Forgotten Book - The Factory on the Cliff

Some time ago I acquired a number of Neil Gordon first editions and I've dipped back into them for today's Forgotten Book, having really enjoyed The Big Ben Alibi. The Factory on the Cliff dates from 1928 and was the first solo venture into crime writing by A.G. Macdonell, who used the Gordon name for most of his crime stories. Macdonell was a writer of genuine talent, with a smoothly readable style - not unlike Michael Gilbert in some ways, although his regrettably early death meant that his achievements were fewer.

The Factory on the Cliff is, like The Bleston Mystery, which Macdonell co-wrote with Milward Kennedy, a light thriller. It's very much in the John Buchan vein, and benefits (as does The Thirty-Nine Steps) from the author's knowledge and love of the Scottish countryside. 

Briefly, George Templeton and some pals stumble across some rum goings-on in the north of Scotland while on a golfing holiday. There's a pretty but mysterious young woman, some even more mysterious foreigners (not all of them dastardly) and a lot of stuff about revolution, no doubt capturing the mood of the times. Templeton fought in the war (as Macdonell did) and so his sometimes foolhardy courage is more or less believable. He's not characterised in depth, but the story zips along pretty well for a tyro effort.

Macdonell worked for the League of Nations, which is referenced in the novel in connection with the central plot element, which I'll avoid mentioning directly in this post. Suffice to say that the proposed crime has quite a bit of contemporary relevance - very sad, given that nearly a century has passed since this book was written, and certainly thought-provoking. Overall, this is a breezy thriller, not a lost masterpiece but an augury of the author's genuine storytelling talent.