Mon 19 Oct 2009
Capsule Reviews from TAD (1968), by Allen J. Hubin – Part 4.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
Commentary on books I’ve covered in the New York Times Book Review. [Reprinted from The Armchair Detective, Vol. 1, No. 4, July 1968.]
Previously on this blog:
Part 1 — Charlotte Armstrong through Jonathan Burke.
Part 2 — Victor Canning through Manning Coles.
Part 3 — Stephen Coulter through Thomas B. Dewey.
CHARLES DRUMMOND – Death at the Furlong Post. Walker, US, hardcover, 1968. Victor Gollancz, UK, hc, 1967. A couple of the most unstereotyped policemen (English) in mystery fiction are featured in this most promising of first novels. [Series character: One of the two policemen is Sergeant Bob Reed.]
FIELDEN FARRINGTON – A Little Game. Walker, US, hardcover, 1968. Popular Library, pb, 1969. Macmillan, UK, hc, 1968. TV movie: Universal, 1971 (Diane Baker, Ed Nelson, Howard Duff). A brooding, irresistibly suspenseful tale of black, ruthless malevolence peering out of the eyes of a 13 year old boy. [The first of two crime novels by this author.]
LUCILLE FLETCHER -The Girl in Cabin B54. Random House, US, hardcover, 1968. Dell, pb, 1969. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hc, 1969. A whale of a chiller about a transatlantic passenger whose extrasensory abilities reveal far too much about a previous occupant of her cabin.
NICHOLAS FREELING – Strike Out Where Not Applicable. Harper & Row, US, hardcover, 1968. Ballantine, pb, 1969; Penguin, pb, 1975. Victor Gollancz, UK, hc, 1967. Few but Freeling have the ability to turn a novel consisting largely of conversation into a fascinating reading experience. Here Inspector Van der Valk tackles a bludgeoning death in the small Dutch town of Lisse to which he’s been transferred.
WILLIAM GARNER – The Deep, Deep Freeze. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, US, hardcover, 1968. Berkley, pb, 1969. Collins Crime Club, UK, hc, 1968. An absorbing and sure-handed blending of a host of diverse elements into a very satisfying novel of intrigue. [Series character: Michael Jagger.]
October 19th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Five good ones here. Fletcher also wrote the radio play Sorry, Wrong Number (and the co-authored the novelization), and Blindfold which was a film with Rock Hudson.
Freeling simply one of the masters with Van der Valk on the same shelf as Maigret and Henri Castaing only a little ways behind. Strike Out Where Not Applicable is one of the best, though my personal favorite remains King of the Rainy Country.
William Garner wrote a number of good books featuring Michael Jagger, a security agent, whose missions often had a touch of science fiction to them — better written and handled than the majority of similar works from the era — a writer who deserved a greater audience than he got. In some ways Jagger’s adventures were closer to The Avengers or Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass serials than Bond or Le Carre, though both Deighton and Martin Wodehouse strayed into similar territory, as did Alan Dipper, Geoffrey Jenkins, L.P. Davies, and Archie Roy.
October 19th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Both Fielden Farrington and William Garner were complete unknowns to me when I posted these mini-reviews. I can see why in the case of Farrington, but the list of Garner’s books in CRIME FICTION IV is lengthy enough to make me wonder how I’d manage to miss seeing his name ever before.
GARNER, WILLIAM. 1920- .
* * *The Andra Fiasco (Collins, 1971, hc) [Middle East] U.S. title: Strip Jack Naked. Bobbs, 1971.
* * *A Big Enough Wreath (Collins, 1974, hc) [Mick Jagger] Putnam, 1975.
* * *The Deep, Deep Freeze (Collins, 1968, hc) [Mick Jagger; England] Putnam, 1968.
* * *Ditto, Brother Rat! (Collins, 1972, hc)
* * _The Manipulators (Bobbs, 1970, hc) See: The Puppet-Masters (Collins 1970).
* * *The Mobius Trip (Hodder, 1979, hc) Putnam, 1978.
* * *Overkill (Collins, 1966, hc) [Mick Jagger; London; Europe] NAL, 1966.
* * *Paper Chase (Grafton, 1988, hc)
* * *The Puppet-Masters (Collins, 1970, hc) [England] U.S. title: The Manipulators. Bobbs, 1970.
* * *Rats’ Alley (Heinemann, 1984, hc) [John Morpugo]
* * *Sleeping Dogs (Grafton, 1990, hc)
* * _Strip Jack Naked (Bobbs, 1971, hc) See: The Andra Fiasco (Collins 1971).
* * *Think Big, Think Dirty (Heinemann, 1983, hc) [John Morpugo] St. Martin’s, 1983.
* * *The Us or Them War (Collins, 1969, hc) [Mick Jagger; England] Putnam, 1969.
* * *Zones of Silence (Heinemann, 1985, hc) [John Morpugo]
Note that Al Hubin lists the name of Garner’s continuing spy character as Mick Jagger, rather than Michael, which is contrary to anything I’ve found elsewhere. Is he ever Mick Jagger in the books?
October 20th, 2009 at 12:06 am
He’s referred to as Mick Jagger on the cover of the paperback of Overkill (NAL I think), but in the interior it is Michael Jagger. It’s possible American and Brit publishers used the name Mick in cover copy hoping for some crossover buyers even though Garner never uses the name in the books I read. They may well have been marketed as Mick even if Garner never used the name.
The first American edition of Diamonds Are Forever (Perma Books) calls Bond Jimmy.
The books are quite good, with the sf element and the spy business both a little better handled than average. The series is a bit closer to Philip McCutchan’s Simon Shard series or later Esmonde Shaw books than the usual Bond style thriller with sf elements, and like McCutchan, Archie Roy, and Martin Wodehouse’s Giles Yeoman books the sf element is often handled a bit more seriously than the usual Bond ripoff.
Garner handled suspense well, with better characterization than most as well as more complex plots.
June 11th, 2012 at 7:46 pm
William Garner is now, sadly, deceased. He died in 2005. His daughter Lesley/Leslie Garner wrote about her father’s final years in one of her self-help books. Oddly, no obituaries appeared, so far as I can tell.
June 12th, 2012 at 9:13 am
Thanks for the information. I’ve passed it along to Al Hubin, who will include it in the next installment of his Addenda to Crime Fiction IV.