Young Man, I Think You're Dying

by Joan Fleming

Winner of the Gold Dagger Award for Best Novel!
Winston Sledge began his criminal career at an early age, starting with shoplifting and pickpocketing. Bossy and self-confident, he took particular delight in leading other boys astray and organizing a gang of petty thieves. These days, the charismatic, self-styled "entrepreneur" is driving around London in a Jaguar, keeping a teenage mistress in his riverside council flat, and supplementing his unemployment benefits with the proceeds from his burglaries.
Winston's boyhood friend, Joe, works in a Soho pizzeria and lives with his mum and dad. Joe dreams of having his own pizza parlor, and he's acted as Winston's accomplice for the thrills as well as the money. But when Winston's violent temper gets the better of him one night, a routine robbery suddenly turns into a far greater crime. Now Joe is implicated in a murder and the more he tries to distance himself from his partner in crime, the tighter Winston clings on to him. A chance encounter with a runaway girl promises a way out but only if Joe and his new friend can outwit Winston, whose villainy has already spiraled out of control. A taut, award-winning novel from one of the unsung British masters.

Genres: Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Joan Margaret Fleming was a British writer of crime and thriller novels. She was educated at Lausanne University.

She married Norman Bell Beattie Fleming in 1932. The Turkish detective Nuri Bey Izkirlak features in two of her books, 'When I Grow Rich and 'Nothing is the Number When You Die'.

Her novel 'The Deeds of Dr Deadcert' was made into a film 'RX Murder'. She won the Gold Dagger award twice, for 'When I Grow Rich' in 1962 and for 'Young Man I Think You're Dying' in 1970.

She wrote 33 novels beginning with 'Two Lovers Too Many' in 1949 and ending with 'The Day of the Donkey Derby' in 1978.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 1970, the British Crime Writers Association awarded Fleming the coveted Gold Dagger Award 🥇 for the best crime novel of the year for this book. Fleming wrote thirty novels in all until she passed away in 1980, although she is barely known on this side of the Pond. It’s a story about loyalty and about working class division. It pairs an itinerant Thief and scoundrel with a pizza 🍕 house worker who dreams of being something more other than the thief’s good pal. This novel however didn’t stand the test of time well and became a burden to read with a meandering plot, uninteresting characters, and suffocating writing.

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joan Fleming was a British mystery and thriller writer who died in 1980. She wrote over thirty crime novels, twice winning the Gold Dagger award, given out by the Crime Writer's Association for best crime novel of the year. This book won the award in 1970.

If your thoughts are along the lines of idyllic country village or manor because we are talking about a deceased female British author then perish the thought. Better to be thinking of something like the setting of, 'To Sir With Love', the Sidney Poitier film, filmed in the tenements of London's East End and in this case, starring the remorseless, psychopath, Mr. Ripley from Patricia Highsmith's, Mr. Ripley novels.

In fact a lot of this book feels like Patricia Highsmith. It has her casual and chilling approach to violence. Which in turn, normally leads to a dark yet very good tale. This one qualifies on both counts.

[Kelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 1970 book by British author Joan Fleming. It is the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award for 1970. The setting is in late 1960s London in a fictional London high-rise council house building complex (a public housing complex) called Fiery Beacon. The story is about how a young successful psychopathic thief Winston Sledge turned into a serial murderer and what poetic justice was finally rendered. While the book has a strong start, it drags on quite a bit in the middle. Overall, I do not enjoy this psychological thriller. Despite the book’s shortcomings, Fleming did a good job painting the psychology of a budding killer and how once his murder instinct is triggered, he keeps doing it and turns into a homicidal maniac and how he gets increasingly confident and how he justifies his murders.

Spoiler Alert. There are three central characters in this case and their interactions provide an interesting story. The first is Winston Sledge, the successful and psychopathic thief turned serial murderer. The second is an impressionable youth called Joe Bogey, who has been a neighbor, a good friend and a follower of Sledge since they were 10. The third is a runaway girl who called herself Frances Smith. The story starts with Sledge burglarizing a house in Kensington with Joe as the getaway driver. Sledge killed the homeowner during the burglary. He then tried to frame Joe for the murder. Joe’s parents, in order to protect Joe, secretly shipped him away to Ireland to live with relatives while police investigate. In the meantime, Sledge became infatuated with a runaway girl called Frances Smith whom both he and Joe had run into just a few days ago. With the police possibly on his trail for the Kensington murder, Sledge decided to walk away from his London life and start somewhere afresh. He also wanted to marry Frances because he thought she came from a rich family. When Sledge’s underage Indian mistress Amrita threatened to go to the police and tell all if Sledge dumps her, Sledge got rid of her by throwing her off their high apartment floor balcony to fall to her death and claim it was a suicide. In the meantime, while neither Sledge nor Frances know where Joe has gone, Sledge suggested to Frances he had killed Joe to keep him from talking to police. Frances, who feel kindly to Joe and his family for giving her a place to stay when she was destitute in London, decided to take revenge on Sledge. After Sledge has abducted her and tried to force her to marry him, she tempered with Sledge’s car, which ultimately caused Sledge to crash and die on the highway.

[Masayuki Arai · Rating 3 out of 5]

She should be arrested...

[Merrill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quirky and wonderfully British.

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

17th CWA winner. a why did it rather than a who did it. terrible dialogue of the its a fair cop guvnor variety. still enjoyed it though.

[Sanah Yousif · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you Net Galley for introducing me to Joan Fleming. I never knew about him and went into this book thinking it was a new author. I did have a hard time reading it though because of the old writing style. Nevertheless it was a welcome glimpse into how the English language has evolved through the years. Fans of classic books will enjoy this.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

#YoungMan,IThinkYou'reDying #NetGalley

Dover brings back to life this classical which won the Gold Dagger Award. The book is about a young and ambitious man who gets trapped in the criminal world after been influenced by his friend. The intrigue lasts until the end of the book.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Sledge is a successful criminal who has achieved too much, too soon. Then a routine robbery goes too far. The result is murder.