The Highbinders

Philip St. Ives #4

by Oliver Bleeck (Pseudonym), Ross Thomas

Professional go-between extraordinaire, St. Ives is after an antique sword that happens to feature an egg-size diamond in its hilt. A gallery of rogues want it too, and soon staying alive seems much more important--and more unlikely--than getting the treasure.

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Thriller

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Oliver Bleeck is a pen name of Ross Thomas.

Reviews

[Craig Pittman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first thriller by Ross Thomas that I've read this year that left me a little bored in spots. His main character, ex-newspaperman turned professional go-between Philip St. Ives is still a fun narrator. He's summoned to London to work out the ransom of a stolen 800-year-old sword with a diamond as big as a chicken egg mounted in the handle and rubies scattered here and there.

There are, as usual, a raft of marvelously named characters involved in this plot: con man English Eddie Apex and his wife Ceil; the untrustworthy Nitrys, Ceil's father Ned and uncle Norbert; a counterfeiter named Curmutt; a purveyor of phony watches named Tick Tock Tamil; and on and on.

But the plot falls short of the usual mix of breathless excitement and deadpan humor. There's a way-too-long scene of St. Ives playing poker at a club, and it drags down everything around it. Once the first dead body turns up (instead of the sword) everything kicks back into overdrive, but there are one too many improbable twists, and the death of one character seems overly contrived.

Nevertheless, I have enjoyed the other St. Ives novels (published under Thomas' pen name of Oliver Bleeck) and look forward to reading the next one.

[Larry Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 4, The Highbinders, of the Philip St. Ives series, takes our “hero” to London to go-between the ransom of the long lost Sword of St. Louis, refound and stolen, value est. at $3,ooo,ooo pounds.

St. Ives has a poor history with London, in addition to culinary issues of Britain are pronounced, the famed English breakfast being overrated, the coffee bad and the following lunch and supper much worse, and where his marriage and columnist career goes astray.

Plus history with lead grifter of the story Eddie Sykes, and bad guy Wesley Cagel, Shields gambling emporium exec. Many twists and turns as St. Ives deals with Eddie’s wife, father and uncle in laws, and their elderly staff (all thieves). Decides to try to salvage Robin Styles future with the return of the sword, knowing that twit Robin will nonetheless by doomed to lose it all again at the poker table. Perhaps a loser’s life will be extended.

I very much enjoyed the trip to England, but understand why Philip wants to get home.

[David C Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

One more from the St Ives series written by Ross Thomas. This time in London which makes a change and provides the opportunity for some cross cultural interchange including a much needed take down of the vaunted English Breakfast. The problem is that everyone is bad and the action such as it is is the crooks double and triple crossing each other off screen. So not the best but still quality.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth novel about Philip St. Ives, the professional go-between. It is one of his best.

St Ives goes to London to handle a ransom demand for a stolen sword worth three million pounds sterling. He is drugged and arrested within hours of arriving in London. When he gets out of jail the next morning, he finds out that an old acquaintance, Eddie Apex, is the guy who recommended him as a go-between.

Apex was one of the great New York City conmen, but he is retired and married now. His wife's father and uncle are selling the famous sword under the table to avoid taxes for the owner. The sword gets stolen, and they want St. Ives to recover it with no police involvement.

The story barrels along. St Ives worked as a reporter in London. He looks up his low life connections when things start to go bad. The con man Tick-Tock Tamil , the chauffeur who used to be the best getaway driver in London and Eddie Kaplan, the former gunrunner who runs the best Deli in London, all make appearances.

The story is full of double crosses. Everyone is a suspect. Dead bodies start popping up. There is a persistent London Police Officer who is pulling together what is going on. We get an exciting car chase and a satisfying ending. All and all this is a first-rate thriller.



Sign of the times. In this 1973 novel a British police officer explains, "I'm not much on American humor. I watched that program of yours a time or two on the telly-"Laugh-In", I think it's called. I had to ask the wife why the people were laughing. She tried to explain it to me, but I still couldn't see anything to laugh at."

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1976, The Highbinders is the fourth installment of Ross Thomas's light-hearted series featuring Philip St. Ives. The series of five novels was written under the pen name of Oliver Bleeck, and St. Ives is a professional go-between. He mediates between those who have had something or someone taken from them and those who have done the taking. His job is to deliver the ransom and recover the goods that have been stolen or the person who has been kidnapped. Inevitably, of course, things always go off the rails.

This case finds St. Ives in London. An extremely valuable eight-hundred year-old sword that once belonged to a crusading king has been stolen and the robbers are asking a small fortune for its return. As is always the case in these books, there's a colorful cast of characters including con artists, forgers, and others, none of whom can be trusted. There are double crosses, one after another to the point where it's impossible to keep them all straight.

The plot, such as it is, is wildly implausible, but that hardly matters. There's a great deal of humor in the book and it's always fun watching St. Ives interact with the other characters and attempt to weave his way through this entangled mess. This is certainly not one of the great crime novels ever written, and it is also certainly not one of the author's best novels. It will probably appeal only to those readers determined to track down and read every one of Thomas's books, but for such readers, both the hunt and the read are enjoyable.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The con is on - this time it has to do with a possibly stolen 800 year-old sword of St Louis which has a massive diamond on the pommel and some rubies here and there, and Philip St. Ives is the go-between conman. Along with lots his trans-atlantic con characters as only Bleeck/Thomas can create them: English Eddie Apex and his wife Ceil, who call St Ives to London; the Nitrys, Ceil's father Ned and uncle Norbert; a counterfeiter named Curmutt, Tick Tock Tamil, Julian Christenberry, an expert on medieval armor and weaponry; Wesley Cagel, of Shields Gambling Emporium, a U.S. football player who worked for Meyer Lansky; Robin Styles, a bad gambler who owes Shields big-time money; Manny Kaplan who "ran guns into Israel in 1948," and now runs Manny's New York Delicatessen and Bar, Ltd. on Charing Cross Road where you can't get a Heineken because Manny "don't handle no Nazi beer." So the hunt is on and between playing poker, smoking Pall Malls and drinking whiskey, ransom money is exchanged - once in a baby carriage - but an authentic sword is not recovered. People die along the way, of course - one corpse is found in a concrete piano tomb - and a sword - is it authentic? - is hidden in a dead man's dead Christmas tree. In fact, there may be three swords, but will anyone be alive to possess any of them?

[Ds Oswald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun series marked by dry humor and well-written dialog, sometimes that goes on for a page with just the speech. I'm a big fan of that style and the plots being fun, with sufficiently surprising twists, are a good bonus. Of course this is slightly damaged in places by those certified 1970s Moments(TM) and the lack of good women characters. I wish Philip St. Ives was more popular than James Bond for sure

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extraordinarily fun adventure through London, with one of the best first chapters of any Ross Thomas novel. The third act unrolls slightly too fast and since this is a series there's a little too much canned backstory about the protagonist but overall an absolute blast to read.

[DunklesSchaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zu hoch gepokert - Ross Thomas
erste vollständige Ausgabe, Alexander Verlag 2023

[Graham Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip St. Ives, professional go-between, is off on another adventure, this time to London. Seems a young man has found that the beat-up old sword his father picked up in Shaftsbury Avenue was really the legendary sword of the crusader king St. Louis.

Too bad someone nicked it from him before he could sell it.

I can't say too much, but things develop from there. The cast of typically colorful characters is large, and of course colorful, and the search for the sword is a lot of fun, though the ending is downbeat, as happens in many of the St. Ives books.

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ross Thomas solves wording problems so well that I thought I would like this book for that reason alone. I was wrong. That talent is on display only occasionally, and the story is so absurd that I did not enjoy the book. It begins like a real novel, but half way through settles into being just a mystery with a rather silly story once all the bits are explained, and they are explained rather than shown. Mystery fans seem to enjoy this book, but it did not give me enough of what I want.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Oregon 31 Chinese miners are murdered and butchered during gold rush. A white man whom they had befriended avenges their deaths. He tracks down the culprits and kills them. Unusual subplot about mail-order bride from China escorted by a professional assassin but not well developed. Supposedly based on a true incident.

[Sharron · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ideal plot with quirky characters that would serve well as the basis for a clever, caper sort of movie starring Amy Adams, Matt Damon, George Clooney and the rest of the usual suspects.

[keereads · Rating 3 out of 5]

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