What do you think?
Rate this book
John Jericho Mystery #2
Hide Her from Every Eye
DRIVING, SLASHING RAIN... — sluiced down, forming an almost opaque wall which the headlights of John Jericho's Mercedes could barely penetrate. The roadside ditches were ominous rivers of rushing, muddy water. The weather was violent -- unfit for any human being -- and Jericho was eager to reach the country house he had rented. Suddenly, starkly illuminated by the lights of the moving car, framed by the murky rain, a woman appeared, almost too quickly for Jericho to avoid her. He twisted the wheel, missing the woman by inches...
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
11 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Pentecost
243 books20 followersHugh Pentecost was a penname of mystery author Judson Philips. Born in Massachusetts, Philips came of age during the golden age of pulp magazines, and spent the 1930s writing suspense fiction and sports stories for a number of famous pulps. His first book was Hold 'Em Girls! The Intelligent Women's Guide to Men and Football (1936). In 1939, his crime story Cancelled in Red won the Red Badge prize, launching his career as a novelist. Philips went on to write nearly one hundred books over the next five decades.
His best-known characters were Pierre Chambrun, a sleuthing hotel manager who first appeared in The Cannibal Who Overate (1962), and the one-legged investigative reporter Peter Styles, introduced in Laughter Trap (1964). Although he spent his last years with failing vision and poor health, Philips continued writing daily. His final novel was the posthumously published Pattern for Terror (1989).
His best-known characters were Pierre Chambrun, a sleuthing hotel manager who first appeared in The Cannibal Who Overate (1962), and the one-legged investigative reporter Peter Styles, introduced in Laughter Trap (1964). Although he spent his last years with failing vision and poor health, Philips continued writing daily. His final novel was the posthumously published Pattern for Terror (1989).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 21, 2019
Continuing my tour of the Grand Masters of Mystery, I turn to Judson Phillips who also wrote under the names Philip Owen and Hugh Pentecost.
This is the second in the John Jericho series, admittedly, not his most famous character, but since I already owned this one, I gave it a shot. Jericho is an interesting protagonist, a Korean war vet who is now a Greenwich Village artist. So, not really a private eye but he does act like one. He’s also a large, red-bearded, muscular man who sort of looks like a modern-day Viking. The author actually created him way back in his teens during the 1940’s, and he appeared in dozens of pulp magazine short stories as a member of the Park Avenue Hunt Club, a group of gentleman adventurers, before appearing in novels in the mid 1960’s.
This book opens with Jericho driving at night and barely managing to miss a woman walking in the road. When he comes to her aid, he discovers she’s drunk out of her gourd. Eventually he finds out that drunk is pretty much her normal state, ever since her young son drowned in a pool six months ago. In talking with a few townspeople, he starts to sense that something isn’t quite what it seems to be and he will bend over backwards to see justice done. Jericho displays a willingness to break the law in order to achieve said justice. No qualms about tampering with evidence, lying to police, harboring a fugitive, etc.
I enjoyed this one more than I expected I would. The author is adept at characterization, and his mysteries follow fair-play rules. We readers have all the information available to Jericho and discover the whys and wherefores at the same time. The mystery itself is solved about three-fourths of the way through but proving it becomes the challenge. One aspect of the book, however, didn’t work so well for me. It seems Jericho has a sidekick, named Arthur "Hally" Hallam who acts as a Watson character. But in this particular novel, Hally is elsewhere at the beginning of the book and so we get most of the first half in Jericho’s third person POV. But after Hally arrives on scene, it changes to his first person POV and then occasionally jumps back and forth. It didn’t make the story any harder to understand but it did jar me out of the narrative occasionally.
All in all, though, a good story with a satisfying conclusion. I would happily read more by this author, no matter what name he is writing under.
This is the second in the John Jericho series, admittedly, not his most famous character, but since I already owned this one, I gave it a shot. Jericho is an interesting protagonist, a Korean war vet who is now a Greenwich Village artist. So, not really a private eye but he does act like one. He’s also a large, red-bearded, muscular man who sort of looks like a modern-day Viking. The author actually created him way back in his teens during the 1940’s, and he appeared in dozens of pulp magazine short stories as a member of the Park Avenue Hunt Club, a group of gentleman adventurers, before appearing in novels in the mid 1960’s.
This book opens with Jericho driving at night and barely managing to miss a woman walking in the road. When he comes to her aid, he discovers she’s drunk out of her gourd. Eventually he finds out that drunk is pretty much her normal state, ever since her young son drowned in a pool six months ago. In talking with a few townspeople, he starts to sense that something isn’t quite what it seems to be and he will bend over backwards to see justice done. Jericho displays a willingness to break the law in order to achieve said justice. No qualms about tampering with evidence, lying to police, harboring a fugitive, etc.
I enjoyed this one more than I expected I would. The author is adept at characterization, and his mysteries follow fair-play rules. We readers have all the information available to Jericho and discover the whys and wherefores at the same time. The mystery itself is solved about three-fourths of the way through but proving it becomes the challenge. One aspect of the book, however, didn’t work so well for me. It seems Jericho has a sidekick, named Arthur "Hally" Hallam who acts as a Watson character. But in this particular novel, Hally is elsewhere at the beginning of the book and so we get most of the first half in Jericho’s third person POV. But after Hally arrives on scene, it changes to his first person POV and then occasionally jumps back and forth. It didn’t make the story any harder to understand but it did jar me out of the narrative occasionally.
All in all, though, a good story with a satisfying conclusion. I would happily read more by this author, no matter what name he is writing under.
February 3, 2024
The Jericho books are surprisingly good. He’s a passionate artist and Korean War veteran who’s bold and tough. The books remind me a bit of John D. MacDonald.
Jericho’s friend Arthur Hallam turns up in this volume, first as narrator and then ally as well by mid-book. (Hallam gets his name from a member of the author’s Park Avenue Hunt Club stories as Jericho does.)
Like Mike Hammer and Travis McGee (in The Long Lavender Look) Jericho, who’s staying in a small town to get some work done, is drawn into this case by a woman running in front of his car. She turns out to be a young mother whose alcoholism has been exacerbated by the loss of her child.
When Jericho drives her home, he’s confronted by town officials anxious to revoke her parole. Suspecting there’s more to the situation including the drowning death of the woman’s son, Jericho covers for her and begins to delve into small town secrets that soon puts him at odds with a judge, state’s attorney and a surly state police office among others.
Only Jericho’s notoriety as an artist provides enough cover to let him dig for the truth. (At least that’s the mechanism that lets the story work.) A tense, exciting mystery with a reasonably satisfying conclusion.
Jericho’s friend Arthur Hallam turns up in this volume, first as narrator and then ally as well by mid-book. (Hallam gets his name from a member of the author’s Park Avenue Hunt Club stories as Jericho does.)
Like Mike Hammer and Travis McGee (in The Long Lavender Look) Jericho, who’s staying in a small town to get some work done, is drawn into this case by a woman running in front of his car. She turns out to be a young mother whose alcoholism has been exacerbated by the loss of her child.
When Jericho drives her home, he’s confronted by town officials anxious to revoke her parole. Suspecting there’s more to the situation including the drowning death of the woman’s son, Jericho covers for her and begins to delve into small town secrets that soon puts him at odds with a judge, state’s attorney and a surly state police office among others.
Only Jericho’s notoriety as an artist provides enough cover to let him dig for the truth. (At least that’s the mechanism that lets the story work.) A tense, exciting mystery with a reasonably satisfying conclusion.
October 22, 2019
A good read,
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews