Transatlantic Killings
Deadly Miss Ashley. By Stephen Ransome. (Gollancz. ns.) The Long Escape. By David Dodge. (Michael Joseph. 8s. 6d.) THESE three books could probably only have been written by Americans at this point of time. • The best of them, Deadly Miss Ashley, is its author's second book. David Dodge appears to have written four, and My Old Man's Badge seems to be a first novel. But they have more in common than the fact that they represent the promising work in this field of young writers. All three move at breaknedk speed, have inexhaustible vitality and prune away all padding, irrelevance and lengthy descriptive passages. Reference is often made to the size and prodigious variety of New York, but it is in passing and put in perhaps to bolster up conviction that everything is indeed for the best in the American world. At times it almost seems as if the writer is in the dilemma of Gals*orthy's white monkey, who gobbled up the orange of material possibility, and then wondered whether what he had got was worth the effort. The Argus Telephone Service, which enables New Yorkers to have their telephone calls intercepted and relayed wherever they may be, is a mighty fine institution, but what shall it profit a nian . . . . ? Such undertones are rare but significant.
A further characteristic of these three books is their ado- lescent attitude to sex. Grown men are for ever eyeing women and 'speculating about their possibilities, as if they were so many prurient boys just made grimly aware of the facts of life. In these novels the sex interest is imposed with such artificiality that it may--well be doled out to measure, with an eye on the market. Detective fiction needs successors to Holmes and Watson. Mr. Ransome's couple are at least engaging and original.
Cole has the money, and Luke Speare supplies the brains. " The way you keep going off on your own, Luke, I wonder occasionally who's running this agency." But Cole is gen- erally content to " steam along at his side," 'and to dread the day when Speare sets up his own agency. They are an imaginative creation having their`own authentic relationship. Deadly Miss Ashley is a winner, and I look forward to reading more of Cole and Speare. Most detective novels are " expend- able " ; this I shall keep by me. If the pliblishers had provided a map, The Long Escape would have been geography made easy. " If you look at Chile on the map, you see a strip of bacon." David Dodge writes well enough to create interest in the countries as well as the chase, as Al gallivants by air up and down the west coast of the Americas. He has an original idea, clipped Ameridan humour, writes of " champagne with authority, and makes a nice distinction between feminine smiles which have " less voltage but more warmth." My Old Man's Badge has its realistic setting of guns, knives and dope on the Hudson water-front. A young detectivo is commissioned to bring to justice a fanatical killer Who has killed his policeman father and has sworn to kill him. It is very muc:i a family affair and a bit sentimental. Mr. Findley haS a neat sense of humour, and can write. dialogue which economic dly reveals character. His second book will be worth lOoking out for. JOHN GARRETT.
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