Mon 19 Apr 2010
Three Archived Mystery Reviews: JAMES ANDERSON, JAMES E. MARTIN & HELEN REILLY.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[2] Comments
JAMES ANDERSON – Angel of Death. Doubleday Crime Club, US, hardcover, April 1989. First published in the UK: Constable, hc, 1978.
Six members of a yachting party are deliberately yet randomly poisoned while sailing in the Caribbean. The question is, how did the killer make sure that the six who died were exactly the ones he was aiming for?
Alec Webster, recently resigned from Scotland Yard, is the investigator in this highly unlikely combination of Agatha Christie and Aristotle Onassis. The puzzle is a clever one, though, and it’s exactly why I love stories like this.
On the other hand, plots of this type have to be given lots of room to breathe. The main scheme in this one is worked out in some detail, but both the setup and solution are crammed into only a few chapters somewhere soon after the middle. It’s never given a chance to show how good it really is.
JAMES E. MARTIN – And Then You Die. William Morrow, hardcover, 1992. Reprint paperback: Avon, September 1993.
In Cleveland PI Gil Disbro’s third case, he’s hired to find a missing wife, last seen in Nevada getting a divorce and gambling away a fortune.
Things get complicated when his client is then found murdered, but Disbro, of course, stays on the job.
The result is a fast-moving detective tale with good, sensitively macho dialogue and a tangled plot that somehow manages not to be spoiled by a twist that’s just two jots short of obvious.
HELEN REILLY – The Canvas Dagger. Random House, 1956. Hardcover reprint: Detective Book Club, 3-in-1 volume, April 1957. Paperback reprints: Bantam #1858, 1959; Ace Double #G-531, ca.1965, abridged, bound with Not Me, Inspector; Macfadden, 1970; Manor, 1974.
A young woman in New York City witnesses a murder from a building across the street, and when the police don’t believe her, she and all the suspects in the case travel to Cape Cod, where more murders occur.
Reilly’s prose varies from passably good to overwrought, but the ending is what does this one in, bringing in (hey?) Commies at the very last minute.
Previously reviewed on this blog:
James Anderson: Assault and Matrimony.
Helen Reilly: The Silver Leopard.
Also, for an long essay on Helen Reilly’s mystery fiction by Michael Grost, go here on the main Mystery*File website. Included on that page is a complete bibliography for the author.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
THE CANVAS DAGGER is one of those classics that belongs to its time and doesn’t really work outside of it. I never really managed to get into Reilly, though I tried on and off for years. I think the mix of police procedure with romantic suspense was a hurdle I just couldn’t leap over.
She’s one of those probably unjustly neglected writers, and anyone interested in genre history should read Mike Grost’s article on her even if they never read her themselves, but for some reason I just never got into her.
Re Anderson, he’s a clever writer but there was always something facile about his work to me. Another writer I tried several times to get into and couldn’t manage.
Martin sounds like he might be worth checking out though.
It’s funny. It’s always hard to explain why you don’t like a writer that you don’t think is bad — just doesn’t work for you. There are two here, and I find myself in that old dilemma of trying to understand why two writers I probably should like don’t appeal to me. It’s always easier to say why you dislike a bad writer — or one you think is bad — than explain why a good writer doesn’t appeal to you.
March 9th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
[…] The Canvas Dagger (1956) (very short) The Silver Leopard (1946) […]