Customer Reviews

Streets of Town

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I am amazed and honored to be the first to review "The Streets of Town" by John Gardner for Amazon. I'm amazed as this series of books, that began with "Bottled Spider", should have been at the top of any list of mysteries and thrillers. I feel honored as I consider John Gardner the very top in his field.

"The Streets of Town" follows the further adventures of Scotland Yard's WDS Suzie Mountford. Again the author gives us beautifully detailed plotting with sub plots galore. There are more surprises than a Hitchcock film and the characterizations are supreme. In this adventure we have a unique picture of the London underworld with the back drop of World War Two in 1941. The description and the dialogue of criminal characters is more colorful than a Damon Runyan tale and definitely more grim and deadly. Suzie has to overcome the prejudice against women who took the place of men as police officers during the war and therefore has to out Sherlock other detectives using her own unique abilities.

If this is your first look at the series you will want to read "Bottled Spider" and the two (three before long) that follow this one. If you have never read any books by John Gardner, then now is the time to start as you have missed a great deal.

I will admit that the Suzie Mountford books may appear at first glance as being geared to an English readership, something that may be new to some American readers. However, that is one of the things that makes this series so distinctive and you will find that the vernacular, some of the the terms, can be sorted out when you consider the whole text and you use your imgaination. John Gardner wants us to feel the texture of the times in London, to understand what life was like in this city at this particular period of history.

The late John Gardner, a writer of long and distinguished career, finished his exceptionall opus with the series of 5 novels featuring Det. Sgt Suzie Mountford, set in wartime London.
The first two books that I've read are real gems. The tantalizing atmosphere of foggy, wounded London, the flesh and blood characters that almost leap at us from the pages, the wicked sense of humor-it is all perfect. Mr. Gardner gives a whole new spin on wartime London. It wasn't just the amazing courage and sacrifice of the British people. There was a lot of money to be made, gangsters, hookers, booze and if you had the dough you could buy anything you dreamt of. That slimy, violent London and its heros and villains, make you grieve when the book is finished. I have three more books left, and I will relish them slowly and sparingly.