Forgotten Book - The Riddle of Samson

Islands make great settings for detective novels, a truth that I hope readers will find reinforced when my own Fever Island appears in September. The Scilly Isles have featured in several crime novels, books by W.J. Burley and Kate Rhodes among others, and they also supply the setting for The Riddle of Samson by Andrew Garve - in fact, Samson is one of the smaller islands in the group. Happily, a map of the main novel is provided at the start of the novel, which dates from 1954. Maps really do help with books like this, and I can think of some other Garve novels which would have benefited from including a map - because setting does play an important part in his work.

The opening line is unorthodox and memorable: 'The day I crossed to Sicily the islanders had just learned that for the first time their history they were going to have to pay income tax.' This was a bit of social history that came as a real surprise to me, but it turns out to be accurate, and more importantly it does contribute to the plot. Because the unwelcome tax regime has become a news story which has attracted a bunch of journalists. And, as ever with Garve books, the journos are depicted in a very believable way.

The storyteller is John Lavery, a young archaeologist who is doing some preparatory work prior to the arrival of a colleague called George. He comes across the newspapermen, and an attractive woman in their company who turns out to be married to the biggest loudmouth of them all, a seasoned journalist called Ronnie. 

The woman, an enigmatic individual whose name is Olivia, accompanies John on a little exploration of Samson and when she misses her boat back, they end up spending the night together - in a very innocent way, it must be said. But Olivia fears her husband finding out that the pair of them have been together, and when Ronnie does indeed turn up on Samson, the plot thickens very nicely.

This is an enjoyable story, with pleasing elements of mystery and more than a touch of the outdoors adventure in which Garve excelled. His forte wasn't 'fair play' detection, but more the unravelling of crafty criminal plots, and the more books of his that I read, the more I admire his range.