runs past him, he hears a woman crying for help in the other direction. He finds her in time to see her knocked down and her attacker get away.

   The mysterious woman has been stabbed and Anstey carries her to a nearby house to seek aid. Just as he arrives, he hears the terrified housekeeper Mrs Benham calling the police, for her master Andrew Drayton has been murdered in his small private museum of inscribed objects — lace bobbins, ornaments, jewelry, and the like.

   The dead man is the brother of Sir Lawrence Drayton, a neighbour of Anstey’s in the Temple as well as an acquaintance of Dr John Thorndyke, who is brought in to investigate while the police pursue their own enquiries. Anstey has acted as Thorndyke’s leading counsel for years and, in order to provide him with useful evidence, takes — illegally, one would think — two pieces of fingerprinted broken glass away from the crime scene.

   The injured woman, Winifred Blake, is an artist who lives with her younger brother and would-be architect Percy in (you have guessed it) Jacob Street. Miss Blake is interested in inscribed jewels and had visited Drayton that evening to look at his collection, having read a magazine article about it. She had hardly entered the house when he was shot in another room, and in foolishly trying to follow a man escaping from the scene was herself assaulted. Evidence shows two criminals were involved and that certain items of jewelry have been stolen.

   The plot then thickens into a rich stew whose ingredients include Biblical verses with no apparent relation to each other, a good luck charm made from a porcupine ant-eater bone, a strand of blue hair, spectacles which allow the wearer to see what is happening behind him, and a mystery within a mystery.

   My verdict: A particularly rich plot featuring a dash of romance, with clues realised to be in plain sight once the reader knows the solution.

   The novel also includes some interesting asides, such as an explanation of how Scotland Yard’s Habitual Criminals Registry compares hundreds of fingerprint records kept on cards when seeking matches to a particular set of dabs. The preface mentions a particular incident, identical to one that happened in real life, was already in a chapter written some time before the actual event occurred.

      Etext: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700841.txt

DOUBLE DEAL. RKO Radio Pictures, 1950. Marie Windsor, Richard Denning, Fay Baker, Taylor Holmes, James Griffith, Carleton Young. Director: Abby Berlin.

   How many black-and-white crime movies from the 1940s and early 50s have you seen beginning with the leading man swinging off a bus in a strange town, looking for a job and not trouble, but ending up finding both?

   I’ve seen a few, although I can’t name them all, and not only that, but I think Richard Denning was in one of them.

   Besides this one, that is.

   I’m probably all wrong about that, but what’s another movie in which the leading guy is a mining engineer and is hired to help bring an oil well in or a start a mine up in operation again? It’s an oil well in this one, and I can’t think of either the movie or the star of the other one I’m thinking off — the one with an opening scene so close to the one in Double Deal that after five minutes I was ready to turn it off. (Maybe Richard Carlson? Alan Ladd?)

   I’m glad I didn’t, though, since this one’s a keeper. Not only that, but it has Marie Windsor in it. She plays Terry Mills in this one, a good friend of Reno Sebastian (Carleton Young), the man who owns the well that so far has hit nothing but sand. It seems that his sister Lilly (Fay Baker, who makes a terrific villainess) hates him, and she’ll stop at nothing to keep Reno from succeeding.

   I was once asked, a couple of years ago, to continue with the thought I began the last paragraph with, before I got distracted, which noir movie actress was my favorite. You guessed the answer, and congratulations! You didn’t need two tries.

   This rather obscure crime film, not quite a noir, pretty much has me stumped. The only photos I can provide you of the movie itself come courtesy of a Spanish language poster from Mexico. The one of Marie Windsor below comes from Narrow Margin, and I think the one of Denning comes from the (much later) days when he was playing Michael Shayne on TV.

   I’ve already told you about the basic story line. There are quite a few twists and turns in the plot that come after this, though, and these are what keep the movie watchable, even if you’re not as fond of Marie Windsor as an actress as I am.

   I’ve also already mentioned my opinion that this movie is not a noir film, even though it is a crime movie filmed in 1950 and in black-and-white. The presence and over-the-top antics of a drunken former lawyer named “Corpus” Mills (Taylor Holmes) takes care of that very nicely, thank you. Of course, he does come in handy when Terry is accused of murder, making sure that’s she free (as it happens) to act as bait to catch the real killer.

   But there are some definite noirish aspects about this film, no doubt about it — if not so much the overall mood and the happy ending — then in the lighting and the definite sense of danger that Terry’s in after her release from the local sheriff’s custody, as mentioned above.

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?)

   Octavus Roy Cohen’s 1951 paperback original, The Corpse That Walked, is based on his 1942 novelet in Collier’s “Masquerade in Miami.” It contains many surprises, but perhaps this is to be expected since it comes from an era when story-telling, without unnecessary descriptions or metaphors, was important. I found very quaint (yet imaginative) the devices Cohen used to avoid mentioning sex.

   Hesitancy about sex (or violence) is seldom found in current mystery fiction. Witness Bill Pronzini’s Games (1976). U.S. Senator David Jackman is trapped, with his mistress, on an island off the Maine coast. A killer, acting “in the name of Lucifer,” begins slaughtering animals and threatening the couple. Because the protagonists are so unsympathetic and uninteresting, I never really came to care about them. That’s a pity, because Pronzini can write so well – especially in his “Nameless” Private Eye series.

   I was about to ask for a moratorium on books about political figures in high places when I read two thrillers proving that Washington, D.C., can be an effective setting. Though a best seller, Robert J. Serling’s The President’s Plane Is Missing (1967) contains many elements of the detective story. Suspense and surprise are real in this much-imitated book, though the cast of characters is too large to keep effective track of, and the proceedings are a bit dragged out.

   In Lawrence Meyer’s equally readable A Capitol Crime (1977), the detective is that modern folk hero, the investigative reporter. Incidentally, when someone writes a history of that sub-genre, precedence should be given to Tony Hillerman’s The Fly on the Wall (1971) which pre-dated Watergate and Bernstein-Woodward.

   Meyer’s hero looks into the murder of a Drew Pearson-Jack Anderson type in the Capitol building itself. Like Serling, Meyer introduces too many characters, but he, too, is a fine story teller who provides a literally breath-taking end. Furthermore, his book is as current as today’s headlines, and he seamlessly weaves foreign ownership of U.S. corporations, limits on campaign contributions, and the right of police to a reporter’s notes into his plot.

Books reviewed or discussed in this installment:

OCTAVUS ROY COHEN – The Corpse That Walked. Gold Medal 138, paperback original, 1951. Second printing: Gold Medal 650, 1957.

BILL PRONZINI – Games. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 1976. Fawcett Crest 23484, paperback, date not stated. Combined with Snowbound: Stark House, trade ppbk, 2007.

ROBERT J. SERLING – The President’s Plane Is Missing. Doubleday, hardcover, 1967. Dell, paperback, many printings. TV movie: ABC, 1973 (scw: Ernest Kinoy, Mark Carliner; dir: Daryl Duke)

LAWRENCE MEYER – A Capitol Crime. Viking, hardcover, 1977. Avon, paperback, 1978; several printings.

TONY HILLERMAN – The Fly on the Wall. Harper & Row, hardcover, 1971. Many paperback reprintings.