The female of the species

By Sapper

The fifth Bulldog Drummond novel, originally published in 1928, is the first novel I have read, featuring Drummond, since the mid 1990's. For some reason, although I loved the interwar ambience of the first four (which I have gathered in a single volume), I never bothered to look for any sequels until now. Turns out there are fifteen of them, so I shall look forward to reading a few more, though more as a consequence of the first four than of this one.

'The female of the species' doesn't really live up to its predessesors, and this is almost certainly due to the fact that, unlike them, the story is narrated by a character in the book. The fact that the principle antagonist of the first books is missing (having been killed off) doesn't help either, nor does the fact that the premise of this story rests on a plan of revenge hatched by the dead man's insane lover. The story is incredibly parochial, even for a novel of this character, and the author's attempt at a serious femme fatale is laughably inept. Irma made for quite a sly and mysterious side kick in the previous novels and its rather a shame to see the character so poorly misused.
2/5

Red Harvest

By Dashiell Hammet

A lone detective comes to a town where the forces of disorder are running wild, so he cleans the place up, and the body count rises fast. I've seen this format, or something very similar in the films; 'Yojima', 'For a fistful of dollars' and 'Last man standing', but I've never read a novel like this. Taking its age into account, it is something of a big contradiction as its fascinating, some what trivial and very unrealistic. The story starts with a simple murder investigation and then spirals off into a labyrinth of gangs, mobsters and other assorted crooks.

At one point I thought it was getting into something very good, something more than just a murder investigation, but then I realised I was reading something I'd seen in the afore mentioned films and the whole thing become a farce, an enjoyable farce, but a farce nonetheless. Kind of like a serious version of the Keystone Cops. With the author churning out1930's colloquialisms in every second sentence however, the ambience is pure pulp so its an enjoyable book just so long as you don't harbour any desperate expectations.

Raiders of old...

"Better than Bond"

Part 2 3 4 5

The making of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Part 1 2 3 4 5

The making of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade;
Part 1 2 3 4
(The 'Indy tank' scene is dealt with in part 3)