Forgotten Book - Dominant Third

I first became aware of Elizabeth Hely's 1959 debut novel Dominant Third thanks to a laudatory review by John Norris on his excellent Pretty Sinister blog. Some time after that I managed to lay my hands on a modestly priced copy inscribed by the author, but I've only recently got round to reading it. I was tempted to do so after re-reading William Mole's The Hammersmith Maggot. Why? Because Mole and Hely were husband and wife.

Their real names were William and Elizabeth Younger and he was a spy. This novel is dedicated to 'Mole, with love', and it is sad to think that he died only a couple of years later, when still only in his mid-forties. She published just four novels, three of them featuring the French cop Antoine Cirret who plays an important but still subsidiary role in this book.

I found this a fascinating if frustrating story. Hely really could write. She was strong on both characterisation and setting. As for the plot - well, it is intriguing, but flawed. There are signs here of the same amateurishness that - for all its merits - weakens The Hammersmith Maggot. Interest is diffused too regularly and I think this is because of the odd story structure that the authors impose on themselves.

The story is set in France. Newly wedded Mark and Laura Needham seem blissfully happy - although there is a hint of doubt about this - but their idyll is destroyed in the most shocking way, with Laura raped and murdered while Mark is asleep. There isn't much mystery about the culprit's identity - the real question is: how can justice be done? Apart from the killer and Mark, the other key characters are Cisset, Mark's gay friend Alec and his childhood sweetheart Andree. But the viewpoints shift so jerkily that I found myself irritated at times. I don't think Hely thought quite enough about her readers. And this is a real pity, because Hely is doing something ambitious here, and doing it, in many respects, very well. It's a book that doesn't deserve the oblivion that has been its fate, despite the fact that it was televised in the US under the title I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury.  

Forgotten Book - The Hammersmith Maggot aka Shadow of a Killer

I can vividly recall where and when I first read William Mole's 1955 novel The Hammersmith Maggot. It was more than thirty years ago. I took the green Penguin edition with me when I stayed in a hotel in Hull one wintry night. I was due to conduct a tribunal case the following day, acting for a client who had been sacked simply for being pregnant because the employers thought they could exploit a loophole in the Sex Discrimination Act. It was a test case and after I'd spent a long time preparing for the morning, I relaxed by whizzing through the novel. 

I'd heard one or two good things about it, but I was disappointed by the low-key nature of the storytelling and by the absence of a dramatic plot twist. With hindsight, I'd have been better taking a very different book with me. However, I came across a nicely inscribed first edition and decided to give it another try. Lo and behold! I liked it much better this time, partly because I had a clearer understanding of what the author was trying to do.

The author's real name was William Younger, and by profession he was a spy. He worked for the legendary Maxwell Knight and John Bingham was a colleague and friend. He wrote two or three thrillers, but this was the first of three novels to feature a wealthy wine merchant called Alistair Casson Duker. In this book he hunts down a conscience-less blackmailer (the 'maggot' of the British title of the book; the American title is much less memorable). The bad guy's identity is revealed at a relatively early stage, as is his motivation, but this time my attention was held.

The story is certainly out of the ordinary, and Francis Iles admired it, as did the often acerbic Barzun and Taylor. In more recent times, John Norris heaped praise on the book. Interestingly, a female blogger, Karyn Reeves, took a very different view. After two readings, I find myself rather in the middle. Mole (also a poet) could write well but there are traces of amateurishness in his sudden shifts of viewpoint. I don't think he thought deeply enough about how to present the character of the blackmailer or how to structure the story. But it's an interesting and unusual piece of work. As for that tribunal case, justice was done - and when the bad guys appealed, they got their come-uppance!