Tuesday, June 09, 2015

PaperBack



John B. West, Death on the Rocks, Signet, 1964

4 comments:

Glen Davis said...

I have several books in this series including this one. Cheesy, but still entertaining.

Unknown said...

Cheesy, indeed, sort of low-rate Spillane.

Stephen Mertz said...

I agree with Glen and Bill in your assessment of the series. That said, this was the best of the batch. West was a black US citizen who resettled in Africa and was a doctor. What little I've learned about the man is far more interesting than most of what he wrote. DEATH ON THE ROCKS is interesting, though, in that it's set in Africa with a well-realized setting. A side-note: throughout Rocky Steele's visit to Africa, he comments 3-4 times on how he loves to drive fast, there are no speed limits and so on. I read somewhere that West the author died in a high speed automobile accident. Anyway, this one is a noteworthy Spillane pastiche.

Unknown said...

There was a good article on West long ago in THE ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE, I believe. I read it, but I've forgotten most of it. I agree that this is probably the best of his books, but he was no Spillane. Still, I'm sure Signet sold millions of his books, as I know they all went through several printings