FROM THE CRIMINAL RECORD

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33442, 25 January 1974, Page 13

FROM THE CRIMINAL RECORD

October Men. By Anthony Price Gollancz. 256 pp.

I his is an espionage novel which should rank highly, with present-day urgent problems as background, and with efficient and ruthless men engaged in the plotting. Dr David Audley. historian and member of Britain’s security team, went with his family for a holiday in Rome but did not advise his superiors of his intention. Before long, they suspected that he might be about to defect, and -.ent his friend, Peter Richardson, to bring him back. In Italy two former partisan leaders, General Montuori mow head of Italian Security) and George Ruelle, a communist, both tried to find Audley. They were interested in what he was secretly looking for: the source of information leaking from Russia about oil drilling in the North Sea. Boselli, a meek little government servant, was seconded to Montuori and lived in dread of fiim. However, in a fierce gun battle in the ruins of Ostia Antica, he loosed off a pistol shot accidentally and drilled the assassin of a policeman with a shot which would have fully tested an Olympic marksman. He gained much kudos thereby and played, albeit reluctantly, an important role in what followed. Along with Audley’s task, and his problems concerning his wife’s abduction, there is the long-standing hatred of Montuori and Ruelle which ends violently, but with truth and honour saved by casuistry which would cause Machiavelli and St. Alfonsus Liguori both to raise their eyebrows.

Slay-ride.- By Dick Francis. Michael Joseph. 224 pp.

David Cleveland, an investigator of racing frauds, went to Norway to discover what he could about the disappearance there of a British jockey, and the simultaneous disappearance of a racing club’s revenue for a day. The simple explanation would be that the jockey, Robert Sherman, had taken the money and himself to some safe spot. But Dick Francis has a much more sinister and complicated plot to' lay before his

readers. Cleveland, shortly after arriving in Norway, was murderously run down by a speedboat when he was in a dinghy in one of the fiords. Other violent attacks, both in Norway and in England, were made upon him and on others concerned with the investigation. By hard work and shrewdness, Cleveland unfolded layer after layer of a plot involving international finance, mineralogical exploration in the North Sea, and betrayal of trust in surprising places. Some of the trails letwiing up to the crime writhed back to the time of the Resistance movement in Norway, when stealing and murder (directed against the right people) could carry strong moral justification, but could cause mental confusion in later times. Mr Francis creates tense atmospheres with masterly touch and in smooth style which leaves no loose ends.

Armstrong. By Alan White. Name and Jenkins. 190 pp.

When a note was left on the desk of the manager of the Royal Albert Hall in London just after Beethoven’s Ninth Svmphony had begun, saying that the manager would have death on his

hands at the end of the performance, Detective Inspector Armstrong was sent to investigate. The note could have been a hoax, perpetrated by a youth group which had been

demonstrating its annoyance that a "pop” concert had been replaced by a Beethoven programme; it could be s suicide threat, or a threat to murder one person by means of knife or revolver; or it could be murder by bomb explosion, which would mean the death or maiming of many in tne audience, and panic resulting in further slaughter as the audience of 4000 rushed for the exits. The symphony lasted 71 minutes, and in that time Armstrong had to clear the hall, or find the threatener and render him harmless. He did not want to stop the performance, for that could trigger a madman’s reactions and start the panic he feared. He had nothing to help him start his investigation, and tragedy on a widespread scale rushed towards him every minute. The result is a high-tension account of the passing of those valuable minutes, of procedure in face of danger, of trained intuition, and of rough-house methods of questioning. This book would make a memorable film, and makes exciting and enthralling reading

Lady With a Cool Eye. By Gwen Moffat Gollancz. 192 pp.

Gwen Moffat has written charmingly and with expert knowledge about rock climbing, and here gives us her first book of fiction. It is disappointing, although two passages about climbing — one in a cave and the other up a steep cliff-face with a nasty overhang at the top — are well done. Her plot is. weak and poorly developed, and characterisation is insipid, except for that of Miss Pink who takes a central role. The setting is a boys’ adventure camp where the staff is at sixes and sevens. A large quantity of explosives, stored in a nearby hill, becomes the target for thieves. A good case could have been made for the thieves being members of the I.R.A. or the Palestinian chaps, but giving them a pseudo-Ruri-tanian ideology lessens conviction. The instructors at the camp inspire no confidence as guardians of children, and the board of management should have been sacked for employing them. The story lacks grip and direction.

The Dark on the Other Side. By Barbara Michaels. Souvenir Press. 250 pp.

Michael Collins, commissioned by the “Manhattan Magazine’’ to write a biography of Gordon Randolph, a wellknown sportsman, retired politician, and millionaire, went to stay at Randolph’s estate. He found Randolph’s wife, Linda, an apparent alcoholic, and was disconcerted when she left Randolph and came to him for protection. His further inquiries about Randolph revealed much that was quite unexpected about this famous man, and he, Linda, Randolph, and Michael’s cat, Napoleon, a battle-scarred New York alley cat. and the reader are soon plunged into the heart of dangerous and weird occult tempests. Linda and Michael were helped for a while by a Margaret. Rutherford character who was a “white witch” in the neighbourhood, and eventually were rescued from terrifying dangers by Dr Galen Rosenberg, a New York physician and psychiatrist who has a nicely balanced knowledge of occult science and the vagaries of human behaviour. Both are fully tested in the frightening happenings set forth here. Whatever one may think about the credibility of this book, it must be conceded that it is an absorbing story, well told, and contains people who are skilfully portrayed.