STEPHEN MARLOWE – Francesca. Chester Drum #15. Gold Medal k1285, paperback original; 1st printing, March 1963.

   If my count is correct, there were in all twenty cases for Washington DC-based PI Chester Drum, but somewhere along the way, through his many contacts in the higher levels of government, he became more and more involved in overseas adventures. Francesca, the novel, is one of these, taking place in Switzerland and France and the skiing areas up in the mountains of each.

   Offered employment by a Geneva-based and wealthy consultant to international criminals – nice work, if you can get it – Drum at first turns him down, but of course you noticed my use of the phrase “at first,” and soon enough, yes, he is up to his neck in danger and adventure once again. The man who hires him is named Axel Spade – and I’ll wager you caught that as soon as I did. His problem is that his daughter’s fiancé has absconded with three million dollars of his, and he wants it back.

   He also would like his daughter back, too, and safely, but apparently she has disappeared with him, willingly.

   The daughter is not the Francesca of the book’s title. Francesca is the beautiful movie star who is engaged to Mr. Axel Spade, and of course sparks are created as soon as she and Drum meet. There is also another villain involved, a man as ugly as sin, and as evil. Thus ends the list of major characters, a list not including the usual assortment of policemen, monks (with guns), and innocent bystanders.

   Enough to make a short book, only 144 pages, go by very quickly and pleasantly, however. The Drum books were always a lot of fun to read when I bought them new from the supermarket spinner rack on my way home from school, and so was this one today. I probably didn’t notice back then how smooth and confident Marlowe writing was, describing as he did people and places and adventures I could only dream of meeting and visiting and having.

   And I still haven’t. But one can still dream, can’t one?