While I do enjoy a lot of Baker`s work, I have to admit I bought this one purely because I like the cover. Sadly, as the Rolling Stones once sang, "you can`t judge a book by looking at the cover."

The story begins as a gangster drives through the streets of the West End, seeking out the group of low-level hoodlums he uses to enforce a lucrative protection racket.

He finds them in a late `50s/early `60s coffee bar, peopled by bright young things and the not-so-bright young things our enjoying London`s night life. It`s here that alarm bells start to ring, as the description of the scene is both unconvincing and badly-written. It`s also borderline racist at one point, though it`s unclear if we are seeing the world through the eys of the author, or of his gangster creation.

The gangster in question is known only as The Big Man. Not too unlikely, but his henchmen go by an array of nicknames, some quite ludicrous - Fatso, Smiler, The Monster, Chi-Ann and (spot the odd one out) Marty. Later, for good measure, they are re-inforced by Spider and Pig-Brother. Collectively, they are known as The Mob. The sense that the author knows nothing about the world he describes is re-inforced throughout the story. We are repeatedly told that these lads are the product of the `Beat Generation`, but their taste in music runs to, among other things, Louis Armstrong and a version of Stupid Cupid, a song written by Neil Sedaka, for God`s sake ! Later in the book, the author appears not to know the difference between Beatniks (a rather studious strand of youth culture, keen on modern jazz and poetry, and whose main crime against humanity was propogation of the goatee beard)and the young louts in The Mob, who are described as largely sharp dressers, fond of leather jackets, and show no interest in tenor saxophones or blank verse at any point.

The Mob are instructed by the Big Man to attack a woman and her escort as they leave the night club she owns in the early hours. Ostensibly, the reason is that she has refused to pay protection money, but we later learn that she has also rejected his amorous advances (quite emphatically, by hitting him over the head with a bottle !). In fact, the attackers pick on her daughter, who is in the company of none other than Sexton Blake, seeing her home safely at her mother`s request. Acid is thrown in the girl`s face, leaving her scarred and in danger of blindness, and leaving Blake with the feeling that he has let them both down.

After a few American-style macho heroics, as Blake rebuffs police advice that he should not `go it alone` on this one, the story actually begins to take shape quite well. For once we see Blake uneasy and agitated, driven by a sense of failure. A scene where he talks to the girl`s mother is quite affecting, within the admittedly narrow limitations of the genre, and certainly new territory for Blake. At last, literally half-way through, the author seems to take the matter in hand, and we get something a bit more like a Blake story. Certainly, the closing scenes are among some of the best to appear in any SBL story, and at last we have the return of the tough, but intelligent and compassionate Blake we all now, as in this exchange with old friend Superintemdent Grimwald -

"You still want to be in for the kill - isn`t that it ?"

"There`s not going to be any kill - that`s how I want it."

Does he get his wish ? You`ll have to read it to find out.

One great bonus here is that the story did not reach the required 64 pages, so they are supplemented by a short story from the aptly-named Jack Trevor Story, The Penny Murder, which is excellent.

I`m giving this one a fairly poor rating, as roughly half of it is, in my view, a waste of space. However, as I say,when it is good it is very good. Had I graded Mr Story`s story separately, I would have given it 4 out of 5. ( )