By the time he published Dead Trouble in 1971, D.M. Devine had transformed into Dominic Devine. Since his first name was David, I don't really understand this and I'd be interested to know what the thinking was. Maybe it was thought that, from a marketing perspective, initials were unappealing in the Seventies? But if so, why call himself Dominic? It's a puzzle, but frankly far less important than the mystery in the book - which, as usual with Devine, is very strong.
The opening scenes are set in Paris. A young man called Neville Richardson is looking to make the acquaintance of a particular girl; both of them are English. When someone else pesters the young woman, Neville seizes his chance. He befriends her, and although she is at first stand-offish, his easy charm steadily diminishes her resistance.
We learn that Alma Vallance, as she is called, is the daughter of a famous popular novelist who hasn't published a book for years, but is very wealthy. Alma is lovely to look at, but - to say the least - highly strung. Neville, it emerges, already knows a good deal about her. He's a chancer who has been put up to something, and it's not clear what his game is. One of the things Alma doesn't know about him is that he's married, although his long-suffering wife has thrown him out after he took one chance too many.
This is a story with many twists and turns and once again Devine shows himself to be a master of the surprising solution. His writing style is relatively plain but his stories always move at a fast pace and his characterisation is generally good and sometimes excellent. So is the way he structures his mysteries so as to keep his readers guessing. Not for the first time, I admired the way he pulled the wool over my eyes.
6 comments:
An interesting change of name, and an unusual surname to start with. It may be that the forename change was to do with the fact that although Divine/Devine is an unusual name in itself, there were two famous better known David Devines.
One was the famous - in the Seventies at least - Sunday Times defence correspondent, David Divine, a South African with military honours who wrote a wide range of books, from politics to defence history, to children's books and thrillers. Then there was the other David Devine, a well known magician, mainly between the wars, who wrote books about magic and cardology, including some Foulsham's 'how to' guides.
The name change may have been as simple as to avoid confusion with longer established authors called David Devine, whatever the spelling. Just guessing, though!
That may well explain it, Liz, thank you - though I'm still puzzled as to why the change was only made when he'd already published about half a dozen books as DM.
Might have been because, having proved he was not a simple 'one hit wonder,' the name change was worthwhile to avoid profile and catalogue complications. It is a sad fact that audiences - and PR marketeers - find it hard to conceive of the idea one person could have more than one speciality or field of input. I worked under five pseudonyms as well as my own name for simplicity (and yes, I know that sounds contradictory!) . And of course Dominic would have sounded smarter and more trendy than David!
Very good points, Liz!
By a bizarre coincidence some years after Devine adopted the 'Dominic' first name the 'Beast of Ibrox', Dominic Devine began a series of brutal rapes and an attempted murder which led him to be imprisoned for life in 1987. As David Devine died in 1980 he would fortunately have been unware of the existence of his namesake. The real Dominic Devine commited further crimes on his release and died in the Scottish maximum security prison Barlinnie in 2023, his death being the subject of a fatal accident enquiry.
I agree with Liz that the name was probably chosen because of confusion with the others, particularly the journalist. Dominic is quite a common name in the West coast amongst the catholic community, thouhh I have no information why he would have adopted that - his morther's maiden name was Gray and his birth name was registered as David McDonald Gray in 1920 at Greenock West
Very interesting, Scott - thanks. It's good to learn more about Devine, who does seem remarkably little written-about.
Post a Comment