U is for UNCERTAIN QUEST by Elizabeth Messenger

For my second go around at the Crime Fiction Alphabet (read my 2010 posts here), I've set myself the challenging task of focusing not only just on New Zealand-themed posts, but just on Kiwi crime fiction books (ie I won't do any author profiles etc this time around) - although sometimes it may be the author's name that is relevant to the letter of the week.

This week I’m highlighting another lesser-known New Zealand mystery novel from decades past, UNCERTAIN QUEST by Elizabeth Messenger.

UNCERTAIN QUEST is set in the scenic Fiordland region of New Zealand, which is near the bottom of the South Island. High in the forbidding mountains a man named Grant has died in what was reported to have been an accident. However his widow, Lalia Grant, felt there was some mystery behind the accident and she flew across the world to discover the truth, certain that it would only be found at the scene of the tragedy. The first shock came when she arrived at the Palmer homestead to find her hostess murdered. Lalia immediately realised that someone wished the truth to remain hidden and that someone who had already committed murder would not hesitate to do so again.

Lalia, with her life in constant danger, continues her search for information but, when she finally discovers who murdered Vera Palmer, there awaits her a surprise that is to change the whole course of her life.

UNCERTAIN QUEST was published in hardcover in the UK in 1965 by Robert Hale, and is now only available via libraries and some second-hand dealers. It is a real shame that Messenger’s crime writing, which received good reviews in the UK on publication, has now been forgotten by New Zealanders. I’ve managed to source several of her crime novels, and I’m looking forward to reading them, and seeing how Messenger evokes 1950s-1960s rural New Zealand, and whether her characters and storylines stand up decades later.

Like most Kiwi writers of the time, and many of the 'genre' writers in much more recent times, Messenger was published by an overseas publisher (Robert Hale in London). "Elizabeth Messenger’s novels, once popular enough to be serialised and translated into other languages, are now difficult to obtain," says DNZB. I've certainly found that - even after trawling through countless online and real-life second-hand bookstores, and regularly searching the Internet and other resources as part of my unofficial research into New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing, I only found out about her fairly recently. I have managed to source several of her books, but it's been a battle.From what I can gather, Messenger wrote at least nine crime/thriller novels in the 1950s/1960s, in addition to her journalism and cookery writing. They are:

• MURDER STALKS THE BAY


• MATERIAL WITNESS


• DIVE DEEP FOR DEATH


• LIGHT ON MURDER


• THE WRONG WAY TO DIE


• A HEAP OF TROUBLE


• YOU WON'T NEED A COAT


• PUBLICITY FOR MURDER; and


• GOLDEN DAWNS THE SUN.

Not a bad output, and it makes it even more remarkable - especially given our purported dearth of crime and thriller writers (other than Dame Ngaio Marsh) pre-1990 - that we seem to have almost completely forgotten about her. Just goes to underline that popular perception (eg New Zealand doesn't have much of a crime fiction history) is not necessarily reality.

What do you think of my 'U' choice? Have you ever heard of Elizabeth Messenger, or read any of her books (crime or otherwise)? Do you like reading older crime novels that are out of print, to see how ‘things have changed’ or to enjoy a different style? And what is it about the smell of old hardcover books? Comments welcome.

Friday's Forgotten Kiwi crime writer: Simon Jay

Over the past couple of years I've been keeping a keen eye out for any New Zealand-written crime, mystery or thriller fiction, both contemporary and from days gone by. Here at Crime Watch I have shared some information about such 'forgotten' Kiwi crime writers, whose work isout-of-print and had to find, including the likes of:

• Laurie Mantell (five Steve Arrow murder mysteries, 1978-1984, plus a standalone in the lates 1990s);


• Freda Bream (who while retired published 13 murder mysteries starring the Rev Jabal Jarrett between 1982-1997);


• Edmund Bohan (who wrote five historic Inspector O'Rorke novels between 1996-2003);


• Carol Dawber (who wrote three Top of the South-set mysteries around the same period);


• Elizabeth Messenger (who wrote at least nine crime thrillers that I know of, in the 1950s-1960s); and


• V. Merle Grayland (at least three books in the 1960s).

Another forgotten Kiwi author from the era of Messenger and Grayland is Simon Jay, who published two mystery novels in the 1960s. I first read about Jay in the digital version of Joan Stevens' book THE NEW ZEALAND NOVEL 1860-1965 (Reed, 1966), available courtesy of the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. In a subsection on crime fiction, Stevens says:

" Another sub-type flourishing in recent years is the detective story, where we have at least one remarkable success, Simon Jay's Death of a Skin Diver, 1964. This has a tight plot, good writing, and a really knowledgeable exploitation of the New Zealand setting. What could be better ingredients for a local thriller than skindiving, yachting and yachtsmen, expeditions by day and by night on the intricacies of the Waitemata Harbour (with maps), plus some smuggling, some science, some humour, and some murder? Simon Jay is a pseudonym disguising an Auckland pathologist; his amateur detective is, naturally, also a pathologist, Dr Peter Much, who looks like a winner."

It certainly sounds intriguing to me, although I have found the book very hard to find. I am also curious as to what constituted a "remarkable success" for DEATH OF A SKIN DIVER - perhaps it had great reviews or large sales for a New Zealand book of the time, although I haven't been able to find much more in the way of information.

Thanks to Scott McPherson at the Classic Crime Fiction website, you can read a short biography of 'Simon Jay' (with photo) and a decent synopsis of DEATH OF A SKIN DIVER here.

Forgotten Kiwi Fiction: MUSSOLINI'S MILLIONS

I've been scouring the secondhand bookshops and dealers again recently, and have stumbled across some more intriguing out-of-print and hard-to-find Kiwi novels that seem to perhaps fall within the crime, mystery, or thriller fiction categories.

A book I thought I'd highlight today was written by someone who was quite a well-known New Zealander in the early-mid 20th century, for activities away from the page as well: MUSSOLINI'S MILLIONS by John A. Lee.

Lee (1891–1982) seems like he was an interesting character who lived a long and very full life - he was awarded the DCM for gallantry in the First World War, joined the Labour Party on his return, was a Member of Parliment from 1922-1928 and 1931-1943, and from 1936 to 1939 he was Under-Secretary to the Minister of Finance and responsible for the introduction of state housing in New Zealand. While an MP in the 1930s he became famous as a novelist and writer on socialism, and then was expelled from the Labour Party for attacking the Prime Minister in a pamphlet (as an aside, in one of those funny coincidences of history, we've just had another Labour Party MP here in New Zealand expelled from the party for attacking the leader in word form).

He went onto become a well-known left-wing socialist, founding another political party, and disseminating his views through John A. Lee's Weekly in the 1940s, and then from the 1950s he was a successful writer and bookseller in Auckland. As the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature states, "although he miscalculated politically in 1940, he never lost the legendary status he had achieved by that time, a status owed in large part to his writings and gift of oratory".

Lee wrote several non-fiction political books, including one that had an introduction by British Labour Party leader Clem Atlee, as well as 'autobiographical fictions' and "potboilers he wrote originally as serials to boost the circulation of his Weekly" - the latter included MUSSOLINI'S MILLIONS, which was published in novel form in 1970.

In MUSSOLINI'S MILLIONS, "James Burns returned from incarceration in a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp more injured in mind than body. He went to recuperate at the New Zealand sheep ranch of Kevin McArthur and his lovely daughter Jean. It was there he stumbled on two kinds of treasure - the sinister and mysterious hoard with which Mussolini had intended fleeing his defeated country; and the love and affection he had not known he craved.

Isolated and immobilised on a lonely New Zealand sheep farm, Jimmy Burns and Jean McArthur found that their discovering of a fantastic treasure placed them in deadly danger. A few desperate men guarded the secret of Mussolini's millions. It was a secret they were determined would never be shared."

I'm looking forward to seeing how Lee's famous skills of writing and oratory translate into this mid 20th-century 'potboiler'.

You can read more about John A. Lee at the New Zealand Book Council website here, New Zealand History Online here, the Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand here, and Wikipedia here.

Forgotten Kiwi crime: MURDER ON A MUSTER

As I've noted before here on Crime Watch, including with my 'Kiwi crime bookshelves' photo back in July, I've found myself collecting a lot of out of print and hard to find Kiwi crime, mystery and thriller titles over the past year or so. There have been some terrific finds in various online and 'real' secondhand bookstores etc. Along with a strong present and a (hopefully) very bright future, New Zealand crime fiction has a much richer history than most people realise.

One out-of-print or hard-to-find book that I stumbled over recently has a very 'Kiwi' setting: a high country farm. Colin D. MacDonald's MURDER ON A MUSTER is a slimline mystery novel that was published by Certes Press in Christchurch in 1997.

In MURDER ON A MUSTER, "Hill country farmer Hamish Nicholls is well aware fo the dangerous nature of potholes that reach deeped below his pastures on Limestone Hills. His new huntaway dog, however, hasn't yet learnt to step carefully and early one frosty mustering day while in excited pursuit of some breakaway sheep, he falls down a pothole. Hamish, fond of the dog and mindful of its value, ventures down after him in a rescue attempt which results in a grisly discovery. The events which follow plunge Hamish into a nighmarish encounter with violence and lawlessness. Suddenly all that he holds most dear and most certain is under threat."

As far as I have been able to ascertain thusfar, MURDER ON A MUSTER may be the only book former farmer Colin D. MacDonald published. According to the book's back cover, MacDonald was born and brought up on a North Canterbury sheep run, and had extensive experience at managing and owning farms in Canterbury and on the West Coast, and had been on many musters similar to the one depicted in MURDER ON A MUSTER. At the time of publication he was retired and living in Christchurch, married with three children.

According to the jacket, "Author Colin MacDonald's experience of North Canterbury farming and his feel for the landscape provide an authentic backdrop to this tale of murder and the desperate flight of a violent, vindictive man who has nothing more to lose".

Sounds intriguing, and at only 117 pages in length, I'll probably find myself giving it a go sooner rather than later. Might be a nice change from all the city-based crime I've been reading lately.

Do you like crime fiction set in isolated rural areas? How important is an interesting setting in mystery writing? Had you heard of MURDER ON A MUSTER before? Does it sound like the kind of book you might like to try? Thoughts and comments welcome.