Symons, Julian --The Man Whose Dreams Came True (1968)

D

People enjoy this sort of thing?  I hated it—a downbeat, depressing story in which nasty things happen to the hero until he dies—no doubt an expression of the human condition.  I hate C20th novels in which this happens, largely because the protagonist is never given the dignity of a tragic character, and so the ending feels cheap and mean.  Theme seems to be how idealism, fantasy and imagination are destroyed by reality; hope and humour conspicuous by their absence, rather like a French film.  Plot better done in Rendell's Face of Trepass (which, unusually for her, had a moderately happy ending).  Is this really an advance on the genuine detective story?  If this is the glorious new crime novel, give me Sir John Magill's Last Journey any day!

Nick Fuller.