James Stagg - Crime of Violence - Sexton Blake Library Series 4/403 Apr 1958

 

James Stagg - Crime of Violence - Sexton Blake Library - Series 4, Number 403 Apr 1958   

Published by the Amalgamated Press

Cover art by Carcupino (Fernando Carcupino ?)

Internal sketches by Margaret Higgins

Overall, a pretty good late `50s SBL, but not one of the best.

The story takes Blake to the Cotswolds, to the fictional village of Courton by the Water, which is pretty clearly a thinly disguised Boughton on the Water.

After an absurdly mannered description of Boughton/Courton and it`s model (i.e. miniature) village ("Even the model church clock keeps the time, and the  recorded chimes of the village church itself peal out in a sweet, diminutive cantata"), our man comes back to earth and begins to tell the story.

The story is not a bad one by any means, and is only marred by a few odd details. 

The first is the bizarre account of how the body of a little old lady is found hidden in a miniature Manor House in the model village. If I had a body to conceal, however small it might be, a model village would not be the first place I`d think of. I`ve checked, and the one at Boughton is 1/9 scale, but I would think it would still be a bit tricky. However, I`m prepared to take a relaxed view of this.

Throughout the story, Blake is portrayed as forming impressions of people based on the slightest encounters. 

In the case of one character, Marina Court, he starts off forming an aversion towards her for very little reason ("for himself, he rather disliked the girl on sight") and his attitude towards her does seem a little off-centre in places. A good example is his bizarre observation that after meeting her once for a few minutes at most, he has diagnosed her as suffering from a thyroid problem, and has gained various insights, which make no sense at all, as a result. Best to leave these things to a doctor, I would think. 

Having said that, the story is a solid and intriguing one which holds the attention. We get the return of Inspector Coutts from some of the earlier Blakes and a tale that brings together murder, mystery and much else. 

As is often the case with SBLS, it`s a good story, but with very little effort it could have been much better.

Peter Saxon - The Case of the Missing Bullion - Howard Baker -1969

 

Peter Saxon*  - The Case of the Missing Bullion  - Howard Baker  - 1969

Due to illness I wasn't able to review this while it was fresh in my mind. 

I recall it well enough to say it was a cracking little tale that sees Blake pitting his wits against a villain with aristocratic pretentions known as The Gent as a routine search for a missing young woman turns into something more sinister. 

The Gent is a great creation ;  urbane, courteous and ruthless to the point of psychopathy.

Blake is portrayed as polite and respectful to the people he meets, inclined to make more measured judgements than his assistant, Tinker. Unusually, he is portrayed as rather philosophical about the march of 1960s modernism even when one suspects it doesn't meet with his approval. 

Generally it is reasonably well-written but with attempts at period flavouring  (much talk of "swinging chicks" etc). Occasionally the writing inadvertently invites mockery ("she didn't like the way he glanced at her knees" and "she had never liked swarthy men with very thin moustaches"), but  this is rare.

I  am not a huge fan of 5th series Blake but I can't imagine many  fans of the great man being disappointed with this. 

* On the cover the book is credited to Peter Saxon, a house pseudonym. However, Peter Gordon is credited as author on the half-title page, title page and reverse of the title page. Blakiana  credits it to W Howard Baker. I'm no expert, but my money is on the mysterious Peter Gordon.

W A Ballinger - The Strange Face of Murder - Mayflower Dell - 1965 - Paperback

 

W A Ballinger*  - The Strange Face of Murder  - Mayflower Dell  - 1965

Paperback book, stated to be Sexton Blake Library,  5th Series, Number 20

*I gather W A Ballinger was a `house pseudonym` used by a number of different writers. I`ve checked on Blakiana but apparently the true author is unknown. Although I`ve read SBLs by a number of writers, I would hesitate even to make an educated guess.  

Ignore the atrocious artwork, this is actually an entertaining read. 

A comedy thriller, one could imagine this being adapted to be made into an Ealing film. As it is, unfortunately it's likely to languish in obscurity, saved from total neglect only by the Blake connection.

Which brings us to a question. Does it really deserve to be regarded as part of the Blake saga  ? In my view, yes,  but only by the skin of it's teeth. 

Blake appears repeatedly throughout the story, sometimes taking an active part in proceedings, but mostly it is concerned with Graham Sykes and his sidekick Johnny Hammond, two down-at-heel artists who make an ill-advised decision to set themselves up as private investigators and soon find themselves completely out of their depth. 

One has to wonder if it is actually some writer's unpublished novel that has simply been adapted into an SBL title, either to make a quick buck or simply to avoid it remaining unpublished. 

It is inevitably dated, with Sykes himself being portrayed as a 'lovable rogue' and Hammond as his 'hapless sidekick', and generally it is difficult to imagine it finding much of a readership today, not least because, as far as I know  it is only available as a  cheaply produced 1960s paperback. 

The ending does seem a little rushed, with some of the eventual explanations really not making much sense

Overall,  I enjoyed it but there again I am easily amused.

If you can pick up a cheap copy in reasonable condition  it  would  be  a good purchase, with the proviso that it's not likely to endear itself to Sexton Blake purists. 

Pierre Quiroule (W W Sayer) - The Vanished Millions - Sexton Blake Library 330/1924 and 467 Feb 1935

 

Pierre Quiroule (W W Sayer)- The Vanished Million - Sexton Blake Library 330/1924 (reprinted as SBL 467/Feb 1935)

Author`s pseudonym sometimes misprinted as Pierre Quirole

This is not one I have in my own collection, I read it online on the Comicbookplus site. 

It is some time since I read it, but I remember it tolerably well hopefully.

This story features not only Sexton Blake and Tinker but also Mr Sayer`s own characters Granite Grant and Mademoiselle Julie. The action is set in both England and Latvia. 

The plot is sufficiently involved to hold the readers` interest, but not so involved as to become convoluted. 

The portrayal of Blake is very much as it should be - both a man of action and a thinking man, a determined purser of wrongdoers but also a man capable of compassion. 

As a general thing, my particular interest is in the Blake of the post-war years but it doesn`t pay to be dogmatic about these things and I would say this was an enjoyable read for me and one I would like to revisit at some point. 

Rex Dolphin -Walk in the Shadows - Sexton Blake Library 437/Oct 1959

 

Rex Dolphin - Walk in the Shadows - Sexton Blake Library 437/Oct 1959

Cover art by Fratini (Renato Fratini)

An enjoyable and absorbing tale from Rex Dolphin (actually Reginald Charles Dolphin).

The strangely-named Mr Dolphin was not prone to enlivening his prose with unexpected literary flourishes, evocative descriptive passages or an array of quirky characters.

His strength is in his "keep the reader guessing" approach to his craft. 

Walk in the Shadows sees Sexton Blake investigating a murder in a workplace. As his enquiries continue, almost everyone he encounters has something to hide, a motive to have committed the murder or both.

A second murder, that takes place while his investigation is ongoing, does little to provide clarity. 

I very much doubt that many readers will arrive at the solution to the case ahead of Blake. 

Recommended reading, which made me want to seek out more of Rex`s writings. 

 

Arthur Kirby - High Summer Homicide - Sexton Blake Library/Fleetway - 503/1962 - Hank Janson

 

Arthur Kirby - High Summer Homicide - Sexton Blake Library 503/1962 - Fleetway

Credited to "Arthur Kirby as told to Richard Williams". In fact, it was written by Stephen Frances (aka Hank Janson) with revisions by W Howard Baker and George Paul Mann.

Artwork credited to `Camps` (full name Angel Badia Camps)

High Summer Homicide reads like two stories welded together. I can`t help thinking that too many authors were involved in this, seemingly with no-one taking an overall view.

The first section begins in a mildly Chandleresque vein, slightly laughable as the story is set somewhere near Worthing. 

Quite quickly this gives way to plain bad writing ("her long, silver-blonde hair jogged provocatively in a pony tail with every step that she took") as the fictitious storyteller, Blake`s journalist friend Arthur `Splash` Kirby leers lasciviously and longingly over an assortment of females. He seems surprised to find that women have legs, and this gives him great pleasure, though in my experience, it`s not that unusual  for them to possess these appendages. 

Unfortunately all this excitement doesn`t progress the story, which concerns a friend of Kirby`s who is missing, presumed murdered. 

I was about to give up, but on page 26 Blake takes charge of the case and the style of writing changes, so much so that one character has a complete personality transplant.

The story that emerges from this point on is really not too bad - maybe not great, but good enough.  There is a very well-written account of an undersea search for a body which gives a glimpse of the story this could have been. 

Really, it would have taken very little time effort to have made a better job of this. It`s not the worst story I`ve ever read, it`s certainly not the best. It could very easily have been better.