Andrew Garve Biography and List of Works

Prolific English short story and mystery writer, who has published over 40 thrillers. Most often Winterton's (Andrew Garve) heroes are private individuals, to all appearances ordinary, but when forced by circumstances proves to be extraordinary courageous and persistent.

Andrew Garve was born as Paul Winterton in Leicester. He was educated at the London School of Economics and at the London University, receiving his B.Sc. in 1928. In 1929 Winterton became a staff member of The Economist and worked from 1933 to 1946 for the London News Chronicle. During World War II (1942-45) he was a foreign correspondent in Moscow.

Winterton's first book, A STUDENT IN RUSSIA, appeared in 1931. His first crime novel, DEATH BENEATH JERUSALEM (1938), set in Palestine, was published under the pseudonym Roger Bax. Five other Bax books followed it. In BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER (1948) and A GRAVE CASE OF MURDER (1951) the protagonist was Inspector James, and represented the author's expertness in the genre of pure detection novels. After 1951 most of Winterton's fiction was published under the name Garve, though he has written several novels as Paul Somers.

Winterton has used much of his own experiences to give authenticity for his works. He has travelled widely which is seen in the diversity of the settings: English villages, the Scilly Isles, Ireland, France, Australia, Russia, and the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland, Africa and the Indian Ocean. In a series of four novels - BEGINNER'S LUCK (1958), OPERATION PIRACY (1958), THE SHIVERING MOUNTAIN (1959), and THE BROKEN JUGSAW (1961) - he depicted the exploits of a young reporter who competes with a more experienced woman journalist on a rival paper. His knowledge of Russia is seen in the stories MURDER IN MOSKOW (1951), THE ASHES OF LODA (1965), THE LATE BILL SMITH (1971), and THE ASCENT OF D-13 (1969), and account of mountain climbing on the Turkish-Russian border, where two men fight against hazards of blizzard and avalanche in order to find and destroy a secret weapon.

In 1949 published Russian-based thriller, CAME THE DAWN, was filmed with Clark Gable and Gene Tierney under the title NEVER LET ME GO (1953). The director was Delmer Daves. In the romantic melodrama an American correspondent marries after WW II a Russian ballerina but is later deported by the authorities. Garve's THE MEGSTONE PLOT (1956) served as the basis for the film A TOUCH OF LARCENY (1960), directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Vera Miles. The light comedy was about a naval commander, who disappears in the hope that he will be branded a traitor and can sue for libel. In the complicated scheme to defraud a newspaper, depicted more detailed in the novel, Winterton used again his own experiences as a journalist.

Winterton's short stories have appeared in such periodicals as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Bestseller Mystery Magazine, and The Saint, and in several anthologies (A COICE OF MURDERS, 1958; BEST DETECTIVE STORIES OF THE YEAR, ed. by Anthony Boucher, 1963; JOHN CREASEY'S MYSTERY BEDSIDE BOOK, 1969 and 1972, ed. by Herbert Harris, 1968; ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY PARADE, 1969; and WINTER'S CRIMES 7, ed. by George Hardinge, 1975).

Several of Winterton's heroes are familiar with the sailing on the coastal waters or at the sea, as in the novels THE NARROW SEARCH (1957), in which a father kidnaps his daughter from his estranged wife and her new boyfriend, THE FILE ON LESTER (1974), and A HERO FOR LEANDA (1959), whose protagonist overcome apparently insuperable odds, and wins the heart of the heroine by means of his navigational skills.

Winterton was a founding member and first joint secretary of Crime Writer's Association (1953). His latest novels include COUNTERSTROKE (1978) and HOME TO ROOST (1976), a psychological thriller about mystery writer, who confesses the murder of his wife's lover, a famous TV-star. But then appears another deceived husband with his confession. THE CASE OF ROBERT QUARRY (1972) is a crime story. Detective Chief Superintendent Joseph Burns plans to retire, visit Lascaux and explore Provence, but then makes a start on the case of Robert Quarry, an industrialist has been murdered. He works with a young, vigorous detective-sergeant Ryder; they complement each other like hand and glove. It looks as though Burn must hand the case over unsolved to his successor, until he starts a game of bluff and double bluff.

"He braced himself as he rang the bell. He loathed this part of his job, as every policeman did, and years of experience had failed to inure him to it. Or even to tell him what to expect. The sudden news of death could bring collapse and prostration; tears and sobs; hysteria; petrified shock; withdrawal and silence; volubility - one never knew, for there was no common pattern of behaviour. What Burns did know, as a compassionate man, was that it was hard to be the bearer of such tidings..."
(from The Case of Robert Quarry)

Series characters: Inspector James in Roger Bax stories, and Hugh Curtis in Paul Somers books. - For further reading: Encyclopaedia of Mystery and Detection, ed. by Chris Steinbrunner and Otto Penzler (1976); Twentieth Century Mystery and Crime Writers, ed. by John M. Reilly (1985); Encyclopaedia Mysteriosa by William L. DeAndrea (1997) - See also: Hammond Innes, who depicted in his novels the sea and seamanship.

A STUDENT IN RUSSIA, (1931)