Peter Saxon - Flight Into Fear - Sexton Blake Library -Series 4, Number 360 - Jun 1956

 

Peter Saxon* - Flight Into Fear - Sexton Blake Library - Series 4, Number 360 - Jun 1956  

*`Peter Saxon` was a house pseudonym used by a number of writers. Blakiana credits the writing of this story to W Howard Baker.

This SBL story is definitely towards the pulpy end of the Blake spectrum.

The plot dovetails two stories, one being the story of a young woman plunged unwillingly into a world of mystery by the machinations of her feckless brother, the other concerning a case being investigated by Sexton Blake, involving a group of British-based US airmen involved in drug smuggling.

In the earlier stages, the taut prose helps keep the readers` attention, and the story of the young woman and her crooked brother is pretty strong. 

I have to say that as it progressed my interest did tend to wane. This is partly because the latter part of the story is very much concerned with the action/adventure aspect, rather less with the crime/detection. There is very little or no doubt as to who the main culprit is going to be.

Another failing here is that the Blake of this story is not really distinctively Blake-ish and towards the end the character bringing matters to a close could have been any one of a number of action heroes. 

I don`t want to give the impression that this was a terrible story - it wasn`t - but ultimately it`s just a moderately entertaining late`50s action/adventure/thriller type of thingy that you might read once with some enjoyment and probably never return to again.