FRANK GRUBER – Brothers of Silence. E.P.Dutton, hardcover, 1962. Detective Book Club, hardcover, 3-in-1 edition. Bantam F2903, paperback,1965. Belmont, paperback, 1973.
After a confusing opening, Gruber settles down with a tale about Attila’s hidden treasure, buried somewhere in eastern Europe. Author Charles Tancred, an expert on Caesar and the Roman Empire, knows the approximate location, but there are others who know he knows, and do it goes.
What makes the beginning confusing is a tendency to fill in background so very gradually, which is not only disconcerting to the reader, but makes the motives of the characters even more unclear. In spite of a strong suspicion that all this mysteriousness was needed only for any mystery at all, once the story finally gets going, it manages to keep a fairly even level.
The love interest comes on suddenly and strong, however, and it generally manages to foul up the story’s credibility. Every foreigner is quickly characterized with difficulty and English idioms. Carry-overs from Gruber’s pulp days?
DEATH DRUMS ALONG THE RIVER. 1963. Richard Todd, Marianne Koch, Albert Lieven, Walter Rilla. Screenplay suggested by the story of African adventure Sanders of the River by Edgar Wallace. Directed by Lawrence Huntington.
This international production is set in 1960s sub-Saharan Africa, in an unnamed British colony on the cusp of independence. The protagonist and hero, Commissioner Harry Sanders (Richard Todd), a fictional creation of the prolific Edgar Wallace, is an upstanding civil servant devoted to his work in keeping the peace. Not an easy task, to be sure.
The plot is fairly basic. After one of his policemen is stabbed to death by the port, Sanders sets out to not only find the killer, but to undercover an illegal diamond smuggling operation that he believes runs from neighboring Senegal. Sanders’s investigation eventually takes him to an upriver hospital settlement run by Dr. Schneider (Walter Rilla) and staffed by the beautiful Dr. Inge Jung (Marianne Koch) and Dr. Weiss (Albert Lieven).
Filmed on location in South Africa, Death Drums Along the Riverfeatures beautiful scenery and provides a great backdrop to the story. Unfortunately, the movie never reaches the level of excitement one would hope for in such a tale. At times, the movie can feel scripted and stale, rather than fresh and alive. That said, I’m a sucker for these types of films – murder mysteries in exotic locales where no one can be trusted. I liked it well enough, but I can’t say that it’s going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
JOAN HESS – Strangled Prose. Claire Malloy #1 (of 20). St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1986; Ballantine, paperback, February 1987; St. Martin’s, paperback, 1998.
A reception for an author of romantic novels at Claire Malloy’s bookstore is disrupted when it is discovered that several characters in the lady’s latest epic have very close counterparts in real life. When she’s later found murdered, Lt. Rosen helps investigate.
The book is a lot of fun, perhaps too much so. The witty repartee is all but but endless.Everyone is a master of it, and it (eventually) is too much. In spite of the barbs, Claire and Rose are attracted to each other. (No surprise.)
Set in the Fifties in the small northwest Florida town of Palmetto, Hurricane Season is a period piece. From the very beginning — the night the Men’s Lodge puts on its Womanless Wedding (a wedding play in which an the characters are played by men) — we are reminded of when the story is taking place by little touches, such as the Communist Threat, Nugrape soda, and off-the-shoulder peasant blouses.
These touches are used sparingly — not once do we have the sense that the author is being heavy-handed with her research. But what really makes Hurricane Season work is the characters, who become embroiled in murder during the sultry days of August 1952.
Events begin with the night of The Womanless Wedding when the swamp catches fire. Seen mainly through the eyes of Lily Trulock, a middle-aged woman who, with her husband, runs the grocery and marine supply, other unusual happenings follow: A mysterious stranger, Joshua Bums, comes to town; the daughter of the town’s leading politician seduces a young religious fanatic and shortly afterward is / found murdered; a book of poetry that the dead woman wrote comes into Lily’s hands. And finally Lily, convinced that her son-in-law, the sheriff, is mishandling the , investigation, sets out to get to the bottom of things — with surprising results.
A promising first novel that shows great sensitivity to the way small towns and the interrelationships of their residents work — be it in the Fifties or today. Friedman’s second novel, The Grail Tree, which is set in India and California, was published in 1984.
STEPHEN GREENLEAF – Grave Error. John Marshall Tanner #1. Dial Press, hardcover, 1979. Ballantine, paperback, 1982. Bantam, paperback, 1991.
This book seems to have been published in a vacuum. I don’t really recall any fanfare or critical attention being paid to it back when it was first published. Or if there was, I missed it. And it’s a shame, for it’s certainly a book worth the reading, especially if you’re a private eye fan and don’t yet mind another tale of tangled Californian bloodlines.
The jacket says Greenleaf is a Chandler fan. It’s easy to believe. He must also be a devoted reader of Ross Macdonald. The similes and other metaphorical flights of fancy are off and soaring from the start. Or take it from page seven: “She filled her blue knit dress the way a miser fills his coffers. … The tiny gold turtle pinned over her left breast was as smug as Governor Brown.”
Greenleaf’s detective is John Marshall Tanner, once a lawyer and now a private investigator. In this case it seems that San Francisco has its own consumer-advocate version of Ralph Nader, but Tanner is hired by the man’s wife to investigate his strange recent behavior.
The pair also have an adopted daughter, and she has a problem as well. This one results in the death of one of Tanner’s closest friends, also a private eye.
I mentioned bloodlines. The trail of too many people leads back to the small town of Oxtail, where too many secrets have never been buried. I had half the answers right away, and the half I didn’t have explained why I didn’t believe the half I knew.
(It’s not mathematically possible, I know, at least not in the strictest sense, but there is at least another twist and a half before Tanner uncovers the full answer and a half.)
Keep an eye on Greenleaf. I believe he has a future.
Rating: B
— Reprinted from The MYSTERY FANcier, July/August 1981.
APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH. Cannon Group, 1986. Peter Ustinov (Hercule Poirot), Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gielgud, Piper Laurie, Hayley Mills, Jenny Seagrove, David Soul. Based on the novel by Agatha Christie. Director: Michael Winner.
Appointment with Death begins with chicanery. Wealthy widow and domineering stepmother Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie) uses the threat of blackmail to persuade attorney Jefferson Cope (David Soul) to tear up the latest version of her late husband’s will; instead, he presents an earlier copy of the document which leaves the Boyton adult children largely out of the will. This infuriates the Boyntons, some of whom even ponder the notion of killing their stepmother.
Despite these new family dynamics, Emily Boynton takes her brood on a cruise vacation to first England, then Italy, and then the Holy Land. While romance blooms between one of the Boyntons and Dr. Sally King (Jenny Seagrove), Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), one of the fellow cruise members and an American-born Member of Parliament, uses her time to work with the British authorities on a partition plan for Mandatory Palestine.
When Emily Boyton is found murdered, there are innumerable suspects. She was not very well liked, even by her own family. Enter Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov), who is on hand in Jerusalem and ready to help the British authorities solve this crime.
While I overall enjoyed watching Appointment with Death, I can’t really say that it’s a very good film. The pacing is off and, more significantly, the characters aren’t introduced properly. At times, it’s difficult to ascertain who is doing what with whom. That said, the on location setting works well, as does the score by Pino Donaggio. A mixed bag with a solid cast.
MARY ANN TAYLOR – Red Is for Shrouds. Raven House, paperback original, 1980.
This second Raven House mystery is, if nothing else, a good sight better than the first, Crimes Past, by Mary Challis. (It was Jeff Meyerson, by the way, who was the first to suggest to me that “Mary Challis” is actually Sara Woods. The evidence is strongly convincing.)
I haven’t heard of Mary Ann Taylor before now either — much of the Raven House line seems to consist of unknowns and/or writers hiding with obvious embarrassment under phony bylines. In this particular case the author has a follow-up out already (Return to Murder, Raven House #23). It also takes place in the small town of Bolton, exact location unknown, but apparently somewhere in the western plains
Police Chief Emil Martin puts his career on the line in this one. A series of murders has nearly wiped out the town’s population of red-haired women, and murder is a crime that Martin has hardly had much experience with. After a while the townspeople start getting antsy, and in a very real sense it is he who finds himself on trial.
By category you’d have to call this a police procedural, but it’s a down-home folksy sort of one that big-city inhabitants aren’t going to enjoy and appreciate half as much as those with small-town roots. By nature, it’s also a puzzle story, and as such the surprise comes a bit at the expense of the characters as they’ve been constructed up to then — but only a bit.
Good, wholesome mystery entertainment.
Rating: C plus.
— Reprinted from The MYSTERY FANcier, July/August 1981.
WHODUNIT MYSTERY MAGAZINE – September-October 1967. Editor: Douglas Stapleton. [This was the only issue to be published.] Overall rating: **
BURT MacDOUGALL “The Hostage.” A bank robber uses a fake little old lady as a hostage. Good ending; indifferent writing. (3)
MARY LYNN ROBY “The Practical Way.” A woman is pressured by he daughter-in-law to go modern. Done better by others. (2)
PHELPS GOODHUE “Assassin!” Plot to assassinate Lincoln fails, as does this story. (1)
DOUGLAS & DOROTHY STAPLETON “Ransom for a Rogue.” Novella. Three crises occur for protagonist Douglas Stapleton, each one of which is crucial to the life of a kidnapped boy. The reader shares these crises and has the chance to make his own decisions. Alternate story passages follow, scattered throughout the magazine. I got all three correctly, but they were not difficult, and the story is rather contrived to fit them in, Clever, but otherwise not much. **½
CAROL ARCHER STURMOND “Cheat the Devil.” Willie thinks he has the devil trapped within his pentagram but makes a bad bargain anyway. Usual bit. (2)
EMMANUEL BROZ “It’s the Details That Count,” Bank robber poses as policeman sent to stop robbery. Ending from thin air. (1)
K. S. L. STEELE “The Final War!” Sneaky story about the beginning of World War I. (3)
MICHAEL BRETT “The Seeds of Destruction.” After getting beaten up three times by bully, kid gets revenge. (2)
MARY LYNN ROBY “Pest Control.” Scientist must decide between wife or pet cat. Poor guy. (1)
THOMAS BRADLEY “Love Me, Mama!” Kid falls from tree but doesn’t know he’s dead. (2)
In the same category as Mary Fitt of a generation earlier, Catherine Aird is another writer whose works others have been praising highly to me. If this latest book of hers is typical, however, once again I am dense, and I fail to see what the shouting’s all about.
The detective in most of her books is Inspector Sloan, of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Berebury Division of the Calleshire Force. Here he investigates the death of the village nurse, by strangulation, at the annual Almstone Flower and Horticultural Show, a gala event in this section of Britain. At stake is the proper identification of a would-be heiress to a large estate, but what it is that provides Sloan with the key to the killer is a tray laden with food and the matter of the labels that were switched on the show’s prize-winning tomatoes.
In terms of loving portrayals of rural English eccentricities, I was reminded at first of Edmund Crispin’s tales of the redoubtable and resourceful Gervase Fen, but Aird’s brand of wackiness soon turned significantly more cynical, and its charms were eventually lost in the clutter of tediously interchangeable village people.
While the story is competently told, it simply lacks the appearance of striving for any particular heights. There are a few sparks of wit that are struck, but they never seem to catch fire. The whole affair is already fading badly from memory, and by the time another month rolls around, I suspect it will have been all but forgotten.
Rating: C plus.
— Reprinted from The MYSTERY FANcier, July/August 1981.
THE TRIAL. Astor Pictures Corporation, France, 1962, as Le procès. Astor Pictures Corporation, US, 1963. Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Akim Tamiroff, Orson Welles. Based on the novel by Franz Kafka. Written and directed by Orson Welles.
Anthony Perkins (in a post-Psycho role) portrays Josef K. or just K. in Orson Welles’s cinematic adaptation of Frank Kafka’s novel, Der Prozess. K. is a mild mannered clerk. He is somewhat neurotic, but not overtly so. One day, out of the clear blue sky, two government agents – police – arrive in his apartment at dawn and notify him that he’s been arrested.
His crime? They won’t say. In fact, throughout the running time of the entire film, neither K., nor the viewer, will learn what it is that K. has been accused of. As such, the movie becomes a parable about a singular man – an “everyman” – facing impossible odds in a cold, bureaucratic state that deems him as an enemy for reasons never revealed.
Filmed in a stunning black & white that relies heavily on elements of both German Expressionism and film noir, this paranoid, nightmarish thriller is a Welles creation through and through. Not only did Welles write and direct the work, he also starred in it as Albert Hastler or The Advocate. An obese man with health issues, The Advocate is a womanizer and a scoundrel. He is supposed to be taking K.’s side in the proceedings, but seems little interested in justice and far more in power for power’s sake.
During his nightmarish journey, K. encounters an array of oddball characters, including his nightclub-dancing neighbor (Jeanne Moreau) and The Advocate’s assistant/sometime lover, Leni (Romy Schneider).
In many ways, however, the people he meets seem less important than the places where he meets them. The set design and on location settings are spectacularly haunting; there is simply no way to adequately verbally describe what must be seen. What must be felt. The German Expressionist influence here can’t be overstated.
Despite its downbeat mood, I enjoyed watching The Trial immensely. Sometimes scenes don’t work at all. But that’s okay. It’s a bold work of film-making and deserves your attention. Perkins was perfectly cast here.
Devoted to mystery and detective fiction — the books, the films, the authors, and those who read, watch, collect and make annotated lists of them. All uncredited posts are by me, Steve Lewis.
