Home Is The Hangman by Richard Sale

Home Is The Hangman is a thriller involving meteorologist Mike Heywood with murder, spies, and sunken treasure on a Haitian island, written in 1940 by a favourite author of mine, Richard Sale.

My Popular Library edition (1949) updated the story slightly to reflect post-war changes.

Mike Heywood is replacing meteorologist Bill Jennifer, who went into hospital after an 'accident' at his Punta Negra island weather station. Somehow he managed to raise the SOS flag for a passing plane.

Mike lands on Port de Vents, and gets the lay of the land. His boss Bart Wheelock is anxious he boat out to nearby Punta Negra (a rocky outcrop containing only the Trans American weather station) and begin reporting, but first, Mike checks on Bill Jennifer. The hospital reports he passed away days ago from much more than a fall - his skull was crushed. It look suspicious.

In the lounge, Mike meets British tourist Dudley Peighton, pilot Cedric Milton, and the lovely Lynn Sanders, a pro-fisherman with the ninety-foot yacht Amberjack. It has been chartered by a German named Donner whose team is diving around the well-charted wreck Rochambeau, a French frigate sunk in 1817, rumoured to still hold a cargo of gold. Curiously, they are not diving where the wreck is, and who keeps sabotaging the marker buoy? Mike gets to work on Punta Negra and discovers an incoming hurricane wind force beyond recording. Several tankers in the area report distress and the Amberjack is forced to anchor in the Punta Negra cove for safety. A night of suspense begins.

Who is the spy hiding off the coast? Who is shooting at them from the wooded bluff? and why is Lynn filled with tension when questioned about the dive? No one is who they say they are, and there is a much bigger treasure to be sought, buried in the deep sea.

This had all the hallmarks of a wartime thriller - international spies, undercover operatives, and a capable hero thrown into danger. Lynn adds a touch of romance, but is still the most able fisherman there is, running her own charter operation. Cut off from the world (literally, someone has cut the communication wires) there are only hours to discover what is happening, and still come out alive. Mike was beginning to understand the stakes of the game.

This Popular Library edition also contains the thrilling novella Beam To Brazil, a tale of suspense which I enjoyed so much it deserves my next review.

Richard Sale is a terrific writer, and this compact story (also published in 1942 under the title Sailor Take Warning) is tight and satisfying. After writing mystery novels in the forties (Benefit Performance), he began writing for the screen (Woman's World), and directing films (Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes). His excellent novel Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep was made into the 1940 Gable/Crawford film Strange Cargo.

1940 / Paperback / 160 pages