Virgin Cay

by Basil Heatter

A Romance.

142 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1963

About the author

Basil Heatter, the son of radio commentator Gabriel Heatter, was born on Long Island on March 26, 1918. He attended schools in Connecticut, then went abroad when was 16 for a two year travel stint through Europe. Returning to America, he went to work for a New York advertising agency. He enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and during WWII served as a skipper on a P.T. boat in the Southwest Pacific. Besides being a news commentator himself, Heatter wrote twenty novels of intrigue and adventure—beginning with "The Dim View" in 1946, the story of a young PT boat skipper—as well as several non-fiction works revolving around his love of the sea. In fact, he lived for years off Key West on his own self-built sailboat, The Blue Duck. He passed away June 12, 2009, in Miami, Florida

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shipwrecks, Seductive Sirens, Murder For Hire, & Adventure

A story about a sailor shipwrecked at sea, a gorgeous seductive she-devil, a question about what a penniless wanderer now without his boat would do for $20,000, and the twisted conniving lives of the idle rich and their hangers-on. This is a fairly short, quick-reading paperback that has a lot of classic pulp themes and plants them on the shores of a tiny cay in the Bahamas. There is a lot here that should have appeal to different readers including a murder plot, a sailing adventure, a twisted romantic knot, the bored lifestyles of the nouveau rich. And the theme of sailing on the open seas. A very satisfying little book.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear Devil: I, Gus Robinson, being reasonably sound in mind and limb, do herewith commit my soul to you in exchange for one thirty-eight-foot Alden-designed yawl.

Mr. Gus Robinson, a modern day version of the more famous Robinson Crusoe, is shipwrecked near the Bahamas. A famous solitary navigator around the globe, Gus loses his sailboat out of negligence, but after several hours in the water he spots a light on a nearby shore, identified as Spanish Cay. I looked it up, and it is part of the Abaco Islands, which recently took a direct hit from hurricane Dorian. With a last effort, Gus pulls himself to the shore, where his luck holds. He knocks on the door of the solitary lighted villa and a beautiful woman answers.

Beneath the gown she wore a nightdress that was made of some material as diaphanous as that of the window curtains. Weak as Robinson was from his long battle with the sea, he was not to far gone to admire the curves of her rather full breasts and the rosy hint of nipples.

Basil Heatter doesn’t beat around the bush, and throws Gus into the welcoming arms of Clare that very first night. The poor man should have read more pulp novels, like me, and be more circumspect, as the lovely lady shows definite signs of what we call in the genre a ‘femme fatale’. Clare has a plan to get her hands on a fortune. All she needs is a guy ready to do anything for a bit of ready cash. Gus, who lost all his worldly possessions in the shipwreck, is the perfect stool pidgeon for her.

We never hesitate to break the law in dozens of small ways all the time. We sleep with other men’s wives and we cheat the custom inspectors and we lie to the tax collectors and we fix parking tickets and we use influence to obtain government contracts and we duck the draft and we pad expense accounts and we rig insurance claims and we even let the damned dog mess on the damned sidewalk when he should be in the damn gutter. So, according to her, if you follow that reasoning to its inescapable conclusion, why the hell should anyone shy away from murder?

Like all good noir novels, every step of the plot seems predetermined, locked in its track by a cruel destiny. Every character is at first glance part of the stock and trade of the game: Clare cast as the cold-hearted mastermind; Gus as the taciturn and strong lead player who has enough skill and ruthlessness to take a walk on the wild side; Dino as the gigolo painter who earns his keep from escorting older socialites; Stanley as the rich drunkard who plays the clueless sidekick; and finally Gwen, the virgin from the novel’s title, soon to be heir to a family fortune. Clare is her cousin, Dino is hoping to become her fiancee, and Gus is supposed to kill her.

She was the kind of golden girl a man meets once in a lifetime – gay, young, beautiful and rich. Now there was nothing ahead but a succession of women like Clare – each a little older, a little more corroded by time and bitterness, a little more demanding.

My first impression was that this is some sort of B-movie script, with cheesy dialogues and cardboard characters. But Basil Heatter somehow makes it all work out, better than my early expectations. The writing is uncluttered, but not simplistic. The dialogues have a natural rhythm and the characters more depth than that first glance promised. The anchor point of the novel is the real sea action, of which we have several examples. I couldn’t find any information on Goodreads or on Wikipedia about the author, but it is evident that he knows his sailing and his motor-boat lore intimately. Turns out Heatter not only served in the Navy during World War II, but he lived for years on a boat off Key West. Only Charles Williams comes close in style for this sort of crime novel at sea.

I am not going to describe anything more about the outcome of the crime planned by Clare, other than to say this was a real page turner that could be finished in one afternoon setting or during a day at the beach (like I did by the Black Sea). I have two more quotes I liked and would like to preserve, until I get my hands on another Basil Heatter potboiler. The first one is about Clare:

“You are as smart and cold and dangerous as a snake. Someday I will do your portrait and when it is finished it will be that of a female cobra. No one has ever beaten you at anything but one thing is beating you now – age. Each day another little line, a little wrinkle to mark the place where you have lost a battle. All your forces are in retreat, Clare. The battle is going against you and there is not a single bloody thing you can do about it.”

The second is about Gus and his decision to throw away civilized life and spend his years sailing alone around the globe. Asked why he doesn’t marry and have children, he responds he thought about it:

“Occasionally, but I do my best to fight it down. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life watching some broad making love to herself with a cake of soap on teevee and then go out to wash the car on Sunday afternoon and eat nonfattening ice cream and wear plastic pants and live in a goddammed stainless steel, air-conditioned kennel.”

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With only 8 votes so far, and a blank on the author’s page, this novel qualifies as a lost novel for most of the readers here. I hope my review will help bringing it back into the spotlight, and I believe readers, especially those who like classic pulps, will not be disappointed.

A little more internet digging turned up the missing information about the author. From Stark House Press:

Basil Heatter, the son of radio commentator Gabriel Heatter, was born on Long Island on March 26, 1918. He attended schools in Connecticut, then went abroad when he was 16 for a two year travel stint through Europe. Returning to America, he went to work for a New York advertising agency. He enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and during WWII served as a skipper on a P.T. boat in the Southwest Pacific. Besides being a news commentator himself, Heatter wrote twenty novels of intrigue and adventure—beginning with The Dim View in 1946, the story of a young PT boat skipper—as well as several non-fiction works revolving around his love of the sea. In fact, he lived for years off Key West on his own self-built sailboat, The Blue Duck. He passed away June 12, 2009, in Miami, Florida.

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel started off well. Gus Robinson, a misanthropic sailor who only feels good when he is out on the waters, washes up on the shores of the Spanish Cay (he was careless about checking the plug that prevents the ocean from running up into his toilet and so his beloved boat the Charee goes down) and knocks on the first door with the light. A beautiful woman, Mrs.Loomis, though initially cold, offers him a drink, then food and then her body.

Set in Spanish Cay, Heatter lines up an array of old idle rich characters drinking their lives away, getting by on their inheritance and the hard boiled men whom they hire as play toys to entertain and commit murder for them.

Mrs Loomis wants Gus to murder her cousin, a wealthy and beautiful young woman. Mrs.Loomis would inherit the young woman's wealth in the event of her death. In return, Mrs.Loomis would give Gus $20,000. Gus, who has just lost his boat agrees. But Mrs.Loomis overestimates Gus' desperation.

This is a decent suspense novel, ruined by a ridiculous sub-plot involving Cuban refugees. Another reviewer compared it to Charles Williams novels. No way. Williams writes intricately plotted, mean and thin crime procedurals. Virgin Cay is like fatty fish. It has too many characters, some of whom are simply mouthpieces for the author's world view and misanthropy.

It did have its moments. Like Williams, Basil Heatter seems to know a lot about sailing. But he is simply not that good a writer. The misanthropy of the characters are tritely described. The dialogs are weak. Even the twists are nothing to write home about.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent classic crime/noir novel from 1963. And for sailers, it has, like some of Charles Williams books -Dead Calm, Aground, Scorpion Reef - some great sailing descriptions and scenes. A good chunk of the book takes part on sailboats.

Has a fantastic opening scene as our protagonist Gus swims ashore at night after his boat sinks. He goes up to a beach house and before breakfast the femme fatale has bedded him and drawn him into a murder plot.

The narrative wanders a few times and follows along with some of the other characters. Adds depth and reinforces the plot complications, but flows best when we are tagging along with Gus, the solo sailor who both needs and fears love.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virgin Cay is what Gold Medal paperbacks are all about--it is the quintessential example. It is flawlessly plotted and written. The book reminded me a lot of Charles Williams' books from the same time period. Great reading.

[Paperback Papa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basil Heatter is widely respected for his 50's & 60's crime/noir thrillers. After reading "Virgin Cay", I can see why. This 1963 Fawcett Gold Medal original is 142 pages of pulpy, crime/noir heaven. You have your likable protagonist, your heartless, amoral femme fatale, an innocent young beauty, and plenty of twists and double-crosses. It all happens on sailboats and islands in the Caribbean, which gives the whole thing a Charles Williams-ish feel, which is never a bad thing.

The book begins with one of the best first chapters I've ever read. Just after midnight, a man washes up on a beach, half dead. He gets up and staggers through the trees to a secluded house that happens to belong to a heart-stoppingly beautiful woman. How lucky! Oh, but not so fast, dear reader. Our castaway will soon wish he had washed up anywhere but there.

Heatter's writing is top-notch. He manages to talk about the sea and boats and currents and navigational procedures in a way that gives authenticity to the story without feeling oppressive. Okay, so there might be one or two places where he gets a little carried away. But writers who are boat guys (Heatter skippered a PT boat during World War II) can't help themselves. I forgive him.

If someone who had never read one asked me to recommend a 60's crime/noir novel to try, I just might recommend this one. It's a lot of fun.