Customer Reviews

This Gun For Hire

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Raven was a hired killer. His harelip made him easily identifiable, so he left no witnesses. [Some sort of psychological motivation?] A letter of introduction gets him admitted, and he leaves a piece of paper as "evidence". The police are searching for any clue to this murder. Raven meets Chumley and gets his payment in £5 notes (nothing smaller?). But this was stolen money and police are looking for Raven. A double cross! Raven will get his revenge by following Chumley to get to the men at the top. There are some amazing coincidences in this story. Raven meets Anne, Anne meets Chumley, Anne talks too much. Anne's boyfriend is one of the policemen looking for Raven.

There is a psychological discussion in the dark train shed. [It is not as long as in "The Ministry of Fear" and is supposed to explain motivation. Does it?] The gas mask drill sounds like some kind of perverse holiday. But it allows Raven to enter the corporate headquarters with Chumley and get Sir Marcus, the evil old man who caused it all. The last chapter ties up the loose ends in telling more about the characters in this story. The solution to the assassination averted a war - for now.

It seems implausible for Sir Marcus to use one of his flunkeys to arrange a murder directly. Usually they would use an intermediate who has no backtrail to the guys at the top; a cut-out agent. (See the James Bond films for examples.) This is a good story, even if it quite implausible for Raven to travel abroad for the murder as if he were a "James Bond".

An early Graham Greene novel that is entertaining if a little light-weight. The happy ending is at odds with Greene's later 'no win' scenarios.