Blueprint for Murder by
Roger Bax: A Review by Warren Bull
Image from velvetchainsaw.com
Image from velvetchainsaw.com
Published originally in 1948, Blueprint for Murder was written by Paul
Winterton using the penname of Roger Bax. The author also wrote under the names
Andrew Garve and Paul Somers.
The novel starts with Arthur Cross
trying to escape from a Russian offensive in World War II. Although he wears a
German uniform, when Cross decides Germany is doomed he immediately tries to
shed the uniform and assume the pose of having been a British prisoner of war
held by the Germans. The author grabbed and held my interest by describing
Cross moving alone at night, trying to avoid military forces, seeking food and
water by any means possible. He also established that Cross would do anything,
including robbery and murder, to stay alive.
Once back in his native England,
Cross continues to act in ways that serve his interest at the expense of everyone.
Learning he is a beneficiary of his uncle’s will, Cross begins to plot how to
kill his uncle without getting caught.
The author’s depiction of Cross’ utterly cold-blooded planning is
chilling.
The extended sea chase at the end
of the novel is also engrossing. Technically, the writing is good to excellent.
However, one aspect of the novel bothered me — the relationship between the
hero and his love interest. The woman is a medical student, daughter of a
physician, who wants to become a surgeon. She demonstrates her skill and
ability to think clearly in a crisis. In 1948 that was an unusual goal for a
woman. Initially, I thought the author had developed an interesting character.
However, the hero, in his attempt to sweet-talk her, says he does not think she
should become a surgeon, doubting that a woman would have the necessary
strength and endurance. He refers to her suspicion of the villain as women’s
intuition, discounting her intelligence and reasoning. In response the woman
just accuses him of being old fashioned. Neither character seems to find it
strange that the hero completely discounts the intelligence, abilities and
persistence of the heroine.
Sections of the book, especially
the beginning and ending, showed both excellent writing and descriptions of
events that I had not read about before. Those parts qualify as highly
recommendable. The plotting is clever and realistic. However, the hero’s
chauvinistic behavior bothered me. It detracted from my enjoyment of the
book. For me this is an
illustration of how a single element of a mystery that rings false can result
in an unsatisfying read.
Because of that one element, I
recommend Blueprint for Murder as an
example of good writing. However, there are many other well-written books I
enjoyed more than this.
It is hard reading a book written in a time when the briefs were so different from those of today. I think we have to keep in mind that it was the time. That's why so many people get up in arms about books like "Huckleberry Finn" and others that were a reflection of the time. When reading them, we should just be thankful that we are more enlightened now and look at the rest of the story for what it is worth.
ReplyDeleteI think my parents' generation in mass practiced obtuseness when it came to women's intelligence. Their upbringings were Victorian. I know men of that generation often looked at women of the 1960s as an entirely different species. One of them once pigeonholed me as a "career" woman because I didn't get married until I was 28. Of course, the look I gave him put him in an entirely different species.
ReplyDeleteGrace is right, though. Old books have to be respected for telling the truth of the times no matter how wrong. It's history. It's educational. Entertainment? Not so much.
Warren, it is true that most books of the past didn't respect women, however if it was written by someone like Dorothy L. Sayers, who had Harriet Vane every bit as intelligent as Lord Peter Wimsey, she set readers on a different tract.In fact, if I didn't have such a pile of books still to be read, I think I'd go back and start reading all hers again since I have copies of every one of her books. And yes, even when I graduated from high school in 1956, my parents had only saved enough for one of their children to go to college so they paid for my younger brother's first year because they thought I'd just get married after a year of college. I never questioned it because that's the way things were then. However, it all worked out for the best because when I went to college years later in my early 40s, I loved it far more than the younger people sitting around me looking bored much of the time. The professors made more eye contact with me because they could see how in tune with them I was.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I have recently read whining statements from men who claim they are not respected in the mystery/crime fiction world. My own feeling is that, while we are making progress, the gender of the writer comes into play entirely too much, and we have to respect fiction from the past as a reflection of the time in which it was written, including attitudes towards various segments of our population.
ReplyDelete