FORGOTTEN THRILLERS: THE SCORPIO LETTERS By VICTOR CANNING
Victor Canning (1911-86) has largely slipped from modern view, but in his prime was a very popular British thriller writer who produced some terrific books in the 1950s to 80s, including some very dark spy novels towards the end of his career. His early novels were notable for their exotic foreign locales, but in the early 1960s he turned away from them to focus more on crime and spy novels set primarily in Britain or Europe.
The Scorpio Letters (1964) was one of his European thrillers and revolves around an elaborate blackmail scheme. For years the mysterious Scorpio has done well for himself by blackmailing prominent people over past misdemeanours. When one of his couriers is killed in a car accident, the identity of four of the victims in England comes to light. The adventurous protege of one of them, George Constantine, sets out to find Scorpio and uncover his network. Accompanied by the daughter of another victim, a well known actress, he embarks on an action filled tour of France and Switzerland in pursuit of the blackmailer.
The Scorpio Letters is not one of Canning’s best novels, but it is a lively tale with Constantine and his female companion, Nicola Meade, surviving near misses and regularly escaping from dangerous situations. The story flows along at a good pace and the plot’s central conceit is reasonably clever. There are some good action scenes and the penultimate shoot-out beneath a ski-lift is quite well done. The book also boasts the second most unusual torture method I have encountered in a thriller. The plotting, however, has several holes in it and relies on luck and coincidence to keep it going.
The characters are sketchily drawn, but serviceable, and Nicola and Constantine are decent leads. As is often the way with Canning’s thrillers, their relationship is reasonably chaste, but the banter between the pair is engaging and mildly amusing at times. The story is also enhanced by Canning’s fine eye for locations, and his travelogue approach to describing the picturesque regions of the Cote d’Azur and the Bernese Alps is appealing.
In all, The Scorpio Letters is not top drawer Canning, but is a fine way to spend a few hours.
Incidentally, The Scorpio Letters was made into a 1967 movie starring American TV actor Alex Cord and Shirley Eaton. I have not seen it, but by all accounts it is not very good.
Here is a link to an earlier review I did of Victor Canning’s The Shark Run (aka His Bones Are Coral): https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-shark-week/
