The Crime-Book Society paperback edition No.46 - 1938?
I found this novel fascinating, from the outset. Fiction or fact - faction? As the author says on his very first page: This is a strange story which I have to tell. Quite frankly, I do not expect it to be believed. "Truth is stranger than fiction"...let us pretend, then, that this story is a mere romance - that when I speak of Italy I really mean Ruritania, and that Mussolini is merely a colloquial name for Dando. Well, for a brief moment, Bernard Newman fooled me. The tale is in the first person and the protagonist is one Bernard Newman! I looked the author up on the Internet. Born in 1897, and dying in 1968, he was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, politics and travel. Then I read that some of his early fiction novels were written in the first person with himself as the main character. What helped to maintain a remarkable first-hand knowledge of the various countries and geographical areas he described was the fact that, from the early 1930s through to the late 1950s, he cycled in every European country. Riding a BSA cycle, all he took with him was a few changes of clothing, pyjamas, toiletry, a camera and relevant maps. He was a member of the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC), writing many articles for the Club's Gazette. He met, and interviewed, many political and cultural leaders - such as Winston Churchill, Ghandi, Franco and John Buchan. Due to his 'autobiographical' method, he was regarded by many as a real-life spy. He eventually said in an interview that "I am not a spy. I have never been a spy...I am trying to devise a new kind of thriller. I believe I have succeeded."
Newman can certainly tell a great - and realistic - tale. In The Mussolini Murder Plot we find the protagonist, (supported by his friends Mason, a Foreign Office wallah - a principal secretary, to be precise...a little unorthodox in his methods; and Inspector Marshall, a keen, active, intelligent police-officer...of the Special Branch of Scotland Yard) is called upon to track down what appears to be a youthful conspiracy to assassinate Benito Mussolini. This League of International Amity is pushing out pamphlets and other media to state that it is leaders, not peoples, who are responsible for war. Therefore, any leader who commits a crime against humanity must die. Mussolini's recent invasion of Abyssinia makes him their target. So, off sets Newman for Rome. He meets up with an old friend, Count Aderno (the author says that's not his real name - another clever way of suggesting to the reader that everything is factual) and the latter takes Newman to the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia where Mussolini gave most of his speeches/harangues (I have stood there, too!). An attendant there, leans on the stone rail; it collapse; he is hurled to his death. Aha! assassination likelihood looms large.
Newman reads of Mussolini's plan to visit Naples; so he sets off for the city and goes to the outskirts, less crowded but where the great man is to pass. Here he meets an English girl: my first impressions were of the pleasantest; it had nothing of the doll-like prettiness of the young Italian girls, or the Madonna flatness of the grown women; her hair was brown, dressed from a parting low on the side completely over the head in a waving swoop; it crowned a clean and honest face, with eyes which, serious now, could at will twinkle merrily. The bad news? - it soon becomes obvious she is part of the League. The good news? She is not keen on assassinations and over the length of the story she and Newman draw closer and closer together. The Naples plot fails (the man injured in a car hijack is a decoy). The girl disappears, leaving Newman only her name, Margaret Stirling. Returning to England, he tries to track her down. The name is not traceable (we later find out that's due to her erasing her surname, Hay, on her passport). Newman continues his quest to find the others involved in the plans to bump off Mussolini. It takes him to Rome, to Yugoslavia - Sarajevo and Serbia - this time with Marshall accompanying him. They end up chasing two men over the Slovene Alps in dreadful snow swept conditions. The passages describing the journey over the mountains are some of the most powerful in the book. Marshall and Newman are rescued, just in the nick of time, from a small cave (the two 'terrorists' actually died of hypothermia etc.)
Newman returns to England and, to his amazement, in the audience of a play he is performing in at Swiss Cottage (he is an actor), is Margaret. They go to her small flat and engage in a long conversation about their respective beliefs. She confides in him about the League, its principles and aims. She tells him not to shake her loyalty to the League but also gives him her word that all ideas of executing Mussolini have been abandoned. Good. But then she vanishes again. Moreover, Scotland Yard have decoded a plan by the League to capture Mussolini and hold him to ransom as a bargaining chip to get the Italians out of Abyssinia.
Neman (much taller than the Duce) reluctantly agrees to impersonate Mussolini, get captured and lead the English/Italian authorities to the clandestine group. I found these last fifty or so pages rather far-fetched. Newman returns to Italy, made up to look like Mussolini and having practised his mannerisms and modes of speech. He finds the country not to his liking. The atmosphere in Italy is not pleasant. It is an atmosphere of subdued fear. People hesitate to speak their thoughts aloud, for fear of spies. The old smiling courtesy of the Italians has been replaced by bravado and suspicion. The author takes a long aside to explain his method of telling the story - quite effectively. Once in Rome, Newman goes out on a motorcycle, dressed as the Duce and, as intended, gets caught by the conspirators. He is whisked away to Corsica, where he meets the two main conspirators. One, an American named Grantern, is clearly an idealist; the other, Harim, has fanatical eyes - that's because he is a fanatic, and dangerous. Newman fools them both, until none other than Margaret turns up.
Harim races away, determined to assassinate Mussolini. The others follow, using Granthern's plane (how convenient, but he is very rich). The denouement comes in the Piazza Venezia, where Mussolini is to give the victory speech telling his adoring crowd that Addis Ababa has fallen. Again, the author's writing is of a top order. Those of you who have read Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal (1971) will feel a sense of déjà vu - both De Gaulle and Mussolini were not assassinated, for the same reason that they bent their heads at the very moment the assassin's shot was fired. As with Forsyth's tale, the skill of the writing meant it simply didn't matter that the reader knew from the outset that the plots had failed. Oh. The very last line is Newman about to kiss Margaret.
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