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. 

 

 

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 Howard Baker - Walk in Fear - Sexton Blake Library 4/396 1957

W Howard Baker - Walk in Fear - Sexton Blake Library - Series 4, Number 396 - 1957

A very classy performance from SBL editor W Howard Baker here, not necessarily the kind of thing I associate with him.

Walk in Fear is partly a  mildly humorous detective story, partly a satire on the publishing industry. More than once I wondered if some characters were drawn from life, especially the more scathing portrayals.

The writing is often witty, with some very keen insights here and there, as in this portrayal of one characters` wartime RAF service ;

"They had been boys in 1940, contemptuous of death because they did not truly understand it ; unafraid because they were unable to appreciate that they were not immortal. They had taken risks because they hadn`t really divined the risks they were taking. They had lived dangerously, and the business of living had been a grand and glorious game.

But 1940 was seventeen years behind them now. They were all mature, reasonable, thinking men. Only John Bovis remained.

He was not mature. Often he was not even reasonable. Rarely did he consciously think."

There are one or two in-jokes here and there ; at one point Blake comments "I had some dealings with Edgar Wallace long ago." Shortly afterwards, one character expresses what may be Bakers` own experience of editing the SBL ; "Most of the trouble in my life, it seems to me, has been caused by one damned writer or another."

The plot is quite ambitious in its` scope, and the writer seems reluctant to stay within the confines of one genre - is it satire ? comedy thriller ? traditional whodunnit ? . I thought I detected the hand of Jack Trevor Story here and there, an impression re-inforced when a character from his The Season of the Skylark makes an unexpected appearance. Having said that, better men than me accept WHBs` claim to sole authorship, and I am far from being an expert on either mans` work.

Perverse though it may sound, I would not like every Blake story to be like this, but it is a personal favourite.


Footnote - after Amalgamated pulled the plugs on the SBL, WHB carried on with the series for a time. During this period an expanded version of Walk in Fear appeared with the title Every Man an Enemy (SBL Series 5, Number 22, 1966).

Every Man an Enemy was published repeatedly - by Mayflower in 1966, by Zenith Publishing (London, date unknown) and in the US by MacFadden-Bartell. It was also included in The Fifth Sexton Blake Omnibus (Howard Baker Books, 1969).

W A Ballinger - Murder in Camera - Sexton Blake Library- Series 4, Number 522 - Fleetway, 1963

W A Ballinger was one of a number of pen-names adopted by Sexton Blake Library editor W Howard Baker, possibly influenced by his childhood hero Charles Hamilton aka Frank Richards aka Owen Conquest aka many other people, a writer of 1930s school stories.

Having previously written one or two Blakes, Baker became editor in the late `50s and is credited with having rescued the then-flagging SBL from possible extinction, attracting new writers like Jack Trevor Story and Martin Thomas and incorporating new characters into the stories.

By the time this story appeared in 1963, publishers and copyright holders Fleetway were getting ready to abandon the SBL. Baker must have been a worried man, but there`s nothing in this story to give that away.

The story is reminiscent of his earlier Walk in Fear (aka Every Man an Enemy), except that in  this instance, Blake is brought into contact with the film world rather than the publishing industry.

Although there is an element of satire, this one falls more firmly into the `traditional whodunnit` category, but is a pretty good example of that genre nonetheless.

There are some good lines, particularly when Blake assures one character that he doesn`t, as the other imagines, think of him, as a `shark`, then stands back to allow him through a doorway. "Now you swim ahead" he says courteously.

There are also one or two good pen-portraits ;

"Geoffrey Tithe had lank, thinning grey hair and a face like a camel : haughty eyes, proud nose and lips seemingly ready to spit.

He wore a faded green jacket and a derelict pair of corduroy trousers like twin badges of virtue."

Baker`s work seems to be a mixed bag. This is not quite as good as his very best stories, but is still streets ahead of his worst. The writing has pace, and carries the reader along very agreeably, and the eventual outcome is a surprise (or was to me at any rate).









 

Peter Saxon - Danger Ahead - Sexton Blake Library 3/353

Peter Saxon - Danger Ahead - Sexton Blake Library

3rd Series, Number 353, Feb 1956

Trivia ; This was the first SBL to carry the distinctive red stripe along the left-hand side. In this instance, `Peter Saxon` was SBL editor W Howard Baker, though I believe that Peter Saxon was a `house pseudonym` used by a number of different writers. As ever, I`m indebted to the Blakiana website for this information, but any mistakes/misunderstandings are my own.

W Howard Baker had been SBL editor for about a year when he penned this tale under the pseudonym Peter Saxon.

Very different in style to his classy Walk in Fear, this is a classic tale of plucky chaps doing daring deeds. Surprisingly for an editor who introduced many changes that older fans did not like, it is actually a very traditional blend of two-fisted action and intelligent detection. It`s none the worse for that !

Set in Angola, at that time occupied by the Portugese, the plot concerns a mysterious gangster known only as Salar, employed by an unscrupulous mining company to sabotage a rivals` operation. Britain`s interests are threatened and Blake is despatched. Africa and the Africans hardly get a look in though, and for the most part it could just as well have been set in Portugal itself.

The fast-paced story never fails to hold the attention, but contains some echoes of the traditional whodunnit. (There are five characters likely to be unmasked as the mysterious Salar. I sailed through the story blissfully convinced that I knew who it was, only to be proved wrong on the next-to-last page ! )

It would be easy (and irresistible !) to poke fun at the odd dated passage ("Her flame-coloured skirt was riding high, and a pair of smoothly-rounded knees were plainly visible." Blimey ! Is it hot in here, or is it me ?), but generally it is a good story told well.

Baker only briefly shows what he is capable of, in a short but effective passage where Blake, his assistant Tinker and a representative of the Portugese Security Services have been keeping observation for hours together one night ;

"They all looked tired, these men : they had talked intermittently since...before nine o`clock, and now they had exhausted the available topics of conversation. So they sat around the table silently, and the passing minutes were translated into tiny lines of strain and fatigue which etched the corners of their eyes."

Blake seems a tolerably rounded figure in  Baker`s hands, made more real by his innate decency and sense of humour. The supporting cast of Portugese officials and gangsters are all more interesting than usual. The only excessively cliched character is one of the best, a sadistic thug called Serilla who is given to saying things like "Right, Mister Clever Sexton Blake ! Now you`re going on that long, last walk." An obvious nod to the villains of the pre-war `Golden Age` of Blake adventures.

This may not be Baker at his best, but it`s certainly not Baker at his worst. I personally enjoyed it as much as any Blake story I`ve read.

W Howard Baker - Espresso Jungle - Sexton Blake Library

W Howard Baker - Espresso Jungle - Series 4, Number 435 -  Sept 1959

Cover art by Marc Stone and `Symeoni`, internal text decorations by Margaret Higgins

While I do enjoy some of W Howard Baker`s work, I have to admit that I bought this one purely because I like the cover. Sadly, as the Rolling Stones once sang, "you can`t judge a book by looking at the cover."

The story begins as a gangster drives through the streets of the West End, seeking out the group of low-level hoodlums he uses to enforce a lucrative protection racket.

He finds them in a coffe bar, very trendy at the time and appropriately peopled by bright young things (and not-so-bright young things) out enjoying London`s night life. It`s here that alarm bells start to ring, as the description of the scene is both unconvincing and badly-written, not to mention borderline racist at one point. I gather that Mr B was a man of rather extreme views, apparently in the habit of accusing his assistant Michael Moorcock of being a Communist simply because he was a member of an anti-racist group !

The gangster in question is known only as The Big Man. Not too unlikely perhaps ( a real-life gangster active in Nottingham`s Chinese community  in the `80s really was known by that nickname ), but his henchman go by an array of nicknames, some quite ludicrous - Fatso, Smiler, The Monster, Chi-Ann and (spot the odd one out) Marty. Later, for good measure, they are re-inforced by Spider and Pig-Brother. Collectively, they are known as The Mob.

The sense that the author knows nothing about the world he is describing is re-inforced throughout the story. We are repeatedly told that these lads are the product of the `Beat Generation`, but their taste in music runs to, among other things, Louis Armstrong and a version of Stupid Cupid, a song written by Neil Sedaka, for God`s sake ! I like a bit of Louis myself, and Stupid Cupid`s a good song, but I`m pretty sure neither was typical Beat Generation fare. Later in the book, the author appears not to know the difference between Beatniks (a rather studious strand of youth culture, keen on modern jazz and poetry) and the young louts in The Mob, who are described as largely sharp dressers, fond of leather jackets, and who show no interest in tenor saxophones or blank verse at any point.

The Mob are instructed by The Big Man to attack a woman and her escort as they leave the night club she owns in the early hours. Ostensibly, the reason is that she has refused to pay protection money, but we later learn that she has also rejected his amorous advances (quite emphatically, by hitting him over the head with a bottle !). In fact, the attackers pick on her daughter, who is in the company of none other than Sexton Blake, seeing her home safely at her mother`s request. Acid is thrown in the girl`s face, leaving her scarred and in danger of blindness, and leaving Blake with the feeling that he has let them both down.

After a few American-style heroics as Blake rebuffs Police advice that he should not "go it alone" on this one, the story actually begins to take shape quite well. For once we see Blake uneasy and agitated, driven by a sense of failure. A scene where he talks to the girl`s mother is quite affecting within the admittedly narrow limitations of the genre, and certainly new territory for Blake. At last, literally half-way through, the author seems to take the matter in hand, and we get something a bit more like a Blake story. Certainly the closing scenes are among the best to appear in any SBL story, and we have the return of the tough-but-intelligent-and-compassionate Blake we all know, as in this exchange when his motives are questioned by his  old friend Superintendent Grimwald ;

"You still want to be in for the kill - isn`t that it ?"

"There`s not going to be any kill - that`s how I want it."

Does he get his wish ? You`ll have to read it to find out.

One great bonus here is that the story did not quite reach the required 64 pages, so they are supplemented by a short story from the aptly-named Jack Trevor Story, The Penny Murder, which is excellent.

As a quick footnate, a quick glance at the Blakiana web site tells me that this was the first SBL to give the publisher`s name as  Fleetway rather than Amalgamated, and also that story was later recycled by Baker to form one of his Jonathan Quintain books.