Sexton Blake Bibliography: 2013

Notes: A press photographer, Young, commits a sacrilegious act by taking an aerial picture of the inside of a sacred Tower of Silence, where the Parsee communities of India leave their dead to be consumed by vultures. A man named Beram sets out to assassinate him as retribution. Stephens, the editor of the paper in which the photograph was published, calls Sexton Blake after receiving death threats. Knowing that Beram is probably watching the press office, Burton allows himself to be followed, being sure to set Tinker on the trail of his shadow. With one on the heels of the other, the party travels to Liverpool where Young lives. He, however, is currently in India. His family have been threatened, and Blake receives a note from Beram warning him to protect them. The Parsee, meanwhile, sets out to find the photographic negative, and starts by killing the pilot who flew Young over the tower. The game of cat and mouse continues, with Beram planting false clues that lure the detective first to India and then to Burma, where is captured and almost burned at the stake before being rescued. When he returns to Britain, the back and forth continues as they each try to outwit the other. There are disguises, traps and kidnappings in quick succession until an inconclusive end is reached.

Trivia: According to Gyan Prakash of Princeton University, this is a previously unpublished Sexton Blake tale dating from 1927 tha he discovered, incomplete, in the British Library. He apparently spent three years searching for the remainder of it, eventually succeeding, though he was less successful in his hunt for information about its mysterious author. I have to confess, I’m not convinced. I have two problems with Mr. Prakash’s claim. The first is that, from a stylistic point of view, the story in no way resembles the Blake material of that period. Perhaps this is because it was written by an Indian author of the time, but to me it feels more like the work of a modern writer. Secondly, I find it very odd that a historian of Mr. Prakash’s stature makes no mention of the 1907 Blake tale, THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS (UNION JACK issue 194).

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Confusing, repetitive, and just not very good.

Notes: An exploration of Sexton Blake's journey from the written word to the media of theatre, cinema, radio and television.

Trivia: On the back cover THE ILLUSTRATED ADVENTURES OF SEXTON BLAKE is advertised, it being the collected strips from VALIANT comic. However, this volume was never actually published.

Rating: ★★★★☆ An excellent overview with an emphasis on stage, screen and merchandise. A woefully inadequate bibliography wasn't really worthy of inclusion but everything else is a treat, especially the reproduction of all 72 Somportex bubble gum cards, Laurence Payne's scrapbook, and the complete script for the ITV episode THE VANISHING SNOWMAN.

Notes: Scripts from ITV's Sexton Blake series, including episode five of KNAVE OF DIAMONDS; all four episodes of THE GREAT TONG MYSTERY; episodes three and four from HOUSE OF MASKS; and episode one of RETURN OF THE SCORPION.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ This feels very incomplete. There are neither images nor any extra material.