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Prynter's devil
190 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1970
2 people want to read
About the author
John Wainwright
121 books6 followersaka Jack Ripley
John William Wainwright was a rear gunner in World War II, after which he spent twenty years as a policeman in Yorkshire. He wrote eighty crime novels between 1965 and 1992, sometimes under the pseudonym 'Jack Ripley'. He also wrote some short stories (mostly uncollected in book format), 7 radio plays, and an indefinite amount of magazine articles and newspaper columns.
John William Wainwright was a rear gunner in World War II, after which he spent twenty years as a policeman in Yorkshire. He wrote eighty crime novels between 1965 and 1992, sometimes under the pseudonym 'Jack Ripley'. He also wrote some short stories (mostly uncollected in book format), 7 radio plays, and an indefinite amount of magazine articles and newspaper columns.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 31, 2024
A very exciting and original Crime novel, with some Spy trimmings attached - which meant that unless Wainwright took his unique premise and ruined it, I would end up happy. I am happy. Happier than I ever was with the other two Wainwright efforts I had tried previously, which held just enough hint that he might have something special for me.
John Prynter is devastated, and outraged, by his son Lloyd’s conviction, in the USSR, as a spy. He dangles the ultimate carrot in front of his family members if they can somehow spread out, use their wits and various resources, to get Lloyd home and away from his looming decade-long stretch in a Russian prison. This is a contest, not a group effort. The four or so Prynter relatives - by blood or marriage - will, in effect, be competing to come up with the best plan to do the impossible (is info on the prison where Lloyd is to being held even to be trusted!?), and return the alleged spy to his family. The only obvious thing at first seems to be that all efforts will be dangerous, and almost certainly illegal. Not so clear is whether or not Lloyd Prynter even is a spy; the novel basically opens with the family debating that point among themselves.
Speaking of obvious, my brain - as the premise started to reveal itself early on - instantly assumed the plot would just be a handful of scattered Prynters working their butts off to enlist shady contacts, scoop-hungry journalists, or anyone else with either a good idea or a willingness to risk ending up in a Russian prison probably not too far from Lloyd or worse. But I did not allow for family dynamics, family history, or individual agendas deftly hidden from other family members, causing a much different situation than just a bunch of Prynter-spawn passionately trying to bring a dear one home. John Prynter and myself may not have known it - but once the reader (me, but alas not John Prynter; he knows not the chaos he is about to unleash…) is allowed to see, even partially, into the devious minds of Joseph, Leo, Alice, and Charlotte, it becomes clear that a dicey situation can be played for personal benefit, with potentially a much different outcome than what Papa John Prynter wanted. In fact, his simple desire and subsequent challenge to his family members is the catalyst for truly unforeseen chaos and carnage, stemming from the fact that not everyone loves and feels sorry for Lloyd Prynter the way daddy does. There are damnable ways to bend a terrible situation to suit one’s own needs; two people end up dead, quite early on, and we go from there.
The book seems to jump tracks, in its final third, as widespread and competing family machinations suddenly get upstaged by what appears to be an assassination plot, which must somehow link to something somewhere, as far as Prynter plotting. But how everything connects is quite obscured - except for a few hints (and even those would only help a truly inspired mind…so, not me) - until after the assassin has the mysterious target in the crosshairs, and then all is revealed. It actually feels like a classic Murder Mystery reveal, except that what is revealed is not so much a killer, as a person with a particularly insidious agenda, insidiously modified from a father’s best intentions…
This has a premise that somehow does not remind me of one to six Crime or Espionage books I have already read…and to top that, a plot unfolds that is not one can assume from the unicorn premise! Loved it.
John Prynter is devastated, and outraged, by his son Lloyd’s conviction, in the USSR, as a spy. He dangles the ultimate carrot in front of his family members if they can somehow spread out, use their wits and various resources, to get Lloyd home and away from his looming decade-long stretch in a Russian prison. This is a contest, not a group effort. The four or so Prynter relatives - by blood or marriage - will, in effect, be competing to come up with the best plan to do the impossible (is info on the prison where Lloyd is to being held even to be trusted!?), and return the alleged spy to his family. The only obvious thing at first seems to be that all efforts will be dangerous, and almost certainly illegal. Not so clear is whether or not Lloyd Prynter even is a spy; the novel basically opens with the family debating that point among themselves.
Speaking of obvious, my brain - as the premise started to reveal itself early on - instantly assumed the plot would just be a handful of scattered Prynters working their butts off to enlist shady contacts, scoop-hungry journalists, or anyone else with either a good idea or a willingness to risk ending up in a Russian prison probably not too far from Lloyd or worse. But I did not allow for family dynamics, family history, or individual agendas deftly hidden from other family members, causing a much different situation than just a bunch of Prynter-spawn passionately trying to bring a dear one home. John Prynter and myself may not have known it - but once the reader (me, but alas not John Prynter; he knows not the chaos he is about to unleash…) is allowed to see, even partially, into the devious minds of Joseph, Leo, Alice, and Charlotte, it becomes clear that a dicey situation can be played for personal benefit, with potentially a much different outcome than what Papa John Prynter wanted. In fact, his simple desire and subsequent challenge to his family members is the catalyst for truly unforeseen chaos and carnage, stemming from the fact that not everyone loves and feels sorry for Lloyd Prynter the way daddy does. There are damnable ways to bend a terrible situation to suit one’s own needs; two people end up dead, quite early on, and we go from there.
The book seems to jump tracks, in its final third, as widespread and competing family machinations suddenly get upstaged by what appears to be an assassination plot, which must somehow link to something somewhere, as far as Prynter plotting. But how everything connects is quite obscured - except for a few hints (and even those would only help a truly inspired mind…so, not me) - until after the assassin has the mysterious target in the crosshairs, and then all is revealed. It actually feels like a classic Murder Mystery reveal, except that what is revealed is not so much a killer, as a person with a particularly insidious agenda, insidiously modified from a father’s best intentions…
This has a premise that somehow does not remind me of one to six Crime or Espionage books I have already read…and to top that, a plot unfolds that is not one can assume from the unicorn premise! Loved it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review