DIECAST

Author: John Michael Brett (aka Miles Barton Tripp)
Publisher: Pan Books

Date: 1964

Pages: 155

Not currently available in eBook format

Have you ever had a love/hate relationship with a book? I didn't think I would, but Diecast by (John) Michael Brett is certainly a title that I lurched from loving to absolutely hating on a regular basis while I read it.

Diecast is the first book in a short-lived spy series by Brett (real name Miles Tripp), that stars his protagonist Hugo Baron, man about danger. This is not the series of books that lead to the TV Series "The Baron", which originated from books by John Creasey. Brett's run of titles only lasted for three books over consecutive years; Diecast (1964), A Plague Of Dragons (1965) and A Cargo Of Spent Evil (1966).

Better known as Miles Tripp (1923 - 2000), an English author of Crime and Thriller novels from Hertfordshire, England. He is probably best known for his alomost yearly run of books starring the private detective John Samson throughout the seventies, eighties and nineties (all of which are currently available as eBooks, and are worth trying out if you have Kindle Unlimited). After serving in RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War, he studied Law and trained as a solicitor before becoming a writer.

Tripp uses his experience in the law industry for this book. And there are more similarities between the hero of the story and its author. For a start Hugo's surname is but a single letter away from being the writers' middle name (Barton). Baron is an unmarried 37-year old solicitor who is bored of the humdrum lifestyle he has developed and is eager to become a writer/journalist. He has already been submitting stories to a national paper run by maverick multi-millionaire Paul Lorenz, who has a fascination with Julius Cesear and is referred to as "J.C." by his employees.

Horse Under Water

Author: Len Deighton

First Published: 1963
File size/Pages: 1611KB / 276pp

Ebook Publisher: HarperCollins
Ebook Date: Oct 2009

It's very remiss of me to have never read a book by Len Deighton until recently. He rates in the top ranks of thriller and spy fiction, known all over the world and a first-class international bestselling author since his first novel, The Ipcress File was published in 1962. I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about reading a Deighton novel. I had the same kind of feeling that I had experienced before reading my first John le Carre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Top echelon spy fiction can have that effect. People are reluctant to pick them up and give them a go because they have the impression that the books are full of difficult to follow and intricate plotting. I mean these books are populated with incredibly intelligent and devious schemers of the modern world, what hope have us normal guys got in trying to decipher whatever the hell is going on in the story if the brainy characters within them can't even work out what is happening?

Deighton's early stories however, star an unnamed hero, who has been thrust into the espionage game via a grammar school upbringing. Popularised on film by actor Michael Caine in adaptations of The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain, he was christend "Harry Palmer". But in paperback, the hero remains an enigma. It means he is at the centre of everything, narrating the events as they happen to him, much like a good 40's/50's private detective. He's not one of the upper class English private school exports. It makes him that much more accessible and real.

Horse Under Water was the successor to The Ipcress File, but "Secret File No.2" has never been adapted to the screen. The Caine versions were shot out of sequence, and the poor performance of Billion Dollar Brain at the box office resulted in the second book never being made. Perhaps the multiple locations (Portugal, England, Morocco and Gibraltar) and the complex technicalities of possible underwater scenes put this story bottom of the pile in terms of costs to produce. It's a shame really, as it would have made for quite a Bond-like travelogue (which now seems to be the norm).

Digital Bibliophilia: A look back at Year One

Well - I've gone and done it. Today is the one year anniversary of the first review on Digital Bibliophilia. Even though it was for a crime comic!

Since 21 April 2019 I have done 56 reviews of genre books, the vast majority hailing from the 20th century. I wanted to celebrate in some way, so have decided to finally revamp the blog with a new theme and slight adjustment in the page settings. I hope you like it. I had been thinking about making a change for a while but was putting it off, so this feels like a good moment to finally do it.

Looking through the statistics, I can't quite believe that I am now getting over a thousand views a month. That seemed like a dream in the early days when less than 20 people were reading each review! The book that changed all that was Bamboo Guerrillas by Guy N. Smith. Suddenly a few more people visited the site and I was surprised because the book was so damn bonkers! Clearly I had underestimated the number of Smith fans there are out there.

At the same time, I also began to realise that having links to other like-minded sites was useful to generate traffic back to my own, so begun reading a lot more other review blogs and started to appreciate the wider genre reading and collecting community that's out there. I'm glad - because it has brought many books (especially reference ones) to my attention that I'd never have noticed otherwise.

The Conduct of Major Maxim (Harry Maxim #2)

Author: Gavin Lyall

First Published: 1983

File size/Pages: 1388KB / 310pp
Ebook Publisher: Bloomsbury Reader

Ebook Date: September 2011

I've been looking forward to reading a novel by Gavin Lyall for a long time. This longing was further cemented when I read about his contribution to the British boom in thriller writing during the sixties and seventies in the excellent Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang by Mike Ripley. The only problem stopping me up to this point has been that his ebook presence on Amazon UK is rather on the expensive side, with most of his books averaging in the £8 range. However, I finally tracked down a physical copy in one of my favourite used bookshops and had no hesitation in bringing it back home to read (his books are readily available on popular second-hand websites, but I was holding out in the hope that the ebooks would reduce in price at some point - that clearly didn't happen). So I ended up with the book I'm reviewing today, The Conduct of Major Maxim, published in 1983, and the second part in Lyall's Hary Maxim series of four espionage novels.

Gavin Lyall was born in 1932, in Birmingham, England. After completing National Service and time in the Royal Air Force, he began a career as a journalist for such newspapers as the Birmingham Gazette, Picture Post and Sunday Graphic before having a career as a film director (directing BBC's current affairs program Tonight). He married the author Katharine Whitehorn in the late fifties, and begun writing novels a few years later. He received the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger award in 1964 and 1965, and later became the Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. Lyall was not a prolific writer, and spent many hours researching technical elements of his stories to ensure they were factually accurate - one famous story is that he tried to see if he could cast bullets from molten lead in his kitchen.

The Doomsday Bag (Ed Noon #20)

Ebook cover

Author: Michael Avallone

First Published: 1969

File size/Pages: 477kb / 141pp
Ebook Publisher: Story Merchant Books
Ebook Date: March 2014

I decided to test whether or not you could just pick up an Ed Noon mystery novel and wade in regardless of the number of the book in the series. I had been disappointed with Avallone's Satan Sleuth opener Fallen Angel, but I was already a fan from my youth via his Planet of the Apes and Man from U.N.C.L.E. novels and had promised to look into Ed Noon in the Satan Sleuth review so had to give him a second chance - I figured he earned it just for being Michael Avallone! So I had a browse through the Kindle store at the Ed Noon books that were available (pretty much all of them) and settled on one that had a slightly different, but original looking, cover scan with a naked lady and a classic James Bond pose.

The Ed Noon series ran from 1953 to 1990 comprising of over thirty novels. Noon debuted with The Tall Dolores in 1953, where his character begins his career as a down and out private investigator with a small office in Manhattan, New York which he refers to as his 'Mouse Auditorium'. He is ably assisted by secretary Melissa Mercer. By the sixties Avallone made a strategic move to tie in with the current trend of spy-related media and Noon became the go-to-guy for the President of the United States when ever he needed some investigative work done without the knowledge of the Secret Service or the FBI. Ed Noon became the "Spy to Mr President" and his capers veered more into that world, getting more and more outlandish as the years went by.

The Eliminator (Jonas Wilde #1)

Author: Andrew York (aka Christopher Nicole)

First Published: 1966

Pages: 196

In my last blog I reviewed the first Jonathan Anders novel Operation Destruct by Christoper Nicole. This book was aimed at the young adult market in the early seventies. It sparked my interest in Nicole's other work and pretty quickly I landed upon a series of espionage novels he wrote under the pen name of Andrew York (one of Nicole's many many pseudonyms) that involve the character of British spy Jonas Wilde.

There are nine books in the series, all of the with very similar titles ending in "..ator", such as The Dominator, The Predator, The Deviator etc. Published regularly between the years of 1966 and 1975, ending with final book, The Facinator. They were published in the U.S. by Berkley Medallion Books with some great artwork covers. I could not find any U.S. Berkley version of the The Eliminator other than the film tie-in pictured below. If anyone has a copy, I'd love to see it?

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Author: Mike Ripley

First Published: 2017

Pages: 465

Something a bit different for this latest blog. Whilst browsing through Amazon UK I came across this book and instantly knew I would have to get it.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was written by Mike Ripley, author of the award-winning 'Angel' comedy thrillers. Between 1989 and 2008 he was crime fiction critic for the Daily Telegraph newspaper and then the Birmingham Post, reviewing over 950 crime novels. He was also a scriptwriter on the BBC's television series "Lovejoy". Mike is the series editor of the Ostara Crime and Top Notch Thrillers imprints, which is reviving novels that will be of interest to thriller, spy and high adventure fans around the world. He is also responsible for the "Getting Away With Murder" column on www.shotsmag.co.uk. Most recently, Mike completed the Albert Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Pip Carter (husband of British golden age crime author Margery Allingham) "Mr Campion's Farewell" and he has continued the Campion series with a further six original novels.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a fantastic study of the boom in British thrillers between the 1960s and the end of the 1970s. Between these times British born authors ruled the thriller fiction scene across the world. Ripley examines the background to this phenomena, providing an interesting, fun and informative journey from its roots with such authors as Hammond Inness, Eric Ambler and Ian Fleming.

Passport to Oblivion (Dr Jason Love #1)

Author: James Leasor
First Published: 1964
Pages: 224

In my last blog entry I reviewed the Aristo Autos book, Host of Extras, by James Leasor. I was very impressed - so much so that I immediately bought a copy of the first book in his spy series featuring amateur (at least initially) espionage agent, Dr Jason Love, the general practitioner from Bishop's Combe, Somerset, England.

Its clear from the cover of the film tie-in edition and the promotional posters for the film version, Where the Spies Are, that MGM were trying to cash in on the success of Ian Fleming's James Bond movies in 1966. David Niven, cast in the starring role as Love is prominently shown wearing a very 007 white tuxedo, bow tie and carrying a sniper rifle and pistol accompanied by a bevvy of female co-stars. I especially love the 'tall-poster' version below with an artistic impression of Niven that is close to the actor himself to be recognisable, but just different enough to give Jason Love his own persona that I think I will always have in the back of my mind when reading any further books. I also like the addition of the Clouseau-esque cartoon that appears in some versions. But Love is no Bond, and the book reinforces this, making a few outright critical points about the differences.

I've not seen the film - yet - but I'm going to guess Niven plays Love with a more rakish element than his fictional version possesses. Love in the book is certainly a contented bachelor, with a fair sense of humour but not as far as I fear his screen outing might portray. I need to track down a copy to find out for myself. Anyone seen it?

Host of Extras

Author: James Leasor
First Published: 1973
Pages: 176

James Leasor might be a name new to some readers. He was a notable writer of spy and historical fiction (as well as biographies and histories) who was enormously popular during the late fifties and  into the sixties and seventies. Probably the most famous of his books, was a second world war novel about the undercover exploits of a territorial unit assigned a mission to destroy a German secret transmitter on one of their ships in the neutral harbour of Goa. It was filmed as 'The Sea Wolves' starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven.

Speaking of David Niven, another of Leasor's books to be turned into a motion picture was the the first book in the very successful spy series starring the character of Dr Jason Love, Passport to Oblivion (of which I will be reviewing soon). This also starred Niven but this time playing the countryside doctor turned amateur spy, with the title changed to 'Where The Spies Are'.

A third film, taken from one of his historical novels, 'The One that Got Away' was made into a film starring Hardy Kruger, and I was very lucky to see it via the BBC iPlayer just recently. Check it out if you can - it's the trues story of a German prisoner-of-war and his continual efforts to escape the Allies.