Top Notch Thrillers Via The Talented Mr Ripley

So every bit August fast approaches, many of us intend nearly our summertime vacation, together with what to pack for our reading. I was delighted to have together with update from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’s Mr Ripley.

What nosotros bring inwards shop from Ostara Publishing looks intriguing, together with recommended yesteryear Ostara’s Thriller Consultant. Though I’m nevertheless giggling nearly his SORRY I HAVEN’T Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 CLUEDO from Crimefest, which is archived HERE

So hither are 2 books worth exploring -

The Man Who Would Be Bond

When hard-as-nails sailor-turned-gun-runner-turned assassinator for the sinister Department K John Craig made his fictional debut inwards 1964 inwards The Man Who Sold Death, he was instantly touted every bit a replacement for James Bond, James Munro’s novel appearing less than iii months after the expiry of Ian Fleming.

The Man Who Sold Death was an 2nd success, beingness reprinted 5 times inwards hardback earlier becoming a best-selling paperback inwards 1966. Three to a greater extent than ‘John Craig’ novels followed, together with all were hugely successful inwards America where John Craig together with James Munro are perchance improve remembered than inwards the UK.

By 1967, John Craig had been replaced inwards his creator’s affections yesteryear around other ruthless killer who was to larn an iconic grapheme of British television set together with of spy fiction, when Munro, nether his existent cry of James Mitchell (1926-2002), created Callan. All 5 Callan novels together with 2 collections of brusque stories are likewise published every bit Top Notch Thrillers.

The Man Who Sold Death garnered rave reviews, the New York Times calling it ‘An intrigue that actually spins together with sparks excitement’ together with the Daily Express enthused: ‘A successor to Bond who is every bit tough together with exciting to women every bit the original.’

The Swinging Sixties Turn Sour

The companion Top Notch reissue for August likewise introduced a novel hero – known alone every bit ‘Raven’– who set his ain rattling cynical slant on the Swinging Sixties London scene, its rich together with fashionably dissolute elite together with the growth, on an industrial scale, of the merchandise inwards heroin.

First published inwards 1970, The Diamond Hook was the offset novel to characteristic the enigmatic individual oculus ‘Raven’ yesteryear James Quartermain, the pen-name assumed yesteryear playwright, creative someone together with illustrator James Broom-Lynne (1916-1995) who every bit a designer created around famous dust-jackets inwards the 1960s for, with others, the racing thrillers of Dick Francis together with Adam Diment’s legendary debut, The Dolly Dolly Spy.

The Diamond Hook is a tough, brutal, uncompromising even out of revenge, opening inwards London’s stylish clubland together with climaxing inwards the Dordogne share of France. The key plot-line has the damaged hero Raven forcibly turned into a heroin addict only nevertheless intent on solving his ‘case’; a trope famously used 5 years after inwards the celluloid French Connection II.

For farther information on Top Notch Thrillers:

www.ostarapublishing.co.uk