Blame the dead

by gavin-lyall

James Card loses his reputation as a bodyguard when his client, a Lloyd's underwriter, is shot right under his nose. So he begins research into the dead man's background. The author has written several bestselling thrillers including "The Wrong Side of the Sky" and "Uncle Target".

Genres: Thriller

319 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1972

Reviews

[Christoph John · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Card is a private security advisor hired as a bodyguard by a dodgy Lloyd’s syndicate to protect a blackmailed employee. When the employee is murdered, Card decides to investigate further which is where is problems really begin: shipping insurance fraud, infidelity, sex-starved widows, blood and death in France, the Home Counties and snow-bound Norway.

At times Gavin Lyall cracks a fair whip, but the action mostly slumbers and the resolution is all hearsay and tattle. Nobody actually sees any evidence or hears any first-hand accounts. The key witness is a drunk so inebriated he has day-long memory blanks and can’t physically remember where he has been or what he has done. This is a convenience for Lyall. It also increases the page count by about one hundred. The last two chapters paper over all the cracks with an efficiency as icy as the Norwegian winter.

Neatly, if ploddingly, written. A series of good characters are spoilt by a series of uninteresting ones. Most of them are prone to use slang inappropriately which passes for characterisation. Apart from Card’s cynical view of the world, nobody’s particularly interesting, filling holes in the plot rather than enlivening it. A few decent but short action sequences have to suffice for excitement.

It doesn’t bite.

[Justin Beaumont · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written with a working knowledge of Lloyds as it was then and the people who populate it. A cliffhanger study of people and their foibles. A true thriller with deep characters reminiscent of Alistair Maclean and Hammond Innes. Fast moving and fun without the angst and personal introspection that seems to dog some of the modern authors.

[Tom Wilkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was alright. Very of its time. I enjoyed it enough to keep wanting to read on, but not as much as books that I couldn't put down.

An enjoyable enough detective story. Didn't change my life or particularly inspire me, but did entertain me.

[Helen Ennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not entirely to my taste - rather complicated tale, specialising in shipping details with a Lloyds connection. Seemed rather long winded.

[Rdb]

Second time.