POLICEMAN'S LOT:
The
Detective Fiction of Henry Wade
“This is a detective story for
connoisseurs, for those who value clear thinking and good writing above
mere
ingenuity and easy thrills.”
– Times Literary Supplement, 29th September 1932
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“Mr. Wade can always be trusted to
produce
a workmanlike tale, and here he preserves that admirable balance
between the
genuine interest aroused by his characters and the lure of his jigsaw
puzzle
which he showed in (never had author less reason so to warn his
publisher!) Constable, Guard Thyself.”
–
Torquemada, Observer, 4th October 1936
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It is a great pity that Henry Wade should be
lumped with the humdrum journeyman Freeman Wills Crofts, for there is
very little
of the humdrum about him. True, his two
series detectives, John Poole and PC Bragg, are professional policemen
who go
about their work in a methodical manner, but there is genuine
intellectual excitement
in following a Wade plot, for he has a fine gift for handling evidence
and alibis
and manages to throw in a twist or two even into the seemingly most
simple of tales
(e.g. Heir Presumptive). His
strengths are more than good detection,
however, for his characterisation is superb, allowing him to step
inside his
characters’ heads and to depict grief, jealousy, loveless marriages and
intense
guilt with the touch of a novelist.
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What's New:
These pages copyright Nicholas Lester Fuller,
2001--2002. Created 6th December 2004.