The Long Short Cut by Andrew Garve (Paul Winterton)

Michael Bliss, handsome, charming, and polished man about town is beginning to run a little low on funds. He’s not particularly worried though as he’s been in this position many times before. A new job always seemed to come his way. It was just a matter of finding the right opportunity. These things had a way of taking care of themselves, especially for a professional confidence man like Bliss.

Sure enough, an opportunity does, indeed, come along when Bliss witnesses a shooting. At first, he is reluctant to come forward as a witness but then he realizes he can make use of the goodwill he would generate from the police. He can use that to smuggle a criminal financier out of the country and use those same police to assist him in the smuggling operation. He enlists his new friend, the lovely Corinne in a masterful scheme and together they plan and execute all the details while at the same time, earning a hefty paycheck, albeit grudgingly from the financier.

Author Andrew Garve is a pseudonym of Paul Winterton, a former journalist in Britain and a well-respected crime writer. He was, in fact a founding member of the Crime Writers’ Association. He’s written a number of engaging mystery/crime novels and if this one is an indication of his work, then I will be happy to pursue as many others as I can.

That said, this is not a perfect novel by any means. The scheme developed by Bliss and Corinne wasn’t really all that complex, nothing like an Ocean’s 11 sort of scheme. There are a few risks with their plan but, given the state of technology in 1968 when this novel was first published, those risks seem minor. Most of the novel is devoted to the day-to-day and even hour-by-hour planning while much less is devoted to the actual carrying out of the plan. But that was Ok with me because something about these two characters resonated with me, and I enjoyed spending time with them. I kept waiting for something to go wrong but it all unfolded without a hitch…until the very end. I’d been expecting one of the pair to turn on the other, having conned them all the way along. Whether or not I was right...well, I won’t spoil that but I will say the end provided a nice surprise twist and another in the very last paragraph.

An enjoyable read and a nice entry into more works of Paul Winterton which I will be seeking out in the future.