Best 1949 Adventures (10)

By: Joshua Glenn
August 16, 2019

One in a series of 10 posts identifying Josh Glenn’s favorite 1949 adventure novels.

Victor Canning’s crime/hunted-man adventure The Golden Salamander.

On his way to a remote town in Algeria, where he’s been tasked with cataloguing and packing up some antiquities which have been bequeathed to the British Museum, archaeologist David Redfern comes across a crashed truck full of smuggled weapons. Torn between minding his own business and completing his job, and the opportunity to overthrow the criminals who are terrorizing the locals, Redfern finally tries to report what he’s learned to the authorities. He inadvertently involves a young local artist and the beautiful young woman who runs the local hotel; as a result, the boy is killed, and Redfern and the girl are placed in mortal danger. Serafis, who is Redfern’s contact for the antiquities, but really the kingpin of the gun-running circle, is a sinister villain… the whole thing culminates in a thrilling escape sequence, as Redfern flees Serafis’s henchmen. The title artifact — the golden salamander — is a MacGuffin, really; this is not a treasure-hunt adventure.

Fun facts: From 1934 through 1940, Canning wrote rustic comedies. He served in the British Army from 1940–1946; he and his friend Eric Ambler trained together. Inspired by Ambler’s success as a thriller writer, in 1947 Canning set about writing thrillers set in exotic locations. The Golden Salamander was adapted as a movie in 1950 by Ronald Neame; it starred Trevor Howard and a young Anouk Aimée. In 1956, the story appeared as a comic strip in Super Detective Library no. 72.

***

Best 1949 Adventures (10)

Categories

Tags