Down Amongst The Dead Men

THRILLER readers this month have the choice of Runaway Corpse and Dead Man Running.

Or they can read them both; similarity begins and ends with the titles.

Runaway Corpse (The Case of) is, of course, by Erie Stanley Gardner with Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake going through their usual paces and the whole thing ending with Perry’s usual brilliant performance in court.

Perry Mason fans don’t care that there is a certain repetitiousness about the famous lawyer and his cases. The fact that he can solve anything in the end—even though in the early chapters he will have run foul of the District Attorney and the local police department, and to have been in imminent danger of being thrown into gaol himself for interfering with the processes of the law—all add up to a certain charm for the addict.

In this particular case, Perry’s

clients are a cat and mouse team of vociferous aunt and timid niece who is married to the Corpse, The Corpse himself is no better than he should be, and not as permanently dead as might be expected.

John Blackburn’s Dead Man Run ning follows the now well-worn path of taking British military secrets behind the Iron Curtain.

But this story is a variation on the usual theme in that it’s a sort of Burgess and Maclean in reverse.

Peter Carlin was shanghaied while in Russia on legitimate business and the stage set back in England to make it appear that he had done a flit. He was as good as dead and no one expected him to escape and return. How he did and what he discovered in clearing his own name provides the action in the story, and during it the reader meets some strange characters. (THE RUNAWAY CORPSE. Published by Heinemann Ltd. Australian price, 15/6.

DEAD MAN RUNNING. Published by Seeker and Warburg. Australian price, 18/9.)