A Gun for Sale

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I came to Grahame Greene's “A Gun for Sale” after watching the Veronica Lake/Alan Ladd movie “This Gun for Hire.” I was surprised how closely the book followed the movie, albeit with some substantial details.

The book's plot involves Raven, an assassin who was hired to kill the “Minister of War” in some foreign country, being set up and betrayed by his employer. The employer's lackey pays Raven off with money reported stolen from a payroll heist, which puts the police on Raven's trail for the payroll heist he didn't do the moment he spends a tiny amount of the cash. Raven is a psychopath, a psychopathy caused by his deformity, a harelip. He immediately forms the intent to obtain vengeance on the unknown employer. His paths cross with that of Anne Crowder, the girlfriend of the police detective on his trail, on a train to Nottwich, where she has been hird to be a showgirl in a show produced by the lackey. Raven's intent is to kill Anne as a loose end, but ultimately she becomes an ally who helps him figure out who his treacherous employer was.

The movie follows the plot, except for moving the story to America and putting the action after the outbreak of World War II. One of the interesting points is that Greene wrote the book in 1936 and he foresees the result of the assassination of the Minister of War as the trigger for the next major war, sort of a view that the next Great War would start in the same way as the Great War of 1914 began. Of course, when the movie was made in 1942, everyone knew that isn't what happened, but it is an interesting insight into the anxiety that existed in the pre-war period.

The story moves at a good clip. The plot details hold together. Raven is an interesting but not sympathetic character. I'd say that the book's Raven is far more interesting than the version that Alan Ladd offered on screen. The book offers an intriguing look at the period prior to World War II.

I recommend it.