H. C. McNeile's Temple Tower

Temple Tower, published in 1929, was the sixth Bulldog Drummond adventure penned by H. C. McNeile under the name Sapper.

Captain Hugh Drummond is sampling the joys of country life in his house on Romney Marsh. If you’re familiar with the character you’ll know that these joys aren’t going to keep Hugh Drummond amused for very long. He’s a man who welcomes adventure and if adventure doesn’t come to him he’ll go looking for it. In this case the adventure comes to him. From his window he notices inexplicable red and blue lights on Romney Marsh, coming approximately from the direction of a lonely farmhouse know as Spragge’s Farm. The average person would dismiss such an occurrence as being mildly puzzling but of little consequence. Captain Drummond however suspects that there may be a mystery here. If there is he intends to be in the middle of it.

He recruits his friend Peter Darrell and they set out to investigate. Drummond’s curiosity has also been aroused by his neighbour Granger. Granger, a man who speaks excellent English but with just the slightest trace of an unidentifiable accent, seems like a man with an inordinate fear of something. He has turned his house into a veritable fortress. Of course if a man wishes to fortify his house he has a perfect right to do so but al the same it is interesting. Granger’s reaction when Drummond casually mentions the red and blue lights is even more interesting.

Of course there’s a dastardly plot behind all this, and a rather complicated one at that. Granger is afraid of something in his past. Having someone from your past, someone who hates you enough to want to kill you, suddenly reappearing is bad enough - but Granger has not one, not two, but three separate groups of people all on his trail. In fact you could argue there are four separate enemies hunting him!

To add to the fun there’s an old house riddled with secret passageways, a map, a motor-bandit gang and a masked strangler. There are also ample opportunities for Drummond to wage his own private war against crime. He does briefly consider the idea of reporting the matter to the police (and he certainly has connections at Scotland Yard) but he quickly dismisses the notion. After all the police are hindered by all kinds of irritating rules, and rules are things that Hugh Drummond is accustomed to ignore.

While Drummond does have a tendency to lead with his fists (as he does with breathtaking effrontery early on as a means on inviting himself into someone’s house) he also gets to exercise his brains in this adventure. And for all his bluster it is an unwise criminal who makes the mistake of thinking that Hugh Drummond lacks brains.

McNeile’s problem was that his first attempt to create a diabolical criminal mastermind as an opponent for his hero was so successful that Carl Petersen was always going to be a hard act to follow. In The Female of the Species he gave us a villain who was a worthy successor to Carl Petersen. In Temple Tower he succeeds reasonably well. The chief villain is more shadowy and we know less about his motivations (or it might be more accurate to say that his motivations are less complex) but he certainly qualifies as suitably sinister. There are some pretty fair subsidiary villains as well.

A thriller requires action and McNeile supplies it. McNeile’s biggest contribution to the thriller genre (and his contribution to that genre was immense) was that he gave it an injection of high-octane energy. Bulldog Drummond was certainly not the first crime/espionage hero but he was a good deal less genteel than his predecessors. In fact he seems in some ways closer in spirit to the heroes of the hard-boiled school although it’s worth noting that the first Bulldog Drummond novel pre-dates the emergence of the hard-boiled style by several years. I don’t want to push the comparison too far. There’s none of the moral ambiguity of the hard-boiled school here. The hero might on occasions express grudging admiration for the courage and intelligence of his adversaries but the villains are still entirely villainous and the heroes entirely heroic.

The hero’s (and the author’s) sense of humour might not be to everyone’s taste but it’s an essential part of his character. Personally I enjoy it.

The Bulldog Drummond stories really do need to be read in sequence, starting with Bulldog Drummond. There are constant references to previous adventures and the author assumes that the reader is familiar with Captain Drummond’s background, his unconventional methods and his ambiguous status as an amateur who has on occasions been known to work on a semi-official basis with the legal authorities. 

Temple Tower is a fine rambunctious adventure thriller. Highly recommended.

The Female of the Species

The Female of the Species was the fifth of the Bulldog Drummond novels produced by H. C. McNeile (under the pseudonym Sapper). It first appeared in print in 1928. It’s one of the best of the series and is a must-read for fans of the British thriller stories of the 1920s.

Captain Hugh Drummond is perhaps the most politically incorrect of all the politically incorrect heroes of the British thrillers of the interwar years. Quite apart from this he is perhaps a hero who will not be to everyone’s taste, and McNeile is a writer who is not to everyone’s tastes. There’s a great deal of humour in the Bulldog Drummond books but it’s a blustering schoolboy style of humour. McNeile’s literary style is not exactly subtle. Personally I have no problems with his writing but it’s a case of your mileage vary vary.

A major asset to any thriller is a colourful villain of the diabolical criminal mastermind type. McNeile created such a villain in the early Drummond books and in this fifth book he gives us an equally colourful villainess.

At this point it would be as well to point out that the Bulldog Drummond novels really need  to be read in sequence, beginning with Bulldog Drummond. It is absolutely imperative that you read the four Carl Petersen books (Bulldog Drummond, The Black Gang, The Third Round and The Final Count). The first novel provides vital background information on Drummond and on the circle of friends who assist him in his clandestine activities. It also explains his initial motivations and the way in which his crime-fighting career began.

The Female of the Species takes up where The Final Count left off. For the benefit of those who have not read the four Carl Petersen novels I will be as vague as possible in talking about this book’s links to the four earlier volumes, and I will be as careful as possible to avoid giving away any spoilers to those volumes. Suffice to say that if The Final Count seemed to have closed a chapter The Female of the Species re-opens that chapter in a logical and highly satisfying manner.

One of the most hackneyed of thriller clichés is to have the villain capture the hero’s wife or girlfriend, with the hero then required to rescue her. This cliché forms the core of the plot of The Female of the Species and it is greatly to McNeile’s credit that he manages to make it not seem hackneyed. In fact he utilises it quite cleverly. The art of writing a great thriller is not to make it dazzlingly original but to employ the standard plot elements of the genre as skillfully as possible. This is what McNeile does here.

The novel’s villainess is holding Drummond’s wife captive, but she has little interest in Phyllis Drummond. Her objective is revenge, with not just Hugh Drummond as her target but Drummond and all his loyal followers. But this is not to be a simple revenge. It is to be a revenge worthy of a true diabolical criminal mastermind. The abduction of Phyllis Drummond is the first move in an elaborate psychological game.

The novel is narrated by a newcomer to Drummond’s circle. It has to be admitted that Joe Dixon has few qualifications for engaging in the perilous anti-espionage and anti-crime activities of Drummond and his crew. Dixon does however display a certain defiant pluckiness and that is enough to endear him to Drummond.

The novel builds to a climax that provides McNeile with the opportunity to indulge himself in a spectacular suspense set-piece. He throws in plenty of delightfully entertaining trappings including what can only be described as a gloriously elaborate infernal machine,

As for the politically incorrectness I promised earlier, this novel ticks just about every politically incorrect box one can think of.

Drummond is his usual larger-than-life self. He deals out summary justice to a variety of miscreants, he consumes huge quantities of ale, he cracks the sorts of jokes dear to the hearts of public schoolboys, he sings very loudly. He is never disheartened by setbacks, nor is he dismayed by the fact that much of the time he has no coherent plan to guide him. Drummond is the sort of hero who never considers the possibility that the ungodly might triumph.

The Female of the Species is immense fun. Highly recommended, but do read the four earlier Bulldog Drummond novels first.

The Final Count, by Sapper

The Final Count, published in 1926, was the fourth of the ten Bulldog Drummond novels written by H. C. McNeile under the name Sapper during the 1920s and 1930s (although McNeile’s friend Gerard Fairlie would write seven more Bulldog Drummond books after McNeile’s death).

The Final Count also marks the fourth occasion on which Drummond would match wits with the sinister criminal mastermind Carl Peterson.

The novel is narrated by a man named Stockton, whose friend Robin Gaunt is working on some hush-hush project for the British War Office. Gaunt had been working on a secret super-weapon during the Great War and now he believes he has perfected it. He believes it to be a weapon so terrible that it will make any future war impossible - any nation that possesses the secret of this weapon could impose peace on the entire world and no nation would dare to oppose them.

This is of course a slightly eccentric plan, but Gaunt is no madman. Not yet, anyway. Then Stockton receives a strange telephone call from Gaunt. When he hurries round to Gaunt’s flat he  is greeted by a strange scene - there is much blood on the floor, there are the dead bodies of a dog and a guinea pig, and no sign of Robin Gaunt. And in the flat next door a man lies dead.

When strange and sinister events are afoot, events that leave the police baffled, it is never very long before Captain Hugh Drummond manages to get involved. He has an infallible nose for a mystery and for an adventure, and sure enough he is soon in the thick of things. And this is a very great mystery indeed, and even stranger events will soon unfold.

Clearly someone had discovered the existence of Gaunt’s super-weapon and that someone must now be assumed to be in possession of the secret, but what possible connection can this have with the disappearance of a private luxury yacht, the building of a new commercial dirigible and Cornish tin mines? Drummond doesn’t know yet, but he intends to find out. His determination is strengthened when he begins to suspect that his old foe Carl Peterson may be involved. Carl Peterson is Drummond’s Professor Moriarty, an arch-criminal so clever and so vicious that if the public knew of his existence no-one would ever sleep soundly in their beds.

This follows Sapper’s standard formula which by this time he had down to a fine art. There will be high adventure and Drummond will have to make use of both his uncanny instincts when it comes to unusual and spectacular crimes, his wartime experiences that made him such a great leader of men, and his pugnacious and indomitable spirit. And of course his fists.

The Bulldog Drummond novels might not be great literature but they are great fun. Like Sax Rohmer, McNeile had a gift for story-telling and for coming up with outrageous master plans by which his chief villain could not only pull off audacious crimes, but crimes on such a scale that the very existence of European civilisation would be threatened.

Whether you actually like Drummond as a character depends on your tastes. Some modern readers may consider him too patriotic and too faultlessly courageous, qualities that are now out of fashion. But Drummond is a fascinating character as well. He gives the impression of being almost a buffoon but beneath the brash exterior there is a razor sharp mind.

This is an old-fashioned ripping yarn, and thoroughly enjoyable it is too. The Bulldog Drummond novels do need to be read in sequence though, so read the first three before reading this one. Drummond’s four encounters with Carl Peterson have been collected in a splendid and ridiculously cheap omnibus edition by Wordsworth, a volume I highly recommend to all lovers of spy/adventure stories featuring diabolical criminal masterminds.

The Third Round, by Sapper

The Third Round was, as its name suggests, the third of the Bulldog Drummond novels written by Herman Cyril McNeile under the pseudonym Sapper. And it’s just as much fun as the first two.

Written in 1924 it is of course a product of its time. If you like your adventure fiction to be politically correct and culturally sensitive then you won’t like the Bulldog Drummond stories. Drummond believes in all sorts of discredited ideas, things like honour and decency and patriotism and loyalty.

The first Bulldog Drummond novel introduced us to Captain Hugh Drummond, an officer who was finding peacetime rather dull. He had served with distinction in the Great War but found adjustment to the postwar world somewhat difficult. He had placed an advertisement in the newspaper offering his services in any kind of adventure as long as it didn’t conflict with his personal code of honour. Drummond was a man not overburdened with either good looks or the higher intellectual gifts but possessed of commonsense, great physical strength, immense courage and a considerable quantity of low cunning, qualities that had allowed him to survive the dangers of war.

He soon found himself matching wits with ruthless diabolical criminal mastermind Carl Peterson. Their duel continues throughout the first four novels.

The Third Round finds Drummond draw into the affairs of an eccentric scientist who has discovered a means of producing perfect artificial diamond, in almost limitless quantities. Not surprisingly this had upset the syndicates that control the diamond trade. The trade is strictly regulated in order to keep prices as high as possible. No the established players in the trade face ruin. Their response is to employ someone to kill the scientist.

As it happens, an old pal of Drummond’s hope to marry the scientist’s daughter. Drummond is informed of the threats that have been made, and his problem now is to keep a very cantankerous, very stubborn and very uncooperative scientist alive.

He doesn’t yet know that Carl Peterson is involved but this will come as little surprise to the reader (the title of the book more or less tells us that this will be Drummond’s third encounter with the brilliant but evil Peterson. And we can be sure that the beautiful but vicious Irma (supposedly Peterson’s daughter but more likely his mistress) will put in an appearance at some stage

Peterson has plans of his own, plans that the diamond syndicates may well find to be even more disadvantageous than the eccentric professor’s original invention of the diamond-manufacturing process.

There’s action in abundance, plenty of narrow escapes, and countess opportunities for Drummond to display the qualities that earned him his nickname of Bulldog Drummond.

Great entertainment, and highly recommended.

The Black Gang, by Sapper

The Black Gang was the second of the Bulldog Drummond novels written by Herman Cyril McNeile under the pen-name Sapper. Little read today, their legacy the fields of both spy fiction and pulp fiction in general can hardly be over-estimated

They had a definite Boys’ Own feel to them, but the idea of a man who appears on the surface to be a harmless buffoon being in reality a brilliant crime-fighter and the scourge of various international conspiracies, and the further idea that he pursued these objectives in an unofficial capacity without the approval of the police - these ideas were to have an enormous influence on pulp fiction, comic-book, movie and TV heroes. It’s an influence that continues to this day.

Drummond was interesting in that, as formidable as he was, he relied as much on brute strength and sheer bravado as on brainpower. He was rarely as clever as the diabolical criminal masterminds and international spymasters he came up against, but his courage, his tenacity and his sheer stubbornness were enough to carry the day.

The first novel, in 1920, had seen Captain Hugh Drummond going slowly mad with boredom in peacetime England and looking for any kind of adventure. He got more than he bargained for, coming up against the nefarious Carl Petersen, a master of disguise, and the beautiful but deadly Irma. Irma claims to be his daughter. This may or may not be true. That she is Carl Petersen’s lover is more or less beyond doubt. Petersen is involved in a vast Bolshevik conspiracy although his own motives have more to do with power than political principles.

Drummond had foiled these dangerous plans, but Bolshevik agitators are still busily at work. As the second novel opens Drummond has formed his old British army pals into an unofficial vigilante force to combat communist subversion. The conspiracy he uncovers seems so ingenious that he could almost believe that Carl Petersen himself is behind it. But surely that can’t be true? Can it? Surely the world has heard the last of Petersen and his depraved daughter? And yet it has all his trademarks! The stage is set for another showdown.

It’s all great fun.

The introduction to Wordsworth’s paperback omnibus collection of the four Bulldog Drummond novels dealing with the fiendish Carl Petersen makes grovelling apologies for the political incorrectness of these stories. Personally I think this is unnecessary and insulting. I’d prefer to be credited with sufficient intelligence to make my own judgements as to how I feel about McNeile’s politics.

Be that as it may, the Bulldog Drummond novels are still highly entertaining.

Bulldog Drummond

Bulldog Drummond was one of the most popular fictional characters of the 1920s and 1930s. Bulldog Drummond, published in 1920, was the book that launched the career of this gentleman crime-fighter and adventurer.

Herman Cyril McNeile wrote the Bulldog Drummond novels under the pseudonym Sapper. Or at least he wrote the first ten or so novels - after McNeile’s death in 1937 the series was continued up to the mid-1950s by Gerard Fairlie.

Drummond became an equally popular character on radio and in movies, being played by such notable actors as Ronald Colman, Sir Ralph Richardson and Ray Milland. In the 60s the character was revived for two highly entertaining James Bond-influenced spy spoof movies, Deadlier Than the Male and Some Girls Do. Which was only fitting since the Bulldog Drummond stories had been an early influence of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels.

In Bulldog Drummond we meet Captain Hugh Drummond, and he’s bored. Peacetime does not agree with him. He misses the excitement of the war. So he places an ad in the newspaper, offering his services in any kind of adventure regardless of its legality or of the danger involved. Most of the replies are unpromising but then he hits pay dirt - a genuine damsel in distress.

The damsel in question is Phyllis Benton and her story at first seems incredible - a tale of master criminals, sinister plots and daring robberies in which her father has become an unwilling accomplice. Drummond soon discovers that her story is not merely true, it’s actually much stranger than even she realises. In fact they have stumbled upon a conspiracy of almost unimaginably vast proportions in which the very fate of British civilisation is at stake. A gigantic communist conspiracy, funded by fabulously wealthy capitalists.

This was the first of the four novels featuring arch-villain Carl Petersen. Petersen is a master of disguise, and he’s a very cool customer. His chief henchman Henry Lakington is a very nasty pice of work indeed - his main amusements being devising sadistic means of murder and torture and pulling off spectacular jewel robberies. There’s also Petersen’s beautiful, amusing but evil daughter Irma. At least she claims to be his daughter, but may well be his mistress.

There’s plenty of action, and plenty of humour. Drummond is at this stage of his career very much an amateur. His main assets are his daring and his courage, his tendency to do the unexpected because he doesn’t know any better, and the fact that his opponents consistently under-estimate him, regarding him as a harmless buffoon. By the end of the adventure he has acquired a great deal of experience and a very definite taste for this type of exploit.

It’s all very politically incorrect but if that doesn’t bother you (and it certainly doesn’t bother me) then there’s a great deal of enjoyment to be had within the pages of Bulldog Drummond.