Helpful Score: 1
Another fascinating curiosity from the wonderful British Library Crime Classics series ....
Honest London bobby Jack Wigan doggedly pursues the truth of a murder which may see an innocent (if thoroughly unlikeable) man hang for a crime he didn't commit. Wigan is a delightful character -- Dixon of Dock Green meets Raymond Chandler, he is a smart enough copper to have the right instincts for his modestly rogue investigation into the murder of his friend, second-hand bookseller Michael Fisk, while being enough of a fish out of water to mean that his investigation puts him at odds with both his superiors, and the dodgy denizens of the London book trade. And he doesn't always get it right.
However, a reasonably intriguing story is undermined by the author trying to do too much, in one relatively slim story. For some reason, Farmer didn't think the tense countdown to a potential miscarriage of justice, combined with Sgt. Wigan's noir-ish voyage into the world of "book runners" like Mike Fisk (one of whom was his murderer) was enough. You would think the book runners' dodgy ethics, and surprising recourse to violence would provide enough complications and local colour for any novel. (One of the runners carries a sword-stick. Another, a glamourous lady who puts the extra fatal into "femme fatale," has a cut-throat razor concealed in her handbag, for those times when negotiations over a particularly desirable volume don't go her way ...)
But no, Farmer decided to bolt on a rather dubious (and unnecessary) supernatural element, as the principles begin to wonder if Fisk might have been a victim of his too-close familiarity with his own occult stock. At one point, the investigation hinges on the presence of a seemingly headless, bat-like figure seen in the vicinity of crucial events ... which just seems like padding, and a bit silly, to be honest.
Which is a shame -- the straight story of Jack Wigan's unlikely foray into the work of the CID, and his immersion into the surprisingly dark underworld of the book runners, and a more realistic development of their characters, would certainly have been enough.
Honest London bobby Jack Wigan doggedly pursues the truth of a murder which may see an innocent (if thoroughly unlikeable) man hang for a crime he didn't commit. Wigan is a delightful character -- Dixon of Dock Green meets Raymond Chandler, he is a smart enough copper to have the right instincts for his modestly rogue investigation into the murder of his friend, second-hand bookseller Michael Fisk, while being enough of a fish out of water to mean that his investigation puts him at odds with both his superiors, and the dodgy denizens of the London book trade. And he doesn't always get it right.
However, a reasonably intriguing story is undermined by the author trying to do too much, in one relatively slim story. For some reason, Farmer didn't think the tense countdown to a potential miscarriage of justice, combined with Sgt. Wigan's noir-ish voyage into the world of "book runners" like Mike Fisk (one of whom was his murderer) was enough. You would think the book runners' dodgy ethics, and surprising recourse to violence would provide enough complications and local colour for any novel. (One of the runners carries a sword-stick. Another, a glamourous lady who puts the extra fatal into "femme fatale," has a cut-throat razor concealed in her handbag, for those times when negotiations over a particularly desirable volume don't go her way ...)
But no, Farmer decided to bolt on a rather dubious (and unnecessary) supernatural element, as the principles begin to wonder if Fisk might have been a victim of his too-close familiarity with his own occult stock. At one point, the investigation hinges on the presence of a seemingly headless, bat-like figure seen in the vicinity of crucial events ... which just seems like padding, and a bit silly, to be honest.
Which is a shame -- the straight story of Jack Wigan's unlikely foray into the work of the CID, and his immersion into the surprisingly dark underworld of the book runners, and a more realistic development of their characters, would certainly have been enough.
