Charles Osborne. Black Coffee (1997)

 

    Charles Osborne. Black Coffee (1997) Osborne has adapted Christie’s first play as a novel, clumsily. A famous scientist is poisoned after revealing that the formula for a powerful explosive has been stolen. Poirot, whom he had summoned, enters minutes after the death. There is a marriage on the rocks, a mysterious foreigner, a suave private secretary, a bright young thing who delights in shocking her elders, an impassive butler, and of course Hastings and Inspector Japp. A couple of subplots are left unresolved. If Christie had “adapted the play as a novel”, she would have expanded on these, making for a more complex plot and puzzle, and a more depth to the characters.

    What Osborne has done is convert the stage directions into narrative. He’s careful to tell us where everybody sits, when they leave the room, when they move around, and so on. He describes their expressions and gestures as if he reporting a stage performance. But basically he can’t write, and we get no sense of character, despite these details. Christie’s strength was dialogue; her stories move swiftly because she knows how to make dialogue seem natural even as it propels the plot. This is the reason they make such entertaining movies: one can use the dialogue almost exactly as written as a first draft of the script.
     True, Christie has a tin ear for characteristic speech, for the rhythms and turns of phrase that make it personal and revealing. But she has a shrewd eye for the telling detail (it’s no accident that this is one of Poirot’s strengths as a detective). The effect is to make the story matter to us while we read it. Almost all of this is missing in this book. I guess that Osborne was afraid to expand the script. An actor can put a lot of meaning into a single word. The novelist must supply that information by other means. Osborne doesn’t do this, whether from too much respect for Christie’s script or lack of talent is hard to say. I suspect the latter.
     Osborne apparently had a minor career as an actor (he actually played in Black Coffee one summer), before making a name for himself as a critic. The blurb claims international fame for him, but that fame has not extended as far as Northern Ontario.
     Osborne wrote a biography of Christie, which fact seems to have persuaded Christie’s grandson Matthew Pritchard that Osborne could do the job. Not that the job was necessary. The script shows through the threadbare patchwork of prose, and it would be more interesting to read that. But then Pritchard would have to forgo the royalties on this book. It must have had quite a sale as a “new” book by Christie. I bought this copy at the library’s book sale for fifty cents. That’s about what it’s worth.
     Poirot’s mania for straightening things gives him the clue he needs to find the stolen formula: it has been torn up and rolled into spills for lighting the fire. Christie used this motif again. In fact, she reused the concept of this play, but I can’t recall which book. *  (2007)

Sue Grafton. E is for Evidence (1988)

     Sue Grafton. E is for Evidence (1988) Kinsey Millhone just can’t do a major case without serious bodily harm. In the first case, she comes within an inch or two of death. In this one, she is blown up twice, and escapes both times. What is it with this girl? Or is the physical punishment some kind of compensation for some subtle childhood trauma suffered by the author?
     Anyhow, Kinsey is framed for an insurance fraud, so she becomes her own client. The murderer is a paroled psychopath, who has changed his name and made a career for himself. But incest and other family failings arouse his wrath, and he sets out to destroy the family that employs him. The fraud is the first move in his game. Kinsey just happens to be a pawn. Unfortunately for him, she is as smart as he is, and luckier. She survives, he doesn’t. The $5K he deposited in her account to implicate her in the fraud stays there.
     By this time, Grafton’s series was settling into well worn grooves, which makes for competence in the plotting and narrative, but for a lessening of tension, both intellectual and psychological. OK, but not great. Still, I’ll be reading all the others in the series. Pat gave me this one, so I can now move up to I. I don’t have J. **½ (2007)

Gertrude Chandler Warner. The Boxcar Children (1942)

     Gertrude Chandler Warner. The Boxcar Children (1942) A teacher, Warner wanted to write an interesting  story for beginning readers. She succeeded. Her readers loved the independence of the children in the story. Orphans  Henry, Violet, Jessie, and Benny Alden are on the run because they don’t want to be found by their grandfather, whom they believe to be a mean man. They find a boxcar to live in, and a wounded dog for company. Henry, who is old enough to do so, goes into town to work part-time for a doctor, who eventually reunites them all with their grandfather, who is anything but mean. So they live happily ever after. Except that the readers wanted more stories about these children. Warner obliged with a string of mysteries; eighteen more books are listed here. This edition dates from1950, with well done silhouetted illustrations by Kate Deal.
     Warner’s style is simple and straightforward, as is her narrative, which she spices up with a few hints of possible dangers and events that aren’t explained until the end of the tale. She glides over a few improbabilities (less improbable then than now), and the characterisation is about as simple as can be. A good deal of the story is carried by dialogue. I’m not surprised that beginning readers enjoyed the book, and wanted more. I suspect that Warner’s skills improved, and would like to find a later book to see whether that in fact happened. *** (2007)

Ellis Peters. The Will and the Deed (1960)

    Ellis Peters. The Will and the Deed (1960) A diva dies, her presumptive heirs fly to England, but a storm brings them down on an alpine meadow in Austria. The will is read, and it’s not at all as expected. The residual heir is murdered, and the evidence points to the nephew, who is actually provably innocent. The murderer was the lawyer, who stole what he thought were crown jewels, but in fact they are paste costume jewelry.  He dies trying to save them, since he has destroyed his career by committing the theft. So there are two deaths, two near deaths, and a shattered career, and all for £100 worth of glitz. But the two youngsters that should fall in love do so, and with the money from the dead woman will be able to set up a very pleasant life.
     Peters is a competent constructor of entertainments, this time a mystery romance. A keeper only because I’m collecting her books. ** (2007)

John Mortimer. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004)

    John Mortimer. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004) At last we have the authoritative and complete account of the case that made Rumpole’s reputation, consolidated his preference for defending criminals, and resulted in his marriage to Hilda, daughter of the Head of Chambers, and the leader in the case. The prisoner sacks this eminent example of the finest traditions of the bar, and insists on Rumpole defending him.
     The plot is simple enough: the son of a supposed war hero is accused of the murders, but Rumpole unearths evidence that suggests not only that the dead man and his comrade were traitors but were also murderers. The likely executioner of this unpleasant pair disappears, conveniently for Mortimer, who is thus relieved of having to tie up that loose end. A few minor kerfuffles in chambers also yield to Rumpole’s discreet intervention. It looks like this is Rumpole’s last appearance, since it answers the all-important question of why he married Hilda: because she told him to. But there are signs of some weariness in Mortimer’s writing; the book is as clear as ever, but it lacks the edge and crackle that we expect of Rumpole, that self described hack, champion of justice in the face of the awful machinery of the law. **½ (2007)

Richard J. Cook. Super power Steam Locomotives (1966)

     Richard J. Cook. Super power Steam Locomotives (1966) A handsome book, including a summary history of Lima Locomotives, followed by a reproduction of one its catalogues, followed by a photo section showing first the building of a steam locomotive, and then pictures of the engines at work. Like most books produced by fans who lack academic training in how to present information, it’s somewhat of a hodgepodge, and lacks such useful apparatus as a table of contents and an index. This severely reduces the book’s usefulness, not entirely offset by the high quality of the printing. I bought this book in 1967 or 68, when there were very few books about steam engines or railroad subjects. The photos are technically very good, but in most there isn’t enough visual context, such as landscape, trackside buildings, etc, to locate the engines. They could be anywhere. Lima designed its locomotives to a house style that the railroads could not disguise with options such the placement of feedwater heaters and airpumps, so that the engines become oddly anonymous. ** (2007)

Edwin P. Alexander. American Locomotives ... 1900-1950 (1950

     Edwin P. Alexander. American Locomotives ... 1900-1950 (1950; reprint by Bonanza Books n.d.) A catalogue raisonné of steam locomotives built between the dates given. Photo and drawing of each, with technical data and a historical note. Alexander claims every locomotive is significant in some way, so his notes are rather repetitive. A good reference if you happen to need some data about one of the locos. Since they are in chronological order, the absence of an index by type, builder, etc,  is inexplicable. Printing quality is above average for Bonanza Books, who seem to have specialised in muddy photo-reproduction of popular books. * (2007)