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Donald Henderson

Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper (Detective Club Crime Classics) Hardcover – February 8, 2018

by Donald Henderson (Author)

3.8 210 ratings

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In Raymond Chandler’s favourite novel, Mr Bowling buys the newspapers only to find out what the latest is on the murders he's just committed…

Mr Bowling is getting away with murder. On each occasion he buys a newspaper to see whether anyone suspects him. But there is a war on, and the clues he leaves are going unnoticed. Which is a shame, because Mr Bowling is not a conventional serial killer: he wants to get caught so that his torment can end. How many more newspapers must he buy before the police finally catch up with him?

Donald Henderson was an actor and playwright who had also written novels as D. H. Landels, but with little success. While working for the BBC in London during the Second World War, his fortunes finally changed with Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper, a darkly satirical portrayal of a murderer that was to be promoted enthusiastically by Raymond Chandler as his favourite detective novel. But even the author of The Big Sleep could not save it from oblivion: it has remained out of print for more than 60 years.

This Detective Club classic is introduced by award-winning novelist Martin Edwards, author of The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, who reveals new information about Henderson’s often troubled life and writing career.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Collins Crime Club
Publication date

February 8, 2018
Dimensions

4.96 x 0.83 x 7.48 inches
ISBN-10

9780008265311
ISBN-13

978-0008265311
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Donald Henderson
15
Paperback
22 offers from $8.87

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0008265313
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Collins Crime Club (February 8, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780008265311
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008265311
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.96 x 0.83 x 7.48 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,770,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12,015 in International Mystery & Crime (Books)
- #16,054 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Books)
- #28,723 in Police Procedurals (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.8 210 ratings

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3.8 out of 5

210 global ratings

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Carol Mello

Depressing crime fiction

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 21, 2023

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Despite the raves for this book, I did not enjoy it at all. It is not a bad book, just very depressing to read about Mr. Bowling killing people. I just generally do not like books told from the killer's POV. I should have paid more attention to the description and some of the reviews and avoided buying this book in the first place.

Helpful

Bill Kelly

A Very Different Mystery

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 20, 2019

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William Bowling is a madman who is very adept at murder and totally inept at getting arrested for it. This conundrum and his life-long quest to find the “Angel” woman of his dreams comprise the storyline for this 1943 novel by Donald Henderson set in WW II London.

Suffering from “soul starvation” and lamenting a failed musical career Mr. Bowling feels trapped in a loveless marriage and a series of dead end jobs. Oddball as a youth, he has long exhibited a propensity for seemingly spontaneous violence. Appearing harmless to those around him, he normally sports a bluff hail-fellow-well-met persona that belies the internal chaos that he usually suppresses with a series of rationalizations and harmless pub crawling. His two remaining and competing ambitions are to be apprehended for his crimes (although he eschews the idea that he is a “criminal”) and to find his personal dream myth woman whom he refers to as Angel. He commits a series of murders and fully expects (and in moments of despair) fervently hopes to be apprehended for. The police remain unaware of him after the early murders and Mr. Bowling scores yet another failure in life. He eagerly searches for news of his crimes in the morning after newspapers only to be continually frustrated by their ignorance of his deeds. Crisis comes at last however, when he at last finds his Angel and now has something to live for. Apprehension is now his most dire threat.

This is rare mystery in that it resists the usual classification exercise. Henderson characterizations are Dickensian with many of the minor characters quite memorable. Mr. Bowling is clearly deluded, but Henderson is very skillful at drawing him as an Everyman who, except for his unfortunate predilection for homicide, has a very common story that evokes considerable identification, if not total sympathy. The scenes of violence and finally, Mr. Bowling’s union with his angel border on the surreal. A dark humor pervades the narrative throughout and the story’s resolution is a natural outcome consistent with Henderson’s vision of the character and his situation.
I found this book a total treat and my first read in a long time that I look forward to reading again.

3 people found this helpful

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Micah

Slow moving

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 14, 2023

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I finish almost every book that I start... But not this one. I read 1-2 books a month and took a chance on this one based off of a friends rec. It was too slow of a story and had little action.

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tom cantrell

Gruesome but well written

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 12, 2019

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I bought this so-called mystery out of curiosity. It wasn't what I expected. A seemingly
mild-mannered gentleman who likes to kill others ( his wife and three basic strangers)
for some kind of exilaration, expects to be caught but never is. The writing keeps your
interest with memorable characters and lots of cynicism about marriage and life itself; but it's very dark
subject matter.

3 people found this helpful

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thomas andrew

Different murder mystery well told.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 14, 2021

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This was a favorite of the master Raymond Chandler. Stick with it as It is well written with a different view.

One person found this helpful

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S. T. Shandor

Excellent book arrived quickly and in superb condition

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 1, 2021

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This long-out-of print classic of the murder story genre is well worth discovering. The book arrived in superb condition and much more quickly than had been “estimated”.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 7, 2022

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I thought with all the good reviews it was going to be a good read. NOT!

One person found this helpful

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Janet

Golden age reprint

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 16, 2018

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This book had been on my wish list for some time. Loved it.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Simon Bowler

Wartime amorality

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on May 19, 2021

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An unpleasant book. This account of London during WW2 is not one of plucky resolve, keeping calm and carrying on but a tale of tawdry amoral cynical despair. Mr Bowling as a member of the “impoverished gentry” is an interesting study, but his random murders of people who annoy him or who have something he needs are appalling.

His sudden finding of true love switches him from seeking death by judicial execution to wanting to survive but that Miss Mason would provide him with an alibi after he confesses to her seems entirely unlikely.

Donald Henderson documents the seedy lives of quiet English desperation - he was writing at the time of the war and his descriptions ring true but he has a depressing view of humanity in general and his protagonist in particular.

I did not enjoy this

Amazon Customer

Quite a charming book of the "cozy"genre, with credible ...

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on June 6, 2018

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Quite a charming book of the "cozy"genre, with credible characters, suitably bizarre villains, and a truly delightful cat. A very pleasant companion for a warm fire and a glass of wine.

Mr. A.J. PENDLEBURY

This 1943 classic deserves the widest possible circulation.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 5, 2018

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Black Heath Classic Crime have reissued many crime books from the Golden Age. Mostly the more minor authors ;many have made fascinating reading and helped to give a better picture of this era. However,with this publication we have moved to the very forefront of excellent issues. I am not surprised that Raymond Chandler was so impressed with this book.

It has drive ,purpose ,humour ( in the very darkest sense) and even a sense of redemption. It is an inverted tale similar in tone to the major Francis Iles of the 30's . However the WW2 settings with their quirky rationing and grim day to day life give this book a scary reality. The synopsis really doesn't need to be repeated. For all crime fiction fans this is essential reading . At this price it is a Kindle bargain .

10 people found this helpful

Richard Cowdell

I tried hard, very hard, to like this but...........

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 14, 2018

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I tried hard, very hard, to like this book and read it very slowly. The whole idea fascinated me. Its titular hero (or should I say Anti-hero?), a failed pianist and composer, kills merely, after the first one at least, just to find out if his crimes appear in the newspapers. Sadly, for him, they don't, and despite leaving clues, suspicion never falls on him and he never gets caught, continuing his killing spree in wartime London, and in one case, outside London. The book started well but I gradually realised I was not really enjoying it and it took me far longer than usual to finish it. Quite frankly I began to care less and less as to whether or not he would get caught. Still it's an interesting idea, very entertaining read with an 'open' ending and well written. I would, however, buy and read more novels by this author if I spotted them. Maybe if I read it again I might enjoy it more - hence the 3 stars.
There is one curious things in the book which someone may well clarify:
On page 1 we read that "Mr Bowling sat at the piano until it grew darker, not playing, but with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in Db Minor opened before him." - He'd have a problem - Tchaikovsky didn't write a 'Piano Concerto in Db minor'. Tchaikovsky's popular First Piano Concerto is in Bb minor (which is probably what the author intended. Was it never proof read?) the 2nd in G major & the 3rd in Eb major. The only Piano Concerto in know of in Db (major) is that by Aram Khachaturian written in 1937 and first performed in London in 1940.

2 people found this helpful

Assynteach

An amoral morality tale of a murderer with a strange motive

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

The first few pages were written in such a staccato, almost childish, style that I almost gave up in the book right then. But a page or so later and I was hooked. This is in no way a murder mystery, though it is a crime novel with several murders in it. Rather it is a mid 20th century exploration of class and morality in wartime London, a setting vividly conveyed. But it is no dull treatise. There are moments of deliciously black humour throughout. The main theme seems to be an exploration of the extent to which murder is wrong in a world in which millions of perfectly good human beings are trying to murder millions of other human beings, and whether the Christian notion of Heaven as a reward after life should make anyone want to be killed — hanged, in fact — so as to be out of the misery of his present world and in the Heaven in which he believes. It's a logical proposition. It's immoral to commit suicide (the protagonist sees himself as a deeply moral man) so the only way to go to Heaven, to die, is to be judicially killed, that is hanged for committing a capital crime. That means murder. So he proceeds to murder people in the hope and expectation of being caught, tried and hanged. But it seems that may not be as easy as he thought. And what he hasn't considered is that one day he might find a reason to want to live, and to want to very much. Will his past prevent the happy future he longs for so desperately? Or should he have to forgo that in expiation of his crimes? Although these moral issues are at the heart of the book it is written so lightly and with so much macabre humour that the reader finds the self cheering the murderer on, and by the end is just as desperate as he for him to avoid the gallows he set out to perish on.

2 people found this helpful

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Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper (Detective Club Crime Classics) Hardcover – February 8, 2018

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