Wed 24 Feb 2016
RICHARD MARSTEN – Even the Wicked. Permabooks M3117, paperback original, 1958. Reprinted by Signet as by Ed McBain, paperback, 1977.
Zach Blake and his nine year old daughter Penny return to Martha’s Vineyard, where his wife Mary, a championship swimmer, drowned the year before. It seems that Evelyn Cloud, an Indian, sent him a letter saying his wife’s death was not an accident.
From the moment they reach the island, they are warned to leave; when Blake goes to see Evelyn Cloud, he finds her murdered, then Penny is kidnapped. What is the secret someone is so anxious to keep uncovered? Does it involve a Nike missile and spies, or something more prosaic?
The characters aren’t particularly involving and the book is unexceptional, but it is a pleasant way to spend an hour or two.
RICHARD MARSTEN – Murder in the Navy. Gold Medal #507, paperback original, 1955. Reprinted by Gold Medal (T2466) as by Ed McBain, paperback, 1971; reprinted earlier by Permabooks (M4306) as Death of a Nurse, paperback, September 1964, as by Ed McBain, then later by Signet, paperback, 1976, also as by Ed McBain.
A nurse is found strangled in the radar room of the U. S. S. Sykes. The list is quickly narrowed down to three suspects, and when one of them apparently commits suicide, the FBI is satisfied and closes the case. Lieutenant Chuck Masters of the Navy’s investigation board is not satisfied, however, as the drowned man was an expert swimmer.
This is, for most of its length, a pretty good book using an unusual setting. Then it is all thrown away on an incredibly bad and stupid ending, using every damsel-in-deadly-peril and will-he-arrive-in-time cliche ever invented, like a bad episode of The Rookies.
Also, McBain doesn’t play entirely fair with the readers, as he withholds important information, then throws it out at the finish. Too bad, as this could have been a much better book.
February 24th, 2016 at 9:05 am
The print may be too small on that lower cover image, but perhaps you can make it out:
“Superb suspense!” says Evan Hunter, author of THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE
I’d like to think that this is unique, but it probably isn’t.
February 24th, 2016 at 2:36 pm
Anthony Burgess went further, Steve: early in his literary career he published books under pseudonyms and reviewed some of them under his own name.
February 24th, 2016 at 3:00 pm
All’s fair in love and publishing.
Richard Marsten never seemed to me to be one of McBain’s more successful pseudonyms. Or perhaps I just preferred his series titles.
Was it a theme or coincidence of the reviews that both of these featured a drowned victim who was an expert swimmer but unexpectedly drowned?
Incidentally anyone who knows anything about drowning victims knows expert swimmers are more likely to drown because they take greater risks, so in the real world it isn’t that great an idea to hang a mystery on.
February 24th, 2016 at 4:20 pm
Marsten on his best day wasn’t half the writer Ed McBain was.
February 28th, 2016 at 9:32 am
On Don Westlake’s spoof Comfort Station written as J Morgan Cunningham had a huge blurb “I wish I had written this book! – Donald E Westlake”.
February 28th, 2016 at 10:06 am
David
My smile for the day. A big one!
February 28th, 2016 at 3:09 pm
Well, that’s one mystery solved! Didn’t know Marsten was Hunter/McBain, altho there’s really no excuse.