Kingsley Amis - The Crime of the Century

[Calenture]

Christopher Brown

First published in The Sunday Times in six episodes between 13th July and 28th September 1975. First published in book form by J M Dent & Sons 1987

After I decided I wanted to post this one, it dawned on me there might not be anywhere for it on the Vault. The thing is, the crime writing of people like Amis and Edmond Crispin is such fun to read, I had a feeling some of their stuff ought to be here.

Bridget Ainsworth, Aged 20, lay dead in Barn Elms Park. She had been stabbed five times in the back with a peculiarly thin blade. The next night another girl was found murdered - and then another. A killer was on the loose in London.

Detective-Superintendent Bill Barry, recalled from retirement to handle the case, was baffled. Christopher Dane, a detective novelist suffering from writer's block, was intrigued. Doctors, psychologists, lawyers, politicians, and even a rock star offered their expertise and joined in the hunt. But the biggest crime of all was still to come.

Opening with Christopher Dane struggling with the first chapter of his new novel and discussing the newspaper account of the Bridget Ainsworth murder with his wife, we move to Henry Addams reading the same account in Bow. Henry decides that he must go into his study for a while to sort some papers. His missus asks him if he'll be back for Coronation Street, but Henry has already taken down a "well-thumbed" volume called The Compendium of Blood and turned to the chapter dealing with Peter Kurten, the Dusseldorf sadist, arsonist and mass-murderer.

Various others interested in the Bridget Ainsworth murder include Dr Lucian Toye, a devoted reader of Christopher Dane and lifelong misogynist; Evan Williams, a Post Office worker, just released after six years in a psychiatric institution; and Ronnie Grainger, a garage mechanic, released at about the same time after doing four years for assault with a deadly weapon.

And at the bar of the Irving Club, a group of acquaintances has just gathered, one of them The Right Honourable Fergus MacBean, MP. MacBean, a man of slightly effeminate appearance, take every opportunity to urge upon others his views that "every kind of convicted criminal should have a much worse time than at present, with the rope for murderers, castration for habitual sex offenders, prolonged solitary confinement for prison rioters, though not (to his friends surprise) amputation of the right hand for thieves". Leaving MacBean discussing the Bridget Ainsworth murder and the demoralised state of the Police force, Amis takes us to the forensics lab which has turned up a lot of... nothings. No clues.

And then the second body is found.




,

[dem bones]

Wonderfully retro cover for a book published in 1987!

I could bung a crime sub-board in the 'Vault of Culture' compendium if needs be, or are people getting lost enough as it is?

I've sidelined Amis's supernatural shocker-cum-sex farce The Green Man ("an agreeably rancid novel" - Brian Aldiss) for a re-read prior to watching the three-part TV adaptation (thanks Rog! most unexpected!). So once the lure of revisiting gory antho's full of splatterpunks has worn off ....

[Calenture]

admin said:

Wonderfully retro cover for a book published in 1987!

Have you seen the "'fifties" cover for his The Riverside Villas Murder Mystery? I'll post it in due course.

admin said:

I could bung a crime sub-board in the 'Vault of Culture' compendium if needs be, or are people getting lost enough as it is?

Getting lost around here is all part of the fun.

What this site brought home to me is that I've strayed quite a lot outside the horror genre in past years. Some of it's been pulp - a few Don Pendelton novels, for instance - and a lot has been a very rich vein of fiction by Amis, Highsmith, Tennant, Crispin, Raven and the like, which has been seamy, sordid, funny, sexy and frequently in appalling taste so probably quite at home here.

All the same, I was unsure of putting this thread in the favourite authors section - I figured you might have a better idea. I'm wondering now where I put other similar stuff before - perhaps I haven't done any since we left the old place?

Back to the book:

After the second murder, a special investigatory committee has been formed which uncomfortably resembles the line-up of a television panel show, including those QCs, doctors and MPs not actually foaming at the mouth and calculated to appeal to the public through their familiarity. Detective-Sergeant Bill Barry is recalled from retirement as a "good man"; and he approves the surprising addition of Benedict Royal - a pop star - as he knows Royal to be possessed of a brain and of help to the police in the past.

At the committee's first meeting, Royal speculates that the murderer could be "doing a thriller" and suggests the enlistment of Christopher Dane, the detective story writer.

Dane is in fact presently blocked with his latest novel as the plot bears an odd parallel to the current murders. Dane has been living alone, away from home while writing, so has no alibi, and is now wondering if it's possible that, without knowing it, he has been living out his own story?

Henry Addams has been following news of the murders, and in his study - in a hut at the bottom of the garden - has marked the positions of the first and second murders on a map, with carefully labeled flags. He has a third blank flag put by. His wife worries about him because he's caught a chill in that draughty hut.

Then the third victim is found still alive...

[dem bones]

calenture said:

Getting lost around here is all part of the fun.

What this site brought home to me is that I've strayed quite a lot outside the horror genre in past years. Some of it's been pulp - a few Don Pendelton novels, for instance - and a lot has been a very rich vein of fiction by Amis, Highsmith, Tennant, Crispin, Raven and the like, which has been seamy, sordid, funny, sexy and frequently in appalling taste so probably quite at home here.

All the same, I was unsure of putting this thread in the favourite authors section - I figured you might have a better idea. I'm wondering now where I put other similar stuff before - perhaps I haven't done any since we left the old place?

I think what used to happen was we had an 'Any Other Books?' section covering a multitude of sins, but lumping St. Trinians novels together with detective fiction and bibliographical stuff made it even more of a nightmare to find anything. Now that I can add sub-boards as required, I tend to stuff what would have been 'Any Other Books?' material into the .... Culture box and work from there which seems to make sense ... as long as people remember! It doesn't really matter, I guess. I gave up on 'user friendly' about three posts into Vault's existence.

I can add a crime section if you like and see how it goes, or maybe modify/ extend the one dealing with Jack the Ripper fiction as that doesn't look much like it's going to happen?

Whatever you prefer!

[weirdmonger]

calenture said:

Getting lost around here is all part of the fun.

Where am I?

[sean]

weirdmonger said:

Where am I?

In the village.

[Calenture]

admin said:

I can add a crime section if you like and see how it goes, or maybe modify/ extend the one dealing with Jack the Ripper fiction as that doesn't look much like it's going to happen?

Whatever you prefer!

I suppose a crime section near a Jack the Ripper section would suit the purpose. I've just about finished the 1920's novel The Haunting, murder/psychological thriller - though that would belong in Mouldy Oldies... There's are Emma Tennant takes on both Dr Jekyl and Mister Hyde and Lord of the Flies.

weirdmonger said:

calenture said:

Getting lost around here is all part of the fun.

Where am I?

sean said:

weirdmonger said:

Where am I?

In the village.

I wonder if I could find the review of Thomas M Disch's Prisoner novel. Should that be in the SF section, I wonder?

[pulphack]

Amis had this early reputation as a lit writer of comedies of manners, but underneath lurked the heart of a pulpmeister. Green Man, this, Villa Murders, the novel with Robert Conquest (The Egyptologists) and his forays into Bond were all the ravings of a pulp writer trying to escape a poets shackles.

I suppose a sub-board is ok, but I like the fact that you wander onto stuff by accident. A lot of these writers did a variety of stuff, and would dividing things up make this LESS clear? For instance, Basil Copper - here because of the horror stuff, but to a generation of library borrowers that bloke who wrote hardboiled PI stuff. I knew him from Haining anthologies, but only stumbled on the PI stuff when I found one in a second hand bookshop.

That kind of virtual browsing and discovery is what the board is great for - would sub-division affect this?

[dem bones]

pulphack said:

I suppose a sub-board is ok, but I like the fact that you wander onto stuff by accident. A lot of these writers did a variety of stuff, and would dividing things up make this LESS clear?

That kind of virtual browsing and discovery is what the board is great for - would sub-division affect this?

I must admit, I like that aspect of it too, but the trouble is, it's such a bastard to find anything if there's not at least some vague reference points. I shouldn't worry, though. Even with the added customised search engine and these half-hearted attempts at making the board less user-hostile, Vault will always be a jungle!