Yo? Yo ho ho!

So there I am gloating over my e-bay treasures last night, and Mr. Thrilling walks in and drawls, "My God, it's like living with Captain Kidd!"

There were a few more remarks about booty, but those were of a more personal nature. So anyway, here's what I got!

SILENT TERROR by T.C.H. Jacobs. A 1944 Bulls-Eye Detective novel.

"The terror surrounding the murder of a well-known daughter of joy is the ominously quiet kind. Inspector Ruggles Radford (no WAY!) , summoned from his favorite cocktail bar, could find no marks on the body. Possibly the woman was hypnotised and ingeniously strangled."

Possibly. Or maybe Ruggles was hypnotised and she was ingeniously strangled, because how can you be strangled but have no marks on the body? Just how long was Ruggles in that cocktail bar anway?

I'll have to read the book. I'll keep you posted.

THE SAINT VS. SCOTLAND YARD by Leslie Charteris. 1945 Avon Book Company.

I've never been a big Saint fan. By which I mean I've never been interested enough to read any of the novels. All that's going to change, and I'll let you know how it goes. In this adventure he seems to be battling an arch-nemesis known as the Scorpion.

THE PINBALL MURDERS by Thomas B. Black. 1947 with the cover blurb "Suspense, sex and action." But no, it's not about dating.

This one has a killer opening, and I'll probably read it first.

"The little guy cried, and that did it; I said I'd look for his wife."


Then we have O AS IN OMEN by Lawrence Treat. 1943.

Did I mention, ignoramus that I am, I haven't heard of any of these writers except Charteris? Anyway, Treat seems to have been fairly prolific (17 novels and hundreds of short stories), and he's credited on one website with creating the police procedural sub-genre. I guess someone had to, but it seems a steep claim.

Opening line: "He was sweating in thin cold beads because he'd been stricken so unaccountably."

Hmmm.

We'll see.

Then we have three books by Dana Chambers who, again, I never heard of until I became a pirate.

ROPE FOR AN APE - 1947

"Boyd shoved the big open Bently through Tuxedo at an easy sixty, and cut in the supercharger on the long straight stretch beyond."

THE BLONDE DIED FIRST - 1941

"The Park Lane bar felt hot and close and I went on through to the little garden at the back and ordered a stinger."

I like that.

THE FRIGHTENED MAN - 1942

"At four o'clock of a late March morning in Manhattan the eastern sky is a deep purple just beginning to pale."

A cursory internet search turns up nothing on Chambers. Disappointing. He (she?) seems like an interesting writer.

Just spotted a slow moving vessel to the west. Time to hoist the skull and crossbones...