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Post by dem bones on Mar 16, 2013 19:58:10 GMT
John Blackburn - Broken Boy (Sphere, 1970. Originally published by Secker & Warburg in 1959 and recently reissued by Kansas based Valancourt Books) Blurb: Ritual Murder
The horribly mutilated corpse which the police dragged from the river was identified by British Intelligence. It appeared to be that of Gerda Raine, onetime agent of East Germany, who traded missile secrets for asylum in the West.
General Kirk was afraid that a foreign. power had set up a murder organisation to operate in the British Isles.
Before long he was wishing it was only that.It begins with the grim discovery of a corpse in the river at Minechester. The victim, a woman in her early twenties, suffered terrible mutilations even before the birds got to work. Young, once pretty and dressed like a tart, Inspector Ellis assumes it's the same old story of a junkie prostitute pushing her luck with the wrong client, until the pathologist, Dr. Newcombe, assures him that, despite every appearance to the contrary, the girl, identified by her diary as Gladys Reeves, died a virgin. Both men ponder the distinctive serpent ring on her finger, inscribed simply 'H. R. to G. R.' The pathologist reckons its German. Ellis pays a visit to The Castle, the city's most notorious vice den, and learn from the barman that Glady's was in there the previous night with two strangers - a shocker who resembles a geriatric hooker crossed with a corpse, and a burly younger man with a crew-cut and big hands. The unlikely trio left together to catch a bus, Big Hands and corpse-woman propping up an out of it Gladys. If 'Big Hands' is their man, then he was remarkably brazen. News of the murder reaches General Kirk at the F.O. just as he's about to take the train up North for the grouse season. Immigration suspect that 'Gladys Reeves' and missing Communist defector, Gerda Raine, are one and the same. three years ago, Gerda traded state secrets in return for political asylum in Britain. Kirk was assigned to look after her, but the young woman proved obstinate. "No, herr General, I do not require a body-guard. All i want from you is the passport I have been promised and the right to disappear. You see, I don't think you could protect me, if you set a guard over me till my dying day." So, those cold-hearted think they can get away with a ripper murder on a British citizen, do they? Kirk cancels his leave ....  David Flora (Valancourt edition, 2013)
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Post by DemonSpawn on Mar 17, 2013 11:45:17 GMT
Ooh, I like that second cover  |
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Post by valancourt on Mar 17, 2013 17:32:02 GMT
Did you order a copy of ours? If so, thanks! We just released his Nothing but the Night (1968), which is probably my favourite so far, and The Face of the Lion (1976) will be next....
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Post by dem bones on Mar 18, 2013 16:05:34 GMT
Sorry, James, it's the Sphere, but wanted to mention that Broken Boy is easily available again. Also, contemporary cover artwork comes in for an almost universal hammering on here, so am always happy to highlight those examples that scream "Yeah? What about me then!"
up to p.60 (of 155). Forget that garbage about General Kirk cancelling his leave, because he doesn't. Instead, he delegates to his dashing young subordinate, Michael Howard, and heads off to old Featherstone Clumber-Holt's place as planned, with the proviso that, should Howard uncover anything of importance, he's to contact him immediately.
Big Hands, meanwhile, has been arrested. He's James Carlton, a nineteen year old simpleton who lives at home with his widowed mum, and it's soon obvious that he's no killer. Carlton is released when independent witnesses corroborate his story about two men with a dog relieving him of the girl when they reached the river. Either Gladys/ Gerda took him for a date rapist or knew her life was otherwise in danger, as she left James with three vicious scratches as a reminder never to play Good Samaritan again.
Captain William Hailstone, Minechester's Chief constable, is furious at the lack of progress.
Howard heads north with his girlfriend, Penny Wise (Kirk's secretary: she's not the least charitable about the late Gerda, finds her appalling murder all very jolly), to inform the General of Carlton's innocence. Contrary to expectations, Kirk is delighted of an excuse to get away from Clumber-Holt, an irascible old fossil straight out of Dennis Wheatley - "Damnable business, this, quite damnable ... this wretched affair of the River Taff. Seems that Western Chemicals have put up a blasted great plant at Llanrist.... They say it gives employment and they've got to do it. Lot of stupid nonsense. I'd rather see a decent salmon than an employed Welshman". Also: "Nobody seems to have any proper manners these days. Comes of Free education, I shouldn't wonder." Let's hope we've not heard the last of him.
Kirk takes Howard and Jenny to the stairwell where Gerda was butchered and even Penny can find it in herself to feel pity that anyone should die in such a lonely, disgusting place. For the first time, Kirk hints there may be uncanny forces at work. "Perhaps it wasn't a he or she who took Gerda down the steps, but just an it?"
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