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Rosemary for Death

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 10 months ago

Gribble, Leonard as Dexter Muir - Rosemary for Death (1947)

 

There is something peculiarly English and endearing about the notion that working-class criminal gangs can't manage to look after themselves, but must take their orders from an Oxbridge-educated criminal mastermind. In this particular book the mastermind operates under the nom de guerre of Rosemary. His blackmailed nemesis, Jonathan Sutton, is plunged straight into the thick of things with a shootout in a deserted house, but things soon settle down, and we have long stretches of the baffling dialogue, interspersed with quaint place names, that characterises the English thriller. It usually goes something like this:

 

"So," he said slowly. "You know Gregson?"

 

"Knew Gregson", I lied. "Gregson's dead. There was a car smash at Portobello Hoo."

 

"But the package that Peters left at Little Gruntling? What about that?" he snarled.

 

I was caught off guard. I had to think fast. "Peters WAS Gregson." I said. "And Morstan was masquerading as Wilbraham so the busy in the shop at Ubbley-cum-Winkleford wouldn't suspect that Forbes had gone to Snizzbury with the money from O'Brien."

 

"What on earth are you talking about?" he said.

 

"I have no idea." I admitted.

 

And so on and so forth. There are two plucky girls who swap identities for no apparent reason and an attractively eccentric Professor who may or may not be involved with the gang. Things look bad for our hero but luckily Scotland Yard are on top of things. The evil mastermind is unmasked - to nobody's surprise - and shot by his own henchman, who carries a false moustache in his wallet. Not a bad book, but a fairly typical specimen of the genre.

 

Jon.

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