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The Whispering
AND HERE COMES CRIME!Billany for VillainyTHE OPERA HOUSE MURDERS by Dan Billany (Faber and Faber) is a find. I can remember no first novel in the crime field that has been so much in a class by itself. The murder is committed in front of the reader’s eyes in the first two minutes, the rest is excitement and detection. Mr. Billany’s style, light-hearted, a trifle callous, semi-cynical, fits perfectly the amoral people he is dealing with. “Billany for Villainy” should become Mr. Faber’s war-cry. Manchester Evening News 27th September 1940THE WHISPERING is Dan Billany’s follow up book to the Opera House Murders, once again featuring Robbie Duncan.There’s a fair in the field next to Granby House, the sun is shining, and the lawnmower’s broken. With his wife, Mary, the world’s most beautiful soprano and his stepson Jack, Robbie joins the rest of Banham sipping lemonade and eating scones, jam and scalded cream. The roundabouts are set in motion and the music plays, and Robbie finds himself on a ride he can’t get off.THE WHISPERING by DAN BILLANYAnother action-packed thriller from the pen of Dan Billany. Another dramatic adventure featuring Robbie Duncan, that reckless devil-may-care detective with his unconventional approach to crime solving.Here we have the same racy style as we met in The Opera House Murders. All the elements are here – murder galore, stolen jewels, a glamorous blonde, a suspicious vicar, a bevy of crooks, a kidnapped child, an escaped lion and at the heart of it all, the Whisperer! There’s enough action to satisfy the most ardent fan, with Robbie at the centre needing all his courage and strength to cope with the desperate situations the plot throws at him. Through those sections narrated by himself, Robbie’s strong personality his sardonic sense of humour, his cool approach to danger, his ingenuity in outwitting both the criminals and the police, together with his (and Dan’s) opinions of life, politics, education, and even literature. The plotting is superb; the action breath-taking in its speed and drama; it is a real page-turner.V Showan and V A Reeves Authors of : Dan Billany. Hull’s Lost HeroNovember 2007.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 19, 2007
2 people want to read
About the author
Dan Billany
8 books1 followerDan Billany (14 November 1913 – disappeared 20 November 1943) was an English novelist.
Billany was born and raised in Hull. He joined the Labour League of Youth and later the Hull Branch of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, but was expelled from the latter in 1933 for his involvement in an internal dispute. He later joined the National Unemployed Workers' Movement.
Billany received a degree in English from the University College of Hull in 1937. His career in teaching was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II; Billany joined the army in 1940 and became an officer as lieutenant in the 4th battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment. He was captured by the Germans and spent June 1942 till September 1943 as a prisoner of war in Italy.
Throughout the war off duty, Billany concentrated on his writing. The Opera House Murders, a thriller, and The Magic Door, a book for boys, were published in 1940 and 1943, respectively. After the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, Billany fled to the countryside with his manuscripts, working on them for weeks while hiding from the German army. He deposited them with a friendly local who promised to post them to Britain at the conclusion of the war. These manuscripts, The Cage and The Trap, were received by Billany's family in 1946 and eventually published to wide acclaim. In Dockers and Detectives, Ken Worpole lauded The Trap as "the finest novel to come out of the war".
In October 1943, Billany and three friends began to make their way over the Apennines towards the Allied forces. They were last seen in Capistrello on 20 November 1943, and presumably died in the mountains a few days later. Lieutenant Dan Billany is listed on the Commonwealth War Grave Commission's Cassino Memorial, to Commonwealth military personnel who have no known grave, as having died on 1 January 1944.
Billany was born and raised in Hull. He joined the Labour League of Youth and later the Hull Branch of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, but was expelled from the latter in 1933 for his involvement in an internal dispute. He later joined the National Unemployed Workers' Movement.
Billany received a degree in English from the University College of Hull in 1937. His career in teaching was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II; Billany joined the army in 1940 and became an officer as lieutenant in the 4th battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment. He was captured by the Germans and spent June 1942 till September 1943 as a prisoner of war in Italy.
Throughout the war off duty, Billany concentrated on his writing. The Opera House Murders, a thriller, and The Magic Door, a book for boys, were published in 1940 and 1943, respectively. After the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, Billany fled to the countryside with his manuscripts, working on them for weeks while hiding from the German army. He deposited them with a friendly local who promised to post them to Britain at the conclusion of the war. These manuscripts, The Cage and The Trap, were received by Billany's family in 1946 and eventually published to wide acclaim. In Dockers and Detectives, Ken Worpole lauded The Trap as "the finest novel to come out of the war".
In October 1943, Billany and three friends began to make their way over the Apennines towards the Allied forces. They were last seen in Capistrello on 20 November 1943, and presumably died in the mountains a few days later. Lieutenant Dan Billany is listed on the Commonwealth War Grave Commission's Cassino Memorial, to Commonwealth military personnel who have no known grave, as having died on 1 January 1944.
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