LAST BEST FRIEND

First published in 1967, we have the British Library paperback reprint of a now classic crime thriller. Set mainly in the London of the Swinging Sixties, and written in the days when John le Carré and Len Deighton were making a name for themselves, George Sims never became as famous as his two illustrious contemporaries. However, this novel was included by H. R. F. Keating in Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books. The story opens on an August afternoon in Paddington. A small man is standing on a ledge outside a window, ten floors above the street. Dizzy and frightened, he plunges to the ground 'uttering a single short cry, a noise which did not sound particularly human, simply that ignominious yelp of an animal encountering death'. Suddenly there is a switch of setting and mood and we are in Corsica, at the same time on the same day, where a middle aged dealer in manuscripts and autographed letters is in bed with a girl called Bunty who is young enough to be his daughter. At the very same time 2pm Ned Balfour wakes in Corsica beside his beautiful woman his fellow art dealer and Dachau survivor Sam Weiss falls ten stories to his death. Ned refuses to believe that Sam's death was intentional, and his investigation thrusts him into the deceit and fraudulence of the art world, where he unmasks more than one respectable face. A thrilling tale of vertigo, suspicion and infidelity, this is a long-forgotten classic with an intriguing plot twist written by the antiquarian book seller and unorthodox writer who was popular for his cleverly-woven narratives. 191pp, paperback.