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“It’s highly readable (like Dodge in any form, from hard-boiled detection
to travel guides) and refreshingly off-beat” --N.Y. Times Book Review
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Angel’s Ransom (1956)
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Film Links
- Angel’s Ransom (Episode 5 of “The Kaiser Aluminum Hour,” originally aired 23 October 1956) [Link provided courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.]
Summary
The action returns to Monaco in David Dodge’s tenth novel, Angel’s Ransom. Sam Blake is the captain of a luxurious yacht, the Angel, owned by wealthy American playboy Freddy Farr. Just prior to the yacht’s sailing to escape a possible attachment of the boat by a Belgian baroness who claimed that Freddy had given it to her, the regular crew is tricked ashore and the boat is hijacked by a trio of gangsters. Kidnapped with the Angel, Blake, Freddy, three guests, and Marian Ellis, unwitting accomplice of the hijackers, are faced with a dangerous ultimatum: assist in the ransoming of the Angel or die.
At one point in the narrative, Blake is offered the opportunity of betraying Freddy and joining the hijackers. Holtz, the mastermind of the plot, has already proven that he is more than willing to kill anyone who opposes him. When Blake hesitates to accept, Holtz reveals the depths of his inhuman nature:
“That was bad judgment on your part, if you are telling the truth. It shows that while you have been pretending to consider the offer I made you, you have no intention of joining me.”
“I’m not capable of murder.”
Holtz made a noise of angry disgust. “Murder! The word frightens you! What, you say, blood on my hands? Human blood? No, no! Animal blood, bird blood, fish blood, the blood of snakes and insects. Those we kill for sport, or because they have no right to exist in a world where we do not want them. But sacred human blood? Horror!” (Chapter 5)
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