Walter Tyrer - The Crime at Fenton Towers - Sexton Blake Library

Walter Tyrer - The Crime at Fenton Towers - Sexton Blake Library - 3rd Series, Number 243  - July 1951

Artwork by Eric Parker.

One additional feature, an unsigned  single-page true crime article `The Black Coupe`.

As I`ve explained before, Walter Tyrer was a successful freelance writer and occasional novelist in the years before World War Two and spent much of the  post-war period writing for Fleetway / Amalgamated (amongst others - see my article The Cowboy and the Detective at http://bookshelvesandbrownale.blogspot.com ). He contributed cowboy stories to the Western Library series, romances to the Miracle Library and, best of all, crime and detection to the Sexton Blake Library.

This tale of felonious thespians, star-crossed lovers and murderous manouverings is a very worthy effort, combining elements of the locked-room mystery, traditional whodunnit and country house murder.

The house in question is peopled largely by theatrical types, giving Walter plenty of scope to introduce an array of characters he can gently poke fun at. It also gives him scope for scattering red herrings throughout the plot, something he does copiously. I have to admit I thought I`d guessed the ending correctly but no, Sexton would never want me as an assistant, I was completely wrong.

Blake is portrayed as unflappable with a dry sense of humour and a bit of a romantic at heart. His assistant Tinker is portrayed (as usual) as somewhat susceptible to female charms, but is not portrayed as a lightweight, in contrast to his treatment at the hands of other writers.

The more polished turns of phrase that sometimes characterise Walter`s work are less in evidence here, but then it does not suffer from the occasional lapses that his high work-rate brought about.

Thankfully, the proof-reading and editing have been done to a reasonable standard, which is not always the case with `40s and `50s SBLs.

A pedant might find one or two incongruities in the plot, but who wants to be a pedant ? Buy, read and enjoy, that`s my advice.

Walter Tyrer - The Strange Affair of the Shot-Gun Sniper - Sexton Blake Library

Walter Tyrer - The Strange Affair of the Shot-Gun Sniper - Sexton Blake Library - 3rd Series - Number 339 - July 1955

Once again, I`ve neglected posting a review of this title until some weeks have passed since reading it !

While that inevitably compromises this review a tad, I do have some general observations that may be of interest. 

I have to say that this story demonstrates the late Walter`s versatility. Having cut his teeth writing schoolboy stories during the `30s, he pursued a lucrative career as a freelance writer of short stories, embracing a number of different genres as he did so. While it`s true he penned a number of novels, it was actually his work for short story magazines that financed our lad`s move from humble origins in a tough part of Liverpool to a decidedly swish home in Kingston Upon Thames.

Many of his post-war Blakes do show the influence of his earlier styles, their humour a little dated for the time, and the plots often rather quirky.

As I`ve commented before, there were occasional departures from the standard Tyreresque territory and this `50s thriller is a case in point. While the two principal villains are rather Machiavellian and one is arguably larger than life, this is quite different in many ways from  previous Tyrer tales and the plot is free from sinister hypnotists, cantankerous recluses, Dickensian lawyers and missing anglers.

In their place we get an intelligently-plotted 1950s thriller that would have seemed pretty much bang up to date to SBL readers of the time, with interesting characters and an ingenious story. There are points that could have been made a touch more convincing  with only a little more attention to detail, but in general it is not carelessly written.

I`ve looked at the review of this story on Blakiana and see that your man Mark gives it only 2 out of  5. There we must differ as I thought rather highly of it. My only real reservation

would be that if your taste runs to `Tyrer doing what Tyrer did` then you might be disappointed. I myself am no purist in these matters and would describe this as a pretty classy `50s detective story with a touch of romance thrown in for good measure.

The cover design , you may be interested to know, is my favourite piece  of  SBL artwork but at present I gather the artist remains unknown. A pity. If anyone does know, I`d be glad to hear from you.

Hugh Clevely - The House of Evil - Sexton Blake Library

HUGH CLEVELY - THE HOUSE OF EVIL -  SBL -  3RD SERIES, ISSUE 331 - MARCH 1955 (ILLUSTRATOR UNKNOWN)

Wing Commander Hugh Clevely (1898 - 1964) was a prolific writer of detective stories for periodicals like The Thriller in the `30s. He had considerable success with his own characters John Martinson, Tod Claymore* and Inspector Williams and on his return from the World War Two wrote a number of Sexton Blake Library titles. 

The use of prominent short story writers of previous eras to write SBLs during the `40s and `50s has led some to regard them as simple hackwork, penned by writers now past their prime for the benefit of a dwindling Blake fan base.

An intelligent thriller like House of Evil completely contradicts this image. Well-told and well-plotted, this is one of the better SBLs of it`s time. The  murderous machinations contained therein bring together characters from the worlds of fashion, business and organised crime, and the story also incorporates elements of a country house mystery.  I did wonder if it was wise to have the reader made aware of the identities of the principal villains and their relationship to each other from the start, but in light of some plot developments later on, I think it was the best approach to take in this instance.  Clevely`s experience as a writer stands him in good stead and he introduces some strong characters, particularly two with wartime SOE experience who stand out as particularly interesting.

This is the only Clevely story I`ve read so far, but I would happily try some of his other work.

*Clevely`s work was normally issued under his own name, with the exception of the Tod Claymore stories. These were written in the first person as if told by the character himself and were credited to the fictitious Claymore.

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Hoonaloon Books

Hoonaloon Books will be offline for a few days more and then things will be back to normal again.

Any messages can be sent to us via our Antiqbook shop.

Cheers,

Nick & Ann-Marie

Hoonaloon Books

Hoonaloon Books will be offline for a few days, but normal service will be resumed circa 24 Oct.

We have some outstanding orders, queries and messages - if yours is among these, no need to panic, we will deal with it ASAP over the next couple of days.

Cheers,

Nick & Ann-Marie
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http://hoonaloon.blogspot.com/

Walter Tyrer - The Mystery of the Swindler`s Stooge

Walter Tyrer - The Mystery of the Swindler`s Stooge - Sexton Blake Library - 3/299 -  Nov 1953

Illustrator - Eric Parker

I must admit I read this some weeks ago and have only just got round to penning a review. While it isn`t entirely fresh in my mind I do recall enough about it to merit jotting down a few obsevations.

Firstly, this story was something of a departure for our Walt. The plot, and in some ways the writing style, is markedly different from what I would call `classic Tyrer`.

The first and most obvious difference is that his trademark wit is noticeable by it`s absence. That`s not to say that the story is written in a particularly dour style, but the little flashes of rather old-fashioned humour which give his other Blakes such a distinctive favour is nowhere to be found.

Also unusual is that, although we see the principle villain and his associates going about their activities, we are quite a way through the story before the crime contemplated is fully apparent, and the full explanation of motives etc takes even longer to appear.

Compared to some other Blakes we see rather more of the villains than we do of Sexton and Tinker, though that is not so unusual for SBLs of the immediate post-war period.

Does it work ? In my view, yes it does. Although the style of storytelling is not as Tyreresque as the reader might have expected,  his talent for creating eccentric characters is given it`s full rein ; catankerous recluse Barney Howlett is the first character we meet and hot on his heels come Machiavellian solicitor Josiah Symes, his alcoholic clerk Potter, aspiring thespians Cedric Courtland and Elise Howlettova (real names  Willie Brown and Elsie Howlett), explosives- expert- turned- criminal Joe Lowden and deluded would-be businessman Willie Langford, along with a host of minor characters. This impressive cast-list  could be a bit overpowering, but because of the way in which the story unfolds it never seems too `crowded`.

For admirers of the mighty Walter`s SBLs, this title will provide a welcome chance to encounter him doing something a little different. For those who are new to Walt-watching, or to Blake generally, this would no doubt be a cheap and cheerful introduction.  It`s good fun, and that`s what counts !

Desmond Reid - Witch Hunt

Desmond Reid - Witch-Hunt - Sexton Blake Library - Series 4, Issue 452 - May 1960

Note : In this instance, `Desmond Reid` was in fact a writer named Rosamond Mary Story, though Ms Story`s story was revised before publication by George Paul Mann aka Arthur Kirby. The cover art, incidentally, was by an artist known as Caroselli.

A Blake story with something for everyone, as Sexton travels to rural but less-than-idyllic Little Bede to investigate a death with apparent supernatural overtones.

I know nothing about Ms Story. One obvious possibility is that she was a relative of Jack Trevor Story. I did at one time ask Guy Lawley of www.jacktrevorstory.co.uk but he was unable to cast any light on the question.

The writing style adopted here varies as the book progresses, most likely by design rather than by accident.

In one of the earlier scenes, a mysterious death during a thunderstorm does seem a little overdone ("Lightning flashed and thunder rolled in triumph.") whereas later we encounter patches of very good writing ("Dusk hung over the land like a smoke-grey curtain. The scent of pine and leaf mould enveloped him.") Towards the end we are in pulp-fiction territory, with rather over-emphatic use of words ("Blake jerked open the glove compartment...grabbed at a road-map. His finger stabbed along the Essex coastline." ). Personally I am not too keen on this style of writing, ( It reaches it`s nadir with "A shot smashed past Blake`s head. A second spanged against a rung of the ladder." The verb "to spang"was sadly missing from my education ! ) but it does help maintain pace and tension.

 There are also some excellent  flashes of humour, notably when Blake is threatened by an armed butler ; 

"Frankly portly, the man held a sporting rifle as if he were balancing a tray loaded with delicate china."  

The story is eventful, to say the least. At one point Blake is subjected to an attempt on his life (he survives), discovers a corpse and returns to the house where he is staying only to learn that the lady of the house has been murdered in his absence ! Even his presumably case-hardened assistant Tinker comments with alarm on the startling death-toll.

Easy though it is to poke fun, this is a very promising debut indeed from Ms Story, and I fully intend to seek out her other works, if any exist.

If anyone does know anything about her, I`d be fascinated to hear from you.