Sat 17 May 2025
Archived Mystery Review: A. S. FLEISCHMAN – Danger in Paradise.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
A. S. FLEISCHMAN – Danger in Paradise. Gold Medal #295, paperback original; 1st printing, 1953. Cover by Barye Phillips. Stark House Press, 2010, 2-for-1 edition with Malay Woman.
It’s easily said, but the fact of the matter is that they just don’t write books like this any more.
Adventure thrillers, that is, written for the fun of it, and for the reader’s pleasure as well, without the bloated look of a book aimed straight for the bestseller list.
Jefferson Cape is in a small village in Bali when a beautiful girl slips him a message. Upon his return to the United States, she tells him, he is to make sure it is immediately turned over to the CIA. Unfortunately, he is forced to miss his boat, whereupon he distinctly finds himself a center of attention, and from all sides.
He soon finds he has fallen in love with the girl, of course, has doubts, has doubts erased, then raised again. Underlying his every action, however, is a sense of honor and chivalry no longer adhered to today, not even by the good guys.
Maybe you can just chalk this one up to nostalgia.
Rating: B plus.
May 18th, 2025 at 6:32 am
From 1981?
I guess this could be called “Vintage Nostalgia”
May 18th, 2025 at 12:43 pm
Even more so, now that the book is 72 years old. (The book was only 28 years young when I wrote this review. That was 44 years ago. Seems like yesterday.)
May 18th, 2025 at 7:31 pm
It should be mentioned that Fleischman was also Newbery Medal-winning Sid Fleishman, who went on to become an influential and best-selling children’s author. In 2003, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators inaugurated the Sid Fleischman Humor award in his honor.
May 18th, 2025 at 8:48 pm
Well worth a mention, Jerry. Fleischman was a man of many talents. Thanks!
May 24th, 2025 at 12:03 am
Fleischman, who among other things wrote BLOOD ALLEY the basis for the John Wayne movie, was a pretty good writer of this sort of thing and more than just nostalgia. Quite a few of his books are available in ebook form and still worth a read for an old-fashioned adventure story that isn’t bloated, underwritten, high concept, low execution like so many of today’s examples of the form.