Sexton Blake and The Great War - introduced by Mark Hodder
I would like to thank Hanna and Kate from Rebellion for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for affair and honest review
Publisher – Rebellion
Published - Out Now
Price - £8.99 paperback £4.31 Kindle eBook
Britain and Germany are at war, and Sexton Blake in in the thick of it
As the battle for the Western front rage, adventuring detective Sexton Blake pits his intellect and physical prowess against the machinations of the Kaiser and his forces with the help of an intrepid band of allies in three classic stories.
From uncovering secret German naval bases to dangling from Zeppelins, fighting atop moving trains and escaping firing squads, Bake moves through war-torn Europe solving mysteries and fighting against tyranny.
Join him as he enters an era of secrets, soldiers, and spies…
Occasionally when deciding what I want to read I think about gaps in my reading of which there are many such as 1980’s fantasy which I know very little of for example. When I heard about Sexton Blake, I was curious because I’ve heard of him as some form of detective but was very unaware of who he was and what type of stories I did. In Sexton Blake and the Great War introduced by Mark Hodder, we get a collection of three novella length tales based around conflicts between Britain and Germany around and during WW1. I ended up getting an unusual lesson in how thrillers in some ways don’t change their format whether their leads are named Blake, Bond or Reacher yet at the same time I was also intrigued to see how the events of the time shape stories in particular their mood.
Little bit of history for you first chums - Sexton Blake began in 1893 but unusually became more of a magazine character that would be written over the next 80 plus years by a host of different authors. It gets really interesting when we see that he is a private detective set in a little-known London location known as Baker Street; with a landlady/housekeepr and he often gets paired with a trustworthy stalwart companion. Its not shy of comparisons with you know who but the stories here are less about deduction and more daring do as we will see. The change of authors allows for changes in style so rather than the consistency of Conan Doyle’s canon here the best analogy I can think of is like Doctor Who – various authors try their hand at a tale told within a certain format with some returning characters but much latitude as to how that is told.
In the first tale from 1908 The Case of the Naval Manoeuvres by Norman Goddard it’s a very James Bond-esque tale opening with the mastermind in his Zeppelin attending to his secret base. Although this time the mastermind is the actual Kaiser Wilhelm II and the base is in the Shetland Islands! As part of growing tensions between the two empires (and there is a very prophetic line where a character says he expects war to come in five years or less- in 1908!) the Kaiser is preparing special base that would help future attacks against an unprotected part of the UK. Only one man can stop him – Sexton Blake is recruited by no less than the Prime Minister to find out what is going on. Quickly this results in battles with soldiers, diving off airships and a clever mix of disguises. What’s interesting in this story is that the Germans are seen as an adversary but not a detested one. In fact, a lot of the story is about Sexton trying to broker a peace highlighted by the Kaiser and Sexton being shown as having a healthy respect for one another. This tale seems to be one happy to tell an adventure tale which like Bond has the fate of empires on his shoulder but with a message of can we please not fight. The frenetic pace never gets in the wat as Sexton and his team get out one problem after another, intriguingly the real enemies the story wants to highlight are anarchists (who arrive out of nowhere) in the final chapters to cause mischief. It’s a fun tale but that mindset of the period before WW1 fascinating.
Then we jump into 1916 and the splendidly titled On War Service, Or Sexton Blake’s Secret Mission by Cecil Hayter. This time Sexton has to get across the Front to Antwerp to give a secret message to someone. Only issue the German Army know he is coming. One fascinating angle here is the strange distinction being made from those in active service fighting and those private citizens able to go around Europe while the war is on. War in this tale is business. This is a little less epic in scale and reminds me more of those black and white serials you would see growing up. Every few pages an obstacle or foe appear to stop Sexton and then a cunning plan or act of god arrives to save the day. What keeps things going is that we never get bored, there are burning buildings, murders and even horse chases to get through. Interestingly the respect for Germany by 2016 is vastly diminished - they are viewed as callous and Sexton ‘s mission could if it fails really hurt the war effort. Here WW1 isn’t an awfully big adventure or battle with equals but feels a grubby battle for survival and this feels the most jingoistic of the tales.
The final tale is the most interesting of the trio for me in how it looks at those in the front line themselves. This focuses on the young Watson like character to Blake known as Tinker. In 1915’s Private Tinker – ASC by William Murray Graydon the duo gets a shock when a mission goes wrong as Tinker loses precious documents to German secret agents in London. Feeling that he has let the side down he decides the only sensible thing is to enlist (handily using the name of a friend who needs a few days in the UK to tend to his dying wife) and promptly gets sent to the Front and gets wrapped up in escalating adventure of bravery – including train derailments. Sexton is perturbed to lose his friend but coincidently gets hired by a woman (first main female character in the collection) to get a will signed by her husband who forgot to do this before he went to fight! As things go as you expect Tinker and Blake are soon reunited and have to save British lives in the process. Although the standard adventures are present what I found more interesting was the background of these young soldiers going into war. While saying they’re brave and true its not afraid to show the front as incredibly dangerous and death can hit anyone quickly. We also get glimpses of the injured and imprisoned. Contrary to the idea of propaganda saying you need to go to the front its interesting to see in 1915 that Sexton is actually keen to get his friend out of the war. Perhaps a sign that people realised this was never going to be over soon even by next Christmas.
These are tales I have to warn you were the prose is fairly simple but to be honest wouldn’t be out of place of some best-selling thrillers you get now and the idea of constant action to keep plot moving is a staple of the genre. Blake, I think though is possibly the weakest element in the tales – he’s perfect – can speak German, dive into sea water, pilot boats, become other people and so much more. Rather than Holmes he is though in this stage just a man that wants to do the honourable thing – not many jokes or snide remarks here and you never doubt he has a way through this. The tales are virtually empty of women which is vexing as well so I can’t say everyone will enjoy this.
But I do think if you’re interested in thrillers and their evolution (or not) from the past plus an interesting real time look at how genre fiction was dealing with wartime then these are fascinating. The tales are fun action-packed serials but there is something compelling at this look at an almost forgotten gap in the genre which you can see bridges the gap from Holmes to Bond. If you can bear these caveats in mind you will be in for an entertaining trip into history.
