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Chief Superintendent Gently #9
Gently Go Man
Speed makes the teenage bikers feel alive, but they soon find that murder is the fastest way to die
A five-mile stretch of arrow-straight road outside Latchford acts like a magnet to beatnik bikers using the road like a drag strip. When one of the bikers is killed in an accident, most people regard it as an inevitable consequence of the kids using drugs and racing bikes for kicks. But the evidence points to the young man's death being something more sinister than a mere accident and George Gently is drawn into a world populated by disaffected teenagers, with a jazz soundtrack and a background of murder.
Praise for Alan Hunter's Gently books:
'It is always a pleasure to look forward to another Gently book by Alan Hunter ...' Police Review
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1961
About the author
Alan Hunter
106 books67 followersAlan Hunter was born at Hoveton, Norfolk and went to school across the River Bure in Wroxham. He left school at 14 and worked on his father's farm near Norwich. He enjoyed dinghy sailing on the Norfolk Broads, wrote natural history notes for the local newspaper, and wrote poetry, some of which was published while he was in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
He married, in 1944, Adelaide Cooper, who survives him with their daughter. After the war he managed the antiquarian books department of Charles Cubitt in Norwich. Four years later, in 1950, he established his own bookshop on Maddermarket in the city.
From 1955 until 1998 he published a Gently detective novel nearly every year. He retired to Brundall in Norfolk where he continued his interests in local history, natural history, and sailing
He married, in 1944, Adelaide Cooper, who survives him with their daughter. After the war he managed the antiquarian books department of Charles Cubitt in Norwich. Four years later, in 1950, he established his own bookshop on Maddermarket in the city.
From 1955 until 1998 he published a Gently detective novel nearly every year. He retired to Brundall in Norfolk where he continued his interests in local history, natural history, and sailing
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 17, 2023
Gently vs The Bikers
Review of the Constable Kindle eBook edition (2011) of the Cassell Crime Connoisseurs hardcover original (1961).
Gently Go Man was the basis for the first TV episode of the Inspector George Gently (2007-2017) series, but those who seek out the book hoping for a more extensive background will likely be disappointed. The original novel is very much dated by its antiquated beatnik-like slang used by its biker gang, some members of which (mild spoiler) . The sometimes page long dialogues denouncing 'screws' (i.e. the police) & squares (i.e. straight society) and promoting getting a 'touch' (i.e. getting high) become tiresome to read at length.
Inspector (now promoted to Superintendent) Gently is called in when one biker is run off the road and killed while his passenger survives in a coma. The sole other witness and chief suspect has disappeared. Gently interviews various members of the bike gang and realizes there is more to the crime than first appears. The gang describe themselves as 'Jeebies' and their preferred music is jazz. This is not a UK youth movement that I've ever heard of, unlike Mods, Rockers or Teddy Boys, so perhaps it is something invented by the author. The charismatic leader of the gang attempts to manipulate Gently, who is not impressed.
The unflappable Gently is always entertaining, but this was a chore to get through. Not recommended except for completists.
The dust cover of the original hardcover of 'Gently Go Man', published by Cassell Crime Connoisseurs in 1961. Image sourced from Pinterest.
Trivia and Links
Gently Go Man was adapted as the very first episode of the Inspector George Gently TV series (2007-2017) in 2007. The TV adaptation is considerably different from the original book. Very few of the other TV episodes are based on the original books and the characters are quite different e.g. Sgt Bacchus does not appear in the books. A trailer for the series can be seen here. There is no free posting of the entire Episode 1 but it is available on various streaming channels such as BritBox. Someone posted an edit of all the scenes involving actor Richard Armitage as the biker gang leader, which you can see here (Note: This includes some spoilers about the plot of the TV adaptation).
Review of the Constable Kindle eBook edition (2011) of the Cassell Crime Connoisseurs hardcover original (1961).
He was in his early fifties, his face was rugged, archetypal. The mouth was full and the jaw squared. The nose was shapely and strong. The eyebrows were heavy, a little greyed. His hair was mid-brown, greying too. His eyes were hazel and had a mild expression. He was Superintendent Gently. He was from Homicide.
‘I wouldn’t help you if I could, screw. You make it a crime for these kids to get a touch out of smoking. That’s Squaresville from Squaresville. It’s no crime east of Suez.’
‘I wouldn’t know,’ Gently said. ‘It’s outside our jurisdiction.’
Gently Go Man was the basis for the first TV episode of the Inspector George Gently (2007-2017) series, but those who seek out the book hoping for a more extensive background will likely be disappointed. The original novel is very much dated by its antiquated beatnik-like slang used by its biker gang, some members of which (mild spoiler) . The sometimes page long dialogues denouncing 'screws' (i.e. the police) & squares (i.e. straight society) and promoting getting a 'touch' (i.e. getting high) become tiresome to read at length.
Inspector (now promoted to Superintendent) Gently is called in when one biker is run off the road and killed while his passenger survives in a coma. The sole other witness and chief suspect has disappeared. Gently interviews various members of the bike gang and realizes there is more to the crime than first appears. The gang describe themselves as 'Jeebies' and their preferred music is jazz. This is not a UK youth movement that I've ever heard of, unlike Mods, Rockers or Teddy Boys, so perhaps it is something invented by the author. The charismatic leader of the gang attempts to manipulate Gently, who is not impressed.
The unflappable Gently is always entertaining, but this was a chore to get through. Not recommended except for completists.
The dust cover of the original hardcover of 'Gently Go Man', published by Cassell Crime Connoisseurs in 1961. Image sourced from Pinterest.
Trivia and Links
Gently Go Man was adapted as the very first episode of the Inspector George Gently TV series (2007-2017) in 2007. The TV adaptation is considerably different from the original book. Very few of the other TV episodes are based on the original books and the characters are quite different e.g. Sgt Bacchus does not appear in the books. A trailer for the series can be seen here. There is no free posting of the entire Episode 1 but it is available on various streaming channels such as BritBox. Someone posted an edit of all the scenes involving actor Richard Armitage as the biker gang leader, which you can see here (Note: This includes some spoilers about the plot of the TV adaptation).
April 1, 2018
I have enjoyed the Gently series, written from 1955 onwards, despite them being dated, because they have been redolent of the Fifties. This effort chasing a suspicious motorcycle death within a group of jazz/beatnik motorcyclists suffers from Hunter's use of the language and dialect which now seems very dated indeed. I did not 'dig' the talk of 'Squaresville' 'man', it got in the way of a very decent detective story.
October 28, 2013
Gently Go Man by Alan Hunter is like way out there, man. Like the mostest in the way of late 50s/very early 60s talk. Like maybe too much mostest. You dig me, man?
Okay, I can only do so much of that. Seriously. So...Gently Go Man was first published in 1961. The teddy boys have given way to jeebies (don't ask me, I have no idea). These are jazz-loving, motorcycle-riding teenagers who have had it with the adults and are looking for a way out of squaresville. They find their way out through the kick of riding their motorcycles hard and fast and through the smoke of a stick (that's marijuana to you and me).
Johnny Lister is one of them--until the night he and his girl are riding hard down five miles of straight road with a dead tree at the end of it. Initially, it looks like an accident--because one small mistake when you're clocking over a hundred is all it takes to end it. But there are traces of another rider who may have run Lister off the road and someone stopped to check on the damage (but didn't report the wreck). Superintendent George Gently of Scotland Yard is called in to try and trace the other rider. And while he's at it, he'll trace a line back to the supplier of the sticks and break up a cozy little drug ring.
I must say that I am solidly lodge in squaresville. I just don't dig this book, man. It doesn't reach me. And I have to say that if I didn't know that this was published in 1961 and so Hunter must have had a pretty good idea what the lingo of the day for teenagers was, I would think this was a very bad, over-the-top, stereotype of what the early 60s British teenager was like. There are whole pages of dialogue that is nothing but jeebie slang. And wading through that was pretty tedious. The best part of all that was how Inspector Gently didn't let the jeebies get the best of him. He rolled with it and gave as good as he got. So--star points for Inspector Gently.
And the actual detective work to figure out who was behind the drug trade and the death of Johnny Lister? That was pretty decent as well. Unfortunately, the story and the character of George Gently was nearly buried by the jive-talking jeebies. One and a half stars (rounded to two on Goodreads). Not the best of the Gently series.
As a side-note--while this is the 8th book of the Gently series, the plot is used as the pilot story for the Inspector Gently television series. It is updated just a bit (to the mid-60s) and an extra plot line involving Gently's wife and a notorious mobster is added (to spice things up a bit?).
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Okay, I can only do so much of that. Seriously. So...Gently Go Man was first published in 1961. The teddy boys have given way to jeebies (don't ask me, I have no idea). These are jazz-loving, motorcycle-riding teenagers who have had it with the adults and are looking for a way out of squaresville. They find their way out through the kick of riding their motorcycles hard and fast and through the smoke of a stick (that's marijuana to you and me).
Johnny Lister is one of them--until the night he and his girl are riding hard down five miles of straight road with a dead tree at the end of it. Initially, it looks like an accident--because one small mistake when you're clocking over a hundred is all it takes to end it. But there are traces of another rider who may have run Lister off the road and someone stopped to check on the damage (but didn't report the wreck). Superintendent George Gently of Scotland Yard is called in to try and trace the other rider. And while he's at it, he'll trace a line back to the supplier of the sticks and break up a cozy little drug ring.
I must say that I am solidly lodge in squaresville. I just don't dig this book, man. It doesn't reach me. And I have to say that if I didn't know that this was published in 1961 and so Hunter must have had a pretty good idea what the lingo of the day for teenagers was, I would think this was a very bad, over-the-top, stereotype of what the early 60s British teenager was like. There are whole pages of dialogue that is nothing but jeebie slang. And wading through that was pretty tedious. The best part of all that was how Inspector Gently didn't let the jeebies get the best of him. He rolled with it and gave as good as he got. So--star points for Inspector Gently.
And the actual detective work to figure out who was behind the drug trade and the death of Johnny Lister? That was pretty decent as well. Unfortunately, the story and the character of George Gently was nearly buried by the jive-talking jeebies. One and a half stars (rounded to two on Goodreads). Not the best of the Gently series.
As a side-note--while this is the 8th book of the Gently series, the plot is used as the pilot story for the Inspector Gently television series. It is updated just a bit (to the mid-60s) and an extra plot line involving Gently's wife and a notorious mobster is added (to spice things up a bit?).
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
June 18, 2013
This is the eighth in the series of relaxed murder mysteries about genial detective George Gently, written in the later fifties and early sixties. I've enjoyed my previous forays into the series, as much for the authentic slices of post-war British life as for the murders themselves, which were always a bit ho-hum. But this is the first to lose me completely. Hunter has always fancied himself as a chronicler of regional accents and dialects, with (in my opinion) very limited success, and the last few books I read he happily stayed away from such dangerous distractions. But this time he plunges headfirst into a whole world of cultural slang, the bizarrely unreadable language of 'hip chicks', with their talk about squares and being cool. For example:
‘You wouldn’t dig it,’ said Maureen. ‘If you’re a square you’re a square. It’s nowhere jazz to a square. But Laurie was cool, he went after it. Shooting the ton, that sort of action. But like I say you wouldn’t dig it. So what’s the use me talking?’
Here’s another sample:
‘Throwing a curve,’ Deeming said. ‘That’s not lying, it’s trying it on, hoping it’s going to fit some place. You don’t like hipsters in Squaresville. You like to put the heat on them. So you make a deal out of Johnny and come pushing us around with it.’
‘And like we don’t stand for it,’ Bixley said, stepping up closer.
‘Cool it, Sid,’ Deeming said. ‘Pitching screws is for squares.’
‘He bugs me, this guy does,’ said Bixley. ‘Me, I could spread him on the wall.’
‘Dicky says cool it,’ Maureen said. ‘So cool it quick, you big ape.’
There are entire chapters of this sort of stuff and frankly, life's too short to wade through it. One star for a DNF.
‘You wouldn’t dig it,’ said Maureen. ‘If you’re a square you’re a square. It’s nowhere jazz to a square. But Laurie was cool, he went after it. Shooting the ton, that sort of action. But like I say you wouldn’t dig it. So what’s the use me talking?’
Here’s another sample:
‘Throwing a curve,’ Deeming said. ‘That’s not lying, it’s trying it on, hoping it’s going to fit some place. You don’t like hipsters in Squaresville. You like to put the heat on them. So you make a deal out of Johnny and come pushing us around with it.’
‘And like we don’t stand for it,’ Bixley said, stepping up closer.
‘Cool it, Sid,’ Deeming said. ‘Pitching screws is for squares.’
‘He bugs me, this guy does,’ said Bixley. ‘Me, I could spread him on the wall.’
‘Dicky says cool it,’ Maureen said. ‘So cool it quick, you big ape.’
There are entire chapters of this sort of stuff and frankly, life's too short to wade through it. One star for a DNF.
December 26, 2012
I picked this up from the library as I enjoy the TV series staring Martin Shaw so much. I hadn't appreciated how much had been changed from the book when making the TV series. One of the main differences is the setting, the TV series is set in Northumberland and the books are set in Norfolk, two very different parts of England and it took a while for me to be able to adjust to the original setting. Also George is still based at Scotland Yard rather than having moved permanently to a new police force.
The story is set in the early '60s and focuses on a group of youngsters who are into racing motorbikes and listening to jazz records. A bike crashes leaving its rider dead and its pillion passenger seriously injured. Was it an accident or were they deliberately run of the road. The language used is interesting and redolent of the times. The twists and turns of the plot are interesting enough to keep me engaged but I didn't get any sense of who George Gently actually is, he remained a blank canvas the whole way through the book. This might be because this is not the first book in the series and readers who had followed George Gently from the beginning might already know him well enough to not need a great deal of detail about him but for me this was a disappointing book.
The story is set in the early '60s and focuses on a group of youngsters who are into racing motorbikes and listening to jazz records. A bike crashes leaving its rider dead and its pillion passenger seriously injured. Was it an accident or were they deliberately run of the road. The language used is interesting and redolent of the times. The twists and turns of the plot are interesting enough to keep me engaged but I didn't get any sense of who George Gently actually is, he remained a blank canvas the whole way through the book. This might be because this is not the first book in the series and readers who had followed George Gently from the beginning might already know him well enough to not need a great deal of detail about him but for me this was a disappointing book.
December 11, 2022
Ha estat interessant assabentar-me del moviment jove dels “jeebies” a UK, afeccionats al jazz, les motos, la seva curiosa forma de parlar i les curioses paraules d’argot per referir-se a l’altra gent, i com n’eren de perseguits els “porros” llavors, per part de la policia.
March 22, 2008
Interesting English murder mystery set in 1964 North England. Motorcycles and Marijuana.
August 16, 2022
Una novel·la negra curiosa. A una petita població de la campanya anglesa, la policia local, amb l'ajut de Scotland Yard, es dedica a investigar, agafau-vos fort!, ni més ni menys que qui distribueix cigarrets de marihuana al jovent! L'autor comet algun error, com per exemple pensar que si un jove que fuma porros és retengut per la policia, tendrà una síndrome d'abstinència tan gran que acabarà per confessar el que ha fet i el que no ha fet. En fi, com a novel·leta sense pretensions, per a passar l'estona, es pot llegir.
La traducció de Marta Marín no és un desastre complet, però és d'aquella època en que pareixia que, si una traducció no s'omplia de llurs i nogensmenys, ja no podia ser bona. Excés de possessius, excés d'explicacions (culpa de l'autor, no de la traductora), excés de pretèrit perfet simple... Pareix (no sé si ho és) una traducció d'una aficionada que tradueix com a entreteniment.
La traducció de Marta Marín no és un desastre complet, però és d'aquella època en que pareixia que, si una traducció no s'omplia de llurs i nogensmenys, ja no podia ser bona. Excés de possessius, excés d'explicacions (culpa de l'autor, no de la traductora), excés de pretèrit perfet simple... Pareix (no sé si ho és) una traducció d'una aficionada que tradueix com a entreteniment.
April 11, 2020
A beatnik-inspired "Jeebie" biker gang and their charismatic leader take center stage in this crime story involving speed demons, stunt driving, and a clandestine reefer trade. The local constabulary bring in Yard man Superintendent George Gently to investigate the disappearance of a young biker after the suspicious death of another rider.
The police characters are all in top form, here, and the suspects are interesting enough...though the dialogue of the bikers gets annoying at times with all the "Yuhs" and "Likes" thrown in. Despite that shortcoming, Hunter pulls off a story that's actually pretty complex for its examination of various human conditions. The local Inspector, Setters, particularly offers some intriguing personal conflict that we don't see from the emotionally-reserved Gently.
A tight, solid read if you can get past those dialogue tics.
The police characters are all in top form, here, and the suspects are interesting enough...though the dialogue of the bikers gets annoying at times with all the "Yuhs" and "Likes" thrown in. Despite that shortcoming, Hunter pulls off a story that's actually pretty complex for its examination of various human conditions. The local Inspector, Setters, particularly offers some intriguing personal conflict that we don't see from the emotionally-reserved Gently.
A tight, solid read if you can get past those dialogue tics.
November 18, 2015
I basically didn't get any of the 'Beat' language. It was frustrating. Then after all that, an incomplete ending. I was disappointed because I have loved the eight preceding novels and intend to go on reading the series in order. Gently's calm exterior saved the story for me.
February 21, 2013
George Gently and the Breckland bikers. This murder tale is very much of its time - featuring beatniks and reefers and squares.
July 5, 2012
Gently investigates a small town jazz scene. A great deal of talk in "jazz language", a kind of clash of cultures take. Really irritating to read.
May 31, 2014
Not as good as the others
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews