Back in the Sixties when Avon published paperback editions of several of Talbot Mundy’s Jimgrim novels, they made the books seem like a cross between Robert E. Howard (“Talbot Mundy’s exotic world of fantastic adventure” enthused the cover copy) and Doc Savage (“Jimgrim and his amazing crew”). So naturally, I grabbed them off the paperback racks and read them. They weren’t exactly what those covers promised, being leisurely paced stories mostly about political and religious strife in the Middle and Far East. But the characters were interesting, especially James Schuyler Grim, an American working for British Intelligence, and the occasional action scenes were well-done. I enjoyed them enough that I’ve wanted to read the entire Jimgrim series sometime, and at my age, if I’m ever going to, I’d better get started.
So I read the first novel in the series, JIMGRIM AND ALLAH’S PEACE, which is
actually a fix-up of two connected novellas, “The Adventure at El-Kerak”, originally
published in the November 10, 1921 issue of the pulp ADVENTURE and “Under the
Dome of the Rock” from the December 10, 1921 issue of ADVENTURE. The narrator
is an unnamed American journalist in Jerusalem, which is under the control of
the British at the moment, with the army enforcing an uneasy peace between Jews
and Arabs. The ongoing conflict between Zionists and Palestinians is uncannily
similar to the unfortunate things going on in the Middle East today. Even a
little creepy, to be honest, and commenting on the similarity of current events
to stories from a 102-year-old pulp is as far as I intend to delve into
politics on this blog.
The narrator’s friendship with Jimgrim draws him into involvement with two
separate but related plots by radical groups to destabilize things even more
and start a war that will engulf the whole Middle East in blood and flame. So
the stakes are really high as Jimgrim and his allies seek to foil these plots
before they can come to fruition.
Unfortunately, except for a couple of excellent action scenes at the end of
each source novella, foiling the plots consists of sitting around and talking,
walking around Jerusalem and talking, and a lot of skulking. These stories are
very well-written with superb settings and well-drawn characters, but they take
“leisurely paced” to a whole new level. When Mundy wants to bring the blood and
thunder, he’s perfectly capable of doing so, but he should have done more of it
in JIMGRIM AND ALLAH’S PEACE.
That said, I enjoyed this novel enough to continue reading the series, but I
sure hope the other installments have a little bit more action in them.
