Mon 1 Apr 2024
Reviewed by Tony Baer: A. A. AVERY – Anything for a Quiet Life.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
A. A. AVERY – Anything for a Quiet Life. Farrar & Rinehart. hardcover, 1942. Bantam #38, paperback; 1st printing, June 1946.
Donovan’s an ad man for a trade magazine in New York City in the late 1930’s. He’s not too into it. What he’s really into is sailing his skiff in the South Seas.
His best buddy and sailing partner has come into a bunch of money, and a sporting girl has gotten her hooks into him. Not only is she gonna take him to the cleaners, but it’s going to play havoc with Donovan’s sailing plans.
So Donovan is set with trying to break up the marriage before it happens.
Turns out the sporting gal is being sicced on Donovan’s buddy by design of some dangerous mobsters.
The mobsters have a number of fish to fry, only one of which involves Donovan’s buddy.
The biggest fish set to fry is based on the real-life McKesson & Robbins, Inc. scandal of 1938. Said scandal involved a bogus bootlegging corporation manipulated to merge with a legit pharma company. A fake balance sheet formed the basis for a merger worth millions to the fraudsters passing off the valueless shares of the shell company to the stockholders of the legit one.
Donovan gets his hands on proof that the balance sheet is fake and aims to leverage this information to sabotage his buddy’s marriage and save both his sailing plans and the shareholders from a soaking.
If it sounds convoluted, it is. But as convoluted as it is, you don’t have time to think about it — Donovan (and you, dear reader) is too busy being chased by men with guns all thru the city, warding them off by his swift wits and fisticuffs. With the help of a lovely lass he meets along the way (who happens to be not only executive assistant of the pharma company but an excellent sailor to boot!).
The book is fast as hell and twice as fun. It’s not a book to ponder. But it’s a breathtaking ride.
April 1st, 2024 at 10:49 pm
A.A, Avery was one of the pen names used by prolific children’s author Rutherford George Montgomery (April 12, 1894 – July 3, 1985). This was the only mystery novel he wrote intended for adults. There is a lengthy bibliography for him on his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_George_Montgomery
Here below is a list of several of his literary awards:
Kildee House: Newbery Award Honor Book, 1950.
Wapiti the Elk: Commonwealth Club of California Juvenile Silver Medal, 1952
Beaver Water: New York Herald Tribune Children’s Spring Book Festival Award, 1956; Boy’s Clubs of America Junior Book Award, 1957
The Stubborn One: Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award, 1965
April 2nd, 2024 at 10:58 am
Interestingly (or not) Stanford Copyright Renewals lists a renewal in 1969 by a S. H. Horn, designating him with the symbol (A) as an author claimant. The title, date of publication and A. A. Avery listed as a pseudo all match. I could find nothing on “Horn” in the Montgomery Wiki Bio or anywhere else. In 1969, Montgomery was still with us so …
https://exhibits.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/catalog?forward=home&exhibit_id=copyrightrenewals&search_field=search_title&q=anything+for+a+quiet+life
April 2nd, 2024 at 11:46 am
Addendum to previous comment: I also looked at copyright renewals for Montgomery’s other works and he renewed them as Rutherford G. Montgomery or his wife Eunice renewed them as Eunice Montgomery.
April 6th, 2024 at 12:02 am
A great kickass ride with an intelligent and complex plot. That second paperback edition must have had a considerable print run because copies used to be fairly easy to find.
April 6th, 2024 at 5:39 pm
It’s been a while getting back to this, and I apologize for that. Here’s what Al Hubin says about A. A. Avery in his Revised Crime Fiction IB:
AVERY, A. A.; possibly a pseudonym of Rutherford Montgomery, (1894-1985); other pseudonym Al Avery
Al Avery’s list of books all seem to be children’s novels.
I have no idea where a “S. H. Horn” might fit in, but it’s quite possible that a perceived connection between “A.A. Avery” and “Al Avery” might be a huge coincidence that has conflated the two names into one identity.