Bill Easter #01 - Deep Among the Dead Men

John Blackburn (1923-1993) authored nearly 20 thrillers and at least 10 novels of horror during his writing career. The British novelist experienced literary success with his unique blend of using detective, horror, and even nautical adventure tropes to propel his stories. His novels The Gaunt Woman, Destiny of a Spy, and Nothing But the Night were adapted to film and his debut, A Scent of New-Mown Hay was adapted by BBC Radio 2. Scholars often compare him to John Buchan and Geoffrey Household. 

My first experience with Blackburn's writing is the 1973 novel Deep Among the Dead Men. It was published in England in hardcover by The Chaucer Press. While enjoying the book I took a quick detour to learn more about the author and discovered Blackburn wrote a sequel to the book as well, the 1975 hardcover Mister Brown's Bodies. It was published by in England by Northumberland Press.

Like an episode of South Park, Blackburn doesn't reserve his prejudice for any particular race or people. No one escapes the thunder as Blackburn humorously prods and pokes Christians, minorities, and women while subjecting his male protagonist to non-heroic exploits that seem to defy the British thriller standards of spy-fiction. In other words, Blackburn finds fault with everything on the planet, but does have a warm place in his heart for animals. 

Deep Among the Dead Men stars Bill Easter, an adventurer who will stop at nothing to earn a buck. Throughout the book readers learn that he was booted from school after several altercations with the education system. He advanced his education by becoming a smuggler, gun-runner, oilman, gangster, assassin, bodyguard, and a type of mercenary. As I alluded to earlier, Easter isn't a traditional macho-man. While tough as nails, he doesn't possess the talents of a fighting man. Often he is beaten, outgunned, or simply left to die a miserable death. 

As the book begins readers catch up on Easter's current happenings. He's fallen in love with a woman named Kate and has teamed with her and her father, an ambitious anthropologist, to locate a treasure lying in just 100 feet of water off the coast of a fictional West African country called Leonia (probably based on Sierra Leone). To get the goods they must convince a strict Captain and his crew to honorably split the loot. The only thing stopping the plan is a dictator named Asmonda, the newest entry in the revolving door of “here and gone” crime-lords. Asmonda overthrew a General to gain power. To get the treasure Asmonda must be killed and replaced with the previous leader – who will also share in the wealth.

Deep Among the Dead Men was an exhilarating nautical adventure that mostly contains the tropes of spy-fiction. Easter's quest to find and assassinate the dictator is worth the price of admission. Everything else is like a triple-feature combining the nautical adventure with a mystery involving a killer on board the salvage unit. Easter must find the killer, eliminate the dictator, and help prop up the next puppet government while attempting to land his girlfriend in the sack. She won't give up the goods until he gets the goods. The horror!

If you love dry British humor loaded with satire and diatribes not for the easily offended then this book is for you. Deep Among the Dead Men is a surefire winner. High recommendation.