The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)

My review:

Despite the blurb and all the critics’ praise, this late novel is really no more than a thriller, not a “crime novel.”  As a thriller, it is quite successful, with some notably tense scenes in the London fog, although the finish on the French cliffs makes very little impact, and the plot, with its mixture of albinos, hunchbacks and dwarves, psychopathic ex-Commandos, saintly canons and buried treasures, is preposterous in the extreme.  As a novel, it is less successful.  Jack Havoc never comes across as the truly wicked man all the other characters say he I, and the famous scene in the church is grossly over-rated.  Thus, an odd mixture of the author’s early ‘plum pudding’ approach combined with her late style, which is often very good but equally often requires close and careful reading to avoid headache (particularly in the scenes with the ghastly ex-service men).

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