Forgotten Book - Notice to Quit

James Quince was an interesting writer whose career in crime fiction was brief but intriguing. I've previously discussed The Tin Tree, the first of his novels, and Casual Slaughters, the third and best-known. I was lucky enough to add inscribed copies of them to my collection ten years ago, but his second novel, Notice to Quit, proved elusive until recently, when again I was fortunate to snag an inscribed copy at an unexpectedly modest price. 

An interesting feature of the book is that it's a hardback, published by Hodder in 1932, which makes a big point (as you can see from my photo) of the fact that its price is 3/6. At that time, I believe the usual price for hardback first editions was 7/6. Hodder brought out a number of cheaper books, including titles by Gavin Holt and D.L. Ames, and I assume this was a response to the economic depression, a way of buoying sales when money was tight. 

Whether the scheme worked I don't know for sure, but the very scarcity of Notice to Quit suggest that the print run was small. And it really is scarce - I've not found any online discussion of the book whatsoever, nor anything in any of the usual reference books. 

So what's it all about? Quince was an inventive writer, and here,as in The Tin Tree, he tries to do something different. This is a story about an identity switch and I must admit I find such scenarios inherently fascinating (and yes, there are quite a few of them, of various kinds, in my novels).

In a nutshell, Bill Yolland proposes to change identities with his son John. This is an unusual variation on the standard theme, and the aim is to dodge punitive taxation so that the great family home will stay in the Yolland family, given that Bill receives bad news about his health at the start of the book. The early pages are very entertaining, but things then went in a direction that I didn't expect. In many ways, this story is an interesting take on the generation gap, always a fruitful subject for thoughtful authors.

However, there's also a lot of stuff about politics (the Falklands get mentioned more than once!) and a number of unlikely foreign characters, whose appearance in a Golden Age novel always makes me wince. I think Quince could have done something much more interesting with his excellent premise, but we have to judge a book on what the author set out to do. And unfortunately I don't think it works as well as his other novels.

The Cater Street Hangman (1998) - TV review

Talking Pictures TV has recently shown The Cater Street Hangman, a 1998 TV movie based on Anne Perry's first novel. It's branded The Inspector Pitt Mysteries and so I presume it was intended as the first of a series, or as a pilot for an intended series. But no more shows seems to have been made. Watching it more than 25 years later, I must say I'm surprised. It's well put together, with a nice twisty mystery and good characters.

It also has the merit of starring Keeley Hawes as Charlotte Ellison, who falls in love with Pitt and proceeds to marry him and feature in the long-running series of novels. Basically, it's a story about a serial killer. Someone is killing young women on the eponymous London street. It becomes clear that Charlotte's family is in the thick of the action and includes at least two of the suspects. 

The detection is done by Eoin McCarthy as Pitt. His performance is ok, but perhaps he lacks the star quality of a John Thaw. Certainly Keeley Hawes is the key figure in the story. Her father is played by Peter Egan, a versatile actor who is often very amiable but here plays a rather unpleasant individual. The reliably sinister John Castle is a vicar with a brimstone and treacle approach to preaching, while the consistently enjoyable David Roper and Patsy Rowland make the most of their parts as servants.

The plot is strong - I haven't read the novel, so I can't judge how faithful it is to the source. The period atmosphere is well done, with a sound script by the very experienced T.R. Bowen. I never asked Anne what she thought about the TV version, but she must have been disappointed that it didn't turn into a long-running series, given that the right ingredients seem to have been in place. This is well worth a watch. 

Daniel Sellers' guest post #2: 'Twists - what makes a twist work?'

Today, Daniel Sellers returns to the blog with a second guest post about his thoughts on plot twists: 
'For me, twists are most effective — and impressive — when they’re both ingenious and credible.
There are plenty of twists that don’t meet my ‘gold standard’. I’d argue that a number of well-known crime stories have ingenious but utterly incredible twists: Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) and Murder on the Orient Express (1934), for example (though I do love aspects of both books, not least their settings). I’d call these overly ingenious twists ‘eye rollers’, and I’m afraid I’d dump a good few Dickson Carrs in with them too. (Apologies to any fans . . .)

Then there are nicely credible twists that are low on ingenuity, but which are still satisfying. Ruth Rendell was an expert at this kind of utterly compelling, quiet switcheroo, never more so than when she was writing as Barbara Vine. See A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986) and the wonderful Asta’s Book (1993). See also Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs (1943), and P D James’s short story, A Very Commonplace Murder (1969). I call these twists ‘quietly satisfying’.
 
Then we have twists that are low in both ingenuity and credibility, and seem to be there purely for the sake of another surprise. See the bizarre ‘Pip and Emma’ reveals in A Murder is Announced (1950). These I call ‘so what?’ twists.
 
So, which crime stories meet my gold standard by being both ingenious and credible? I commend three to you, though there are plenty more:
 
·         Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution (play: 1953), where the twist is gobsmacking and utterly believable as a lot suddenly makes sense;
 
·         Dennis LeHane’s Shutter Island (2003), where the twist is ‘extrinsic’, according to the classification I proposed in an earlier post. It’s a stormer of a reveal, not only for the main character but for the reader too. It’s also very poignant; and
 
·         Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938), where the key twist (two-thirds of the way in) is immediately believable and changes everything. Rebecca also happens to be one of my favourite novels in any genre.'
 
 
Daniel Sellers is author of the Lola Harris Glasgow-based mystery series,
published by Joffe Books.