Fri 30 Sep 2011
JOHN CREASEY – So Young, So Cold, So Fair. Dell #985, paperback, August 1958. Hardcover editions: Harper & Brothers, US, 1956, as Beauty Queen Killer; UK, Hodder & Stoughton, 1954, as A Beauty for Inspector West. Reprinted several other times in paperback, including Berkley F1095 (1965), and Pan-UK (1956).
I think I like the British title best, but the one they came up with for the Dell paperback, which is the one I just read, has a certain poetic ring to it. (It comes from the ballad “St. James Infirmary,†if it sounded familiar to you and couldn’t quite place it.)
I don’t usually read novels with serial killers in them, but this one sort of sneaked up on me, and I’d long since committed myself to it before I realized it.
Being killed, in methodical but not identical fashion – the killer being content to use any method that works – are the local district winners of a beauty contest being sponsored by a London soap company. And when the papers find out about it, their banner headlines make Inspector Roger “Handsome†West wish that maybe he was in another line of work.
There are a lot of clues to be followed up on, some of them straightforward, some of them contradictory, and it takes all of West’s efforts throughout the book to determine which is which. But this is no mere novel of detection. There are several action scenes every so often designed to pump up the reader’s interest, and very effectively, too.
Complicating matters somewhat is that West has been assigned an assistant copper he doesn’t particularly like, but since it happens that DI Turnbull saves West’s life early on in the tale, he’s forced to keep him on the case. A roving eye for the ladies is one of Turnbull’s flaws, and in this case, it’s one of the beauty queens who attracts his immediate attention, which makes her present two suitors, both suspects, as it turns out, rather annoyed. (It is hard to say which one over the other.)
So this is the story that Creasey does a fine job with, although in somehwat of a heavy-handed fashion. As a detective story, it is rather a straightforward one. It is difficult to say how he manages to keep his cards so well hidden that the killer comes as a surprise, and yet an obvious one, but he does.
Or at least I think so. Now that the book is finished, I might want to go back and see if it all holds together. But I won’t, simply because maybe it won’t. Hold together, that is. I’m going to leave well enough alone.
September 30th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
It’s a shame that John Creasey is not very popular now. Because he wrote (and rewrote) a hell of a lot of books, his output was mixed. His George Gideon novels were his best and most consistent books, but his “Handsome” West stories come in a close second to my mind.
Every once in a while I go on a John Creasey binge; I’m due for another real soon now.
September 30th, 2011 at 9:13 pm
I may be wrong about this, Jerry, as I haven’t read one of the Gideon books in a while, but I think the West books had a lot more thriller elements in them, and I kind of like them all the better for that.
You mentioned Creasey rewriting lots of his books. As I recall, he did that for his books that came out in the 1940s when they were reprinted in the 60s and 70s. If I get the chance, I’m going to tackle some of his books from the 40s, which I’ve been accumulating. My theory is that they’re going to be better in a lot of ways than the revised versions.
October 1st, 2011 at 4:54 am
I tend to like the Inspector West slightly more than the Gideon. There are more thriller elements in the West books, and I always felt that, at heart, Creasey was more a thriller than a whodunnit writer. The last one that I read was INSPECTOR WEST AT BAY, which I enjoyed greatly. Given that they are more than half a century old, the books stand up extremely well. Apart from the successful radio versions with Patrick Allen, there have been no other adaptions. Why did no-one think to adapt them for TV?
The most recent Creasey books that I’ve read are the early books in THE BARON series, and I’ve been struck again by how enormously readable he is. Not a ‘great’ writer (however you judge that) but unfairly neglected these days.
October 3rd, 2011 at 10:50 am
When I was reading your comment about ‘holding together’ I couldn’t help but think that it has two meaning these days – not only a story meaning, but I have had old paperbacks fall apart as I read them.
October 3rd, 2011 at 1:13 pm
A little Elmer’s Glue goes a long way, Stan.
It’s not archival, by any means, but for old paperbacks from some publishers, we’re lucky they lasted this long.
(Of course in worst case scenarios, rubber bands can come in very handy.)