Safe Return Doubtful

There’s an appetite at the moment for unearthing 60s / 70s noir-ish British ‘working-class’ thrillers (I am thinking of the likes of Alexander Baron’s The Lowlife and Ann Quinn’s Berg ), and on reading this, it’s easy to see why. It could be it will be better appreciated today than it was on first publication. In the publicity, it’s difficult not to see that this was the Ted Lewis who wrote Get Carter , but in some ways its best not to know that, as it may be spoiled if the reader starts expecting something similar.

Plender inhabits an anaemic and decaying London, grey and wet, a breeding ground for opportunists, people on the make, users. Though a private investigator, it is clear early on that he is an amoral character, working for an extremist political group, at every chance he will screw the next person over.

Into the story comes Peter Knott, a weasely philanderer, posing as a photographer, and leading on a 17 year old girl for supposed ‘catalogue’ work.

It’s a tale of blackmail and of twisted revenge, alternately narrated by the two main characters, with the reader never quite sure who to dislike the most. Though relevant to the time it is set, the late 1950s, if anything it gains something from its 50 year hibernation. Lewis’s style is cynical and unsentimental, describing people pushed to the edge. It’s no-nonsense gritty crime writing with a ‘Made in Britain’ trademark.