Victor Jones - Monument Of Terror

[dem bones]

Victor Jones - Monument Of Terror (Nel, Jan. 1971: originally Lyle Stuart, 1968)

Blurb:
Suddenly Stephen Cooper, dedicated scientist and upright British citizen, was a man on the run, fleeing through the Black Forest with a woman he scarcely knew, seeking a mysterious sanctuary the peasants called "The Monument Of Terror".

There was a time when nothing much ever happened to him. But then he discovered that dead body in his kitchen. Immediately, Detective-Inspector Tregoran was after him for murder, and Stephen became the target of a chilling, sinister plot that threatened worse than murder.

Author Victor Jones has written a first-rate espionage thriller that spins new webs of intimacy and intrigue, intertwining the latest methods of murder and mind-control with the old, haunting monuments of post-war Europe.

It's the phrase "espionage thriller" that troubles me. I hope this isn't gonna be one of those novels that dresses itself up in horror trappings only to be revealed as a spy versus spy yarn. Not much has happened as yet, although London has had a good look in with name-checks for Victoria Station, Earls Court and ... Ruislip, where Stephen Cooper is employed at the National Institute Of Bacteriology. Cooper is aggressively head-hunt by a German company but turns them down having never forgiven the Nazi's over his mum's death. His boss, Oscar Grossfield lost his entire family at Auschwitz but advises Stephen not to let sentiment get in the way of a huge career opportunity. Grossfield seem suspiciously keen for him to accept the position. Also, Cooper's girlfriend Ingrid (a German!) has failed to return from a routine visit to her guardian in Mainz (Germany again!). I think it's safe to predict that Stephen will be hauling his arse out to the GDR sooner rather than later.

****

OK, so its a conspiracy thriller with horror overtones and probably should have been filmed by Tigon circa their big screen version of Doomwatch. You have to hang around for the real nasty business to show up but when it does the Bassett Morgan fanatic in me says its worth the effort.

The entirety of Part 1 (of 2) is set in "Swinging London." Our hero shuns it (he's a real square) but his Chelsea flatmate, wannabe playboy Johnnie Roper, hangs out at trendy casino's like the Gay Boy Club where the female croupiers dress in pussycat costumes. Roper even owns a transistor radio, but that's really the only concession to the times.

Back to the story:

As is obvious from the first, somebody is trying to set Stephen Cooper up. Tregoran gloatingly informs him that the mutilated body of a woman who may or may not be Ingrid has been dredged from the Thames and when the aforementioned Johnnie is strangled in their shared kitchen, Cooper, now a wanted man, decides to confide in his boss and father figure, Grossfield. Grossfield has the answer. His prodigy should accept the job with NBUAG in Germany! You get the impression that he would have offered the same advice had Stephen approached him about a verruca. Anyhow, Grossfield smooths the way with the Germans, gives him a forged passport and smuggles him out of the country. Arriving in France, Cooper teams up with Lore Strich, the missing-presumed-dead Ingrid's flatmate, and the pair sneak across the border into her homeland. Germany!

Part 2.

Schloss Hohenstein is hidden away in the Black Forest. Among local villagers it has an evil reputation on account of the cruel medieval Baron their ancestors eventually ate. Known locally as "Schreckendenkmal" ('The Monument Of Terror'), the old castle is the ideal location for the NBUAG research centre where Cooper is designated his own laboratory. It doesn't take him long to figure that General Direktor Grober and the boys are Nazi's and their business, germ warfare. When Cooper confronts the Direktor, he is given a stark choice: carry on working for them, or be turned over to the police. Cooper goes on the run instead. Captured, the extent of the conspiracy is made brutally apparent, and realising he will never help them, the Nazi's resort to plan B: Operation Brain transplant!

****

If you want a speed read, Monument Of Terror will do the job, though I have reservations about recommending it as absolute MUST HAVE. The conspirator-in-chief might just as well be wearing a sandwich-board with "IT'S ME" emblazoned front and back and I could double-guess everything that was going to happen ten pages before they did. A brainier person probably wouldn't even need to read any of it and still write you a plot synopsis. Also, given the premise, the thing is disappointingly light on gory deaths. Mr. Jones proves he can do it when he has a mind, and I'd like to have seen him make more of this admirable talent.

****

Slightly tarted up from Vault MK I

For Jerrylad, who kindly gifted me a copy.

[mcannon]

Thanks for the rundown, Dem, but what of the book advertised on the back cover? I'm greatly intrigued by "The Crazy Ladies" - what literary giant could be the author of "1971's zaniest sex-saga"?

Mark

[dem bones]

Mar 21, 2018 22:31:09 GMT mcannon said:

Thanks for the rundown, Dem, but what of the book advertised on the back cover? I'm greatly intrigued by "The Crazy Ladies" - what literary giant could be the author of "1971's zaniest sex-saga"?

Mark

All I can tell you is that it was written by Joyce Ebert and was celebrated as "the first good dirty book" in it's day, or words to that effect. Am almost certain Justin has covered The Crazy Ladies in either PF, The Sleazy Reader or The Visual Guide To NEL because I remember the cover, but the question is, when and where? We so need an index to the House Of Fanatic/ Marriott Escort Agency publications.