He Never Came Back, by Helen McCloy June 18, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , trackback
I found this in the Amnesty Bookshop on Eversholt St, for 49p, and its one of the elegant old penguin paperbacks, green-covered for crime. My Now Reading widget (on the side bar) won’t accept it, because its out of print, but it’s a nice wee book and deserves a brief review.
Shortly after WWII, Sara is a single woman living in New York, when she accidently buys a priceless ruby which has been left in a 20p sale. From this rather unlikely beginning grows a pleasant, light thriller involving an Indian Rajah, an extremely wealthy Aunt and an enigmatic but attractive neighbour.
Sara is a well-meaning but rather silly woman, who makes a fool of herself with a case of mistaken identity, and fails to see the obvious under her nose, so this is no subtle Agatha Christie novel, but it is a good telly-substitute, and will stay on my shelves with the other old penguins, for the sake of its binding if nothing else.
Did I mention, I don’t have a TV, so while everyone else is chilling out to the East Enders or Big Brother, I read light novels like this. Expect more in the future.
Comments»
great review
I just reviewed ‘Alias Basil Willing’ by Helen McCloy on my blog, and thought I’d do a search to see if anyone else had reviewed it on their blog as well. And your review (different book, same author) came up… I’ve read ‘He Never Came Back’ as well, and I agree - Sara was a rather silly woman! I also keep some of these good-but-not-brilliant old paperbacks simply because I like the green & white spines!