George Sims (1923–1999)

In some ways, The Last Best Friend hasn’t aged very well. Ned Balfour’s a womanizing dealer in manuscripts, separated from his wife and prey to the easy sex of 1960s London. When the novel was first published in 1967, groping was obviously more acceptable with fictional sleuths (think James Bond, Charles Mordecai, Sam Spade) than in the era of Harvey Weinstein. The novel’s beginning is a middle-aged man’s fantasy come to life: The novel opens with Ned on vacation in Capri with a show more pretty, receptive blonde young enough to be his daughter — visions of Roy Moore.

However, Sims eventually gets past the sleazy sex and spins a yarn so suspenseful that I couldn’t put it down. (Forgive the cliché, but it’s true!) Balfour’s best friend, Sammy Weiss, a Jewish Holocaust survivor beset with a terror of heights, steps out on a high ledge and then plunges to his death. Balfour is puzzled why Weiss would pick such an unlikely route to suicide, or even why Weiss would kill himself at all. Balfour proves as relentless in seeking out the truth as he is in seeking out manuscripts. Despite the niggling rape culture disquiet, I still have to highly recommend this page-turner.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, British Library and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review. show less

There is an intimacy about this book missing in many ship biographies. It was assembled by George Sims, but the surviving crew had a great deal of input, and it shows. The official activities of the ship are covered adequately, and the number of anecdotes is quite large. The result is very readable.

I enjoyed this one from Sims a bit more than the last one of his I read: the structure is really different from the usual, and works very well. Also some good insight into the antiques and rare book trade.

Decently intricate and suspenseful tale of mid-sixties London, not that it particularly feels like that's when the mystery is set. Good wordplay and interesting plot.