Customer Reviews

No Gold When You Go (Soundings)

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Englishman Dennis Philips wrote under 4 pen names ,plus 1 novel using his own name , and the best known alias was "Peter Chambers" under which guise the 36 book series about Monkton City private eye "Mark Preston " was written .
This is an entry from 1966 -round about the midpoint of the series .Preston is a stereotypical Chandleresque private eye -a wise cracking loner ,independent and stubborn and at odds with law enforcement from time to time .
His client here is a reclusive millionaire ,Roman Adler who summons Preston to his decaying Gothic mansion wher he reveals the detaials of the assignment .The background is an antique treasre , Seldon's gold ,-originally rasied as tax money in England to support Henry V's war against France it was stolen and after passing through many hands went missing somewhere between Yuma and San Diego in the 1640's to 1650's .
A man named McKern has sent samples of the treasure to Adler who is a noted coin cololector ,but before the two men could talk business McKern had been killed and his body dumped at sea .Adler wants Preston to dig into the matter and try to locate the treasure
What follows is pretty average fare -the killers are not hard to identify and the plot revolves around two rival gangs competing for possession of the treasure .The plot working out is perfunctory and the writing pedestrian .Some clashes between Preston and the cops add spice and there is a good minor character in Ballenas ,a private eye from Mexico who assists in the search .
All in all thiis is pretty minor league fare and recommended to genre completists only