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The Heel of Achilles
'I'm done for ... find X.1 ... Dene ... You must ... Tooth-paste ...'
England is at war with Germany and Dene of the Secret Service tries to decipher his fatally wounded colleague's garbled message - potentially vital information for England's survival.
Who is X.1? What does the word 'Tooth-paste' signify?
Dene must find out and stop X.1, or the Third Reich will strike a crippling blow to England and change the course of the war. And he has just eight days in which to do it ...
England is at war with Germany and Dene of the Secret Service tries to decipher his fatally wounded colleague's garbled message - potentially vital information for England's survival.
Who is X.1? What does the word 'Tooth-paste' signify?
Dene must find out and stop X.1, or the Third Reich will strike a crippling blow to England and change the course of the war. And he has just eight days in which to do it ...
329 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1945
About the author
Gerald Verner
118 books22 followersGerald Verner is one of the pseudonyms used by John Robert Stuart Pringle, who was born in Streatham, London, on 31 January 1897.
In his early writing days he used the name Donald Stuart, under which name he wrote 44 stories for the Sexton Blake Library as well as six stories for Union Jack and three for the Thriller magazine. In addition he wrote two stage plays, 'Sexton Blake' and 'The Shadow', two films, 'The Man Outside' (1933) and 'The Shadow' (1933) under the Stuart name. Later a number of his books were adapted for radio serials, stage plays and films.
He became a hugely successful thriller writer, producing more than 120 novels that were translated in 35 languages. The Duke of Windsor was a big Verner fan and at one time he was presented with 15 volumes specially bound.
Heavily influenced by Edgar Wallace, he wrote extensively for magazines such as Detective Weekly, the Sexton Blake Library, Union Jack and The Thriller. He also adapted Peter Cheyney's 'Meet Mr Callaghan' and Agatha Christie's 'Towards Zero' for the stage.
He also used the pseudonyms Thane Leslie, Derwent Steele and Nigel Vane.
He died at Broadstairs, Kent, of natural causes on 16 September 1980.
Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2013
In his early writing days he used the name Donald Stuart, under which name he wrote 44 stories for the Sexton Blake Library as well as six stories for Union Jack and three for the Thriller magazine. In addition he wrote two stage plays, 'Sexton Blake' and 'The Shadow', two films, 'The Man Outside' (1933) and 'The Shadow' (1933) under the Stuart name. Later a number of his books were adapted for radio serials, stage plays and films.
He became a hugely successful thriller writer, producing more than 120 novels that were translated in 35 languages. The Duke of Windsor was a big Verner fan and at one time he was presented with 15 volumes specially bound.
Heavily influenced by Edgar Wallace, he wrote extensively for magazines such as Detective Weekly, the Sexton Blake Library, Union Jack and The Thriller. He also adapted Peter Cheyney's 'Meet Mr Callaghan' and Agatha Christie's 'Towards Zero' for the stage.
He also used the pseudonyms Thane Leslie, Derwent Steele and Nigel Vane.
He died at Broadstairs, Kent, of natural causes on 16 September 1980.
Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 2, 2013
Set in World War II, 'The Heel of Achilles' is at times slow moving as the plot revolves around a partial message delivered to Secret Service agent Michael Dene by one of his dying colleagues.
A date is given in the message and it leaves Dene and his colleagues just eight days to find out what the message is about and to act. To assist him, Dene gathers together a crew of amateur detectives who get themselves into all sorts of scrapes while he is trying to unravel the mystery.
Freeing them from their perils adds to his burden but he battles on manfully and eventually finds the significance of the word 'tooth-paste' as delivered by his dying colleague. And he manages to mobilise all the police forces in England so that 45,000 arrests (astonishing!) take place just in time to prevent any damage being done.
But this leaves him with one problem. Who is the head man, known as X.1? In a most surprising twist in the last few pages (just when the reader begins to think that X.1 will survive to plot another day) X.1 is unmasked and the war is able to continue to a successful conclusion without any sabotage of the country's efforts.
A date is given in the message and it leaves Dene and his colleagues just eight days to find out what the message is about and to act. To assist him, Dene gathers together a crew of amateur detectives who get themselves into all sorts of scrapes while he is trying to unravel the mystery.
Freeing them from their perils adds to his burden but he battles on manfully and eventually finds the significance of the word 'tooth-paste' as delivered by his dying colleague. And he manages to mobilise all the police forces in England so that 45,000 arrests (astonishing!) take place just in time to prevent any damage being done.
But this leaves him with one problem. Who is the head man, known as X.1? In a most surprising twist in the last few pages (just when the reader begins to think that X.1 will survive to plot another day) X.1 is unmasked and the war is able to continue to a successful conclusion without any sabotage of the country's efforts.
March 25, 2024
This was again a little bit silly! Dene and co, must have the luck of the proverbial devil. From trying to solve a cryptic message from a dying colleague (really the answer was obvious), captured, blown up in a bombing raid, but still managing to survive and save England from disaster, this was certainly a book of it's time. At least in this one the main female isn't going round fainting, so one must be thankful for some things. And really X.l was also a wee bit obvious. Still it passed an afternoon.
January 14, 2018
Competently written, but crippled by the plot, which concerns the thwarting of a Nazi attempt to shift the outcome of WWII [!!!] by some stalwart Brits. The plan is ridiculously grandiose, while the thwarting generally silly, but successful. The combination makes for a tedious read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews