Just look at that cover! The 1957 UK reprint of the US orginal from 1950. Even the authors - 'The Gordons' - screams at us. Turns out they were a married couple, Gordon Gordon (yup) and Mildred. They wrote crime fiction as if it was true crime, heavy with facts and procedure, and the biggest surprise of all is, it works incredibly well. Yes, hero John 'Rip' Ripley is a bit of a stereotype but the Gordons give him enough quirks to make him human - he keeps letting his girlfriend down on dates and he doesn't want to kill people, even psycopathic criminals. And the gallery of villains in FBI Story are the real treats.
The central story is that an old lady has reported her adult daughter missing. It's not a FBI case but Rip can't help but look into it. He approaches her last known employer who tells him that Eugenie Martinek ran off with one of his cars. Antoine Remarque is disappointed rather than annoyed. He is super-rich and has other cars, but Miss Martinek is super attractive and he rather fancied developing their association. Eugenie really wanted to be an actress. She had been personal assistant to a star and seems to have become involved in a conspiracy to steal the star's jewels and replace them with high quality paste. The paste man has now been murdered. There are several suspects, including Eugenie and creepy fence Nick Steele, who may be in a relationship.
The criminals are well developed with both back stories and psychological insights. Drugs are an issue, as are the aftershocks and disruptions caused by the war. Are Eugenie's problems, for example, anything to do with her Croation heritage? I have to admit, this is the first time I can recall mention of Croatia in a book from 1950.
Best of all, there is a fantastic shoot-out climax and an admirably brief epilogue. State of the art, I would suggest, maybe even ahead of the game in its day. Happily I have The Gordons' next book after FBI Story and will report back soon. It's another fantastic title for a crime novel - Campaign Trail A Presidential Election Thriller. Can't wait. Almost certainly won't wait very long.
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