Charlotte Jay

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ARMS FOR ADONIS - Charlotte Jay

Author Information
Book Title: 
Arms for Adonis
Author Name: 
Charlotte Jay
Author's Home Country: 
Australia
ISBN: 
1862542961
Categorisation
Category: 
Crime Fiction
Sub Genre: 
Classic
Location: 
Middle East
Lebanon
Publisher: 
Wakefield Crime Classics
Year of Publication: 
1994

Sarah Lane, abandoning her French lover for the brilliant Lebanese sunshine, believes that the day will belong to her alone.  But when a street bomb hurls her into the arms of a dangerously handsome Syrian colonel, she finds herself trapped once again.

Is this a kidnapping?  A seduction?  Or merely the chaos of the Middle East?

Book Review: 

I have been promising myself for a few years now to go back to some of the older classic Australian Crime Fiction books and reread them with a view to noting something about them on the website.  Mostly because all of these books were read a long time before I started writing my own reviews, and I really need something to check my reactions against if I re-visit them again (which I'm inclined to do every now and then).

Hence ARMS FOR ADONIS, which Wakefield Press published in 1994, with an excellent afterword by Peter Moss and Michael J Tolley.  ARMS FOR ADONIS was first published in 1961, and re-reading it again, there are a number of elements to the book which remain fascinating and somehow still topical.  I do note that Jay revised / rewrote some aspects of the book for the Wakefield release, and to be honest, I can't remember the orginal details well enough to know what changed / didn't.  But there are particular aspects of the book which really make it an interesting read.  Originally written in leadup to the "swinging sixties", it was particularly striking how laid back the characters are about their sexual freedom.  Another aspect of the book that was subtly but pointedly drawn is the inter-cultural understanding, or more pointedly, lack of understanding.  To the point where some of actions of some of the characters were extremely discomforting.

The political aspects of the book are extremely interesting, given the point in the history of Lebanon in which it is set.  Jay wrote the book in the 1956, in the time leading up to the Suez Crisis.  She was living in Beirut during a year long tour of duty by her husband, a senior UN official.  Her admiration for both the country and the people shines through, as does her observations of the erratic nature of local politics.

The major downside to the book for this reader is the overly romantic ending - which, frankly, you can see coming from very early on.  Mildly interesting because of the depiction of cross-cultural relationships, but way too "happy ever after" for my taste.

Currently Reading - Arms for Adonis

Submitted by Karen on

Book Title: 
Arms for Adonis
Author Name: 
Charlotte Jay

A complicated classification as this is a book that I've had since Wakefield started publishing their classics of Australian crime fiction.  It's also a book that I read years ago, so this was a reread.  Which I've now finished so it's not even technically "Currently Reading"...

From the Blurb:

'The blood of Adonis, thought Sarah, remembering the church that was built like a pagan temple, Coquelicot rouge - the symbol of a dying man whose blood stained the hillside in spring.'

Beat Not the Bones

Submitted by Karen on

Author's Home Country: 
Australia
Category: 
Crime Fiction

People changed; they were no longer recognisable as Australians. Frustrations and misfortunes festered into wounds here, deranged the mind and poisoned the blood.

Suicide, or murder? Newly arrived in Papua, where even the luscious vegetation conspires with the bureaucrats to bewilder her, Stella Warwick is determined to prove her husband did not take his own life. Defying the patronising concern of officials, she ventures deep into the jungle, striding ever clser to the horrifying heart of the mystery.

ISBN: 
1862542872
Publisher: 
Wakefield Press
Year of Publication: 
1952

Arms for Adonis

Submitted by Karen on

Author's Home Country: 
Australia
Category: 
Crime Fiction

The blood of Adonis, thought Sarah, remembering the church that was built like a pagan temple. Coquelicot rouge - the symbol of a dying man whose blood stained the hillside in the spring.

Sarah Lane, abandoning her French lover for the brilliant Lebanese sunshine, believes that the day will belong to her alone. But when a street bomb hurls her into the arms of a dangerously handsome Syrian colonel, she finds herself trapped once again.

Is this a kidnapping? A seduction? Or merely the chaos of the Middle-East?

ISBN: 
1862542961
Publisher: 
Wakefield Press
Year of Publication: 
1960

A Hank of Hair

Submitted by Karen on

Author's Home Country: 
Australia
Category: 
Crime Fiction

''For I prefer beauty always a little soured. When it comes to me as a spoonful of syrup, I spit it out.''

Gilbert Hand hasn't been the same since his wife died. He's moved to a dull but respectable hotel where silence seems to brood in the hall and stairway. In a secret drawer he discovers a long, thick hank of human hair, and his world narrows down to two people - himself and the murderer

ISBN: 
1862542899
Publisher: 
Wakefield Press
Year of Publication: 
1964

Geraldine Halls Jay

Submitted by Karen on

Author Information
Jay, Geraldine Halls

About the Author

Charlotte Jay or Geraldine Halls Jay is the pseudonym of Australian mystery writer Geraldine Halls (1919-1996). One of the best and most singular authors of the suspense era, she wrote only nine books, but their unorthodoxy secured her a high place in Mystery Hall of Fame. The haunting Beat Not The Bones won the then newly created Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year in 1954.

Charlotte Jay

Submitted by Karen on

Author Information
Jay, Charlotte

About the Author

Charlotte Jay was the pseudonym of Australian mystery writer Geraldine Halls (1919-1996). One of the best and most singular authors of the suspense era, she wrote only nine books, but their unorthodoxy secured her a high place in Mystery Hall of Fame. The haunting Beat Not The Bones won the then newly created Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year in 1954.

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