Sapper

The criminal blogging world has a new Friday challenge going, which is to remind you forgetful readers of some very good books. The witch is only a small criminal, but here is an attempt to remember anything at all, for the Pattinase blog.

Some years ago – well, more like twenty – the Resident IT Consultant carried home a new volume of short stories by someone called Sapper. He seemed to know him, whereas I didn’t. But in those days I read anything, almost, that came through the door.

And what a collection of stories! The witch has always had a fondness for the “well off” crime scene of the 1920s and 1930s, and this Sapper turned out to be better than most. Bulldog Drummond is a wonderful character. Once the fifteen stories had been read, I demanded more. The silly man came home with something totally different, and could never understand what it was that I craved.

This being before the internet, I never succeeded in finding more Sappers anywhere. It wasn’t until a few years ago when the witch family were in urgent need of tea in the middle of the South Swedish countryside, and in desperation fell through the doors of a former school, that this story had a happy continuation.

What a find! Not only was the tea perfect. The room was beautifully retro and charming. And the rest of the school building was a sort of perpetual jumble sale. Here we fell upon a few shelves of English books. Some really old Penguins and, of all things, a Sapper! It was The Black Gang; a beautiful thirty-fifth edition from 1933.

Happiness!

Now I should really start serious Sapper hunting on the internet. And you should too. Not the hunting, perhaps, but the reading.