Goblin Market, by Helen McCloy, is a crime novel by Helen McCloy. McCloy created a murder-solving psychiatrist named Dr. Basil Willing. I've heard that he makes an appearance in this novel, but he hasn't yet. It's about a couple of reporters in South America digging into some skulduggery.
One plot point is that the hero finds a note reading "fyi max." He has no idea what it means. He needs the heroine to explain to him that "fyi" means "for your information." Which struck me as kind of weird, because that's pretty much common knowledge. But apparently the acronym only dates bac to 1941, and this book was published in 1943, which is pretty close to the origin. Just something interesting to see.
One plot point is that the hero finds a note reading "fyi max." He has no idea what it means. He needs the heroine to explain to him that "fyi" means "for your information." Which struck me as kind of weird, because that's pretty much common knowledge. But apparently the acronym only dates bac to 1941, and this book was published in 1943, which is pretty close to the origin. Just something interesting to see.
2 comments:
I enjoy reading books from different eras largely because, like old films, it's fascinating to see how different were the circumstances in other periods and how people reacted to them depending on the mores of the time. Of course how well those things are expressed depends a lot on the author's skill. Although Helen McCloy doesn't appear to have remained popular it's interesting you found mystery novel by her written during wwii. The now commonly understood 'fyi' mention you noted reminded me of another acronym from that period, 'snafu'.
The book I finally got around to reading recently was Francis Iles' 'Malice Aforethought' ('Before the Fact' was his only other famous one). In 1931's Malice we meet a village doctor, Edward Bickleigh, who is married to an older woman who is socially prominent but no longer rich (a wastrel father). She treats the doctor abysmally to say the least. From liking Dr. Bickleigh initially, we are exposed to his chauvinist ways, his many successive dalliances in efforts to raise his self-esteem, and his developing egotism. Meeting a young heiress who has moved to the community the doctor decides he has found true love. His wife refuses to divorce him (for good reason it turns out), his new love refuses to marry a divorced man and things become complicated.
There is constant humour, often dark, throughout the book. As Dr. Bickleigh undertakes one underhanded manoeuvre after another, and progressively gets away with more than he fails at, you see him develop into a narcissistic, sociopathic personality.
You might like it..
I like reading things from different periods too. There's one I think I might write about tomorrow that you and Jerry might be interested in. Ways of representing human behavior on the page might change more than the behavior itself. Still, there are constants you can pick out from era to era.
McCloy is I guess little known outside of people with an interest in Golden Age and Silver Age mysteries. More vintage whodunit writers from the UK are probably remembered now than their American equivalents. Might have something to do with the BBC. But she's an interesting figure, in part because the Willing books pioneered the idea of psychological profiling in fiction.
Curious as to when "snafu" started appearing in mainstream media. I guess that was when the bowdlerized interpretation of "all fouled up" came into use. I kind of prefer "fubar", partly because of the way a girl I used to work with used it.
Francis Iles was apparently one of the pseudonyms of a writer named Anthony Berkeley Cox. He had a long running series with a detective named Roger Sheringham. Off the top of my head I don't think I've actually read him. Malice Aforethought does sound interesting.
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