Publishing: In the wake of the Hank Janson trials, and in the build up to the passing of the Obscene Publications Act, W. Howard Baker is advised by the board at Amalgamated Press to tone down the sex and violence in the SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY. This directly affects his own Blake novel, SCANDAL STREET, which is being billed as "the story that never made the headlines." It is hurriedly withdrawn from the schedule. HOMICIDE BLUES is rushed into print to take its place. This same crisis also resulted in a complete revision of PANIC IN THE NIGHT. This was originally a James Stagg novel about black magic but it was withdrawn and, into the cover originally designed for it, was placed a completely different tale by Jacques Pendower. (Baker later revised SCANDAL STREET to make it a non-Blake novel and it was eventually published as a Consul Paperback by World Distributors.)
HOMICIDE BLUES is also notable for the apparent introduction of a new author: Desmond Reid. In fact, there is no such person. It is a 'house name' used whenever a submission is heavily revised by the editor (as many were) or when an author's name appeared too often in too short a period.
A new author who does exist appears in the shape of Martin Thomas (real name Thomas Martin) who, while popular with the readers, would also become rather vocal in his criticism of fans who yearned for the good old days of Baker Street and super-villains.
In November, the names of the cover artists begin to appear in the issues for the first time since the New Order began. For the past 40 years covers had been painted by either Arthur Jones, H. M. Lewis or Eric Parker; over the next five years, at least 21 artists would contribute, among them: F. N. Carcupino, Caroselli, Frank Daniel, De Gaspari, De Seta, Favelli, Fratini, Bodolfo Gasbarri, W. S. Greenhalgh, Margaret Higgins, Jacoby, Lionel Morgan, Olivetti, Hugo Pratt, Putzu, Sandri, Simbori, Marcus Stone, Symeoni, Malcom Tompkins, and Dabid Wright. Just two New Order covers were painted by Eric Parker (old artwork re-used). Internal illustrations were by James Cawthorne, Noel Cooke, Frank Daniel, Jack Dunkley, Bert Forbes, R. E. Forrest, D. J. Gold, Margaret Higgins, A. Horowicz, Anton Locke, Eric Parker, E. Ratcliffe and Bill Ward.
Blake: Huxton Rymer reappears to challenge Blake again ... or is it his son?
Notes: Sir Adrian Beverly discovers that Doctor Zilensky has perfected a way to manufacture pure uranium. He has challenged Zilensky to prove his formula in front of Sexton Blake — and if he does so, he will receive ten thousand pounds in return for his guarantee that he'll never reveal the secret. Beverly prepares the ingredients in time for Zilensky's arrival. When the Doctor makes his appearance, he lights a cigar and proceeds with the experiment ... which seems to succeed. However, Blake spots that there's a scam occurring and exposes the doctor's trickery.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Boyd Nolan, an ex-crook and one-time King of the Underworld, calls Sexton Blake round to his house and shows him a glass-fronted cabinet in his strong-room. He keeps his treasures in this, protected by the armour-plated glass. Nolan is going away for the night and asks the detective to stand guard while he's gone. Blake, who dislikes the ex-criminal, agrees but charges a fee of one thousand pounds. During the night, frequent checks through the strong-room door's peep-hole reveal that the cabinet is intact but, when Nolan returns in the morning and unlocks the door, the cabinet is empty. He is furious and threatens to tell Scotland yard, ensuring that Blake will never work again. However, the detective notes that Tinker's fingerprints, which had been on the armoured-glass, have vanished. This reveals to him the nature of the trick that has been played and Nolan is arrested for his attempt at insurance fraud.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: The mansion of the Duke of Mortland is burgled by an accomplished crook known as Midnight Mike. His activities are interrupted by the forced landing of a military aircraft nearby but he thinks this will be to his advantage as it will distract the locals. The next morning Mike is questioned by Sexton Blake and Inspector Coutts but supplies an alibi which seems solid. Upon leaving Scotland Yard, Blake and Tinker have to push Mike's car out of the way as it is blocking their own. Blake notices oil on his hands after doing this. Upon arrival at Mortland Manor, the clues fall into place and the detective is able to prove Mike's alibi false.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Sexton Blake sees Danny the Dip, a pickpocket recently released from prison, and follows him to a model plane rally. Plane no.19 seems to lose control and heads towards the sea. Blake and Tinker, together with the plane's strangely reluctant owner, pursue it in the detective's car and then, as it flies out over the water, in a boat. They see men in a a cruiser ahead retrieve the model but when they arrive at the vessel they receive a hostile reception. Blake reveals that recently stolen diamonds are concealed in the plane, put there by Danny the Dip.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Angus Brennan, the young son of a wealthy Scottish couple, is a motor-car enthusiast. When he sees a man struggling to open the bonnet of an unusual car, he gives a helping hand. However, the engine is at the back of the car and, under the bonnet, a man is concealed. He grabs Angus and the boy is driven away by his kidnappers. His parents call in Sexton Blake and show him the ransom letter they have received. Written by their son, it informs them that the kidnappers want £5,000. The note ends with a "P.S." but no actual postscript. This gives Blake a clue and he and Tinker rush to a nearby airfield where they hire an amphibious airplane and fly to the Shetland Isles. There they find the two men, make their arrests, and free the captive boy. Blake reveals how the "P.S." put him on to the criminals' trail.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Forged petrol coupons are flooding the country and Inspector Coutts is baffled. When a packet of freshly printed coupons is found dropped in the street, he takes it to Sexton Blake. The detective notices that the coupons have a distinctive scent ... a fact which also attracts Pedro's attention. The bloodhound rummages around in Blake's fishing tackle, paying particular attention to a basket the detective had recently used on a trip to the River Runwell. Taking the hint, Blake charters a small plane and he, Tinker and Coutts fly north to the river, following its course until they spot an isolated house. They land and approach the building which proves to be the base of the forgers' operations. The criminals flee in a car but, ironically, it runs out of petrol. They are caught and arrested.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Notes: Charlie Moore is an elderly burglar who plans his crimes in great detail. He is a master craftsman and, for his next burglary, has made a key to fit a jeweller's safe. One night, he lets himself into the jeweller's premises and empties the safe of gems. However, upon leaving, Charlie climbs over a fence, tears his coat and loses his watch. The following morning, this item of evidence is shown to Sexton Blake by Inspector Coutts. Blake notes that it has been repaired by its owner and tracks down the shop where the new parts of the mechanism were sold. The shopkeeper remembers who purchased the parts ... which is bad news for Charlie Moore.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Notes: Sexton Blake is asked by Inspector Coutts to help bring to book a man named Ezra Skinner, who is suspected of stealing an emerald necklace. Coutts wants Skinner's house searched but cannot do the job himself due to the lack of a legal warrant. That night, Blake and Tinker drive to the house and see, through the window, Skinner watching his television. Near his armchair is his desk, which the detective wants to examine. So Blake disconnects the crook's TV arial and Skinner responds by rushing out of the house to a nearby call-box where he telephones for a TV repairman. Meanwhile, Blake finds the emerald necklace in the desk drawer. When Skinner returns, he finds himself under arrest.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: On April Fool's Day, Mr. Dawson, the head of a small firm dealing with hire-purchase payments, finds himself the victim of a number of strange jokes: five taxi drivers turn up at his house, making him late for work, and his staff turn up even later after receiving a telegram, apparently from him, instructing them to do so. Puzzled, he calls Sexton Blake. The detective discovers that five payment envelopes which should have been delivered that morning are missing. He telephones Inspector Coutts and asks whether a cash robbery has been committed during the night. Upon receiving an affirmative answer, Blake visits the home of Pemberton, who was recently sacked from Mr. Dawson's firm. He finds him with the stolen money. Blake explains what led him to the crook.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are invited by the Navy to witness the demonstration of a new device. Aboard an experimental ship, an Admiral shows them a small mechanical brain which can detect submarines and guide a missile. The demonstration proceeds, with Blake, Tinker and four photographers looking on. The missile launcher — nicknamed the "Sea Tiger" — swivels around until it detects a nearby submarine. The dummy missile fires, circles and plunges into the sea, hitting its target. Afterwards, there is a sudden commotion; the Admiral has discovered that the mechanical brain he showed Blake has been stolen. The detective immediately identifies one of the cameramen as the thief. He then explains how he knew the man was responsible.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Sexton Blake receives a call from Inspector Coutts — Mario Torelli has been knifed in the back on a tube train at rush hour and is not expected to survive. Blake suspects Tony Milton, who has recently been released from jail after serving a sentence thanks to Milton's testimony. Milton's alibi — that he was at the barber's — seems watertight ... but Sexton Blake is able to spot the flaw in it and proves that Milton was the knifeman.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Inventor Micheal Marlow has purchased a country cottage so he can work on a new engine design in peace. However, he finds himself being constantly disturbed by a low-flying monoplane piloted by his neighbour, Adrian Ingham. One day he argues with Ingham and, upon returning to his house, finds that the blueprints for his invention have been stolen. He calls Sexton Blake. The detective questions Ingham in his aircraft hanger before suddenly asking him whether he can loan Tinker a brush and comb. Ingham protests that he has no such objects in his hanger. However, Blake's odd question was not without purpose and he is able to expose Ingham as the crook.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Notes: A child named Timothy Holliday is collecting stones on a beach near his home when he is kidnapped by men in a helicopter. When the aircraft lands on another beach farther down the coast, Timothy tries to escape by throwing his stones into the face of Darby, one of the abductors. He is thrown over Darby's shoulder and carried to an isolated house while the other man flies away in the 'copter. Next morning, Timothy's father calls Sexton Blake, who arrives with Tinker and Pedro. They search along the coast and eventually draw near to the kidnapper's house. Pedro finds the stones which still bear Timothy's scent. Blake visits the house and rescues the lad.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Lewis Dane arrives at his new factory one morning and sees a hole burned through the metal shutters. Inside, he discovers that the safe has been emptied. He rouses Radford, the night watchman, who is asleep in his caravan and sacks him. He then telephones Sexton Blake. The detective questions Radford who reveals that he'd had a headache the night before, took some aspirin and had fallen into a deep sleep. After answering Blake's questions, he packs up his caravan to leave. Tinker helps and notices that a gas canister is unusually heavy. This alerts Blake and he searches the caravan, finding the stolen money and metal-cutting equipment. He reveals how the gas canister gave Radford's game away.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: A car thief in Devon is mystifying the police with his ability to suddenly vanish. Major Heddon, the Police Commissioner, fears that his car is typical of the sort favoured by the thief, so Blake removes its suppressor. He, Tinker and Heddon then go indoors to watch television. When, after some time, interference distorts the picture, Blake knows that the car has been started. He and Tinker rush outside and pursue the fleeing vehicle but after a number of bends in the road, it disappears. However, the detective spots a clue and is able to expose the thief's trick.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: For his daughter's birthday party, Colonel Whitby advertises for an entertainer and receives a reply from "Peter Punch and his Performing Poodles". The man is hired and, that evening, puts his dogs through their paces to the delight of the children. However, during the act, a gold candlestick goes missing. The Colonel calls Sexton Blake and the detective notices dog hair on the carpet near where the candlestick had stood. When "Peter Punch" leaves, Blake and Tinker follow at a discreet distance. The dog trainer arrives home but the detectives beat him to his front door and find inside the house a terrier waiting with the candlestick between its paws. Sexton Blake explains how the loot was stolen.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: A diamond dealer named Petersen has experienced a number of thefts — always occurring when there's something particularly valuable in the safe. He calls Sexton Blake and explains that only his old assistant, Timothy Frayle, has knowledge of the safe's contents. However, he tested Frayle by giving him inside information before then staying with him throughout the night. In the morning, the safe had been burgled, so Frayle could not have committed the crime. Blake, though, discovers that the information is being passed on in a very cunning manner ... and Frayle and his accomplice are exposed.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are walking in the countryside when they encounter Denis Thurber, the caretaker at the mansion belonging to Mrs Van Hogan. He is half-dressed and comes crawling out of a bush near which a wrecked bicycle lays. He explains that it belongs to his employer's son and he had used it to chase a burglar he had disturbed during the night. The crook had got into a car and used it to run Thurber down. Blake examines the bicycle but is interrupted by the return of Mr and Mrs Van Thurbar. The detective explains that their jewels have been stolen but assures them that he can identify the thief ... it's Thurbar! He goes on to reveal the clues that gave the crook away.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Simon Penfold returns from an expedition to Tibet without his companion but with a heart disease which is treated by a weekly dose of a drug given to him by his Tibetan rescuers. He keeps the drug in his safe but one day finds it empty but for a note. It is from his lost companion, John Hilbert, and informs him that the drugs have been stolen as vengeance; Hilbert believes Penfold deliberately left him to die in the mountains. Penfold calls in Sexton Blake and explains his innocence. Hilbert has witnessed Blake's arrival and now telephones to give him a clue: the drugs are on a plane which is off the ground but not flying. Blake and Tinker go to nearby London Airport and the detective discovers the hiding place and the drugs. Penfold is saved and, a few days later, reunited with a penitent Hilbert.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Millionaire Marcus Raymond has carved a perfect scale model replica of the Golden Hind — in solid gold! Inspector Coutts is concerned that it will be stolen ... and, sure enough, it is. Raymond is found unconscious with the words "Try phones" scrawled on the wall beside him. The owner of a nearby garage says two men stopped for petrol and said they were heading to Scotland. Coutts pursues this lead but Blake is more interested in a pair of headphones attached to a device in Raymond's workshop. Through these he hears a signal — the millionaire had put a tracking device in the Golden Hind! Blake follows the signal and catches the crooks.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Trivia: KNOCKOUT FUN BOOK changes its name to KNOCKOUT ANNUAL and offers a greater variety of Sexton Blake material: two strips, a text story and Tinker's 'Tec Teasers.
Illustrator: Anon. (Frank Pashley)
Notes: This is an illustrated text story. Chris Wainright, a cashier at the Skyslider Aircraft factory and a champion long-distance runner, turns up at Baker Street in a bedraggled state. He explains to Sexton Blake that he was kidnapped during a marathon, replaced by an imposter, and held prisoner in a cave for three days. After managing to escape, he had returned home only to discover that he is wanted by the police for the theft of the factory workers' wages. He protests his innocence but the only evidence of his story that he can provide is the old suit his kidnappers had given him for warmth. Blake examines this and is able to form a picture of its original owner. He visits the aircraft factory and there spots his man — the owner of the suit. The detective visits this man's home and there finds Wainwright's double and the stolen money.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Illustrator: Anon. (Frank Pashley)
Notes: A cracked safe bears all the hallmarks of Peter the Blower but, as Inspector Coutts points out, the explosion that blew open the safe also stopped a clock at four o'clock — at which time Peter was photographed feeding pigeons outside Victoria Station. Sexton Blake visits Peter who has with him the photographer who took the picture. When a pigeon lands on the windowsill, Blake has a flash of inspiration — the alibi is false! The two crooks attempt to flee but are captured. Blake explains to Tinker how the photographic evidence was faked.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Illustrator: Anon. (Alfred Taylor)
Notes: A cracked safe bears the hallmarks of the Torrelli twins — but which one committed the crime? As Inspector Coutts observes, they have worked separately for years. The only evidence they have is the number plate of the getaway car — a car which, even as they speak, is hit by the Northburgh Express train! No bodies are found among the wreckage. When Sexton Blake arrives at the scene the train has continued its journey. He realises that the accident was a set-up and one of the Torrellis is on the train. From a nearby RAF base, he borrows a plane and flies to Northburgh, arriving before the train. Torrelli spots him at the station and flees but Blake and Tinker give chase and catch him.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Notes: Blake and Paula Dane are on holiday near Naples when the corpse of a young girl is washed ashore. A victim of a stabbing, she's identified as Gina Salvari, the daughter of Count Salvari, a local dignitary. The next day, Blake is tricked into meeting one-time gangster Primo Contini, the police's top suspect. Contini wants Blake to investigate and to prove his innocence, as Contini has been going straight these past few years and feels that the police are acting on an old grudge. The detective learns that Salvari's latest boyfriend was Pietro Mazzini, the son of a rich factory owner. The names Rudolfo Granzi and Pasquale Petronacci also come to his attention, the two men having frequently been seen in her company. That night, Blake's hotel room is ransacked and the criminologist is knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, Paula enters her room and finds herself facing a gun-toting woman named Bianca d'Augusta. Paula, however, is not to be messed with. She overpowers d'Augusta, ties her up, then fetches the now recovering Blake. Questioned, d'Augusta says she was sent by Mazzini, to whom she is betrothed, to see if the detective had made any progress, as Mazzini is innocent of Salvari's murder, though also suspected. Before Blake can get any further information from her, d'Augusta runs away and is picked up by a waiting car. Blake and Paula visit Mazzini's apartment and find him stabbed to death. Blake pockets a slip of paper on which figures and place names have been jotted. Back at his hotel, he receives a message from d'Augusta requesting that he call her. He does so but there’s no response. Getting her address from the exchange, he hurries to her lodgings where he finds her dead. Next, he pays a visit to Petronacci who expresses the opinion that Rudolfo Granzi murdered Salvari in a jealous rage. So Blake goes to Granzi’s villa to question him ... and three days later wakes up in hospital. Paula had found him unconscious in his car with a girl of ill repute dead at his side. Of Granzi, there is no sign. While recovering, Blake learns that a fisherman has been stabbed in an apparent brawl. Paula discovers that the victim was another of Gina Salvari’s lovers. A few days pass before Blake is released from hospital. By then, he's realised that the piece of paper he found in Mazzini's apartment is a list of times and places where Petronacci has smuggled cigarettes brought ashore. He and Paula keep vigil at the next assignation point and there witness Petronacci's men surviving an attack by a gang of men. When the fighting is done, the two groups depart, leaving a dying man behind. It is Granzi. While Blake stays with him, Paula is abducted by Petronacci. The detective sets out to find her but he, too, is captured and is driven to the Vesuvius volcano. There, he breaks free and rescues Paula before pursuing Petronacci's boss to the very lip of the volcano. There, with his identity revealed, the man tells a tragic tale, confesses to all the murders, and commits suicide by jumping into the Vesuvius crater.
Trivia: Not even a mention of Tinker in this issue!
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Notes: When Jill Barratt, who works in a Brighton photo kiosk, is picked up by a youth named Johnny, she agrees to drive with him to London. He brags that he is delivering a drug that is desperately required by a dying woman. In truth, he has been commissioned by a crook named Hoffman to deliver the smuggled drug to the Syndicate. However, in his desperation to get the girl into a hotel room, Johnny allows her to anonymously drop off a vial of the drug at the hospital. This attracts the attention of Superintendent Grimwald, who knows that the criminal organisation has been illicitly dealing the drug. Meanwhile, Johnny and Jill have departed the hotel leaving behind an envelope Johnny had been carrying. Grimwald, hunting for the girl who left the drug, finds it, and discovers it to be an example of industrial espionage. He manages to identify Jill as the girl seen with Johnny and tells Sexton Blake that she is certainly in danger. Back in Brighton, members of the Syndicate corner Johnny aboard a pleasure boat, the Skylark, and murder him for his carelessness. Their leader then sends a henchmen to kill Jill. He is twice foiled and is executed for failing to do his job. However, there are plenty more Syndicate operatives in Brighton, and they all befriend the girl intending to do away with her at an opportune moment. Tinker, having been sent by Blake to keep an eye on her, doesn't spot the peril she's in. Neither does she until she's taken out on the Skylark. Fortunately for her, Blake arrives in Brighton, Tinker spots a vital clue, and they realise the people she's with are a Syndicate cell. Jill is thrown overboard but is rescued by a police launch directed by the two detectives. The villains make a getaway on bicycles.
Trivia: Sexton Blake and Paula Dane make only fleeting appearances. This is Tinker's case ... but even he doesn't get much "page time."
According to Paula Dane, Tinker is still in love with Selma James (see BATTLE SONG (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 4th series, issue 371, 1956).
Tinker gives his birthdate as March 20th.
This was reprinted as a hardback novel in 1970.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Jack Trevor Story is the most stylised and eccentric of the Blake writers. In this case, the style rather overwhelms the substance, making for a less than satisfactory tale.
Notes: Blake and Paula Dane book rooms in the White Hart in the village of Garford. They are there to investigate vindictive letters that are being sent to residents by someone who signs as "Sylvester." The victims all have secrets ... but how does Sylvester discover them? Paula, while out walking in a thick fog, is warned to leave the village by a strange cackling voice. Amid a palpable sense of fear, a number of suspects emerge, including a new guest at the inn, Mr Maxie Bond, who calls on a villager named John Summers and, exposing him as a former extortionist, demands a thousand pounds from him. They fight, and the following day, Summers is found dead, his head smashed in with a fire poker. Blake tells Paula that he has so far spotted two "silent clues" — omissions in words and behaviour that have, he thinks put him on the right track. Leaving her guessing, he returns to London to search Bond's office, having learned that the man is a fellow private detective. He gains a name — Freda Rivers — and an address for her, but when he goes there, he finds her strangled to death. Upon arriving back in Garford, he learns that further strange and suspicious events have occurred in his absence. He then finds that Maxie Bond has departed. Tracking him, the detective corners him in a houseboat but is set upon and badly wounded by three thugs, who then try to kidnap Bond but end up killing him. Blake is hospitalised and, while recovering, realises that, whoever Sylvester is, he had employed Bond to dig the dirt that was used against the recipients of the letters. Paula takes up the investigation and, having finally identified the silent clues, is able to expose Sylvester's true identity. However, she falls into his hands and is attacked. Blake, having discharged himself from hospital, arrives in the nick of time and, in a pitched battle, kills the villain. Motives and plots are explained ... and a secret is purposely left undisclosed.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Unfortunately, Tinker remains in the background throughout.
Notes: After Arthur “Splash” Kirby’s brother, David, is killed in Germany, his widow, Rilla, who lives in Birmingham, suffers another devastating misfortune when her baby son is stolen from his pram. A note is left warning her not to call the police, so instead she telephones Kirby and he sends Sexton Blake. Rilla receives a demand for fifty pounds, which is to be put in an envelope and left in a letter bin at a certain bus stop. Blake keeps watch and, when a black man takes the envelope, the detective shadows him to a theatre. There, the man is stabbed to death. The police arrive and identify the victim as Abraham Washington Smith. The envelope is not among the items retrieved, which suggests that the murderer took it and was probably, therefore, the kidnapper. Blake has suspicions concerning the girl who’d been sitting next to Smith, Ann Freeman. He offers to take her home. On the way, she pushes him into the path of a taxi but afterwards explains that she innocently stumbled into him. When Blake examines a business card found at the scene of the murder, he finds Rilla Kirby’s address written on it in the same hand as the kidnap note. The other side of the card bears the printed address of Doctor Julius Freeman … Ann Freeman’s father. The girl breaks down and tearfully tells him that her father is entangled with a dancer named Julia Vane and that her mother has been trapped in East Germany since the Russian occupation. Ann had gone to the theatre to try to dissuade Vane from seeing any more of her father. The following day, the police tell Blake that Smith had been a member of The Drum, an organisation that protects criminals of African and Caribbean origin. Blake visits the head of this establishment, Caesar Nimly, who advises him to return to London and, for good measure, has the detective badly beaten. It’s enough to convince Blake that Nimly is behind the kidnapping and that the affair is considerably more complex. He alerts Eustace Craille. That evening, the spymaster arrives by plane, as does Splash Kirby, who receives a startling revelation from Blake. Secrets are exposed and a savage duel is fought with Nimly. When Blake shoots the villain dead, the case ends and a family is reunited.
Trivia: Tinker receives a single mention: Blake has stationed him in the North to deal with all the agency’s business in that area.
This marks the first meeting between Splash Kirby and Eustace Craille.
Eustace Craille is: “employed by the government in an off-shoot of the War Department.
His job is to watch over Britain's interests in other countries in an unofficial kind of way, and to take care of the more virulent of Britain's enemies when they pay unexpected and uninvited visits to this country.”
This was revised and republished as SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY fifth series, novel 12, THE SAVAGE SQUEEZE (1965).
The inside back cover carries a promo for SCANDAL STREET by Peter Saxon. This story was never published. It was hastily replaced in order to avoid problems with the Obscene Publications Act.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Notes: Two men are murdered. One is a diamond dealer, fence, and snitch named Otto Khrone. The other is Martin Valance, who, Sexton Blake learns, was once married to the now-famous singer, Gloria Delamare. She tells the detective that the marriage went wrong many years ago, Valance left, she presumed him dead, and has since remarried. Her current husband is Jack Parkin. Now, though, she is being blackmailed by “The Falcon,” who has threatened to reveal Valance’s existence to Parkin. Blake learns from a petty crook that Khrone was also being blackmailed by this mysterious individual, and that the blackmailer was possibly receiving information about his victims from a dancer, Dolores Shereef, whom Khrone was seeing. Blake and Paula Dane go to The Green Lizard, a nightclub where Shereef works and which Parkin frequented. There, they gradually uncover a dope ring, making enemies of a number of lowlife gangsters. After an attempt is made to assassinate Blake, he briefs Superintendent Grimwald on the case. As murders start to accumulate, it becomes increasingly dangerous for Blake, particularly when he starts to close in on the mysterious Falcon. Finally, after exposing the blackmailer’s identity, there’s a thrilling speedboat chase over rough water, which ends with the villain drowning.
Trivia: Blake's flat is in a block on Baker Street, with a fire escape on the outside, a lobby on the ground floor, and an alley running alongside the building, leading to the back. This doesn't sound like his old house at all, which, by the time of these New Order stories, had been converted into offices, with him living in a top-floor penthouse.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ A very average and somewhat dull tale.
Notes: Story features Huxton Rymer.
Unrated
Notes: None at present.
Unrated
Notes: Adapted from the story THE CRIMSON FRAME by A. L. Martin, published by Fawcett Gold Medal Books, 1952.
Unrated
Notes: Adapted from the story LITTLE SISTER by Lee Roberts (Robert Martyn), published by Fawcett Gold Medal Books, 1952. This is recounted in first-person by Sexton Blake. Rich socialite Vivien Prosper asks the detective to end her younger sister's relationship with garage owner, Arthur Spotwood. Before Blake decides whether to take the case, the girl in question, Linda, rolls up in a car. She's drugged to the eyeballs and there's a corpse in the boot. Jerome Pitt, the girls' step-father, makes an attempt to pay Blake off but is unsuccessful. The detective, trying to identify the corpse, follows clues leading to a coffee shop. There he is poisoned. After recovering, he learns that Pitt and Spotwood have an agreement: if the latter marries Linda and gains access to her fortune, he will share it with Pitt. Blake returns to the coffee shop to question the waitress but she is murdered. He finally discovers that the body in the boot is that of Stephen Lapham, an archeology student who was secretly married to Linda. As the web of relationships grows ever more tangled, Blake struggles to make sense of the various motivations, hoping to expose the killer before he or she strikes again.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ It's always a risky business writing from Blake's perspective ... all too easily, stepping into an extraordinary man's mind reveals only that he's no more remarkable than the imagination of the author. Unfortunately, George Paul Mann, in adapting Lee Robert's story, simply wasn't up to the task of bringing the detective to life.
Notes: Adapted from the story FEAR COMES CALLING by A. L. Martin, published by Fawcett Gold Medal Books, 1952. This tale sees the welcome return of Mrs Bardell.
Unrated
Notes: The inside front cover has a still from the film MEET SEXTON BLAKE. This was reprinted as SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 5th series SLAYING ON THE 16TH FLOOR (1965).
Unrated
Notes: When Richard Tarbut enters the bank at the little country town of St. Harping and stands on his head in order to impress the lovely Daphne, a clerk therein, he starts a chain of events destined to have far-reaching, and, in four instances, fatal results. For Tarbut, an author, not only wrote stories of crimes, he committed them as well. The outcome of Tarbut's extraordinary conduct is a most unfortunate marriage, because under her husband's corrupting influence Daphne, normally a decent law abiding young woman, becomes afflicted with the same crooked tendencies. Prompted by Tarbut, she robs the bank of fifty thousand pounds. It is when the banknotes, wrapped as an ordinary brown paper parcel and addressed to a destination in Paris, to be picked up later by the astute Dickie, go astray, that complications set in. These are still further extended when Daphne meets and falls for Jack Yates, the handsome assistant headmaster of St. Harping Secondary Modern School, who turns out to be an even bigger crook than her husband. Feminine interest is strongly represented, not the least interesting character being Lucy Locket, a long-haired, blue-eyed creature. She is the means of bringing Daphne to justice by reason of her tendency for scratching at newly dug earth, thereby presenting the police with a most valuable clue. Yes, Lucy was a cat, but in so being differed little from the rest of the feminine characters introduced, with possibly two exceptions. (Review notes reproduced from THE COLLECTORS' DIGEST vol.11 issue 131).
Trivia: This was reprinted as a hardback novel in 1970.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Notes: During the final days of the Second World War, Sexton Blake is sent to Berlin. Hitler has just committed suicide and the city is overrun by rampaging Russian troops; hardly a single building stands after weeks of savage bombing and what's left of the inhabitants are desperate to leave. The setting could be a scene straight out of Hell and the author describes it in scorching detail. The fact that he carefully researched his material, visiting the ruins and meeting with survivors, is painfully evident. This is a vivid and very disturbing read. Blake is hunting for atomic secrets. Shortly before he died, the Führer handed a case of documents and blueprints to one of his trusted Lieutenants, instructing him to deliver them to Grand Admiral Doenitz, his chosen successor. But the Lieutenant didn't get far before being killed by the Russians. The task passed to his lover, a young woman called Gisela Meyer. Blake must intercept her and retrieve the plans before Doenitz or the Russians get hold of them. This is a solo mission; Tinker doesn't appear ... and though we spend a lot of time with Gisela rather than with the detective, what time we do spend with him is packed with action and we get far more of an insight into his character than is usual for the New Order stories. His bravery is beyond doubt. His speed, strength and determination is phenomenal. But, also, he's afraid. The terrible city, burning around him, seems to push him to his limits and there are a couple of moments where he feels certain that he won't survive. It's fascinating to witness him in this ultra-real environment and despite the fact that he seems to have a disproportionate amount of luck on his side, it still feels more like a record of actual events than a work of imagination.
Trivia: The cover's uncredited artwork is among the best in the New Order series; a superb illustration of two German soldiers firing artillery with Berlin behind them in the grip of an inferno, it's dramatic, emotive and very eye-catching indeed.
Rating: ★★★★★ There's much to recommend this but the absolute highlight has to be a flashback covering the final hours of Hitler's life. Events are recounted with conviction, always staying within the bounds of what is known as fact. There's also a gripping chase through the sewers, some blazing gun battles, a twisted torturer and a lot of very narrow escapes. It's tremendous fun!
Notes: This was rewritten as SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 5th series novel 22 as EVERY MAN AN ENEMY (1966).
Unrated