The author John Gardner (1926-2007) is best known for his stewardship of the post-Ian Fleming era of James Bond novels which ran from Licence Renewed (1981) through to Cold (1996) some fourteen in total. Many of these, it has to be said are fairly forgettable unless you’re in the market for a Saab car or some other product he was paid to promote.

Before he got the Bond gig he had already established himself as an author of spy and crime fiction beginning with the Boysie Oakes series of spy novels from 1964 through to 1975.

In 1969 he wrote the first of a two book series featuring a Scotland Yard Inspector called Derek Torry. The first, A Complete State of Death was followed in 1974 by The Corner Men published by Michael Joseph and featuring a rather striking, typically 1970s cover by Guy Wyndham-Jones.

The story is based on a pair of London gangsters called The Magnus Cousins, heavily based on the real-life Ronnie and Reggie Kray the notorious brothers who controlled much of the London crime scene in the 1950s and early Sixties. Cue the arrival of the New York Mafia and a gang known as The Corner Men who intend to muscle in on the Cousin’s business empire. In between them stands Detective Inspector Torry, a Copper with personal problems (show me a fictional Policeman who hasn’t?!) who sets out to break up both gangs.

It is of course, pretty ridiculous stuff, with characters like Crippled Eric, Big Harriet, Boom-Boom Talisman and The Dumper you get the idea. Gardner taking inspiration from Ronnie Kray’s bisexuality has Peter Magnus as a borderline Paedophile whilst Torry has his own sexual issues to contend with. It’s run of the mill 1970s crime fiction, Gardner had written better and worse but it’s also a kind of nice reminder of the period and if you are a Bond collector then it’s worth having a copy for the collection if nothing else.