The Megstone Plot

by Andrew Garve

Commander Colin Easton meets an old comrade and is introduced to his friend's wife. The two soon start an affair and Colin hatches a money-making plot with his married lover.

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

AKA: Paul Somers, Roger Bax

Andrew Garve was the pen name of Paul Winterton (1908-2001). He was born in Leicester and educated at the Hulme Grammar School, Manchester and Purley County School, Surrey, after which he took a degree in Economics at London University. He was on the staff of The Economist for four years, and then worked for fourteen years for the London News Chronicle as reporter, leader writer and foreign correspondent. He was assigned to Moscow from 1942 to 1945, where he was also the correspondent of the BBC’s Overseas Service.

After the war he turned to full-time writing of detective and adventure novels and produced more than forty-five books. His work was serialized, televised, broadcast, filmed and translated into some twenty languages. He was noted for his varied and unusual backgrounds – including Russia, newspaper offices, the West Indies, ocean sailing, the Australian outback, politics, mountaineering and forestry – and for never repeating a plot.

Andrew Garve was a founding member and first joint secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Reviews

[Paperback Papa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Garve is one of the pen names of Paul Winterton (1908-2001), a British journalist and crime novelist. "The Megstone Plot" from 1956 was my first taste of his talents, and I liked it.

The plot is pretty wacky. A guy and his mistress come up with a plan to swindle big bucks, with which they intend to leave her nerdy husband behind and fly off to an island paradise to live happily ever after. Other reviewers may reveal the nature of their swindle. I would rather the reader not know, since knowing might discourage one from reading the book. Yes, it's that odd, unlike any con I've ever encountered in a novel. Some would call it far-fetched, and they wouldn't be wrong. But it worked for me. It seemed fresh and different. I thought it was fun.

Garve's writing is really good. His lead male character tells the story and creates a lot of tension. The closing chapters had me completely locked in. My edition of the book is only 128 pages, but the print is so small it was almost unreadable. Even with that big drawback, the book is an easy recommendation.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

A short 1956 novel which is ultimately shallow and disappointing, due to a weak resolution, a too-hard-to-believe motivation by the main character, and a fairly thin plot. War-hero Clive Easton becomes infatuated with a married woman with whose apparent connivance he fakes his disappearance and reappearance to claim damages from the press, when setting up a suspicion of espionage. The dangers of hiding on Megstone near the Northumbria coast is the highlight but it’s too fanciful and the women poorly depicted

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I preferred this Garve book to the first one I read (A Hero for Leanda), although they both suffer from similar drawbacks of relying hard on gendered stereotypes; some of the writing too can be quite unintentionally amusing. However, this story featured a unique storyline which was far from predictable. A good story, very entertaining.

[John Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely typical Garve. No violence.

[Tim Trewartha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid Andrew Garve novel, featuring his usual deft writing and intricate plotting.

[ricoeurian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Megstone Plot by Andrew Garve is somewhere between a crime caper and a crime thriller. Garve's writing style is quite unlike the fiction styles we're used to today. His prose is smooth and quick and understated, making his books a pleasure to read and easy to devour in one sitting. Plot is paramount, and Garve is known to be a master of plot, but setting and character are strong as well.

In The Megstone Plot, the story of 'a fraud to catch a fortune' as the cover of the original Pan edition had it, Garve tells the story of Clive Easton and his entanglement with his friend's wife, Isobel. Clive describes his first sight of Isobel:

"She was tall and rather statuesque, with a mass of dark brown hair that waved back from a round forehead. She had high cheekbones and sleepy-looking eyes and a full, sensual mouth. Her movements were slow and she spoke with an attractively insolent drawl. She had the poise and grace of a leopardess and I thought she was superb."

Isobel is the driving force in this thriller, demanding a fortune of Clive in return for a passionate affair. Together they devise a plot to strand Clive on Megstone island and induce the press to brand him a traitor so that he can return and sue them for libel, netting them a fortune.

Garve adeptly takes the reader along with him through the lovers' calculations, Clive's actions and the press reactions, with the plot twisting in small but unexpected ways. The pace is quick and satisfying.

There is another dimension to the story, which I won't reveal, that involves a second woman. As the original blurb had it, "Being ‘marooned’ on this small deserted island with his ‘rescue’ assured is not so bad . . . but he didn’t count on another girl getting enmeshed in the plot, and Clive soon finds that two women is too many."

[Prakash Loungani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read it in a sitting, but book is slight. Was made into a movie "A Touch of Larceny".

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been on the bookshelf forever. Read it in one sitting. Very good.