Desmond ReidBesprekingen

One of the first things I did on our acquiring a computer was to look for sites relating to `Desmond Reid`. I was disappointed not to find any. You can imagine my surprise on eventually learning that there was no such person !

Somewhat better informed now, I can tell you that the `Desmond Reid` who wrote this particular story was A A Glynn.

It is a superior effort in many ways. The story begins with Blake and secretary Paula Dane finding a corpse in the back of his car. Before long our intrepid sleuth is en route to Mexico, in hot pursuit of homicidal archaeologists.

No-one is going to mistake Glynn for a literary genius, but generally, despite occasional lapses, his writing is pretty capable. I notice that whenever one character, Inga Martinside appears, we get an attack of dumbed-down writing. While it may be that the writer experienced a rush of blood to the head when contemplating Scandinavian beauties, I suspect she was added-in as an afterthought, particularly since the tale can be told fairly readily without her.

There is one other section that I suspect was grafted on at a later stage, but as that brings us the marvellous simile "Professor John Martinside clutched the edge of the passenger seat like a rooster trying to ride out a storm", I am prepared to forgive this.

For all it`s shortcomings, the basic plot is pretty damn good, and there is an effective twist in the tale for added spice. It` told with pace and verve, which counts for a lot.

All in all, well worth a read.

One of the attractions of books by `Desmond Reid` is seeing if you can guess who really wrote it.

In this case, I guessed at W Howard Baker and was wrong - it`s by Wilfred McNeilly.

This is what I would call a `mid-Blake`. there`s nothing really wrong with it - I enjoyed reading it, and will no doubt read it again with pleasure, but somehow I don`t think it will ever become a personal favourite.

In part, the problem is that a couple of very imaginative early chapters - including a dolphin`s-eye view of a corpse in the water - raised my expectations a little.

Truthfully, I probably shouldn`t `damn it with faint praise`. The plot is ludicrous, certainly, but I`m prepared to enter into the spirit of things, and in any case, the way in which the story unfolds means that the reader is roughly half-way through before the scenario becomes apparent.

There is no very bad writing ( though after the first couple of chapters, no very good writing). It is exciting, and humourous in places, so in a spirit of impartiality, I will give it 4 points but while I do like it, I have to say I don`t love it.

Published in late 1961, this was part of editor W Howard Baker`s New Order of SBLs, i.e. tougher, faster -paced and owing a degree of debt to US hardboiled school of pulp fiction. This is a creditable attempt, a story you would file under `promising new writer` (assuming you knew the writer`s true identity - this particular `Desmond Reid` was by an unknown, whose identity is recorded only as A. Garstin). Blake takes on an inoccuous case (finding a missing person for a firm of solicitors who wish to tell them about a bequest in their favour). At the same time, an inmate who has been protesting his innocence escapes from prison, apparently with official assistance. Soon Blake is embroiled in a world of sleazy night-clubs, gangsters, drug-smugglers and girls in gold lame dresses. Interestingly, Blake himself is still the same man he had been since the end of the war - one feels instictively he is wearing a Saville Row suit even though the author doesn`t comment on his attire. Not for the first time, publishers Fleetway/Amalgamated are a little obtrusive. There are at least four references to the Daily Express newspaper in general, and at least three to William Hickey`s society column in particular. When one character comments approvingly of Castro`s expulsion of Mafia types from Cuba, quite natural in terms of the plot, he quickly qualifies his remark to show he is not thereby endorsing the Castro regime per se, a rather stilted piece of dialogue for a journalist chatting in a bar you might think. In the early sections, the writing can be a little mannered, rather self-consciously pulpy, but becomes more natural as we proceed. The last section is noticeably better-written than the preceeding chapters and contains a couple of interesting plot twists. One is fairly predictable, but the other less so. The 64 page format (retained long after the end of the wartime austerity measures that caused it) helps keep things snappy and stops the story getting away from it`s creator. If there is a little unevenness in tone, that doesn`t prevent this being a satisfying read on the whole.

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 little about Ms Story. One obvious possibility is that she was a relative of Jack Trevor Story. However, a quick enquiry with the excellent Guy Lawley of www.jacktrevorstory.co.uk produced no definitive answer (as yet anyway).

The writing style adopted here varies as the book progresses, I suspect by design rather than 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." I am not personally too keen on this particular 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 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 at 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.½

Two beauty contest entrants are kidnapped, and Blake is asked to investigate. Along the way, he uncovers an espionage ring, and encounters once 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 a 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 from 1913 - 1936, with a short break while Teed served in the army during World War One. Some question whether the last of the Rymer stories was Teed`s work, but as he died in 1938, we can`t very well ask him.

The reason for this one-off return is unclear, and one wonders if this story is an example of `fan fic`, possibly submitted to the SBL by a loyal fan from the so called `Golden Age`.

The return of Rymer enables Blake to expand on the man`s 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 kidnapped girls, but none is really explored. The story lasts well under the usual 64 pages, but still seems over-long.

For a first effort, it`s not too bad, but one wonders why George Paul Mann (see note below) 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.

For a long time, Desmond Reid was one of my favourite detective story writers. It came as quite a shock to find he didn`t exist !

Introduced into the Sexton Blake Library in 1957, `Desmond Reid` was a pen-name used by a variety of writers. Initially, because the SBL did not like to use the same writer too often (variety of authors was held to be a key part of the SBL`s appeal), it was planned to use the Reid name from time to time if a given writer`s name had appeared too frequently. Later, it was sometimes used because the fictitious Reid had a following and more of his work was needed (good to know I`m not the only one who fell for it!). There was also the idea of using it when a writer objected to extensive revisions of their story and didn`t want their name on it (it is said that Jack Trevor Story did not want his name on the heavily-revised Large Print Killer).

This case was more unusual. Based on the little-known novel The Little Sister by Lee Roberts, this was actually a shortened version submitted by Roberts himself and revised by George Paul Mann. In what sounds like a compromise, it was credited to Reid but with the admission it was `adapted` from Robert`s work.

It is unusual in that it is recounted largely by Blake himself, as he tells secretary Paula Dane about a recent case that still troubles him. Sadly, after this intriguing start, the tale (in places suspiciously reminiscent of some of Raymond Chandler`s work, as the title might imply) simply peters out.

There is also the little matter of characterisation. Blake`s behaviour is often strangely out-of-character. Naturally enough, when the original story was based on a different character altogether !

Had they started with the premise (a troubled Blake recounts a recent case to a sympathetic Paula), it could have been great. As it is, they seem to have taken a finished novel, shortened it, and changed a few names.

I`ve read Blake stories I loved, some that were a bit below par, and one or two that just made me angry. I`ve never read one that filled me with indifference like this.

Don`t persevere with it, it doesn`t improve.

Detection with more than a hint of a science fiction influence. Is it a good idea ? Well, I`m not against it in principle but it will take more than this to convince me it works in practise.

First, the details. This was credited to the fictitious Desmond Reid with an additional note "Novel based on an original short story by Rex Dolphin". However, informed sources suggest that the story was in fact Dolphin`s work from start to finish.

At the start of the story we do encounter a small outcrop of good writing ("Dusk hung like a gold, gauze curtain over everything. the heat of the dying day still lingered pleasantly"), but the general style is exaggeratedly pulpy and becomes quite wearing.

For reasons I can`t go into now, Blake, Tinker and an associate find themselves despatched to the Arctic. Initially, they are placed on a survival course to acclimatise themselves. I enjoyed this secton and it held my attention well, as did their initial experiences at a secret location in that area.

For the third and final section we have yet another change of mood and another change of style, and I must admit I began to lose interest. Towards the end, Blake starts musing on world affairs in an almost philosophical manner and the effect is simply ridiculous.

Like Tinker, one is relieved when it`s all over and the Blake team can get back to `normal` crime.

My experience of Dolphin`s work is that the quality control was a bit patchy. Nevertheless I`m convinced he had a talent and fully intend to explore his other works when time allows.