GIMLET COMES HOME
First Published in December 1946 - 186 pages
(NB – The first edition of this book does NOT have a blank REAR
endpaper due to wartime paper shortages)
The original first edition dust jacket showing the price of 6
shillings
This,
the first post World War II story, starts with Cub,
Copper and Trapper meeting for a reunion dinner with Gimlet at the Ritz Hotel
in London. Bizarrely, Gimlet doesn't turn up! Investigating the mystery, our
three heroes travel to Lorrington Hall in the village
of Lorrington, Devon and find out from a very
unhelpful butler and a helpful gardener that Gimlet has inherited an estate in
Scotland and was last known to be there. Travelling to Scotland our heroes
discover a suspicious pub called the Glencarglas Arms
as one of the nearest premises to Gimlet's isolated estate. An old tin mine is
on the track to Gimlet's estate and Cub, Copper and Trapper go to look round
it. Here, to their utter astonishment, they find an unconscious Gimlet at the
bottom of a remote shaft - he is only found by pure luck! Gimlet is taken to an
old remote hut where he is able to recover and tell his story. After accepting
a lift from the landlord of the pub, a man called McTaggart and a fisherman
staying at the pub called Smith, he had been bashed on the head and dumped down
the shaft to die. The next morning a mysterious man throws a bomb down the
shaft where Gimlet was and blows it up completely, this, no doubt, being to
cover up the "murder" of Gimlet. Thinking things through, Cub
believes that a telegram must have been sent to the local post office to tip
the baddies off about Gimlet's arrival and there is reason to believe that it
probably came from Gimlet's new butler. Cub sets off to make enquiries and
finds out that he was correct but he also has an encounter with the man, Smith,
who tries to kill him. Lost on the moor, Cub wanders until he finds Gimlet's
estate house called Strathcarglas. Meanwhile, Copper
has gone looking for Cub and confronted the men at the pub. Copper is taken
prisoner to Strathcarglas but Cub is on hand to save
him before he can be tortured by an American gangster called Slim Delano. After
a shootout, which involves Gimlet and Trapper, our heroes have control of
Gimlet's house. Various clues lead to suspicion that some kind of racket is
going on, particularly after Slim offers to buy Strathcarglas off Gimlet. When his offer is rejected out of
hand, Slim and his men return with a bomb and destroy the kitchen of the house.
Cub finds a book that gives him the final clues. It is whisky that is being
made in an illegal still on the estate and that whisky can fetch £5.00 a bottle
on the black market in London. The book contained a map showing the location of
the old still on the estate, but the map is missing. Gimlet and his
ex-commandos go to the Glencarglas Arms and recover
the map from the men there. They also have cause to interact with the police.
Following the map out into the wilds of the Scottish moors, our heroes search
for the Glencarglas secret still that the baddies are
using. Cub slips downs a bank and finds it. He also finds himself in a
confrontation with the enemy before Gimlet and the others arrive. Here a final
shoot out occurs and, needless to say, the baddies get their comeuppance.
Gimlet and Cub chase an escaping Slim across the moors until Slim manages to
reach a car but he is killed in a car crash just as the police arrive. The
police are then able to take over and finish the job off.
Click here to see the story illustrations from this book
Gimlet Comes Home
Subtitle - Another adventure of King of the Commandos and his
three Musketeers, "Copper" Colson, "Trapper" Troublay and "Cub" Peters.
Publication Details - originally published by University of
London Press Ltd.
Cover Illustration on First Edition
Frontispiece
Click on the Frontispiece to enlarge it
Click on the Paperback above to find out all about the GIMLET
Armada paperbacks and see the many DIFFERENT illustrations in them