Payment Deferred [Paperback]

C. S. Forester (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2001

Forester's masterpiece of suspense. A middle-aged bank clerk with a mountain of debt and an extravagant wife commits a murder in secret. Later, a profitable investment brings him a fortune. Haunded by his crime, he suffers an ironic fate in an excellent final twist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Compelling Sunday Times C. S. Forester is a splendid storyteller Guardian I recommend Forester to every literate I know -- Ernest Hemingway The unsung godfather of English noir -- Andrew Taylor

About the Author

Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (27 August 1899 - 2 April 1966), an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of naval warfare. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. He began his career with the crime novels Payment Deferred and Plain Murder, now reissued in Penguin Modern Classics along with The Pursued, which was lost for over 60 years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Simon Publications (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193154171X
• ISBN-13: 978-1931541718
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,660,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

C. S. Forester (1899-1966) wrote several novels with military and naval themes, including The African Queen, The Barbary Pirates, The General, The Good Shepherd, The Gun, The Last Nine Days of the "Bismarck," and Rifleman Dodd. But Forester is best known as the creator of Horatio Hornblower, a British naval genius of the Napoleonic era, whose exploits and adventures on the high seas Forester chronicled in a series of eleven acclaimed historical novels. Over the years Hornblower has proved to be one of the most beloved and enduring fictional heroes in English literature, his popularity rivaled only by Sherlock Holmes.

Born Cecil Louis Troughton Smith in Cairo, Egypt, Forester grew up in London. At the start of World War II he traveled on behalf of the British government to America, where he produced propaganda encouraging the United States to remain on Britain's side. After the War, Forester remained in America and made Berkeley, California, his home.

The character of Horatio Hornblower was born after Forester was called to Hollywood to write a pirate film. While the script was being drafted, another studio released Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, based on the same historical incidents about which Forester was writing. Rather than seek another movie project, and to avoid an impending paternity suit, Forester jumped aboard a freighter bound for England. By the end of the voyage he had outlined Beat to the Quarters, which introduced the now legendary character Hornblower, Bush, and Lady Barbara.

Forester died in 1966 while working on Hornblower During the Crisis.

Back Bay's editions of the Hornblower novels are numbered according to the chronology of Hornblower's life and career, not according to the sequence in which they were written. The series is comprised of the following titles:


Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
Lieutenant Hornblower
Hornblower and the Hotspur
Hornblower During the Crisis
Hornblower and the Atropos
Beat to Quarters
Ship of the Line
Flying Colours
Commodore Hornblower
Lord Hornblower
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Payment Deferred - Forester's first published novel, May 8, 2001

By 

Darren Kirton (Cardiff , Wales) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Payment Deferred (Hardcover)

Payment deferred is a superbly written crime novel. The main charachter is well developed and the dark plot leads to the excellent final twist. Truely a milestone in crime fiction this book was unfortunatly overshadowed by Agatha Christie's 'Murder of Roger Ackroyd ' published the same year. In my opinion this book is second only to ' The general ' as forester's best work and shows that Hornblower is only a small part of the man's literary achievments.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little gem of suspense, July 13, 2008

By 

Charles Ford (Whittier, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Payment Deferred (Paperback)

This early novel by the creator of Horatio Hornblower is a little gem of suspense. Nicely done, in a spare style, this moves along a nice clip. Hitchcock might have done a good film of this - attention filmmakers - it's not too late. Of course it would work best as a period piece, set like the novel between the wars. No spoilers here - just a nod to a terrific writer near the beginning of his illustrious career. Ignore the naysayers - you'll like it.

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent mystery, July 30, 2007

By 

rabbi mike "mikeg" (greenbelt md) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Payment Deferred (Paperback)

This was the first succestfull novel by C.S. Foresterand I believe the only mystery that he wrote which is unfortunate! It is well structured with many plot twists and a classic ending!