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Friday, September 05, 2008

Forgotten Books: Puzzle for Fiends - Patrick Quentin

Years ago I read quite a few novels by Patrick Quentin (a pseudonym used by several different combinations of writers, but most often Richard Webb and Hugh Wheeler) featuring producer Peter Duluth and his movie star wife Iris. I remember these as being witty and sophisticated and generally enjoyable, a little along the lines of the Pam and Jerry North books by Richard and Frances Lockridge, but not as good.

I never read PUZZLE FOR FIENDS until now, though. It’s a Peter Duluth novel, too – sort of. I say that because for most of the book, Peter has amnesia and doesn’t know who he is.

Ah, the old amnesia plot! Well, it wasn’t quite as old in 1946, when this book was first published. After a brief opening in which Peter sends Iris off to Japan for a post-war USO tour, he wakes up in a mansion populated by three beautiful but vaguely sinister women who claim to be his mother, his wife, and his sister, as well as a vaguely sinister doctor who’s there because Peter has been in a car wreck and has a broken arm and leg. Only he’s not Peter anymore (although the reader knows he really is). Everybody claims he’s somebody named Gordon Friend, whose father died recently under mysterious circumstances.

I like a book where nothing is what it seems and the plot has twist after twist. That’s the case here, especially in the second half, which winds up playing like something from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The first half is mostly set-up and pretty slow, but I can forgive that if there’s a good payoff, as there is here. PUZZLE FOR FIENDS is more of a psychological thriller than an actual mystery, although Peter does wind up solving several murders. It’s worth reading, and in fact I’d recommend just about anything under the Patrick Quentin pseudonym. (Webb and Wheeler also wrote as Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge, but I don’t believe I’ve ever read any of the books published under those names.)

6 comments:

  1. I finished the first two John Blaine books while our power was out for the Hurricane. Enjoyed them both. I see some similarity in plot in the series apparently. A lot revolves around sabotage of some scientific experiment. Fun reads, though. Thanks for the heads up on these.

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  2. I agree about the Patrick Quentin books, James. I was on a panel about forgotten writers a few years ago, and those books were among my prime examples.

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  3. Somewhere buried in my basement I have The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow. First rate all the way... Btw I have tried and tried to order books by Eugene Cunningham (from Amazon) and have so far come up against a brick wall. Any ideas?

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  4. David,

    I'd try ABE (www.abebooks.com) for Cunningham books. Quite a few listed there, starting at a buck each. But before doing that, even, if you've got a good local library I'd check their Western section, as several of Cunningham's novels have been reprinted in large print editions in the past decade or so. Even if the library doesn't own any, if it's part of an interlibrary loan system, they can probably get some on loan that way. I've been able to get some really surprising stuff through interlibrary loan.

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  5. Thanks for the suggestions. AbeBooks looks like a great site and I see they have a huge selection of Cunningham books, but maybe I will wait until I get back to VA to check the library... that's something I haven't done in awhile.

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  6. The Handbook of Texas online has a nice article on Eugene Cunningham...including what looks like a complete biblio...interesting gentleman from the past.
    Jay Rogers

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