Nicks` Cabinet of Curios

  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...