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| The Blackbirder |
| Dorothy B. Hughes |
| Duell, Sloan and Pearce. 1943 Reissued 2000 by Chivers Press (Black Dagger Crime) ISBN 0 7540 8558 9 |
Review by Marian Hussenbux  |
| There must be very many books, set during the Second World War, which follow the adventures of a refugee fleeing the clutches of the Gestapo, but few evoke that suspicious, edgy atmosphere in a North American, rather than European, setting. The character of the Blackbirder dates from the days of the slave trade, when this sinister personage snatched Africans from their native lands to ship to lives of bondage in the Americas. In the U.S. of the 1940s, he acquired a more benign face, helping refugees, illegal entrants into the country, to escape over the border to “Old” Mexico. Or did he? Far from being a philanthropic benefactor of beleaguered mankind, he might, in fact, provide the channel by which Gestapo agents and spies could enter the U.S. Julie Guille – or Juliet Marlebone – of American parentage, but resident in several countries, such that she is losing track of her nationality, is on the run. The book opens in medias res in New York, as she meets once more a German acquaintance from her dangerous European past. He could, like her, be a refugee; he could, however, be the enemy. Julie has survived on her wits in Nazi-occupied France and she is now instinctively putting into practice again the lessons she learned there. The situation turns violent and she leaves New York and heads west, towards Santa Fé, where the Blackbirder is said to be operating. On the long train journey, two people are ubiquitously present and she cannot afford to trust them. All may not be as it seems. In New Mexico, an early spring gives way to blizzard conditions and everything becomes much more hazardous as she hunts for the mysterious Blackbirder. This story is not a first person narrative, but we see every event through the eyes of the attractive and resourceful Julie. I found it well-written and very gripping. Because Julie is always on her guard, never sure of the true allegiance of anyone she encounters, the reader is carried along by the excitement of the hunt. I didn’t know the author, but loved the book and if it hasn’t been made into a film, why not? |
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