Forgotten Book - A Twist of the Rope

The revival of interest in the crime fiction of John Bude is nothing less than astonishing. A few years ago, I was barely aware of him, and had read none of his books. Then Nigel Moss, a keen collector of Golden Age fiction, and one of the most knowledgeable authorities on the subject, told me how much he liked Bude's work, and kindly gave me a copy of one of the author's books. Some time after that, the British Library asked me to write introductions to Bude's first two mysteries, which they were planning to reprint.

The rest is history. The Cornish Coast Murder and The Lake District Murder proved hugely popular, and have since been followed in the Crime Classics series by The Sussex Downs Murder, The Cheltenham Square Murder, and Death on the Riviera. Another Bude novel is also due to appear in the series in due course - more of that at a later date. Meanwhile, I've been trying to find out as much about Bude and his work as I can, not least from members of his family, whose help has been invaluable.

Despite the success of the Bude reprints, his other books are still very hard to find, but my Forgotten Book for today is his penultimate novel, published in 1958. A Twist of the Rope is praised by Herbert Harris in an essay about Bude in Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, dating back to 1980, and this tempted me to have a look at the story. It's a pacy novel, a thriller in much the same style and mood as those black and white crime B-movies that were popular in the late 50s..

It's a multiple viewpoint story. A deranged serial killer has escaped from an asylum, and takes refuge with an astonishingly obliging woman - I have to say that I found the police's failure to pick him up quickly rather unimpressive. We also follow the intertwined lives of several other people in the same small town, including a young guitar player called Johnny who falls for a rich but flaky young woman. When the girl is killed, it seems at first that the crazy serial killer is responsible. But Bude shifts the suspicion for the crime around quite neatly. It's a sound mystery, very much in keeping with its period, and reflecting Bude's desire to move with the times and update his approach to the genre, something he accomplished quite effectively.

Forgotten Books - Forgotten No More?

Over the years that I've been writing this blog, many pleasurable things have happened as a result of my posts. The response to my snippets about "forgotten books" has been especially heartening. I've been a fan of Golden Age books - as well as contemporary mysteries, of course - for many years. Before the internet came along, however, I knew relatively few people who shared this fascination to anything like the same extent. Christie, Sayers, Allingham, Tey, and Marsh were consistently popular,but that was about it, in my experence. How things have changed. Now I am in touch with people all around the world who enjoy Golden Age fiction,and I've learned a great deal from them.

There's remarkable enthusiasm for the Golden Age in Britain right now. I know several people whose collections of rare titles make mine seem inconsequential by comparison, and in the past few years I've met scores of men and women whose delight in 'forgotten books' matches my own. Significantly, the 'Forgotten Authors' panel at Crimefest is so popular that it has become a very well attended annual event. Preparations for next year's session are already underway. There is a genuine appetite among readers across the UK, as well as further afield, for older books, including some that until recently were very obscure indeed. A number of publishers - Ostara and James Prichard's Langtail Press are admirable examples that spring to mind - have brought old books back into print at affordable prices. And the British Library has lately been doing absolutely sterling work in this field, with their Crime Classics series.

It's only eight months since I blogged about J. Jefferson Farjeon's Mystery in White, and since then, the BL has not only decided to publish it, but invited me to write an intro for the new edition. Now I've been told (and kindly permitted to share the news) that early sales have been so high that publication has been brought forward to this week. By the time you read this post, about five thousand copies of the book will have been sold in no time. I wonder if the original book sold as many in all the years it was available. (The answer may be yes, as Farjeon was a popular writer in his day, but many perfectly good contemporary novels fail to sell this many copies, let alone with such speed..)

Two highly successful titles in the series have been the first two crime novels written by John Bude. As a result, I was delighted to hear from the author's daughter, who has given me fresh information about her father, and about his involvement with the Crime Writers' Association in its early days. This will all help to bolster the material we have in the CWA archives - and the archives are a topic that I'll write about at greater length in the future. In a month's time copies of Bude's third book, The Sussex Downs Murder, will be available from Waterstones, who, I understand, have exclusive rights to sell it until mid-January. The fact that such a major bookshop is excited about a reissue of a book by John Bude is really pleasing. It wouldn't have happened ten, or even five years ago, I'm sure. Naturally, I was delighted when I was asked to write an intro to that book too.

And there's one more book from the BL that Golden Age fans can start looking forward to right now, again exclusively from Waterstones at first. This is Murder in Piccadily by Charles Kingston. I hadn't heard of either author or book until fairly recently, but plunged into research mode once the BL mooted its publication as a possibility and duly wrote another intro. All the indications at this stage are that this too will be a reissue that sells really well. Next year will see more titles in this series from the BL and I'm confident that the programme for 2015 (and for 2016, come to that) will, when public knowledge, appeal to a great many people, including those who in the past may not have been especially interested in period mysteries.

There are several reasons why these books are enjoying such success. The British Library takes a huge amount of credit, both for its enthusiastic marketing and its terrific cover artwork. But books don't sell unless readers want to buy them, and the excellent sales figures must be an accurate reflection of customer demand, primarily in Britain, but also overseas I'm also really pleased that my US publisher, the splendid Poisoned Pen Press, has recently become involved with distribution of titles in the States. And with The Golden Age of Murder due to be published next May, I'm daring to hope that, for once in my life, I've got my timing right...