Four Johns, The-Jack Vance mystery novel, book review

Four Johns, The-Jack Vance mystery novel

AKA: Four Men Called John and

Strange She Hasn’t Written (author’s preferred title)

The Four Johns is also known as Four Men Called John and Strange She Hasn’t Written.  This is one of three Jack Vance's mystery novels written under the publishing house author name of Ellery Queen.  This name was used by many ghost writer authors and usually featured the main character Ellery Queen who was a mystery writer and amateur detective who helped his father, a New York police inspector, solve crimes.  This character does not feature in Vance's novel, however.  The book was initially published under the title The Four Johns as a paperback in March, 1964 by Pocket Books.  A Signet mass market paperback was issued later in that year and a hardcover edition titled Four Men Called John was released in 1976 by Gollancz press.  My 1964 Signet paperback copy is 152 pages long. The novel was later released in 2006 as a supplement to the Vance Integral Edition under the title “Strange She Hasn’t Written.”  That VIE book was published as a leather bound very limited release and is quite rare.  All releases except the VIE were heavily edited.  The VIE edition is the only one approved by Vance.

 

Initially we are introduced to Mervyn Gray, a teaching assistant at UC Berkeley.  We are informed that two days ago an attempt was made to poison him, that yesterday a bullet missed his head by inches and that an enemy has threatened to kill him tomorrow.  This all relates to the disappearance of a neighbor woman and to the possible involvement of one of four men who are each named John. 

 

The story then flashes back several days previously to a meeting in a coffee shop between Mervyn and one of his neighbors, Susie Woodward.  Susie lives with her older sister, Mary Woodward, who is a university senior.  Mary is very attractive and Mervyn has a crush on her.  But Mary seems to have disappeared after she was overheard during a phone call making arrangements to meet a person she referred to as John.  Mervyn seems more worried than Susie and decides to contact each of the four men named John who are listed in Mary's address book.

 

Soon after beginning his investigation, Mervyn, starts receiving threatening letters.  Then attempts are made on his life and his car is stolen.  Although Mervyn is a rather inept investigator, he does not want to involve the police because he is fearful that he might lose his assistant teaching position if there is negative publicity about him being connected to a disappearance or possibly a murder.  The four Johns include a beatnik poet, a fashion photographer, a librarian who lives a double life and a playboy accountant.  Each resents the intrusiveness by Mervyn as he questions and sometimes follows them.

 

I found the twist at the end to be unpredictable but also pretty far fetched.  Some of the behavior of characters in the novel is not believable at times.  There is also little of Vance's brilliant dialog or humor.  Overall this is not one of Vance's better written mystery novels.  As with all Vance novels, however, it is still not without interest, and I found it fairly entertaining and easy to read.  Vance fans will probably want to read it, but I'm not sure if regular mystery readers will find it that appealing.  I have read it three times so far and continue to rate it a 3 "liked it."

 

As of this writing there are no editions of this novel that are in print.  The out of print releases below were all under the author name of Ellery Queen except for the VIE edition that was under Jack Vance.

The Four Johns, 1964, Pocket Books, paperback

The Four Johns, 1974 Signet, paperback

Four Men Called John, 1976, Gollancz, hardcover

The Four Johns, 1978, Signet, paperback

Strange She Hasn’t Written, 2006, Vance Integral Edition, hardcover