When I find an author I like, I stick with them. Most of the authors I like are from the early nineteen hundreds. Once I run out of one author, I can scour the library for more older looking books that catch my eye.
I started off with Jeffery Farnol and J. Jefferson Farjeon, moving on to ones such as Mary Roberts Rinehart, who lived in Bar Harbor. Finally, I found E. Phillips Oppenheim.
Oppenheim wrote stories alternating between love, espionage, the World Wars, society, or a combination of the four. Just before WWI he began writing of it, and he predicted WWII two years after WWI ended.
This book, "The Ostrekoff Jewels", is from 1932. Oppenheim in this book, writes of an American working for the U.S. Embassy named Wilfred Haven, who is stuck in Russia during a revolution with his good friends, the Prince and Princess Ostrekoff, who are the targets of the revolution. He agrees to undertake a perilous journey for them, to take the Ostrekoff Jewels, worth millions, that the revolutionary party the Bolshevists desperately desire, to the Ostrekoff's daughter, the Princess Elisaveta Ostrekoff, who is safe in Florence.
In terms of what will happen to the Prince and Princess Ostrekoff stuck in Russia?
"What they find... will be our bodies. That is arranged" the Prince Ostrekoff says.
On his way out, Haven, unable to control his anger at the actions of a mob, runs in to save a woman, who he ends up meeting several times later, Anna Kastellane.
Haven uses the privileges he has as a junior to carry the jewels in his embassy briefcase, chained to his wrist, through many countries, constantly pursued.
Haven is good-natured, and does his best to live up to his honor and reputation as the son of one of the richest men in the world. He is very confident and maybe a little conceited. But he also has difficulty determining who he can trust. He is not helped by any other characters.
"Can I trust you?" Wilfred Haven demanded of Anna Kastellane.
"These are not the days to trust anyone," she responded.
The story flows really well, and what impressed me most is that Oppenheim is always a step ahead of the reader, at least, the reader who thinks the way he directs the reader to. As soon as I think I figured out the solution to the story's problem, Oppenheim throws in a red herring, to prove to me that I am wrong. He saw where people might suspect what will happen, so as soon as the average early twentieth century person realizes where the story is headed, Oppenheim will either lead the reader towards a wrong answer, or give definitive proof that is later rebutted.
This sort of awareness is very difficult, especially with a book that is written by yourself, but Oppenheim does it flawlessly. Altogether, it has stood up as the best book I have read, and is what I think of when I think of deceptive writing.
I wondered if you had ever gotten into any of the slightly later hard-boiled Black Mask writers like Cornell Woolrich or Dashiell Hammett?
ReplyDeleteOr whether you had ever come across the crazy and weird Harry Stephen Keeler, a true original? Or the very slick Eric Ambler who did international intrigue a few years after the book you describe? Or the outstanding Geoffrey Household, whose 'Rogue Male' is a classic?
You use the most interesting parts of this intro as book ends to the less interesting material. The plot is unimportant to someone about to read the book--simply to make clear that it's an escape-and-chase, puzzle-box thriller-romance is almost enough. We'll find out the rest as soon as we start turning pages.
More interesting is why certain authors appeal to you, what you look for in their books--things you touch on but don't detail. Also highly relevant is Oppenheim's place in 20th C. genre fiction, his success, his public, his reputation then and now, and so on. These things you also approach without really embracing.
It's interesting to me that Oppenheim is a curiosity today, except among aficionados like you, whereas many of his contemporaries and competitors (PG Wodehouse jumps to mind) have gained or regained critical interest. An intro is your chance to enter the lists to champion your hero to the non-understanding and non-appreciating reading public!