I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
Death Round the Corner
by
John Creasey
spy thriller, vintage mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Agora Books on September 24, 2015 and has 300 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include The Unbegotten, The Toff Goes On, Gideon and the Young Toughs and Other Stories, Introducing the Toff, The Peril Ahead, The Death Miser, Redhead, Carriers of Death, First Came a Murder, Death by Night, Sabotage, A Kind of Prisoner
Fourth in the Department Z vintage spy thriller series set in 1935 in England and revolving around the secret British Intelligence service. The focus is on Tony Beresford and Valerie Lester. It was originally published in 1935.
My Take
It begins in the spring of 1930, a few months after the Great Depression hit in October 1929. Yep, big surprise that there was controversy at the World Economic Conference between the “have” countries and the “have-not” countries. The conflict is the even distribution of wealth versus it’s-all-mine. Yeah, sure, own what you like and charge what you like . . . yep, I prefer now. And we know it’s the swindling and deception of the late 1800s and early 1900s that set up so many of our current regulatory agencies. Ya just can’t get away from human nature . . . and I wonder what life will be like 50 years from now . . . hmm.
Creasey notes that prosperity is still considered a national consideration. I don’t think it’s changed much.
The real story begins in 1935 with the disappearance of too many of Craigie’s agents as well as the conglomerating of so many industries into one man’s hands.
Creasy is so interesting as he’s writing of his time period, the 1930s, when stock rigging is rampant and police procedures are lax. The social life is clubs while technology, well, it’s up-to-date for these agents — and thank god for today’s cellphones, lol. Writing-wise, spelling out dialect for the characters is popular.
Craigie’s agents give off the impression of men with no worries, who gaily enjoy life, and travel a lot.
Well, like the screen, I suppose I should warn y’all that these men all smoke.
Creasey uses third person global subjective point-of-view from a number of perspectives — we hear thoughts, feel emotions, and experience action from these individuals, although the most prominent is Tony Beresford.
There’s some interesting characters-in-one in this. And plenty of characters are being used left, right, and center. There are some nasty betrayals — and some danged good reasons not to plunge into gambling. Phew. There’s also a nasty addiction — quite different from the one in First Came a Murder, 3.
It’s a fun read and there’s plenty of action with caricatural bad guys and supportive good guys.
The Story
There’s concern at Department Z about Leopold Gorman buying up so many interests, giving him a great deal more power and influence than he already has.
Deaths in financial circles have also been a concern to Craigie, as corporations are consolidated under the control of fewer and fewer.
Then Craigie disappears.
The Characters
Tony Beresford is Craigie’s Number 2 agent who plays cricket in the summer and jumps in the colder months (Samuel/Sammivel?? Tricker, a former champion light-heavy, is Tony’s general factotum — after Tony rescued Sam). Nicholas Williams is his scholarly downstairs neighbor. Maria will be Tricker’s nurse.
Department Z is . . .
. . . a nickname for British Intelligence led by the feared Gordon Craigie. His other agents include Timothy, a.k.a. Timson, and Tobias Arrans, fraternal twins also known as the Unholy Arran Twins and as Numbers 6 and 7; Nick Carris is missing; “Dodo” Trale who becomes Number 7; Robert Montgomery Curtis; and, Wallace Davidson.
Doc Little is the department physician, although he also treats London’s rich. Hugh Devenish bowed out in First Came a Murder last year. Bob Curtis owns Resthaven, a bungalow near Lindean in Kent. Belisha appears to be the phone operator’s boss.
Diane, Lady Chester, had been an actress before she married the tennis-playing Aubrey, Lord Chester. The Dowager Lady Chester shares the Regent’s Park “mausoleum” with Diane and Aubrey. Valerie Lester of Boston is Aubrey’s cousin. I think Reynolds is a footman.
The foolish Major Gulliver Odell, D.S.O., M.C., O.B.E., is (or had been) a military attaché at the British Embassy in Paris who helps out Department Z. And he’s infatuated with Adele.
Scotland Yard
Superintendent Horace “Dusty” Miller is the liaison between Scotland Yard and Department Z. Assistant-Inspector Roberson gets his chance at last. Throughout the series, the agents tend to call a policeman “Robert”, a more formal reference to bobbies. William Fellowes is the chief commissioner. Jennings is the expert on arson.
Nevillson is with the Ministry of Transport. Sir David Mannering is the premier.
Adele “La Fayne” Fayne is a suggestive and successful, but dumb, dancer whose, ahem, success is due to her manager-producer, Solly Lewistein. Antoinette is her maid. Robert Lavering, the heir to the very wealthy, landowning Jonathan Lavering, is the man Adele intends to marry.
The feared, hated, and lopsided Leopold Gorman, landowner, theatre-owner, and financier, has his eye on world domination. Holstein is a German iron and steel magnate. The Japanese Yushimuro is in cotton. The American Higson is in motor and aeroplanes. The Russian Miccowiski. The Danish Leugens has worldwide shipping influence and the virtual control of food exports from Europe to tropical countries.
Nosey Dean is a stool pigeon and small-time crook. Higson, a slattern, runs a rundown boarding house.
The World Economic Conference was held in London. Blunt is Beresford’s despairing tailor. This is the generation of the Bright Young People who party at the exclusive and reputable Two-Step Club where Paulluski is the director of music and Anton is their famous head waiter. The Silver Slipper is another club. Mieklejohn is an Oxford professor. Pettit is the headwaiter at the Carilon Club, an unofficial headquarters for Department Z agents. The Éclat Hotel seems to be another popular spot.
Paris
Inspector Piquet and M’sieu Picot, a divisional surgeon, are with the Sûreté. Sir Basil Marchant is the British Ambassador. Corinne, a snake charmer, is the cabaret star at the Côte d’Or where M’sieu Franchot is the manager. Albert, from the Hôtel Royale, will be Timothy’s guide in Paris. The Hôtel Divant is a dive.
America and Intelligence
Josiah Long is with an American intelligence agency as a representative of the Mid-American Timber Corporation. He’s been an actor as Lambert Hurst, a journalist, a spy, and ran a private detective agency. The Wheat Pool is a big ring of American financiers controlled by Lavering senior.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a textured medium gray background — I suspect it’s a plaster wall from the looks of the five bullet holes. Of course, that “wall” could be a folder, as there’s a “ribbon” on the middle right edge that appears to be a closure device. The author’s name is at the very top in yellow with the series info, also in yellow, in its’ yellow outline angled at the top right. The title is under the author’s name in white followed by a testimonial in yellow.
The title is a reminder for Beresford, that Death [is always] Round the Corner.
