Your Friendly Neighborhood Death Peddler

Anthony Bridges, the hapless hero of this rollicking crime novel first published in 1971, doesn’t have a high opinion of himself. He “was basically shy, and only wanted to be left alone to bumble through life in his own good time, doing his own thing.” The unemployed Anthony has been living off his wealthy girlfriend, Lilian Henshawe, in her London flat. Lilian wants to get married, but Anthony isn’t keen on the idea. Fortunately, Lilian’s father isn’t either, and gets Anthony an unspecified but somewhat sinister sounding job in the South American country of Santhoma, where Anthony belatedly figures out he’s working for an arms dealer. Anthony ambles through brothels and bars in Santhoma’s capital city, falls in with a gangster, and eventually winds up aboard a ship with a mutinous crew and a captain who doesn’t hesitate to toss dissenters overboard. Sangster (1927–2011) pulls zero punches in this wild, tawdry, and surprise-filled novel distinguished by sharp dialogue and comic timing. Fans of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall might want to give this one a try. (May)