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Inspector Head #5
Who Killed Gatton?
Superintendent Wadden is spending his day off hunting out a likely spot for the tomato plantation he means to establish during his impending retirement. But his day off comes to an abrupt end when the area he is looking to purchase turns out to contain a highly secret experimental aircraft - and the corpse of Harry Gatton, its murdered pilot. What could such a plane possibly be doing in Westingborough? And who killed Gatton? In the shadow of impending war, it is up to Wadden and Inspector Head to unearth the traitor in their midst...
Originally published in 1936, this is a vintage British murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.
Originally published in 1936, this is a vintage British murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.
Kindle Edition
Published October 27, 2020
1 person is currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
E. Charles Vivian
98 books3 followersWorking name of UK editor and author of popular fiction (1882-1947), born Charles Henry Cannell but apparently changing his name legally to Evelyn Charles Henry Vivian in early adulthood, though he wrote some non-genre novels as Charles Cannell, and some short fiction as by Sydney Barrie Lynd, Galbraith Nicolson and A. K. Walton.
Prior to becoming a writer, Cannell was a former soldier in the Boer War and journalist for The Daily Telegraph. Cannell began writing novels under the pen-name 'E. Charles Vivian' in 1907. He then started writing fantastic stories for the arts magazine "Colour" and the aviation journal "Flying" (which Cannell edited after leaving the Telegraph) in 1917–18, sometimes publishing them under the pseudonym 'A.K. Walton'. Vivian is best known for his "Lost World" fantasy novels such as "City of Wonder" and his series of novels featuring supernatural detective Gregory George Gordon Green or 'Gees' which he wrote under his 'Jack Mann' pseudonym. Critic Jack Adrian has praised Cannell's lost-world stories as "bursting with ideas and colour and pace", and "superb examples of a fascinating breed". For younger readers, Vivian wrote "Robin Hood and his Merry Men", a retelling of the Robin Hood legend.
Vivian also edited three British pulp magazines. From 1918 to 1922 Vivian edited "The Novel Magazine", and later, for the publisher Walter Hutchinson (1887–1950), Hutchinson's "Adventure-Story Magazine" (which serialised three of Vivian's novels) and Hutchinson's "Mystery-Story Magazine". In addition to UK writers, Vivian often reprinted fiction from American pulp magazines such as "Adventure and Weird Tales" in the Hutchinson publications.
Outside the field of fiction, Vivian was noted for the non-fiction book, "A History of Aeronautics".
Some of his shorter fiction – including "The Fourth Arm ('War in the Clouds'): a Strange Story" (August 1915 Pearson's Magazine), "The Multiple Cube" (13 June 1917 'Flying') and "The Upper Levels: a Fantasy of Tomorrow" (31 July 1918 Flying) – was sf, with hints of the Pax Aeronautica, especially his stories in "Flying". A prolific author, with nearly 100 identified titles between 1907 and his death, he is now best remembered for the 'Gees' sequence of novels (see listing on the link below), all written as by Jack Mann, about a psychic detective (Gregory George Gordon Green) whose cases sometimes involve sf-like phenomena – e.g., travel through other Dimensions – but are essentially fantasies, the most famous of them being "Grey Shapes" (1937), a Werewolf tale; "Maker of Shadows" (1938), featuring a 'She' figure (> Immortality), is also of interest.
Much of Vivian's prolific output had a mystical (even at times mystagogical) tinge. Some of his individual novels, like "Passion-Fruit" (1912), had fantasy elements, and several were 'Lost-World' tales, including: "City of Wonder" (1922), which features Asian survivors from Lemuria in a land called Kir Asa; the 'Aia' sequence, comprising "Fields of Sleep" (1923), in which Babylonian survivors are trapped in a Malaysian valley by a strange plant within range of whose aroma, a kind of Basilisk – as, once it is inhaled, one must remain in range or die – and "People of the Darkness" (1924), set in an Underground world inhabited by a tentacled species who were originally slaves in Atlantis; "The Lady of the Terraces" (1925) and its sequel "A King There Was" (1926), which feature pre-Incan survivals and further hints of Atlantis; and "Woman Dominant" (1929), set in Asia, where an aged woman rules a land through the agency of a Drug which turns men into half-witted slaves.
Vivian's most straightforward sf tale, "Star Dust" (1925), describes an inventor/scientist's attempts to make the world better by indiscriminately transmuting dross into gold (> Transmutation); this (he thinks) will make some sort of Utopia inevitable.
- See more at: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Prior to becoming a writer, Cannell was a former soldier in the Boer War and journalist for The Daily Telegraph. Cannell began writing novels under the pen-name 'E. Charles Vivian' in 1907. He then started writing fantastic stories for the arts magazine "Colour" and the aviation journal "Flying" (which Cannell edited after leaving the Telegraph) in 1917–18, sometimes publishing them under the pseudonym 'A.K. Walton'. Vivian is best known for his "Lost World" fantasy novels such as "City of Wonder" and his series of novels featuring supernatural detective Gregory George Gordon Green or 'Gees' which he wrote under his 'Jack Mann' pseudonym. Critic Jack Adrian has praised Cannell's lost-world stories as "bursting with ideas and colour and pace", and "superb examples of a fascinating breed". For younger readers, Vivian wrote "Robin Hood and his Merry Men", a retelling of the Robin Hood legend.
Vivian also edited three British pulp magazines. From 1918 to 1922 Vivian edited "The Novel Magazine", and later, for the publisher Walter Hutchinson (1887–1950), Hutchinson's "Adventure-Story Magazine" (which serialised three of Vivian's novels) and Hutchinson's "Mystery-Story Magazine". In addition to UK writers, Vivian often reprinted fiction from American pulp magazines such as "Adventure and Weird Tales" in the Hutchinson publications.
Outside the field of fiction, Vivian was noted for the non-fiction book, "A History of Aeronautics".
Some of his shorter fiction – including "The Fourth Arm ('War in the Clouds'): a Strange Story" (August 1915 Pearson's Magazine), "The Multiple Cube" (13 June 1917 'Flying') and "The Upper Levels: a Fantasy of Tomorrow" (31 July 1918 Flying) – was sf, with hints of the Pax Aeronautica, especially his stories in "Flying". A prolific author, with nearly 100 identified titles between 1907 and his death, he is now best remembered for the 'Gees' sequence of novels (see listing on the link below), all written as by Jack Mann, about a psychic detective (Gregory George Gordon Green) whose cases sometimes involve sf-like phenomena – e.g., travel through other Dimensions – but are essentially fantasies, the most famous of them being "Grey Shapes" (1937), a Werewolf tale; "Maker of Shadows" (1938), featuring a 'She' figure (> Immortality), is also of interest.
Much of Vivian's prolific output had a mystical (even at times mystagogical) tinge. Some of his individual novels, like "Passion-Fruit" (1912), had fantasy elements, and several were 'Lost-World' tales, including: "City of Wonder" (1922), which features Asian survivors from Lemuria in a land called Kir Asa; the 'Aia' sequence, comprising "Fields of Sleep" (1923), in which Babylonian survivors are trapped in a Malaysian valley by a strange plant within range of whose aroma, a kind of Basilisk – as, once it is inhaled, one must remain in range or die – and "People of the Darkness" (1924), set in an Underground world inhabited by a tentacled species who were originally slaves in Atlantis; "The Lady of the Terraces" (1925) and its sequel "A King There Was" (1926), which feature pre-Incan survivals and further hints of Atlantis; and "Woman Dominant" (1929), set in Asia, where an aged woman rules a land through the agency of a Drug which turns men into half-witted slaves.
Vivian's most straightforward sf tale, "Star Dust" (1925), describes an inventor/scientist's attempts to make the world better by indiscriminately transmuting dross into gold (> Transmutation); this (he thinks) will make some sort of Utopia inevitable.
- See more at: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 15, 2021
Three and a half stars.
Quite an unusual plot with murder, espionage and romance all intertwined. As usual the interplay between Inspector Head and Superintendent Wadden was entertaining. It wasn't really possible to work out who did it without some guesswork. Enjoyable nevertheless.
Quite an unusual plot with murder, espionage and romance all intertwined. As usual the interplay between Inspector Head and Superintendent Wadden was entertaining. It wasn't really possible to work out who did it without some guesswork. Enjoyable nevertheless.
November 14, 2020
Rather enjoyable fifth in the Inspector Jerry Head series, set in the mid 1930s with a lot of contemporary references to the possibility of war and Britain's preparedness for it.
The plot concerns the murder of the pilot of an experimental aeroplane and the search for the people responsible. There is a lot of high-flown patriotic talk of a type typical of the times,a bit of irritating rendering of the speech pattern of a German speaker of English, some romance, and not a lot of clues for the reader. However, I took a guess which proved correct.
Easy reading.
3.5 stars
The plot concerns the murder of the pilot of an experimental aeroplane and the search for the people responsible. There is a lot of high-flown patriotic talk of a type typical of the times,a bit of irritating rendering of the speech pattern of a German speaker of English, some romance, and not a lot of clues for the reader. However, I took a guess which proved correct.
Easy reading.
3.5 stars
February 23, 2022
With war just over the horizon E. Charles Vivian writes a contemporary whodunit set around an experimental plane which makes no noise. The murder is well set up with suspects a list of people who are interested in stealing the plane's secret. While the idea of a silent plane is far fetch the story really buzzes along complete with a gigantic red herring.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews