The novella “The Treasure of Tortoise Island” by G.H. Teed first appeared in the January 17, 1925 issue of UNION JACK and was reprinted in the collection SEXTON BLAKE WINS, where I read it. I found the UNION JACK image online. In this one, Blake is asked by the beautiful Lady Richmond to help her husband, who is suffering from some mysterious disease he picked up in the East Indies. Teed implies that some years past, Blake had a romantic interest in the lady, presumably before she was married, but he doesn’t provide any details, at least not in this story.
As it turns out, the only person who can help Lord Richmond is Dr. Huxton
Rymer, the brilliant physician who abandoned medicine for a life of crime,
becoming one of Sexton Blake’s archenemies in the process. Blake and Rymer
agree to a truce, and Rymer goes off with Lord Richmond to the West Indies,
where he can find the spices and herbs he needs to effect a cure. But Rymer can’t
long ignore his criminal nature and soon teams up with Marie Galante, the
beautiful octaroon who commands Kingston, Jamaica’s criminal underworld, on a
new scheme involving his patient . . . which, of course, puts him at odds with
Sexton Blake once more.
I may annoy, or even anger, some readers here, but I found this story to be something
of a disappointment. The basic setup is all right, but Teed never does much
with it, and with the exception of an early shootout and a big battle that
wraps things up, there’s no action and a lot of the story’s events take place
off-screen so that most of the time Teed seems to be summarizing things, rather
than spinning an exciting yarn. Even that big battle at the end comes to a
rather limp conclusion. This is the first story by Teed that I’ve read, and
having seen him acclaimed as one of the best Sexton Blake writers, I’m left scratching my head. Is this just not one of his better entries, or am I
missing something? That’s always possible with me.
I have a number of other Blake stories by Teed and certainly will read more by
him. There are some nice bits in this one, just not enough of them, and I’m
curious to see if I like some of this other yarns better.
1 comment:
You are not alone, James, in "missing something" when it comes to reading a Teed Sexton Blake story. I've often had that feeling, too, most recently when reading THE YELLOW TIGER, which had the honor of being published as Sexton Blake Library, series one, number one, in 1915.
Post a Comment