DESMOND REID - HIGH HEELS AND HOMICIDE - SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 4/405 1958
Two beauty contestants are kidnapped and Blake is asked to investigate. Along the way he uncovers an espionage ring and encounters again a face from the past.
This story, actually written by John Purley and revised by George Paul Mann (aka Arthur MacLean), is another example of the `Reid` name being attached to work by (one presumes) an unknown writer. It is interesting in that it marks the return of one of the pre-war Blake villains, Huxton Rymer.
Criminally-inclined former surgeon Huxton Rymer, the creation of writer G H Teed, appeared in various Blake stories 1913 - 36, with a short break while Teed served in the army during World War One. Some question whether the last of the Rymer stories was Teeds` work but as he died in 1938 we can`t very well ask him.
I have done a bit of checking and find that an earlier SBL, the Mansion on the Moor (3/43), was credited to John Purley and during that year Collectors Digest magazine described him as a 43-year old Worcester-based freelance journalist contributing on a one-off basis.
The return of Rymer enables Blake to expand on the mans` character and attitudes ;
"If you`d blundered in on him he would have killed you. You know that as well as I do ! He`d have done it regretfully, but he`d have done it just the same. I think he`s fond of us - both of us - in his own odd way, but if it was your life or his liberty, it would be your life !"
On that cheerful note the investigation begins in earnest.
Does it work ? Not 100%. There is considerable humour to be extracted from the opening chapters, in which a bevy of petulant starlets and their over-ambitious parents and managers descend on a long-suffering hotel manager, but that joke is soon run into the ground.
There are one or two changes of pace and mood, all of which seem to breeze in out of nowhere. Various fruitful directions are indicated, particularly as Blake and Tinker begin to show signs of strain, and even to despair of saving the kdnapped girls, but none is really explored. The story lasts well under the usual 64 pages but still seems over-long.
It`s not too bad, but one wonders why George Paul Mann couldn`t have ironed out a few faults.
It`s certainly not the worst story I`ve read, but equally, it`s not the best either.
It gave me great pleasure earlier this week to receive a Press Release from Obverse Books announcing their "acquisition from IPC media of the license to the famous Baker Street detective Sexton Blake."
The release goes on to give a quick summary of the history of our fictional sleuth before explaining their plan "to resurrect the famous Sexton Blake Library, commencing with a new novella by best-selling genre author George Mann entitled `Sexton Blake and the Vengeful Dead` , combined in one hardback and electronic volume with a reprint of a rare, classic Blake story from the inter-war years. "
For more information contact Stuart Douglas at Obverse Books via their website www.obversebooks.co.uk .
I for one will be very happy to see a re-invigorated SBL with new titles by current authors. I personally would hope that they will also seize the chance to reprint some of the more interesting post-war Blakes as well as the pre-war stuff, but that may be just me.
Anyway, it`s a worthy venture which I hope all Blake fans will support.
It`s quite a time since I first began to review Obverse Publications` Zenith Lives ! collection, but finally, here we are again.
George Mann - The Albino`s Shadow (Short Story)
I`ve never read anything by George Mann before but I`ll admit I`m keen to try more of his stuff.
I was particularly impressed by the author`s writing style. Somehow, he manages to keep the thing moving at quite a sprightly pace but still introduces enough detail - about a given character`s mannerisms etc - to make it convincing ("Rutherford blew smoke from the corner of his mouth, watching as it was quickly dispersed on the frigid breeze").
I also like the way one is quite quickly drawn into the little world the author has created, particularly during a visit to the home of the character Professor Angelchrist ("Rutherford had a sense that the house was crowded with the accumulated detritus of decades, paraphernalia of a thousand long-forgotten adventures. He longed to explore, to go rummaging and digging amongst all this wondrous stuff, to unpick the tales attached to each item").
I don`t want to say anything too much about the plot, except to remark that the story involves very little action, but still holds the reader`s attention, something I found admirable.
For me, the ending worked perfectly, though I can see that others may not agree.
I have a fondness for the short story as a genre which obviously means I`ve read some of the very best (H G Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) and some of the worst (I won`t name names !). Whether this miniature gem of a story stands up amongst the best only time will tell, but it`s a long, long way from being one of the worst.
It`s different, but give it a try. You might like it.
