Thu 27 Aug 2020
Archived Mystery Review: ROBERT L. FISH – The Gold of Troy.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
ROBERT L. FISH – The Gold of Troy. Doubleday, hardcover, 1980. Berkley, paperback, 1984.
Everyone loves a treasure hunt, and of course the bigger the prize the better. Except that what the prize consists of this time is a large chestful of cheap-looking trinkets, made of what looks like a poor grade of brass.
It’s not long, however, before we learn that this is in actuality the famous Schliemann treasure, a priceless collection of golden relics of the Trojan War, discovered by archaeologists over a hundred years ago.
The treasure was lost at the end of World War II in Nazi Germany, but it has suddenly reappeared. Someone has it, no one knows who, and it has been put up for bids in ·a mammoth worldwide auction. The CIA has always thought the Russians have had it. The KGB has been convinced that it was the Americans who stole it away during the confusion at the end of the war. Each is now sure that the other’s security has been breached.
A love affair is also involved, between two people ordinarily worlds apart. She is the newly appointed head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; he is Russia’s leading authority on matters archaeological. Together as they hunt down this small treasure of buttons and beads, their love is consummated, nearly lost, and then wrapped up neatly again in a wild whirlwind of a finish.
The machinations of the plot obviously come from the head of the author alone. The characters have little to say in how they’re manipulated. As great lasting literature, this would never do. As to why the book is so readable, why it is gulped down so easily and quickly, there is an equally easy explanation. To put it in simplest possible terms, Fish knows how to tell a story.
Rating: B plus.
August 27th, 2020 at 9:24 pm
Simply one of my favorite writers whether Ze da Silva and Wilson, the character Bullett was based on, smuggler Kek Huyggens, his trio of British experts in crime, Schlock Homes, or any of his stand alone novels.
An old pro with the emphasis on pro. A fine writer of suspense, mystery, and adventure under any name and with any characters.
August 28th, 2020 at 11:36 am
The consummate professional. What work do you think he is most remembered for now? I’m caught between the Schlock Homes stories or being the author whose book BULLITT was based on.
August 28th, 2020 at 7:50 pm
I wish he was better known outside the genre. Within I would guess BULLITT only because those Robert Pike novels were well known and admired even before the film. Ironically they are lesser Fish for me, just another police procedural compared to the da Silva and Kek Huyggens books and standalone books like TROY and PURSUIT.
For EQMM readers it is no doubt the Homes stories.
August 28th, 2020 at 10:27 pm
No, in spite of all the good stories he told, I don’t imagine many non-mystery readers ever heard of him. Even most of the people who saw BULLITT over and over never bothered to find out who it was wrote the novel it was based on.