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Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper
- Detective Club Crime Classics
- Narrated by: Tim Frances
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
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Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper
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Summary
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.
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Critic reviews
‘I think it's one of the most fascinating books written in the last ten years. Everyone who read it in my limited circle agrees with me.’ RAYMOND CHANDLER
‘There is an element of psychological fantasy in this novel. Mr Henderson pursues a grim little theme with lively perception and ingenuity. His manner is brief, deliberately undertoned, and for the most part curiously effective. There is acute observation in the portrait of Mr Bowling.’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
‘This tragedy of a madman is told with great simplicity, and is very much helped by the realism of its details. All the events take place in the duller London suburbs which are beautifully observed.’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘Henderson has written about Mr Bowling so well and so clearly that I feel like I have met him; he follows him with the affectionate care with which H.G. Wells followed Kipps. Indeed, there is in places a touch of Wells’s genius; he writes with great skill and his dialogue is vivid.’ RAYMOND POSTGATE in TIME & TIDE
‘Top marks go to Donald Henderson whose Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper gives us real hope of a literary discovery. This is a brilliant study in the macabre of a man who – almost it seems because he can’t help it – nonchalantly commits murders. A really fine thriller.’ SUNDAY GRAPHIC
What listeners say about Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Lee
- 23-02-18
Enjoyable but of its time.
Mr Bowling is a serial killer who wants to get caught! He has murdered and got away with it thus benefiting financially. Over time his murders get sloppier and sloppier and he buys the paper to see if his work has been noted. So on that premis it makes for an interesting and refreshing read.
The story is set mainly in War time London and contains dry humour and minimal gore, swearing etc. Though it can be horrifying at times. Slow paced and not edge of the seat stuff it's just a refreshing change to modern crime thrillers. It's let down slightly by dragging on a bit but on the whole I'm glad I listened to it. But its not a ' cosy crime' IMHO
Glad it's been re-issued.
Narration was good :)
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mme Jabini
- 11-04-18
Fascinating Story with dark humour
Initially I struggled with the narrator who sounded bored with the story. However once I got used to his style I thoroughly enjoyed this book. To such a point I felt sorry for the murderer. He wanted to get caught but never did. The humour is of the period and that adds to its quaintness.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Philip.Caren1966
- 18-11-22
Oh my how good was this story!
This was recommended by Robin Ince on his Bibliomaniac book and I hadn’t heard of it. Such a great book, takes you on a journey you just don’t expect but I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Beetle
- 12-03-18
Dark classic work unlike any other
If you read a lot of early 20th century fiction you will be astounded that this unusual and gloriously well written book was lost for so long. Henderson creates a glamour-less, seedy world which lives and breathes: imagine the people who are missing from Sayers saying and doing the things that are unmentionable or discreetly veiled in Christie. 1940s British society would have found it shocking, uncomfortable, sordid - and eminently recognisable. At a time when the party line demanded unswerving patriotism, moral fibre and cheerfulness, Mr Bowling sleeps with whomever propinquity offers - with absentminded bathos - and is so bored by the war and despairing of his dreary life that murder seems a completely reasonable idea...No wonder one contemporary reader described the book as “the last word in filth”... and no wonder Raymond Chandler read it again and again. Henderson’s world is chilly, bleak, exhausted and full of humour, and the monstrous Mr Bowling and all the lovingly described awfulness of the people who make up his world held me spellbound to the end.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- James Harries
- 05-11-21
Perfect narration
His voice fits the book so well, great casting is so important. I've given up on books I really want to hear that have the wrong voice.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- G. Roberts
- 14-03-20
Fascinating and thrilling
Compelling crime story with many twists, which paints a vivid - and very different to the accepted version - of life in wartime London. This book is up there with Orwell and Patrick Hamilton, and deserves to be much better known. Excellent reading by Tim Frances.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gordon Barclay
- 06-09-20
Not really a 'detective novel' but a great read
A well-written, entertaining and original psychological novel, told from the perspective of a deeply troubled and put-upon man in London during the war. He kills more than once, but one comes to understand, if not sympathise, with him. I can see why it was such a favourite of Raymond Chandler.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Fes
- 09-01-19
Good but different type of murder mystery
This isn't your usual classic murder mystery. I enjoyed it. It was well read and I liked the characterisations and the flavour of the war years.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- green
- 23-05-20
An oddity of a period piece & engrossing.
I suspect that most people come to this book on learning it was a favourite of Raymond Chandler's, that's certainly why I picked it. It is an odd period piece, set during the Blitz in London, it's a time of a fragmented society, houses being bombed, people coming and going. And our protagonist, Mr Bowling, takes advantage of this to indulge his new compulsion - commiting murder. (The significance of the title is that buys a newspaper after he's commited a murder to see if it's been reported anywhere), The tone is dispassionate, amoral even, Mr Bowling doesn't really feel any guilt, but also doesn't seem to care too much about being caught, he's mostly expecting to be.
The narration was absolutely excellent, the tone caught the mood and the period so well that this is a book I'm glad I listened to rather than read.
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