Johnston McCulley (1883–1958)

When I was a kid, I read every Hardy Boy bk & many other bks from similar series. I didn't, however, read mysteries/detective-crime-fiction aimed at older readers - except for, maybe, the works of Edgar Allen Poe. This might've been the 1st 'adult' mystery I read. As usual w/ bks that I read so long ago, I remember it more for its atmosphere - wch is probably reinforced largely by the bk's age. So, w/o attempting to verify the accuracy of my memory, what I remember is something like: 'criminal mastermind' named "The Spider", hidden rms w/ secret entrances - perhaps thru hinged bkshelves, diabolical criminal plans involving great cleverness & labyrinthian manipulations of people. Such details (minimal though they are) are pretty much clichés of similarly themed films of the era - &, presumably, of other bks. Anyway, I loved this at the time & give it 4 stars here more b/c of the impression it made on my youthful mind than b/c I'd expect to be stunned by its literary qualities now.

It wasn't long, however, before I snubbed mysteries as a genre too aimed at the LCD, a genre w/o much deep literary content, a formulaic genre predictably full of clichés & w/o innovation or substantial observation of human nature. Decades later, I discovered Dashiell Hammett & others & became interested in mysteries all over again.… (mehr)

A pulpy knockoff of the [b: Scarlet Pimpernel|136116|The Scarlet Pimpernel|Emmuska Orczy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1406764899s/136116.jpg|750426]. Not particularly well written. Its fine but if you've seen or read any version of the character then you'll find little of interest.
While many people have stolen from the Scarlet Pimpernel over the years, such as batman, there are different levels of theft. Most Batman stories for example are just taking the general concept, whereas 'The Dark-Knight Rises' steals very particular plot points (of course the rest of that movie is a remake of 'Rocky III' anyway).
This story falls into the latter category plagiarizing at least one major element from [b: The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel|31501|The League Of The Scarlet Pimpernel|Emmuska Orczy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1168277056s/31501.jpg|1946373] right down to a particular name, now more associated with superheroes the Avengers.
Their is one spot of originality (unless its stolen from something i havn't read, which is quite possible ;) ), which is the love story. This focuses on the development of the relation between the male and female lead, in the Pimpernel they're already married and all we get to explain why Marguerite would marry such a fop is that he seemed different before the wedding :lol .

Another element which i don't think they meant to steal is the problematic morality of the story, which it shares with Pimpernel. In Pimpernel it was that he was rescuing the rich from the poor, in this its the treatment of the natives. In both cases the hero only comes down on the right side as far as is acceptable for his social position.

The only real surprise for me in this was the tone. Its actually very close to that of the Antonio Banderas film, i really assumed it would be more serious.

Fun enough i suppose but i couldn't bring myself to give it 3 stars. Perhaps more acceptable if you don't read a lot.. or watch much film.. or have anything better to be do ;) .… (mehr)