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A Rough Shoot #2
A Time to Kill
A TIME TO KILL is a classic thriller from one of the 20th century's best crime writers. Roger Taine wants to be left alone to live quietly in the country with his wife and children. But Roland, head of British Intelligence needs his help. A vicious spy ring has a very simple strategically placed foot-and-mouth disease. One isolated outbreak would spread virulently. Twenty outbreaks at the same time would be uncontrollable. And so two men must fight against time to prevent certain catastrophe...
177 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1951
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77 people want to read
About the author
Geoffrey Household
95 books83 followersBritish author of mostly thrillers, though among 37 books he also published children's fiction. Household's flight-and-chase novels, which show the influence of John Buchan, were often narrated in the first person by a gentleman-adventurer. Among his best-know works is' Rogue Male' (1939), a suggestive story of a hunter who becomes the hunted, in 1941 filmed by Fritz Lang as 'Man Hunt'. Household's fast-paced story foreshadowed such international bestsellers as Richard Condon's thriller 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1959), Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal' (1971), and Ken Follett's 'Eye of the Needle' (1978) .
In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington.
Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.
In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington.
Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 5, 2016
I read this immediately after A Rough Shoot, to which this book is something of a sequel, and found it very disappointing by contrast. Roger Taine, the central character of A Rough Shoot, is the hero of this book too. The story follows directly on from the events described in A Rough Shoot and two of the minor characters from the previous book recur in this volume. Unlike the three other Household novels I have read so far, this one has a very pedestrian beginning. Taine visits his MI5 'handler' Roland and is informed that Pink, who was on the side of the Fascists in A Rough Shoot, is now helping the British government. He has overheard some Germans discussing a plot to spread foot and mouth disease throughout Britain and Taine is asked by MI5 to help Pink foil the foreign miscreants. Reluctantly, Taine agrees.
We are almost a third of the way through the book before Pink has outlined to Taine what he knows about the plot and the two men have decided how to proceed against it. This is rather dull and unnecessary as Roland has already told Taine all he really needs to know and seems to have been included by Household more or less as padding to bulk the novel up to the requisite length (it is only 168 pages long in this edition even so). Pink then breaks into a house where the deadly, disease-infected ticks are being harboured while Taine keeps watch and things pick up. But the story then becomes predominantly languorous again in its middle section before we are treated to a final smuggling-and-sailing climax which reminded me quite a lot of The Riddle of the Sands. Pink is nowhere near as engaging a character as Sandorski was in the prequel and the narrative is slower-paced, less interesting and somehow more obvious than that of A Rough Shoot. The Dorset countryside gets less of a look in than it did in the previous book, partly because most of the events take place either in the dark or at sea.
A dud therefore but this will not dissuade me from reading more Household this year.
We are almost a third of the way through the book before Pink has outlined to Taine what he knows about the plot and the two men have decided how to proceed against it. This is rather dull and unnecessary as Roland has already told Taine all he really needs to know and seems to have been included by Household more or less as padding to bulk the novel up to the requisite length (it is only 168 pages long in this edition even so). Pink then breaks into a house where the deadly, disease-infected ticks are being harboured while Taine keeps watch and things pick up. But the story then becomes predominantly languorous again in its middle section before we are treated to a final smuggling-and-sailing climax which reminded me quite a lot of The Riddle of the Sands. Pink is nowhere near as engaging a character as Sandorski was in the prequel and the narrative is slower-paced, less interesting and somehow more obvious than that of A Rough Shoot. The Dorset countryside gets less of a look in than it did in the previous book, partly because most of the events take place either in the dark or at sea.
A dud therefore but this will not dissuade me from reading more Household this year.
July 4, 2011
This compact thriller is one of the shortest of Household’s adult novels; it has no chapter breaks and may be read in one long sitting. It’s also one of the most purely entertaining of his books that I’ve read. The climax, I think, lacks a little something, but Household surprised me with a rather touching denouement (his protagonist here is, somewhat surprisingly, a family man). I much prefer the more slowly-building Watcher in the Shadows with its powerhouse ending, but this book--like all the Household I’ve read--held my interest to the last page.
[3.5 stars]
[3.5 stars]
March 17, 2014
A semi-retired spy is asked to look into a potential biological weapon and finds his family is put in danger.
Not a bad story (imagine a middle-aged married James Bond with kids), but the writing lacks spark and constant references to back-story, without any explanation, were a bit annoying.
Not a bad story (imagine a middle-aged married James Bond with kids), but the writing lacks spark and constant references to back-story, without any explanation, were a bit annoying.
February 29, 2008
Couldn't put it down. Well crafted and inviting.
September 18, 2018
A story with potential, but not particularly exciting-- as though the writer was telling you what was happening from a distance.
July 24, 2022
Roger Taine is an ex-spy who leads an ordinary life on dorset coast until one day his old paymaster gets in touch to say that he needs to find a scientist living in his area who is making a bio-chemical weapon. He is using ticks who are impregnanted with foot and mouth disease and settling them on cattle and then they are spreading the disease. The mad scientist has to be stopped. Roger has no option to agree to this as he tells his wife. Roger teams up with a sort of ex-spy called Pink and they set off to find the spy. This book was written in the early 1950s I think it was.
They do successfully find the spy and his house and Pink breaks into it to capture the said infected ticks. Roger meanwhile is spotted by the police moving around the outside of the house and is asked why he is out in the middle of the night with a butterfly net. Moths. Mad about them. The following day his two young sons are abducted outside school and he hears a tape of them played to him by an enemy agent who wants the ticks back if he wants to see his children again.
There follows a tale of him joining forces with Pink and sailing to intercept a boat with his children on board and they capture the boat and sink it after killing all the crew. They let the children out of the locked cabin (before sinking the boat) and manage to get back aboard their own boat and run the "race" which is dangerous water around the Isle of Wight and get back home.
It does have moments of high tension and also moments of quite comical interactions. It is a short book and although I quite liked it, I preferred Rogue Male, although there was definitely no comedy in that.
They do successfully find the spy and his house and Pink breaks into it to capture the said infected ticks. Roger meanwhile is spotted by the police moving around the outside of the house and is asked why he is out in the middle of the night with a butterfly net. Moths. Mad about them. The following day his two young sons are abducted outside school and he hears a tape of them played to him by an enemy agent who wants the ticks back if he wants to see his children again.
There follows a tale of him joining forces with Pink and sailing to intercept a boat with his children on board and they capture the boat and sink it after killing all the crew. They let the children out of the locked cabin (before sinking the boat) and manage to get back aboard their own boat and run the "race" which is dangerous water around the Isle of Wight and get back home.
It does have moments of high tension and also moments of quite comical interactions. It is a short book and although I quite liked it, I preferred Rogue Male, although there was definitely no comedy in that.
March 15, 2025
A thoroughly enjoyable read!
I enjoyed this book immensely. Mr Household’s use of vivid imagery brings the characters and scenery to life. The action is nonstop and the characters are full of wit and reflection on their lives and situations. I will be looking forward to reading more of Mr. Household’s work !
I enjoyed this book immensely. Mr Household’s use of vivid imagery brings the characters and scenery to life. The action is nonstop and the characters are full of wit and reflection on their lives and situations. I will be looking forward to reading more of Mr. Household’s work !
June 24, 2020
There's nothing inherently wrong with this book. I admit that I likely don't enjoy it simply due to the style of the times it was written in.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews