Murder Against the Grain

This was like a pint of lager after a moderate walk on a sunny day. Satisfying, functional, and welcome in the moment, with almost no lingering impression. I finished it a few days ago and I’m already struggling to recall details. It’s a fairly tight whodunnit leavened by light-comic digressions and irrelevancies, none of which get too out of hand. The tone is light and even without being whimsical. There are some annoying tics to the writing, but mostly it sails along smoothly enough. It’s the kind of book which you’d be happy to pick up for three quid second-hand for the purpose of whiling away a long train journey.

None of this is criticism. Smooth reads that will nicely fill a few hours without taxing you too much are great show more things. I am slightly baffled, though, that such a book could possibly have been the best crime novel published in 1967. Perhaps the prize-givers wanted a relaxing year after having to deal with Davidson last time round.

A slightly mysterious extra-textual coda: my (second-hand) copy of the book is a horrible object, very cheaply made, apparently typeset in Word. It seems that the rights to the Lathen books may have been bought by an unscrupulous pseudo-publisher, who is producing both these disgusting editions of the originals and apparently appalling new books under the Lathen name (one is described in the front matter of my book. It does indeed sound dreadful). This here blog gives more sordid background: https://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2018/01/simply-troubling-mystery-of-new-emm... show less

Set against the background of the Détente era, with grain sales by the U.S. to the Soviets, John Putnam Thatcher of Sloan Guaranty Trust investigates when the banks pays out almost a million dollars on bills of lading for wheat delivered to a Soviet ship --and the bills turn out to be a skillful forgery. (Spoiler warning) As I recall, the guilty parties turn out to be a rather tragic pair of international lovers.

A historic Russian trade agreement to purchase American wheat sets the stage for what is arguably the best book in a marvelous series. When the Sloan is robbed of nearly 1 million dollars in a Russian wheat deal and the courier who handled the papers is later found murdered, John Putnam Thatcher must team up with a Russian policeman to find the killer. The insight which provides the solution is one of the neatest in all of Emma Lathen and is inspired by Miss Corsa and the bumbling Bradford Withers. One of the Keating 100 best Mystery and Crime novels.

Beautifully written and I always wondered if this fraud would work in today's markets.

USA, New York, ca 1968
USA og Sovjetunionen underskriver en handelsaftale om russisk køb om 100 millioner tons korn. Sovjetunionen opretter konsulater i San Francisco og New York og tilsvarende opretter USA konsulater i Leningrad og Odessa.

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