Basil Copper (1924–2013)

'The Second Passenger' by Basil Copper is a short story about two clerks. Samuel Briggs is tall and given to making others do his tasks if he can. The short new clerk, Braintree, does them willingly enough until the other clerks clue him in. There is a scuffle that ends in emnity between the two.

Briggs is dishonest as well as lazy. His embezzlement is found out. Braintree tries to prevent Briggs from escaping before the police arrive. Things go downhill for both men from there. The final scene is on a train. Pity that poor conductor...… (more)

Despite the title, this hasn't a hint of horror in it. There are some Gothic nods with graveyards and a lot of fog but Copper never intended this to be horror. This is a straight-up mystery.

Lazy reviewers will probably call this a Holmes pastiche, but its not. It seems that anyone who sets a detective novel in the gaslight era is bound to be accused of imitating Doyle. Its as if any detective novel set in the 1940's must be a Marlowe pastiche. You see what I mean. Despite borrowing the period and a few characters to provide unnecessary Holmesian consistency, Clyde Beatty and Dotterell are no Holmes/Watson clones.

The mystery and the story are fairly entertaining but the plot drags a little once you figure out the gist of the whole thing. There is a clumsy romance involved that I think WAS meant to distinguish Beatty from Holmes but it is unnecessary. There is an almost inexplicable suicide in the middle that must have been because Copper didn't know what to do with the character anymore, or maybe a red herring to throw the reader off. Since the body was never found I kept expecting him to reappear somewhere.

Copper's writing is lively but not particularly evocative. I think he could have done more with the eerie settings even within the mystery genre.… (more)

I read 2.5 stories. The author's writing style and I don't match. To try to explain, I'd say I think he writes 'old fashioned' though the book isn't old. I also thinks he leaves out too much detail. Perhaps its to provide mystery and atmosphere. I know it's a short story collection and you've got to cut out something but I like my stories clearer. To each his own.
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Reading The Grey House and I'm thinking it seems so familiar. I am wondering what other story did I read that was so similar to this. Enter isfdb.org. I search for The Grey House by Basil Cooper and realize I have read this story in another anthology. many, many years ago. The Mammoth Book of Zombies *facepalm* but wait, where are the zombies?

~ Amber Print 1* - silent horror movies. I think they changed depending on who was watching them. They also became characters in the movie. Big fire.

~The Grey House 2* - restoring old house but sexual sadist werewolf seems to have lived there and as it is restored, I believe he returns

~ The Gossips DNF… (more)

"No Flowers For The General" is the 3rd out of 52 books in the Mike Faraday series. Despite the name being the same, there appears to be no connection to the Scientist of the same name. Copper deliberately pays homage instead to the great PI Marlowe, promising that there's a new PI in town. Faraday is the classic gumshoe working out of a small office with his bombshell of a secretary, Stella. There's a simmering attraction between them sort of like between Mike Hammer and Velda. Although Faraday is based in Los Angeles, Copper had never visited and based his locations on movies and books he was familiar with. For the most part, that works well, although the small town Mudville doesn't seem familiar to anyone familiar with Southern California.

This particular Faraday novel is almost a cross between a classic PI mystery where the detective goes to a small, insular town in search of a missing girl and an adventure novel involving an exiled general and clandestine forces out to assassinate him. Although some readers might find this combination oft-putting, Copper does a fine job of telling the story. However, there are some threads of the story that seem to lead nowhere such as why the missing girl's employer is so interested in finding her.
It is a fast paced novel and quite easy to read. It is at its best as Faraday tangles with the inhabitants of the small town. While it is probably not a classic, it is good solid entertainment and a fine story to read. There are a great many PI series and this is one of the more readable and easily accessible ones. Bottom line: fun to read, enjoyable, and adventurous.… (more)