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Caribbean Crisis / Voodoo Island
The triumphant return of Michael Moorcock to Britain's adventuring detective, Sexton Blake, in the crime fiction event of the year!
Michael Moorcock's triumphant return to Britain's adventuring detective, Sexton Blake! His first published novel restored, revised, expanded... and presented with a brand new prequel story!
A deep sea mission...
A baffling murder...
Beneath a sky of limpid sapphire blue, the research ship Gorgon rolls gently on the scintillating waters of the Caribbean Sea.
Below, two men in a bathysphere, lowered more than a 150 fathoms into the crushing depths. But when the sphere is raised, there is only one man inside... and he has a knife in his back!
Now Sexton Blake must answer an impossible How did the killer escape★
**
Michael Moorcock's triumphant return to Britain's adventuring detective, Sexton Blake! His first published novel restored, revised, expanded... and presented with a brand new prequel story!
A deep sea mission...
A baffling murder...
Beneath a sky of limpid sapphire blue, the research ship Gorgon rolls gently on the scintillating waters of the Caribbean Sea.
Below, two men in a bathysphere, lowered more than a 150 fathoms into the crushing depths. But when the sphere is raised, there is only one man inside... and he has a knife in his back!
Now Sexton Blake must answer an impossible How did the killer escape★
**
352 pages, Paperback
Published December 5, 2023
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,219 books3,807 followersMichael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 20, 2026
2 supremely enjoyable adventures in one volume. Tension! Horror! Mystery! And also some great humour and a kick ass female character.
April 26, 2026
3.5 stars
Moorcock's third written, but first published novel, "Restored, Revised, Expanded and Prequelled" in collaboration with novellist and Sexton Blake historian Mark Hodder.
Caribbean Crisis: What begins as an astonishing closed-room mystery evolves into a revision of Moorcock's original pro-Castro piece (that had been rewritten as an anti-communism cold war espionage thriller for its 1962 publication) that never reaches the heights of the opening chapters. The murder in the experimental bathysphere (present in the original--a grand Moorcock invention) is a terrific hook and outshines the political intrigue of the bulk of the story. It starts out as Sherlock Holmes but devolves into a psuedo-James Bond thriller informed by the modern result of Castro's Cuba. Still, it's not bad as a fast-paced Sexton Blake story updating Moorcock's retarded politics. 3 stars
Voodoo Island: Better yet is the prequel, set in the pre-WWII years and written in the style of the Sexton Blake "Golden Age" with exotic Caribbean flavor and strong female characters, featuring two of Blake's most popular recurring villains: the brilliant scientist Huxton Rymer and voodoo queen Marie Galante. This one has the feel of a 1930s pulp fiction adventure. 4 stars
Hodder teases future Blake installments based on ideas that Moorcock tossed out during the collaboration (that Hodder rejected). Hopefully without the politics.
Moorcock's third written, but first published novel, "Restored, Revised, Expanded and Prequelled" in collaboration with novellist and Sexton Blake historian Mark Hodder.
Caribbean Crisis: What begins as an astonishing closed-room mystery evolves into a revision of Moorcock's original pro-Castro piece (that had been rewritten as an anti-communism cold war espionage thriller for its 1962 publication) that never reaches the heights of the opening chapters. The murder in the experimental bathysphere (present in the original--a grand Moorcock invention) is a terrific hook and outshines the political intrigue of the bulk of the story. It starts out as Sherlock Holmes but devolves into a psuedo-James Bond thriller informed by the modern result of Castro's Cuba. Still, it's not bad as a fast-paced Sexton Blake story updating Moorcock's retarded politics. 3 stars
Voodoo Island: Better yet is the prequel, set in the pre-WWII years and written in the style of the Sexton Blake "Golden Age" with exotic Caribbean flavor and strong female characters, featuring two of Blake's most popular recurring villains: the brilliant scientist Huxton Rymer and voodoo queen Marie Galante. This one has the feel of a 1930s pulp fiction adventure. 4 stars
Hodder teases future Blake installments based on ideas that Moorcock tossed out during the collaboration (that Hodder rejected). Hopefully without the politics.
July 14, 2024
I love Moorcock's writing and was interested in learning more about Sexton Blake, so this was an easy purchase.
It's good, not great.
Caribbean Crisis: Done as an attempt to 'update' Blake for the 60's, it did what every attempt to do this with a pulp detective does, turned him into watered down James Bond.
The vibe of the setting and time period are great, the mystery was interesting and I liked how they treated the politics of the time.
Blake is there and is well written, but he just feels like a decent version of any of the dozens of 007 wannabes.
Voodoo Island: A retrofitted prequel that has three of Blakes foes, a nazi spy and a fake voodoo shaman all scheming and stumbling over each other in an attempt to seize control of the politically precarious island of the title.
This was better, as it captures the vibe of 20's detective/adventure fiction, builds a nice dynamic between Blake and his sidekick, drops a few easter eggs from Moorcock's other series and felt like it gave me a better idea what the early Blake stories were like.
This was the one that has me interested in tracking down more Blake books.
It's good, not great.
Caribbean Crisis: Done as an attempt to 'update' Blake for the 60's, it did what every attempt to do this with a pulp detective does, turned him into watered down James Bond.
The vibe of the setting and time period are great, the mystery was interesting and I liked how they treated the politics of the time.
Blake is there and is well written, but he just feels like a decent version of any of the dozens of 007 wannabes.
Voodoo Island: A retrofitted prequel that has three of Blakes foes, a nazi spy and a fake voodoo shaman all scheming and stumbling over each other in an attempt to seize control of the politically precarious island of the title.
This was better, as it captures the vibe of 20's detective/adventure fiction, builds a nice dynamic between Blake and his sidekick, drops a few easter eggs from Moorcock's other series and felt like it gave me a better idea what the early Blake stories were like.
This was the one that has me interested in tracking down more Blake books.
February 22, 2026
This was a difficult book to rate. The way you feel about this book will depend on how you feel about Sexton Blake and Pulp heroes generally.
It is best to accept pulp on its own terms- fun adventures 'in the vein' of more famous copyrighted works then this is great.
You can be bothered by similarities to a certain Baker Street detective or suave British sectret agent. But then you are missing the fun. And the point- these are comic book stories from the era before comic books.
I do think that they have missed a trick by not publishing the paperback in the old fashiond back-to back format so that they can be read in any order.
It is best to accept pulp on its own terms- fun adventures 'in the vein' of more famous copyrighted works then this is great.
You can be bothered by similarities to a certain Baker Street detective or suave British sectret agent. But then you are missing the fun. And the point- these are comic book stories from the era before comic books.
I do think that they have missed a trick by not publishing the paperback in the old fashiond back-to back format so that they can be read in any order.
December 8, 2023
This book is a lot of fun. I'm new to the Sexton Blake stories, but a fan of Michael Moorcock's work. I enjoyed the little connections to his Eternal Champion stories. They're small, though (mostly names), so not required to enjoy this book.
December 15, 2024
Two novels in one and both linked in setting and with some characters. These were a very easy read and gripping enough to keep you going if, like me, you’re not really a Sexton Blake fan.
May 13, 2026
Fun little detective novels. If Sherlock Holmes was also James Bond.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews