Sir Abercrombie Lewker is off to Norway to sort out an upcoming tour of his theatre company when he receives a request to do an extra little job, namely finding a missing fiancé Trevor Bowling. But as he makes his way to Newcastle in order to catch his boat, events – or someone – seem to be conspiring to keep him from making it to Scandinavia – a stolen wallet, a sabotaged train and a fake SOS from his wife.
Typically for Lewker, he actually enjoys the challenge of being in what seems to be an Alfred Hitchcock film, but once he gets to Norway and is mistaken for someone nicknamed Pluto, it seems there is more than a missing man at stake. A group of villains code-named the Planets are up to something that, if Lewker can’t stop it, could prove a disaster for everybody…
It’s fairly well known – if you’ve read my Glyn Carr reviews at least – that Showell Styles aka Carr ran out of ways to murder someone up a mountain after fifteen books and stopped writing the series. Well, after having read this one, it seems he’d got a bit stuck with this one, book twelve, and had a bit of a flashback.
You might recall that prior to the Glyn Carr series, Lewker appeared in three spy thrillers under Styles’ own name. He’s not the lead character, but he’s substantial support. This book doesn’t make any attempt to be a murder mystery but is basically in the same mould as Traitor’s Mountain et al. Basically, danger, escape, double-cross, escalation, repeat, rinse, etc, with a bit of a “but I was the villain all along” at the end. I might be wrong, but I don’t think there was even a murder in this – plenty of attempted murders, mostly aimed at Lewker, but this really isn’t a whodunit. It’s basically Lewker following a series of cryptic clues as he follows Trevor’s trail across Norway. And then saves the world, or something.
Having said that, it’s still loads of fun. Lewker is one of the most entertaining sleuths out there and Styles clearly loves writing about him. The humour is never forced (as is often the case with the other Carr and Sir Henry Merrivale) and keeping Lewker as the focus for the whole book makes this a really enjoyable read.
The plot is utter nonsense, by the way. Just saying. But it’s entertaining nonsense. Just be aware that if you’re going to break the bank to try this excellent series, this probably isn’t the book to start with…
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a Dean Street Press run of reprints!
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I warned you about the plot of this one… Essentially the combined intelligence agencies on both sides of the Iron Curtain have hurt themselves so, speaking with one voice, they say “it’s up to you to save the world from the idealists who’ve got hold of an A bomb, Sir Filthy. The only way you can do this is by climbing mountains”. Which is handy as it’s one of the two things at which he excels. I wish Showell Styles hadn’t given up, he could’ve done some theatre mysteries as well as the mountaineering ones. It is, as you say, utterly bonkers but immense fun. Lewker is a character with whom it’s always lovely to spend time, in fact I could bear a lot more of the home life of the Lewkers.
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Ah, but the thing about a series that you enjoy is, you ignore such warnings. I don’t know if you’ve managed to get a copy of Holiday With Murder, where Filthy is told by his wife that there must be no mountains involved in his holiday – or murders or mummers, come to think of it. He does take a good while to find one to climb…
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I wasn’t warning you off – heaven forfend – more “it’s great but the plot’s utterly bonkers” (if we insisted on reasonable plots we’d read a lot less). I haven’t got Holiday yet, not having deep pockets I’ve so far picked up nine of them, Norway was really lucky, an ex-library copy in perfect condition. The other fairly recent ones were Fat Man’s Agony, with DJ (but the DJ’s got a chunk missing) and Death of A Weirdy (no DJ). I live in hope of finding more of them… or that someone will reprint the whole series.
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Well, let’s hope but I imagine the part reprint a while ago won’t help. Let’s just hope that the British Library doesn’t choose to do a solitary title either. Don’t give up!
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The Rue Morgue editions must’ve been nearly 20 years ago and just today I saw copies of three of them all around £20 on a well-known second-hand site – they’re probably easier to find in the US, but here they’re not cheap now. I think they’d do well; I suspect one reason a lot of authors fell into the oubliettes was that often their sleuths were a bit anonymous, whereas Filthy is anything but… You could do an absolutely fabulous TV adaptation, couldn’t you? Gorgeous locations, thrilling escapades (which could be ramped up) and a Bit of Culture with the Shakespearean quotations. Maybe expand Georgie’s role a bit too, even have some subplots with flashbacks to their wartime espionage exploits…
I definitely shan’t be giving up but if you happen to see anything affordable you’ve already got please give me a shout.
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Of course. Which ones are you missing? Tirol, Holiday and ?
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I don’t have:
I think that’s it… I have nine… there are 15 in all, aren’t there?
Thanks!
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Yes, fifteen. The only one that I have of those is Tirol. I’m also missing Camp Two and Norway. Having that many missing won’t help reprints…
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I have a seventies (I think) Large Print of Camp Two and an ex-library HB Norway. I only have two Rue Morgues, Hostel and Foothold. I don’t think tracking down copies would be hard, there are always loads of all of them for sale so they are out there, it’s just that they’re always at prices that are beyond us. I’ve picked my nine up gradually by going for them whenever I see one below my limit, which I think is roughly the same as yours.
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Well, reprints would need the estate, and they probably have copies. Not always true though – see the Brian Flynn estate…
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