John Ferguson (3) (1871–1952)

Rather run-of-the-mill thriller from the 1930s. The story is set in July of 1914, when a Scottish doctor studying in Berlin stumbles across a seemingly innocent document that, in reality, means peril for England. The document is actually shown, and the laborious solution to it takes up a chunk of the second half of the book. Frankly, the book comes off like a road company version of The 39 Steps, which (coincidentally or not) had a film version which came out the same year. Chases in Scotland, female interest, disbelieving officialdom — it’s all there. One has to suspend quire a bit of disbelief to get through the book. Purely a curio.… (mere)

The plot is complex, with the story written more as a thriller than as a conventional crime novel. We know many of the details of the crime from the early chapters, and although clues are scattered throughout, they are not there to help the reader solve a puzzle; this is the story of a pursuit. The question being considered is how you would track down an otherwise respectable man who committed a single murder. England in 1928 was filled with young men trained to kill during the war, but what if they used their training once, and only once, in civilian life? Continued… (mere)

A Thriller very much in the tradition of John Buchan's 39 STEPS. In Berlin a dying man hands out a document to the hero, a post-graduate medical student from Scotland. From this moment on he will be hunted, from Berlin to Hamburg and then from Scotland over London to the Kentish coast where the roles of hunter and hunted are reversed. There is the usual conspiracy of German spies with agents everywhere, the usual powerful villain and the usual impersonations. Not up to the standard of Buchan but still not badly written. Of the author John (Alexander) Ferguson is not much known. He wrote thrillers and spy stories like STEALTHY TERROR or NIGHT IN GLENGYLE but also straight detective novels like THE GROUSE MOOR MYSTERY (US-Title THE GROUSE MOOR MURDER) and DEATH COMES TO PERIGORD with the detective Francis MacNab.… (mere)