THE DARK FRONTIER - Book review

Eric Ambler’s debut novel The Dark Frontier was published in 1936, when the master was still learning his craft.

It’s an unusual treatment, beginning with a statement by Henry Barstow, physicist, in which he claims that he has no recollection of being involved in certain events April 17^th and May 26^th of 193-. Apparently the American journalist William Casey believes he can fill in the blanks.

Then we’re into Part One – ‘The man who changed his mind’; third-person narrative. An arms manufacturer called Simon Groom approaches Barstow, asking him to travel to the eastern city of Zovgorod in the small country of Ixania (both fictionalised ‘for security reasons’), where they can locate a certain scientist, Kassen, who has invented an atomic bomb. Groom wants the weapon’s blueprints for his firm and needs Barstow to verify their accuracy. Initially, Barstow declines. However, some time later, Barstow is involved in a motoring accident and he sustains a head injury. From the moment of his recovery he believes he is Conway Carruthers, a British secret agent: ‘he was of that illustrious company which numbers Sherlock Holmes, Raffles, Arséne Lupin, Bulldog Drummond and Sexton Blake among its members’ (p31). Interesting that Ambler does not refer to Simon Templar, the Saint: Charteris’s first Saint novel (Meet the Tiger) was published in 1928 and by 1936 had established a best-selling reputation. Maybe the style Ambler adopted was similar to Charteris’s at this point, especially the dry humour: ‘It also boasted the dubious honour of being  the best hotel in the place, a distinction reflected more in the magnitude of its charges than in the comfort of its accommodation’ (p79).

Then, roughly half-way in, we come to Part Two – ‘Revolution’ which is narrated in the first person by Casey. To complicate matters, there is the beautiful and alluring Countess Magda Schverzinski: ‘She desires power and glory for Ixania. The peasants ask no more than food for their bellies’ (p161).

The transformation of Barstow into Carruthers is amusing and well done. There are sufficient bad guys wielding guns to inject tension, and escapes and car chases – all the ingredients of thrillers that would follow over the years.

Ambler’s use of the atomic bomb as an Alfred Hitchcock MacGuffin was quite prescient, and would be replicated by subsequent thriller writers.

An enjoyable adventure, worth reading.

Editorial comment:

There are a number of typos which presumably have survived since the original publication. (Agreed, we all suffer from them – but you’d think that some editor would pick them up eventually).

In addition, Casey went for his usual walk on May 3^rd – yet this is related in the chapter that covers 11-21 May... (p176).

One annoying trait of some writers is to tell us something happened before it has happened, thus destroying any suspense. In this case Casey reveals on p184 the deaths of three characters who do finally die later (p209 or thereabouts).

The editor should have corrected this: ‘I saw the flash of a shot in the grounds and a shout’ (p140). You can’t see a shout. The insertion of ‘and heard’ would fix it.

New Sherlock Holmes Stories - 'Some untold cases'

It’s finally here, and it’s live: 

SHERLOCK HOLMES - New stories

The Kickstarter for the next volumes, Parts XI and XII, Some Untold Cases.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1229605719/the-mx-book-of-new-sherlock-holmes-stories-vol-11

Please share far and wide with your friends, fans, and family.

The campaign will run for only 18 days from today... Participants will get these volumes at a significant pre-publication discount. Please check out the link above.

"The MX New Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories” collection has over 100 of the world's leading Sherlock Holmes authors participating. The anthology includes only traditional stories set in the original Sherlock Holmes period. Between them, these authors have sold millions of books, and they come together for a common cause - Undershaw.

This is Volumes XI and XII bringing 34 new stories spread across the two volumes.

Full list of participating authors is below.
 
Part XI: 1880-1891 Jayantika Ganguly, Will Murray , Tracy Revels, Hugh Ashton, Matthew Simmonds, David Ruffle, Paul W. Nash, Mike Hogan, Craig Stephen Copland, Gayle Lange Puhl, Deanna Baran, Leslie Charteris and Denis Green, Roger Riccard, Robert Perret, Kevin P. Thornton, Stephen Herczeg, and M.A. Wilson and Richard Dean Starr, and a poem by Arlene Mantin Levy and Mark Levy

Part XII: 1894-1902 C.H. Dye, David Marcum, Thomas Fortenberry, Daniel D. Victor, Nik Morton, Craig Janacek, S. Subramanian, Jim French, Robert Stapleton, Nick Cardillo, Paul D. Gilbert, Mike Hogan, Derrick Belanger, John Linwood Grant, Mark Mower, Jane Rubino, and Arthur Hall.

Forewords in both volumes by Lyndsay Faye, Roger Johnson (SHSL), Melissa Grigsby (Stepping Stones School), David Marcum (Editor) and Steve Emecz (Publisher).

Crooks bested

Inspired by Leslie Charteris’ Simon Templar, The Saint, I conceived and wrote a series of short stories about Leon Cazador, a private eye who was not averse to bending the law to ensure that members of the criminal fraternity get their just deserts. Dessert = sweet revenge?

He evolved almost whole after the first tale in 2005. Half-English, half-Spanish, he served in the forces and the secret service, roaming the world. This meant that he built-up an enviable selection of contacts he could call upon for help from time to time. As with our real-world private enquiry agents, who are not permitted to get involved in a murder investigation, he couldn’t go there; well, providing he wasn’t caught doing so, perhaps.

The tone is sometimes light, sometimes dark – because life is like that.

Victims really do need more champions; the criminals have had it their own way for too long. I wouldn’t suggest that Leon Cazador is a vigilante – that role is reserved for my protagonist in Sudden Vengeance. But he certainly strives to bring his kind of justice to the unrepentant ungodly.

For a taster, here’s the beginning of the story ‘Off Plan’:

I was wearing a false moustache, grey coloured contact lenses, and my hair was dyed black. My brother, Juan, wouldn’t recognise me. In fact, I had difficulty recognising me. I was no longer Leon Cazador but Carlos Ortiz Santos. Sometimes it was necessary to wear a disguise and take on a fake name to hoodwink the ungodly. This was one of those times.

“If you can’t come up with the €75,000, Alonso,” I said, “then I will make the offer to the other two developers.” I tapped the regional map impatiently with a forefinger. “The mayor wants the money soon, so it can all be settled.”

Alonso Vargas was slim and appeared urbane in his smart suit. He was convincing in his tone and words. The perfect conman, it seemed. “It is difficult, Carlos. That is a great deal of money.” He was toying with me, playing for time, and debating whether I would bargain. His dark eyes glinted. I knew it wasn’t with humour but greed. He rubbed his pointed chin, pretending to think. He needed a kick.

I sighed resignedly and started folding up the map.

“No, no, Carlos,” he said and urgently gripped my forearm and halted my retiring action. “I have the money, as promised.” He eyed the Mercadona supermarket bag at his feet.

“That’s good, Alonso.” I smiled and left the map half-folded.

He cocked his head to one side. “I suppose it would be foolish of me to ask for a receipt?”

I grinned and nodded. “That would be foolish, yes. The mayor has to pay several anxious people to adjust various documents. Others, they need financial incentives to keep their mouths shut.” I shrugged. “You know how it is.”

“Ah, yes.” His eyes glimmered with the prospect of four hundred acres of re-designated land, all his to build upon. “I know how it is.” His foot gently moved the plastic bag over the tiled floor towards me.

Leaning down and picking it up, I asked, “So, you can bring me the final instalment next week, as agreed?”

“Cash flow is difficult, times are not so good since the building boom has slowed down, you know.” He shrugged pronounced shoulders. “The crisis, it bites deeply.”

Shaking my head, I quickly finished folding the map. “If you cannot honour our agreement, then I must go elsewhere. We agreed you would pay me two instalments.” I slid the bag across the table, in plain view.

Anxiety was written all over his face. He glanced left and right, but nobody seemed to be paying us any attention.

“I’m not one of your clients, Alonso. Delay is not an option.”

“No, no,” he said hastily, pushing the bag towards me. “Please, take this now. It is difficult, but not impossible. I will have the rest of the money.”

“You’re sure?”

He nodded and offered the same smooth trusting smile he turned on for his clients. “You have my word,” he said.

I stood up. “Your word is good enough for me, Alonso,” I lied and shook his offered hand. I turned and left the bar with the bag of money under my arm.

***

To find out how Alonso – and quite a lot of other crooks – gets his comeuppance, please purchase or otherwise obtain a copy of Spanish Eye, published by Crooked Cat. The e-book is really good value – and reviewers on Amazon UK and Amazon COM seem to think so too.

 

 

Amazon UK here

 

Amazon COM here

 

End of commercial break.

FFB - Ace of Knaves

On April 15, 21 years ago, Leslie Charteris died, aged 85. He was one of the very few authors who created a character that became a household name. In my library I have a selection of his earlier Saint books, all paperbacks, collected in the 1960s. So it seems fitting today, since it’s that weekly ‘forgotten book Friday’ time again, to look at one of his books.

 

After some thirty years or so, it was marvellous to reacquaint myself with the Saint, Patricia Holm, Hoppy Uniatz, Peter Quentin, Orace and Inspector Claud Eustace Teal. While I enjoyed Charteris’s later and shorter moral tales, I much prefer the older stories. Printed in 1937, this was the 17^th book in the series and has a surprisingly grim edge to it that is lacking in the modern versions translated to TV.

The three novellas are told in Charteris’s inimitable omniscient narrator’s voice, often with his tongue in his cheek. He had a highly amusing turn of phrase: ‘They studied him with the detached curiosity of surgeons inspecting a new kind of tumour revealed by an operation.’

Charteris was also a keen observer and used language to good effect and because of this he’s a pleasure to read. Take, for example, a paragraph from Chapter 8: ‘The boisterous human fellowship of the Broken Sword was swallowed up in an abyss as he closed the door of the public bar behind him. As if he had been suddenly transported a thousand miles instead of merely over the breadth of a threshold, he passed into a different world as he faced the quiet road outside – a world where strange and horrible things happened such as the men he had left behind him to their beer would never believe, a world where a man’s life hung on the flicker of an eyelid and the splitting of a second, and where there was adventure of a keen corrosive kind such as the simple heroes of mythology had never lived to see. The Saint’s eyes swept left and right before he stepped out of the shadow of the porch, but he saw nothing instantly threatening…’ Great stuff!

See also my blogs November 2013 blogs:

Saints alive!

and

 

 The man behind the stickman

The entire canon (bar the first book) have been republished; please refer to this website for more details...

 

***

 

In some small measure, my character Leon Cazador pays homage to Simon Templar, as he too attempts to right wrongs and make the ungodly pay. Twenty-two of his tales can be found in Spanish Eye, published by Crooked Cat.

 

Spanish Eye (Crooked Cat Publishing)

 

From Amazon.com here

From Amazon.co.uk here

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saints alive!

To most of us, it seems that Simon Templar, the Saint, has been around all our lives.  Which is probably quite true, since the fictional character created by Leslie Charteris debuted in 1928. He’s had quite a track record. Charteris wrote 14 novels between 1928 and 1971 (the last two co-written), 34 novellas, and 95 short stories featuring Simon Templar. Between 1963 and 1997, an additional seven novels and fourteen novellas were written by others.

My bookmarks drawn in 1964

Certain fictional prose* characters survive through the decades because their appeal touches some chord in us. For Tarzan, perhaps it’s the noble savage, for Bond, it’s his determination to overcome all obstacles, even those seemingly implacable, for Simon Templar, it’s his constant fight against ‘the ungodly’, as he terms the criminal element.

The early Saint stories reveal a different character, insouciant but deadly, compared to the later more cynical versions. But one thing they have in common is the desire to vanquish felons of all stripes.   

This Robin Hood of crime functions as an ordinary detective in some stories, while in others he out-cons vanity publishers and other rip-off artists, corrupt politicians, warmongers, greedy bosses who exploit their workers, liars and other low life.

The style of the stories is often tongue-in-cheek, knowing, and from the narrator’s point of view, not necessarily the Saint’s. Yet we don’t particularly mind Charteris demolishing the ‘fourth wall’ from time to time, because these capers are fun – and rarely without a moral, it should be added. Some writing purists might opine that this style of writing wouldn’t get published today; that kind of comment is pointless. They’re written of and for their time, and can still be enjoyed. (Indeed, Charteris toyed with rewriting the early books to bring them up to date for modern readers – 1930s transposed to the 1960s, for example – but decided, rightly, against it; the task would have been fraught with pitfalls, too.)

 

You have to be aware of alternative titles, too. For example, The Last Hero has been retitled The Creeping Death, Sudden Death, The Saint Closes the Case (current in the US), The Saint and the Last Hero. Wikipedia (naturally) has a helpful breakdown that will help avoid duplicate purchasing: here

 

In the early novels, each chapter is headed with a sentence or two explaining what will transpire, without giving away anything, such as ‘How Simon Templar sang a song, and found some of it true.’

Omniscient, humorous, Charteris teases:

Meet the Saint. His godfathers and his godmothers, at his baptism, had bestowed upon him the name of Simon Templar; but the coincidence of initials was not the only reason for the nickname by which he was far more widely known. One day, the story of how he came by that nickname may be told: it is a good story, in its way, though it goes back to the days when the Saint was nineteen, and almost as respectable as he looked. But the name had stuck… p7, The Avenging Saint (Knight Templar, 1930)

‘Put up your hands, Herr Saint.’

‘Bless my soul!’ said the Saint, who was never profane on really distressing occasions. (p120, The Avenging Saint).

‘The art of crime,’ said Simon Templar, carefully mayonaising a section of truitea la gelée, ‘is to be versatile. Repetition breeds contempt – and promotion for flat-footed oafs from Scotland Yard…’

Patricia Holm fingered the stem of her wineglass with a far-away smile. Perhaps the smile was a trifle wistful. Perhaps it wasn’t. You never know. But she had been the Saint’s partner in outlawry long enough to know what any such oratorical opening as that portended; and she smiled. – (p39, The Brighter Buccaneer, 1933)

The Saint has had many partners, though none last throughout the series. For the first half until the late 1940s, the most recurrent is Patricia Holm, his girlfriend, who was introduced in the 1928 novel in which she shows herself a capable adventurer. Holm appeared erratically throughout the series, sometimes disappearing for books at a time, and vanishing completely in the late 1940s. A pity, because up to that point many readers thought that Holm was where the heart is... Templar and Holm cohabited; one wonders if the librarians felt as affronted as they showed over Tarzan and Jane (actually, the latter pair were married, though those offended never read that book).

Capture the Saint (1997), not counting a novelization of the 1997 film, The Saint, both written by Burl Barer, was the first original Simon Templar book published since 1983. It was issued by The Saint Club, a worldwide fan club for the series which Charteris established in 1936. Capture the Saint is the 52nd Saint book published since 1928 and can now be obtained as an e-book; it faithfully captures the flavour of the early Saint adventures, in style and language.

Now, in paperback and e-book format, the Saint adventures are being re-released (Mulholland books), all with stylish covers. Some books are not available until December 2013 or early 2014; still, you could start collecting now: here   If you select the book/e-book from this website, a small donation (via Amazon associates program) goes to the Saint Club.

The Saint Club was founded by Charteris in 1936. Before the war it donated its profits to a London hospital; after the national health service was established, profits were donated to the Arbour Youth Centre in Stepney. Now, the tradition is continued, with donations going to the Red Cross and different children’s charities.

The Club acts as a focal point for anyone interested in the adventures of Simon Templar and the work of Leslie Charteris and offers merchandise and various Saint related publications. All profits are donated to charity. Annual subscription £3.50, lifetime £30. See the website here

 

* Footnote. I’m stipulating prose here. There are plenty of superhero comic-book characters who have bridged the decades and have become household names.

 

[Leon Cazador is a modern day Saint character, fighting injustice on behalf of the innocent and the weak. See him in action in Spanish Eye, on release 29 November (Paperback) here [Amazon.co.uk] (Paperback) here [Amazon.com] - Kindle links tomorrow!

 

Man behind the stickman

Leslie Charteris, creator of the long-running Saint character, was born in Singapore in 1907 to a Chinese father and an English mother. He became interested in writing at an early age; at one point, he created his own magazine with articles, short stories, poetry, editorials, serials, and even a comic strip. I’ve been there, done that, as have many aspiring writers, I’m sure, though few of us have managed to attain the heights of Charteris! He attended Rossall School in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England. In 1926, he legally changed his last name to Charteris, probably plucking it from the telephone directory.

His first book, X Esquire (1927) was written during his first year at King's College, Cambridge, and accepted, so he left the university and embarked on a new career. His next book was The White Rider (1928). It was with his third novel, Meet the Tiger (1928), introducing his most famous creation, Simon Templar, the Saint, which transformed his life. It was a popular success. He continued to write English thriller stories, while he worked at various jobs from shipping out on a freighter to working as a barman in a country inn. He prospected for gold, dived for pearls, worked in a tin mine and on a rubber plantation, toured England with a carnival, and drove a bus.

Interestingly, Charteris indicated he was dissatisfied with the first Saint book, suggesting its only merit was as the start of the long-running series. Occasionally he chose to ignore the existence of Meet the Tiger altogether and claim that the Saint series actually began with the second volume, Enter the Saint (1930); ‘this book contains the first novelets I ever wrote about the Saint’ – introduction to my 1992 Coronet edition of Enter the Saint.

 

In 1932 he relocated to the United States, where he continued to publish short stories and also became a writer for Paramount Pictures, working on the George Raft film, Midnight Club. Apparently, he was excluded from permanent residency in the United States because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law which prohibited immigration for persons of ‘50% or greater’ Oriental blood; ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, subject to certain conditions’... As a result, he was forced to continually renew his six-month temporary visitor's visa. Eventually, an act of Congress personally granted him and his daughter the right of permanent residence in the United States, with eligibility for naturalisation, which he later completed.

In the 1940s, Charteris, besides continuing to write Saint stories, scripted the Sherlock Holmes radio series featuring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce; also in that decade, a number of movies were produced based upon The Saint.

Although he would write a few other books, his literary lifework would consist primarily of Simon Templar Saint adventures, which would be relayed in novel, novella, and short story format over the next 35 years (with other authors ghost writing the stories on his behalf for another 20 years after that; he acted as an editor for these books, approving stories and making revisions when needed).

The Wikipedia article about him would have us believe that the ‘long-term success eluded Charteris’ creation outside the literary arena until the 1962–1969 British-produced television series The Saint went into production with Roger Moore in the Simon Templar role.’ I must wonder at this statement. For example, my 1936 copy of The Last Hero shows reprints for 1930, 1931 (twice), 1933 (twice), 1934 (twice), 1935 and 1936… (It was sad when publishers stopped noting the reprint history on the copyright page; doubtless, there were valid reasons, not least authors switching publishers!)

Short stories lend themselves to an hour-long TV episode and many of the Saint stories were scripted from Charteris’ tales. Inevitably, as the material ran out, original scripts were commissioned, and unusually Charteris permitted some of these scripts to be novelized and published as further adventures of the Saint. The character remained popular even after the end of the TV series, and indeed a second British TV series, Return of the Saint starring Ian Ogilvy as Simon Templar, was aired. And in the 1980s a series of TV movies produced by an international co-production and starring Simon Dutton kept interest in The Saint alive. The movie starring Val Kilmer as a modern Saint is best forgotten.

The adventures of The Saint were chronicled in 52 books. Charteris stepped away from writing the books after The Saint in the Sun (1963). The next year Vendetta for the Saint was published and while it was credited to Charteris, it was actually written by science fiction writer Harry Harrison. Charteris appears to have served in an editorial capacity for later volumes that were adapted from TV episodes and of course retained the cover credit; in effect, he became a ‘house name’.

He also edited (and contributed to) The Saint Mystery Magazine, a digest-sized publication (I wish I'd kept my copies!). The final book in the Saint series was Salvage for the Saint, published in 1983. "The Saint Club" a fan club that Charteris himself founded in the 1930s; he described it as ‘a pretty elastic organization... we ruthlessly insist on the annual minimum subscription of 2s 6d (15p). We have to do this, because these funds assist the Arbour Youth Club in a blitzed East End area of London, a very charitable job in one of London’s neediest and most neglected areas.’ The announcement about the club appeared at the end of his books, and concluded with ‘Watch for the sign of the Saint – he will be back.’ And he will be - his adventures are being reprinted in paperback and e-book (see tomorrow's post).

Charteris also wrote a column on cuisine for an American magazine, as a sideline. He was one of the earliest members of Mensa. He was married four times, lastly in 1952 to the Hollywood actress Audrey Long (born 1922); the couple eventually returned to England where Leslie Charteris spent his last years living in Surrey. Leslie Charteris died aged 85 in 1993 at Windsor, Berkshire, survived by his wife.

 

[Leon Cazador is a modern day Saint character, a man driven to hunt down felons of all kinds, to redress the balance of good against evil. Meet him on 29 November in Spanish Eye.]

 

Iwan Morelius 14 Nov 1931-21 June 2012

My wife Jen and I were saddened to learn that Iwan died suddenly last month, leaving his wife Margareta.


I only knew Iwan for the last four years of his life when I discovered by chance that he lived a half-hour’s drive away from me here in Spain.

Iwan was a consummate bibliophile. Margareta loves reading too – and music. Indeed, Iwan and Margareta’s home is a bibliophile’s heaven, with so many signed copies.

Born in Stockholm, Iwan and his family moved some eleven times in fourteen years. His parents owned a private library of about 400 books and Iwan caught the reading bug early. He devoured the translations of English and American authors and finally began collecting the Dennis Wheatley novels. In 1961 he wrote to Wheatley and struck up a lifelong correspondence. In 1971 Iwan was invited for dinner at Wheatley’s London home in Cadogan Square.

Iwan with Dennis Wheatley
Rather than wait for a Swedish translation of his favourite authors, Iwan bought the English versions and read those. He began writing to many of his favourites – Alistair MacLean, Helen Macinnes, Ian Fleming, Desmond Bagley, Hammond Innes, Leon Uris, Joe Poyer, James Hadley Chase, James Leasor, Edmund Crispin, Georges Simenon among others. Almost all of them answered his letters and several continued to keep in touch over the years.

In 1968 Iwan brought out the first issue of DAST magazine – (Detective, Agent, Science Fiction and Thriller). In 1974 Iwan was commissioned by Lindqvist Publishing to acquire a strong list of thrillers and mysteries – Hedman Thrillers, publishing many Swedish translations of Iwan’s favourite authors, among them Jack Higgins.

Iwan became a good friend of Geoffrey Boothroyd – Ian Fleming’s and Bond’s armourer – and they visited each other’s home regularly. Indeed, he visited a number of authors in their homes in the US, including Joe Poyer and Raymond Benson. He interviewed Ray Bradbury at the time of Bradbury’s first mystery being published and kept in touch. Bradbury is one of Margareta's favourite authors.

Margareta with Ray Bradbury, 1988
The list of authors Iwan has met, interviewed and kept in touch with over the years is quite remarkable: Mickey Spillane, Brian Garfield, Isaac Asimov, Colin Forbes, Duncan Kyle, John Gardner, Tony Hillerman, Frederick Forsyth, Michael Avallone, Elmore Leonard and Ed McBain, to name but a few. He taped some interviews, for example with Jack Higins and Leslie Charteris, and I have copies.

In 2009 I wrote an article about Iwan for the Levante Journal: ‘The Bond Connection’, one of a planned series that didn’t get taken up. For some time Iwan had badgered Raymond Benson to set one of his James Bond books in Spain; Raymond duly obliged with his thriller Doubleshot, written in 2000, which is partly set here. It also features a number of acknowledgements, not least Iwan. And to top that, on p233 there is a ‘Dr Iwan Morelius, a Swedish plastic surgeon’ who works for the villainous organisation! (As an aside, I’ve included Iwan as a Swedish chef in my novel The $300 Man (Hale Black Horse Western, as by Ross Morton). I also dedicated my crime novel A Sudden Vengeance Waits to him.

Geoffrey Boothroyd
Iwan was a generous host and virtually ran a private lending library for his friends. He had so many fascinating tales to tell, often with that distinctive twinkle in his eye. He will be missed.