The Man of Dangerous Secrets

I would like to thank Netgalley and Ipso Books for a review copy of The Man of Dangerous Secrets, a thrilling adventure originally published in 1933 under the title Other Man's Danger.

Robin Grey is one of those shadowy, discreet men who handle business outside the remit of better defined organisations. On such a job he was in the right place at the right time to save a man, Peter Bellew, pushed onto an electrified line at Waterloo Station. The next day, Peter's fiancée, Jennifer Fern, asks Robin to look into the attempted murder as he is the third fiancé she has lost. The first two died in freak accidents and with this attempt she has refused to see Peter again. Robin steps up to the plate and decides to act as Jennifer's fiancé in an attempt to get at the truth. Little does he know how much trouble this decision will bring him.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Man of Dangerous Secrets. It is an out and out adventure novel with an omniscient, evil mastermind and a plucky protagonist. I found it enthralling, impossible to put down and a good puzzle as I tried to work out who the mastermind is (in this I failed miserably).

From time to time I like to read older novels as I find them a great read and pure escapism with their emphasis on plotting and lack of psychology and it makes for a refreshing change. This novel is no different as it's all in the plotting and writing. Ms Allingham keeps her plot tight and with action on almost every page it makes for a gripping, tense read. There were a few times when I wondered how Robin was going to get out of a tight situation but he always manages, sometimes by lucky happenstance but mostly by help. I don't think the novel would bear close scrutiny for realism given the number of coincidences and the mystery of how some characters seem to know more than can be explained but who cares when it is an exciting read?

As befits a novel of that era there isn't much in depth characterisation. Robin is smart, courageous and resourceful, Jennifer is a fairly helpless female dependent on Robin to help her and Inspector Whybrow from Scotland Yard is smarter than he looks and that's about it.

The Man of Dangerous Secrets is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

I absolutely loved this book. At just 264 pages, there is so much action packed in that I felt I like I was on my toes the entire time. It has all the hallmarks of 1930s crime fiction as the genre was being re-defined with the secret service man as a dashing hero, a wealthy yet helpless heiress, blackmail and high society business men, and a neat and tidy ending where those who committed crimes against their will get away (almost) Scott free.

I’m not going to lie, I originally thought that I was diving in to a piece of historical fiction and kept thinking ‘man, these details and the dialogue seems so authentic!’ Well, duh. It was originally written and set in 1933, so I had to change my mindset to the fact that I was reading a classical thriller and after that it was impossible not to get swept up. Yes, Miss Fern was rather helpless, yes the other women in this text are either victims or emotionally driven, yes it was originally written as a serial, and yes there are a lot of characters to keep track of but it all worked together so well.

I really enjoyed the tongue-and-cheek humour that was used to break moments of tension, but more than anything I really enjoyed how Allingham dropped so many clues in every chapter that I was running in circles trying to piece them all together. By the time everything started to reach it’s pinnacle I was starting to feel like and exhausted investigator myself.

Would I recommend this book? Goodness, yes! This trip down memory lane is an absolutely delightful read. With just enough romance and damsel in distress to balance out the gore and thrill, it’s sure to please as many readers today as it did during it’s debut in 1933.

This book shows exactly why Margery Allingham is one of the most loved and remembered writers of the Golden Age of Mystery. Before reading The Man of Dangerous Secrets, I didn’t realize that Margery Allingham sometimes used a pseudonym. The Man of Dangerous Secrets has it all, a thrilling mystery, murder, conspiracy, blackmail, a beautiful heroine in danger and a clever and loyal hero. There is even romance. In all it is a wonderful novel.

Robin Grey is a detective, a well respected consultant of both Scotland Yard and the government, known for his intellect, his power of observation and his skill for understanding people and getting to the truth of the matter. Robin Grey becomes involved in a sinister conspiracy when he manages to prevent a murder at Waterloo Station. Not long after, he is consulted by Jennifer Fern, a troubled heiress whose lost two fiances to strange and tragic accidents and whose third fiance was the man Robin rescued earlier in the day. Magnetically drawn to the beautiful young woman, Robin pledges to use all the forces at his disposal to unravel the mystery and dispel the curse. As he falls in love, he too becomes a target of the forces determined to keep her unwed. From the start readers know of the conspiracy and its participants, but don’t fret. There are still many secrets and many dangers expected and unexpected to come.

5 / 5

I received a copy of The Man of Dangerous Secrets from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

-- Crittermom

Margery Allingham is probably one of the best known of the Golden Age crime authors but I’d had no idea that she had also written several thrillers under the name of Maxwell March until I came across this one, recently reissued along with two others by Ipso Books. I didn’t know what to expect from it, but I’m pleased to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it – and I’m sure Margery Allingham must have enjoyed writing it too!

Originally published in 1933 as Other Man’s Danger, the novel opens by introducing us to Robin Grey, the ‘man of dangerous secrets’, a detective who holds an unofficial position with the government. On a secret mission for the Foreign Office at Waterloo Station late one night, he witnesses a young man being pushed onto the tracks and manages to save him. The next day, he is visited by Jennifer Fern, the victim’s girlfriend, who begs him to look into the murder attempt as her previous two fiancés had died under suspicious circumstances and she’s sure it can’t possibly be a coincidence. Jennifer suggests that she and Robin pretend to be engaged and then wait for the unseen enemy to make the next move, but will Robin agree to this – and if so, what will happen?

The story then becomes more and more exciting and convoluted, so I’m not going to say anything else about the plot…except that it includes all of the following: murder, blackmail, kidnappings and car chases; hidden documents, clever disguises and secret conspiracies; a beautiful heiress, a sinister doctor and an escaped prisoner. I suppose you couldn’t describe it as great literature, but it’s certainly great fun to read, with a similar feel to some of Agatha Christie’s thrillers. It’s a real page-turner and I wished I hadn’t started reading it during a busy working week, as I think it would have been better read in one or two large chunks.

There’s not much in the way of character development, but I think that’s often the case with this sort of book. Robin is potentially an interesting character, but I couldn’t help thinking he was a bit careless for a man in a position of such responsibility. He’s too trusting, too quick to confide in people, gets himself into some dangerous situations which I felt could have been avoided and allows his judgement to be clouded by his feelings for a certain young woman…as his colleague Inspector Whybrow says, “I’ve never known a detective yet who could do his work when he was in love”.

As for the mystery itself, we are given enough hints to guess at least part of the solution, although the identity of the criminal mastermind is not as easy to work out. The final revelations are not very plausible and I couldn’t believe that the criminal could really have done what he/she is described as doing (sorry for being vague) but considering the tone of the rest of the novel I hadn’t really expected a realistic ending anyway!

This was a quick, entertaining and highly enjoyable read. The Albert Campion mysteries must have been the books Allingham really wanted to write, but I’m still sorry that she only wrote three as Maxwell March. I will definitely be reading the other two, Rogues’ Holiday and The Devil and Her Son.