Nicks` Cabinet of Curios

  Gerald Verner - The Grim Joker - Kindle Edition  Robert Budd Mystery Number 1 Gerald Verner was one of a number of pen-names used by John Robert Stuart Pringle (31 Jan 1897-16 Sep 1980). Other names used by the multipseudonymous Mr Pringle include Derwent Steele, Donald Stuart and Nigel Vane. First published in 1936, this is the first of quite a lengthy series of books featuring central character Supt Robert Budd.  I would say it is intelligently plotted, written in an engaging style and is likely to satisfy all but the most demanding of afficionados of detective fiction of that era.  Budd is an interesting and, mostly, engaging character. Known as `Rosebud` by his subordinates due to his interest in gardening, he is obese and cultivates a sleepy demeanour which hides an incisive mind.  His tendency to be abrasively rude to any Officer who he perceives as negligent, even when this does not seem to actually be the case, will not sit well with the modern reader ...

  V J Banis - The Mystery of Bloodstone  - Linford Mystery Library - Date uncertain V J Banis is best remembered as a writer on gay issues but had an interesting sideline as the author of a number of gothic novels.  These sounded tremendous fun so I enlisted the help of my local library service to give one a try.   One of his works involved a man who finds a skeleton with a stake where its' heart used to be.  That sounded intriguing but unfortunately Derbyshire Library Service were unable to provide a copy.  Undaunted, I opted for this one.  The plot sounded promising enough, involving a young woman who feels compelled to revisit Bloodstone Manor, the house in which she grew up, which overlooks a village named Skull Point.  Accordingly, she sets sail during a raging storm (not just an ordinary storm) accompanied by a servant who is soon found spending her nights attempting to make contact with the deceased.   Promising enough, and o...

  George Bellairs  - A Surfeit of Suspects - Charnwood  - 2022 2022 reprint of book first published in 1964 George Bellairs was a pseudonym used by Harold Blundell (1902-1982) Harold Blundell aka George Bellairs was never a professional writer despite having 58 novels and a number of articles published. Instead he stayed in his post as bank manager in Rochdale and pursued writing as a paying hobby.   It's often said that many writers of classic detective fiction treated their stories as a kind of puzzle to be solved, and often seemed set in a kind of hermetically-sealed bubble, divorced from most people's reality.  This story is nothing like that, with much of the plot centring around  a joinery business in the fictitious manufacturing town of Evingdon which has been hovering on the brink of bankruptcy for some time.   The author makes great play of the contrast between the expanding new town and the less salubrious old town with it's inadequately...

Leonard Gribble  - Notorious Crimes - Guild Publishing  - 1985 Leonard Gribble was an author and editor who wrote under a number of names, including Leo Grex and Bruce Sanders.  This true crime collection features lucid and readable accounts of a dozen cases, many of them I suspect largely forgotten now.   The book held my attention throughout and I would happily read another similar volume.   There are a number of minor errors, generally unimportant in themselves but notable for their frequency.  Generally these are just grammatical errors.  One more perplexing error comes in Chapter 6, 'One Way Ride in Essex'. In this case it is explained that, under interrogation, a suspect was unable to write out an address another man had previously given him, presumably some days earlier. The author states that "the inference was very clear to the police" , but it is not so clear to the reader. Given that the suspect was American, the address, that of t...

  J S Fletcher - The Lost Mr Linthwaite I am a big fan of J S Fletcher but I must admit The Lost Mr Linthwaite is not destined to become a personal favourite. The plot of the story is actually pretty good, but somehow neither the characters or the location really come to life in this one.    Very often, I encounter books/short stories from the `20s, or indeed from later eras, where there is no real need for much character development/background and/or too much description of locations. I`m thinking here of the works of E Phillips Oppenheim or some of the Sexton Blake Library stories.  In my personal opinion, this story really could have done with some of those things to give it a bit of zing. As it is, JSF has written a quite agreeable story but not a gripping one. I would mention that my download of this (see picture) has a number of typos. They didn`t really bother me, but I do notice that Black Heath Crime have re-issued it recently and their version might be a be...

  Gerald Verner  - The Vampire Man - Linford  - 2018 2018 reprint of book first published in 1940 Gerald Verner (1897-1980) also wrote using a variety of pen-names, including Derwent Steele, Nigel Vane and Thane Leslie. He wrote a number of Sexton Blake stories under the name Donald Stuart.  I don't suppose anyone believes that Gerald Verner aspired to literary greatness, but in the early part of this book, some of the writing was so bad I wondered whether to persevere. I'm glad I did however, as once I got into it I found The Vampire Man an absorbing and enjoyable read.   The story is an old-fashioned murder mystery, with our intrepid sleuth, amateur criminologist Conway Jackson, seeking the explanation for a number of killings but also, as the title implies,  investigating the nature of the person, or creature,  committing the crimes.  Some might say that aspects of the story are a bit daft but for me personally, I  read these things p...

  Leonard Gribble - Famous Mysteries of Modern Times - Muller - 1976 This followed the same authors` Famous Historical Mysteries and More Famous Historical Mysteries (both of which I have, but have not read yet), and was intended as a supplement to the m.  I did wonder if this might mean it was hastily cobbled together in order to cash in on the success of its` predecessors, but this does not seem to be the case.  I would query whether all of the cases discussed here really qualify as `mysteries`, but let`s not worry too much about that. Generally, the book is an absorbing read and does feature a number of intriguing mysteries, some of which were new to me despite my long-standing fondness for such things.  There were some points where I felt like the book could have been edited more thoroughly (did the author really intend to say that the inhabitants of Kirkwall were "understandably inbred" ?), but this is not a huge problem overall.  Recommended reading, but n...

  Bruce Sanders - Deadly Jade - Herbert Jenkins - 1947? `Bruce Sanders` was one of a number of pen-names used by Leonard Gribble, a writer best remembered for his many true crime and crime fiction titles. Set in the immediate post-war period, stylistically this seems very much like something from between the wars. Initially I was unsure if I was going to warm to this tale of the experiences of central character Simon and his business partner/ex-wife Hilda. However, the story improves with the introduction of two very strong characters, sassy modern girl Carol and her admirer, the charismatic Charles `The Duke` Bastion, reputed to be a figure from the world of organised crime. These two act as catalysts for a string of events held together by an intriguing, if occasionally muddled, plot. If the book has a weakness, it`s that it`s `neither fish nor fowl`. There is no puzzle that the reader can have any hope of solving, and neither is it a thriller in the usual sense.  While ther...

  Piers Marlowe* - Promise to Kill - Thriller Book Club - 1965 *Piers Marlowe is one of a number of  pseudonyms used by the writer Leonard Gribble, best remembered for his true crime and crime fiction titles. First, a quick grumble.  At the start of this book, a man is walking through the countryside with a shotgun. His intention is to kill another man.  He stops to watch a bird of prey hunting. It seems a funny moment for nature appreciation but as he`s a character in a novel and is himself hunting prey of his own, we`ll let it pass.  Musing on life some more, his thoughts turn to industrial relations. It seems wholly unlikely that such considerations would occupy his mind at that moment.  In my personal view, it can be unwise to introduce social/political concerns into the thoughts/speech of a fictitious character. If, as I suspect, the intention is to show that this particular character is a bit `different between the ears` then it seems to me that the r...