Behind The Text’ Part
15_’And Death Will Have His Day’
‘...Sent
Before My Time Into This Breathing World, Scarce Half Made Up...’
Hi,
‘And Death Will Have His Day’ was published in 2010 and
is the 11th
chronological novel in the ‘Jonas Forbes Saga’. In fact,
as explained in ‘Behind the Text’ Part 3
‘ A FALSE START’, it was
written in 1977and the e-book is a rewrite.
This
thriller is set in 1965 London and is the original spoof toned down. Jonas
Forbes is in his prime – and this ‘error’ has caused considerable problems with
producing 10 ‘prequels’! Also the portrayal of Jonas Forbes really fits the
above title (borrowed from Shakespeare’s ‘Richard
III’) an my creative powers have battled with the consequences.
Tom
Cardew, a radical politician, is under threat and, unlike in virtually all the
other novels, Jonas is NOT hired by a branch of HMG. Anne Demas draws Jonas
into a world where, from the start, he comes under threat. In fact, the
immediate abduction of Vanessa Holmes, his ‘Girl Friday’, prevents getting
immediately down to earning his fee but, at the same, supplies him with an
entry into a plot involving a race war.
As
I said in Post 3 most of the characters owed features to certain friends
& acquaintances at the time. This meant my main effort was in
characterisation although the plot seems to rumble along at a good pace. In
this novel the influence of Raymond Chandler is clear: in later works he's
replaced by either Leslie Charteris or Ian Fleming. In some ways, DCI John
Wyatt behaves like Chandler’s Captain Cronjager but, from the start, he and Jonas are far more of a team than
the Californian couple. Wyatt is certainly not like the Saint’s stooge, Claude
Eustace Teal. Some of the minor characters (Freddy Talbot, Marty and especially
Red) might have been at home in 30’s California but of the female possibilities
(Anne Demas, Jane or Thelma) only Anne has the makings of a femme fatale like
Vivian Sternwood while Thelma possesses a core harder than found in Fleming. I should
add here that Vanessa is far more complex than Miss Moneypenny.
Because
this is a private contract there is an absence of bureaucrats for my waspish
pen to mock. Fools there may be (Paul Taillard & Tom Cardew are two
examples) but they aren’t ‘institutional’ fools. Plato may be one of more
ruthless villains I’ve created but his cruelty is largely hidden from the
Reader, if not the fear he evokes. Callisto may match him in ruthlessness but
not in the power to terrorise.
Obviously,
in a series of 16 books, similarities must betray themselves.. Here Bill,
mild-mannered but dangerous, is later recreated in ‘Californian Nightmare’ as Ernest Henry Jones. The climax here
is paralleled to a certain extent in that book and, surely consciously, more
closely in ‘Endgame At Watergate’. I
leave it to readers to find other examples, perhaps suppressed by my own subconscious.
Next time, Jonas steps in on his own account for once.
Bob Hyslop
Next time, Jonas steps in on his own account for once.
Bob Hyslop
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