Stephen Hayes reviewed A gun for sale by Graham Greene (Penguin Twentieth Century classics series)
None
4 stars
Spy novels seemed to flourish in the Cold War, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps they were revived by the James Bond romances of [a:Ian Fleming|2565|Ian Fleming|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1364532740p2/2565.jpg] and given more impetus by the more serious and realistic novels of [a:John le Carre], but they had been around for quite a while before that, and this is one set in the period of tension leading up to the Second World War. It's only about a third of the length of many of the Cold War spy thrillers, but that, if anything makes it more readable and more sharply focused. In looking for a postwar novel in the same genre I suppose the one that comes closest is [b:The day of the Jackal|540020|The Day of the Jackal|Frederick Forsyth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405364996s/540020.jpg|1792180] by [a:Frederick Forsyth|36714|Frederick Forsyth|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1224097067p2/36714.jpg].
It's not just a spy story, it's a crime novel as well, and perhaps even more so. In that …
Spy novels seemed to flourish in the Cold War, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps they were revived by the James Bond romances of [a:Ian Fleming|2565|Ian Fleming|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1364532740p2/2565.jpg] and given more impetus by the more serious and realistic novels of [a:John le Carre], but they had been around for quite a while before that, and this is one set in the period of tension leading up to the Second World War. It's only about a third of the length of many of the Cold War spy thrillers, but that, if anything makes it more readable and more sharply focused. In looking for a postwar novel in the same genre I suppose the one that comes closest is [b:The day of the Jackal|540020|The Day of the Jackal|Frederick Forsyth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405364996s/540020.jpg|1792180] by [a:Frederick Forsyth|36714|Frederick Forsyth|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1224097067p2/36714.jpg].
It's not just a spy story, it's a crime novel as well, and perhaps even more so. In that respect the contrast with postwar crime novels is quite marked. I'd just finished reading [b:Blood on the Tongue|503232|Blood on the Tongue (Ben Cooper & Diane Fry, #3)|Stephen Booth|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1338898325s/503232.jpg|826980], which is set in much the same area of England, and what stands out is the difference in police procedures. In the prewar novel, the police circulate numbers of stolen banknotes to shops and railway booking offices in a town the size of London with remarkable efficiency for pre-Internet days. and everyone throughout the country is aware of the description of a wanted man. This makes it very easy to trace the suspect. In post war crime novels, the police have suspects, but can't find them, and when they do find out that they are not the perpetrators. They discover the real perpetrators by chance as often as not.
I suspect that the recent ones are more accurate, and the pre-war ones give an exaggerated idea of police efficiency and resources. Back then they never seemed to discuss the budget available for their investigations, though [a:Graham Greene|2533|Graham Greene|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1254688603p2/2533.jpg] does have some digs at differences in medical treatment for people of different classes.
