Sat 20 Jul 2013
Unsigned Review [THE NATION,1908]: TYLER DE SAIX – The Man Without a Head.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
TYLER DE SAIX – The Man Without a Head. Moffat, Yard & Co., 1908. Illustrated. $1.50. Reprinted as The Cottage on the Fells (Werner Laurie, UK, 1908), as by H. De Vere Stacpoole, the author’s real name. Later reprint (shown), Laurie, 1950. Currently available in several Print on Demand editions.
It is a question whether the mere ingenuity of horror comes within the bounds of art; but whatever one’s personal view, one cannot shirk the admission that such work has a reading public of its own, ready to encourage an increasing output.
The Man Without a Head will doubtless find many admirers, as it is good of its class. The author has the gift, invaluable to the contriver of a detective story, of plausibly allowing the reader’s suspicion of the truth to precede that of the detective; not with gross obviousness, but with sufficient skill to make the resulting conviction of one’s own astuteness genuinely if briefly satisfactory.
But the murderer’s device for concealing his crime, while indubitably clever, would insure almost immediate detection of any unfortunately trustful homicide who sought to put it in practice. The story of it moves with interest, however, even under the ballast of aphorisms sprinkled upon the pages with pedagogic heaviness of hand.
– “Current Fiction”
– THE NATION
– September 3, 1908
– http://www.unz.org/Pub/Nation-1908sep03-00212
– [Scroll down to page 213, top right]
Editorial Comment: Thanks to Mike Tooney for continuing to uncover old reviews such as this one, and posting them on Yahoo’s “Golden Age of Detection” group.
July 21st, 2013 at 6:01 am
THE COTTAGE ON THE FELLS used to turn up fairly often in British bookshops in the Cherry Tree pb edition, sometimes with a dust jacket.
July 21st, 2013 at 10:01 am
I came across this title serendipitously a while ago in my perusing of Hubin. I’ve always wanted to find a copy and read it. A lurid thriller by the author of THE BLUE LAGOON. Just can’t pass up that temptation.
July 21st, 2013 at 10:20 am
What struck me about this old review is how little of the story itself the reviewer talked about. It isn’t even quite clear if it’s a thriller or a detective story.
Either way, he does make it sound like an interesting book to read!
PS to Jeff. I don’t imagine those Cherry Tree paperbacks show up very often any more. There’s only one for sale on ABE right now, with an asking price in the $45 range. Copies of the hardcover reprint are far more common, and with a considerably lower asking price
July 21st, 2013 at 10:54 am
Thanks for an interesting review. This is a book I’ve never heard of.
Crime short stories by H. De Vere Stacpoole (they don’t make authors’ names like they used to!) sometimes show up in old anthologies. “The Ten-Franc Counter” is a mild story of detectives solving a jewel robbery in Monte Carlo. “The Story of O Toyo” has an unusual detective figure: a young Japanese woman who works as a servant.