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Inspector Head #6
With Intent to Kill
The Angle, a 'desirable residence' on the outskirts of the small town of Carden, has stood empty for years, the bane of local estate agents. The prospect of anyone purchasing the property becomes even more remote when the body of a murdered man is discovered inside. Called to investigate the crime, Inspector Head is dismaed to find that his clue towards identifying the culprit is single a copper hairpin, discovered near the corpse...
Originally published in 1936, this is a vintage murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.
Originally published in 1936, this is a vintage murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.
217 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1936
1 person is currently reading
4 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
November 16, 2020
Another surprise in this sixth entry in the Inspector Jerry Head series, this time with the conclusion to what otherwise is a fairly standard account of the murder of a serial seducer.
What will irritate here is the very typical contemporary hypocrisy of the writer's portrayal of the murdered man as charming and weak, while heaping opprobrium on the women who were the victims of his seduction. The author is guilty of this in a few of the novels I have read. There are also some longueurs in the interviews of female servants.
The detection is a bit drawn out, and there are not many clues for the reader. However it is worth reading for the ending.
What will irritate here is the very typical contemporary hypocrisy of the writer's portrayal of the murdered man as charming and weak, while heaping opprobrium on the women who were the victims of his seduction. The author is guilty of this in a few of the novels I have read. There are also some longueurs in the interviews of female servants.
The detection is a bit drawn out, and there are not many clues for the reader. However it is worth reading for the ending.
August 7, 2021
This is an excellent police procedural with plenty of detection and red herrings. Inspector Head was his usual humane self and Superintendent Waddens' dialogue was as witty as always. E. Charles Vivian had a wonderful command of English and some of his descriptions are masterful: particularly this one describing a defence barrister which is not a spoiler....
"For it is the business of men like Calloway to ignore such minor matters as the guilt or innocence of their clients, to defame witnesses, to sway a jury by cunning innuendoes, and by blatant lies that they know are lies even as they utter them. They are paid to win a case, and thenceforth the merits of the case are nothing to them. By sly meanness, by infamous allegations as to character, by pitiful appeals to juries to have sympathy with the plight in which their clients are placed, by every trick and twist that law and the custom of the courts allow, they strive to outwit their opponents rather than to assure that justice shall be done, and in more than one case the dirty lustre of their names has been enriched by unjust verdicts. The case, and the case alone, is their concern: murderer, perjurer, or blackmailer may go free—it is all one to such men, for a verdict secured for the client means a bigger fee next time, and a higher place among that section of the legal fraternity whose business is defence—getting the man or woman off, whatever he or she may have done."
This is my favourite Inspector Head novel so far and highly recommended.
"For it is the business of men like Calloway to ignore such minor matters as the guilt or innocence of their clients, to defame witnesses, to sway a jury by cunning innuendoes, and by blatant lies that they know are lies even as they utter them. They are paid to win a case, and thenceforth the merits of the case are nothing to them. By sly meanness, by infamous allegations as to character, by pitiful appeals to juries to have sympathy with the plight in which their clients are placed, by every trick and twist that law and the custom of the courts allow, they strive to outwit their opponents rather than to assure that justice shall be done, and in more than one case the dirty lustre of their names has been enriched by unjust verdicts. The case, and the case alone, is their concern: murderer, perjurer, or blackmailer may go free—it is all one to such men, for a verdict secured for the client means a bigger fee next time, and a higher place among that section of the legal fraternity whose business is defence—getting the man or woman off, whatever he or she may have done."
This is my favourite Inspector Head novel so far and highly recommended.
June 16, 2022
Under rated E. Charles Vivian has a knack of writing clever police procedural books. Chief Inspector Head is assigned to investigate an unnamed man and have to put all the pieces together to solve who murdered him. If I'm nitpicking the court case is a bit boring but I'm more than happy to continue reading Vivian's series.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews