Guy N. Smith - The Black Fedora

[dem bones]

Guy N. Smith - The Black Fedora (Sheridan, 1994: originally Sphere, 1991)

Luis Rey

Blurb
It is Festival Week in Lichfield and the cathedral city is teeming with people; some resident, some invited, and, some not ...
Benjamin — leader of a hippie peace convoy, a man with a mysterious past and a destructive purpose
Kosminski — the Polish Premier, ambassador for communism, and for the horrors of a gone but not forgotten era
The police — a force to be reckoned with, but not above corruption
The Bishop — guardian of the Lichfield Gospels, lifelong believer in God — and the Devil
Haggard — the man in the black fedora. He knows no one but inspires a chilling, creeping fear in everyone.
There will never be another festival like this one...

The Bishop of Lichfield is troubled. Deeply. It's the eve of the festival and he's received word that animal rights activists are planning a raid on the Cathedral to destroy the eighth century Lichfield gospels because they were printed on pig skin. To add to his woes, there is a state visit from controversial Polish Premier Kosminski, who may or may not be a descendant of a Jack the Ripper suspect and whose father is an alleged Nazi war criminal. Posing the greatest threat of all, however, is Antichrist. All of the Bishop's senses scream that Satan has returned to earth bent on unleashing Armageddon. No wonder Chief Super Clive Gardener of the local police force dreads his every meeting with the skeletal, deluded old fool.

Fresh from their annual skirmish with the forces of Law and Order, Benjamin's hippie convoy leaves Stonehenge for Cannock Chase to hold their traditional "Midsummer rites". Benjamin, whose "uncontrollable rages" are "unpredictable" at the best of times, is in a foul mood. A quiet, skinny man-in-black named Haggard has joined the group, and Benjie doesn't trust him. Penny, on the other hand, finds the newcomer both terrifying and fascinating. Tonight is the Summer Solstice orgy - not an event she greatly looks forward to as all the hippies get to take turns at her (Benjie's orders) - but .... well, how she secretly wishes that Haggard will play Peeping Tom! Maybe - drat! - he won't show up at all. Today Haggard visited the Cathedral and Benjie reckons he may have designs on stealing the Lichfield Gospels and making a pretty sum for them. Not on his watch! This Haggard creep is getting way up his nose. He's too clean, unfazed by everything, and Benjie's far from convinced that he's even a vegetarian!

The hippie bus presses on toward Lichfield ...

[to be continued ...]

[dem bones]

The Lichfield gospels have been defaced with satanic purple paint! Wait a bit - i'm getting ahead of myself because before that there was the business of Prebendary Herbert Dawson and his neurotic dog, Scruff..

"This 'passive smoking' business was a lot of nonsense put about by faddy folks whose greatest delight lay in attempting to spoil somebody else's pleasure. 'The 'ban everything' brigade. And that was sinful. Certainly."

So, Prebendary Dawson, sneaking a crafty puff while taking Scruff for early morning walkies. The Dean has banned them from using the Cathedral grounds on the spurious pretext of complaints from the public about dog shit, so they've settled for a 6 a.m. stroll to St. Chads. When Scruff goes into a barking frenzy, Herbert doesn't take much notice as the stupid mutt is always doing it, but then he spots the naked girl floating in Stowe Pool. Her throat has been slashed. What with Antichrist, hippie black sorcery orgies and now Jack the Ripper, the national press has never had it so good.

Detective-Inspector Tim Walters of the West Midlands firearms team has been assigned to guard Premier Kosminski from those who would assassinate him on British soil. Walters suspects that Jean 'The Wolf' Bourgoin, master of disguises and the world's champion hit-man has been hired to murder the high-profile commie, so the antics of the lentil-munchers, animal libbers and anti-Nazi's are a nuisance he could do without. The strain on police resources is beginning to tell, and untried part-timer David Vance is drafted in to protect the sacred gospels from vandals.

Haggard visited the funfair and won a can of flat shandy for a perfect 5/5 ducks on the rifle range. Earlier he put the fear of God into Kosminski just by watching from the crowd as the motorcade arrived in the city. Benjie is sulking somewhere. Penny is fretting over the gun she found in the Black Fedora's rucksack.

GNS is throwing a lot into this one and we're not yet halfway through.

[dem bones]

"A hippy in a funny hat .... Jesus, they should build a few gas chambers for you jerks."

It's all happening at Lichfield. We've lost a few main players since the last thrilling update and it's now become a case of spot the Antichrist before he or she spots you.

The St. Chad Gospels are still in one piece after all. Shortly before the aerosol thug struck, the Bishop replaced the originals with facsimile copies, the crafty old devil! The duped defiler is still congratulating himself on a job well done when Haggard surprises desecrating a war memorial, and it is a case of kill or be killed. Consequently the black fedora and Penny are now an item - or at least, they've enjoyed a passionate romp. Haggard thinks he may even be in love which is quite a turn-up given that his opinion of "drop outs" is worthy of a Da*ly M*il editorial (" ... sleeping off their addictions and debauchery, wandering wastrels who despised society and yet fed from it like parasites. Oh Jesus Almighty, how he'd come to hate them after those seemingly endless weeks during which he, in his own way, had been a leech upon their grimed flesh.")

Don Devereaux is rehearsing his Sealed Knot performers for the festival's grand finale - a re-enactment of the Roundheads' siege of the Cathedral. A wise choice in the current climate and sure to pass off without incident. Ever since Devereaux's beloved Collette walked out on him three years ago he's struggled to keep his rage in check, but sometimes it gets too much for him. He jumps in his car and makes for Birmingham's red light district ....

A teenage girl spots Benjie's corpse floating in Polter's pool. His head has been damn near split in two by a bullet (we know who was responsible). Chief Super Clive Gardener finds the spray-can in his pocket. He hopes beyond hope that this burly drop-out was also the wannabe Antichrist and Jack the Ripper Mk II, but even then there's the question of who shot him?

Fifty anarchist-baiting pages to go.

[ripper]

I have read little of GNS's work from the 90s. I tried The Busker, didn't really get on with it too well, and went back to his sleazier titles from the 70s. However, Dem, your description of the action in Black Fedora sounds okay and worth a read.

[dem bones]

Nov 13, 2014 8:24:17 GMT ripper said:

I have read little of GNS's work from the 90s. I tried The Busker, didn't really get on with it too well, and went back to his sleazier titles from the 70s. However, Dem, your description of the action in Black Fedora sounds okay and worth a read.

With such an extremity of plot strands GNS leaves himself with plenty of loose ends to resolve in the final chapters. That the ending is a bit ... meh ... is at least in keeping with his noble tradition of great build up/ pretty rubbish conclusions. Of the later Smith novels i've read (not many), this and Island have the most going for them. Its the James Herbert thing, I guess. The later books are the more accomplished, certainly from a stylistic/ literary point of view, but as with The Rats and The Fog, The Slime Beast, The Sucking Pit and the crabs/ werewolf series' are the ones fans are most likely to take with them to the grave.

[ripper]

I agree about the later works of Herbert and Smith. The earlier books had a rawness that was much diminished later on. As you say, Dem, they were more polished, but I thought that the earlier books were more fun to read and kept me turning the pages in a way that especially Herbert's later novels did not. As I said in my earlier post, my exposure to Smith's 90s books is rather limited, but even some of his books from the 80s seemed to be mellowing. The last GNS book I read was The Wood. It was okay, I thought, with some flashes harking back to earlier novels in turns of sleaze, but overall I was a little disappointed, and the all-out rampage I was expecting as a conclusion just didn't occur, and it kind of fizzled out a little weakly.

[bluetomb]

Finished this curious but pleasing affair the other day. It flirts with horror, with ghastly rumours and ominous lead. But really it's more of a mystery/suspense thriller, and a restrained, characterful and atmospheric one at that. Multiple characters and plot strands are introduced and developed, events mount, suspects multiply, the very essence of the thing shifts in and out of view. There's more skulking, moping and musing than action, but somehow it works quite well, it's a lot more gripping than one might think it would be.

The setting is Lichfield, on the verge of its annual festival, set to welcome controversial Polish Premier Kosminski, rumoured to be a descendant of Jack the Ripper, and the nephew of a Nazi. Most concerning to Chief Superintendent Clive Gardener, he's been tipped for assassination. Also a local newspaper has been informed that the Antichrist will be paying a visit. On the other side to law and order and international intrigue is Benjamin, default leader of a hippy peace convoy, a fat, irascible, red bearded animal rights activist on a mission to destroy or at least irreparably deface the priceless Lichfield Gospels. Printed on vellum you see. Then there are the likes of Don Devereux, Frenchman, director of the siege re-enactment that will be the Festival's climax, with personal issues and concerns about his actors, and Detective-Inspector Tim Walters, brought in to make sure Gardener doesn't screw things up. And threading through everything Haggard, the man in the titular headgear, tagging along in Benjamin's convoy. A mystery man, wreaking fear in all who see him, real devilish icy malevolence fear. Except Benjamin's girlfriend Penny, in whom he wreaks fear and fascination. Before the festival ends paths will cross, there will be blood, and ruin. But what exactly is going on...?

This could easily have not worked at all. But GNS shows an unflashy but strikingly effective knack for character and place that keeps it all bubbling rather well. He clearly isn't at all keen on animal rights activists, communists or hippies, so there are broad brush villainous attitudes and physical grotequeries on display, but otherwise he gets inside the goodies and side characters pretty convincingly. Gardener and Walters really feel like smart, hard working, frustrated and pressured but still decent and determined guys, and the ups and downs and attitudes of others have a feel of truth about them too. On place, he may not use a lot of pretty words, but he seems to just know exactly what he's talking about, conveying not just essential layout but feel, how the characters actually relate to it in a realistic way. It can really suck you in. 

I probably could have done with a little more action. There's only one on page murder, a few deaths, a few corpses, but only one on page murder. No on page sex. Plenty of suspense, only a few boilings over, short but sweet climax with one strikingly horrible send off and slightly overdone, explain everything thoroughly coda. GNS did a great job of keeping me guessing throughout, and the solution satisfies, but it could have been a bit tighter. Let us imagine certain points rather than spell them out. In general, another murder, a bit more roughhousing, chases, these would have gone down a treat. But, on the whole I was pretty pleased. Recommended for something a bit different to Smith's horror work.