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Omnibus: The Sailcloth Shroud / All the Way
The Sailcloth Shroud
Stuart Rogers leaves Panama with two shipmates. One of them, Baxter, dies of a heart attack midway back to the States, and is buried at sea. Once they dock, the other man, Keefer, is fished out of the bay three days later after having been pistol-whipped to death. He had been seen flashing a lot of money around the night before. But as far as Rogers knew, Keefer was broke. Now the cops want to know where the money came from. They don’t believe that Baxter really died at sea. Neither do the goons who pick up Rogers one night to beat the truth out of him. But if Baxter wasn’t who he seemed to be, one thing Rogers knows for sure is that he’s definitely dead—but who the hell was he?
All the Way
Marian Forsyth made Harris Chapman the prosperous man he is today. As his private secretary, she advised him on his acquisitions, and turned him into a very wealthy man. She assumed she would become his second wife. But Harris made a foolish he fell in love with a younger, prettier woman. And now Harris must pay. And to that end, Marian creates a brilliant and detailed plan to steal $175,000 from him. All she needs is someone who sounds enough like Harris that he can become Harris long enough to pull it off. That’s where Jerry Forbes comes in—footloose, morally flexible, and completely obsessed with Marian. It’s the perfect match…. for the perfect crime.
Stuart Rogers leaves Panama with two shipmates. One of them, Baxter, dies of a heart attack midway back to the States, and is buried at sea. Once they dock, the other man, Keefer, is fished out of the bay three days later after having been pistol-whipped to death. He had been seen flashing a lot of money around the night before. But as far as Rogers knew, Keefer was broke. Now the cops want to know where the money came from. They don’t believe that Baxter really died at sea. Neither do the goons who pick up Rogers one night to beat the truth out of him. But if Baxter wasn’t who he seemed to be, one thing Rogers knows for sure is that he’s definitely dead—but who the hell was he?
All the Way
Marian Forsyth made Harris Chapman the prosperous man he is today. As his private secretary, she advised him on his acquisitions, and turned him into a very wealthy man. She assumed she would become his second wife. But Harris made a foolish he fell in love with a younger, prettier woman. And now Harris must pay. And to that end, Marian creates a brilliant and detailed plan to steal $175,000 from him. All she needs is someone who sounds enough like Harris that he can become Harris long enough to pull it off. That’s where Jerry Forbes comes in—footloose, morally flexible, and completely obsessed with Marian. It’s the perfect match…. for the perfect crime.
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 19, 2021
4 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Charles Williams
33 books100 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Charles Williams
Charles Williams was one of the preeminent authors of American crime fiction. Born in Texas, he dropped out of high school to enlist in the US Merchant Marine, serving for ten years (1929-1939) before leaving to work in the electronics industry. He was a radio inspector during the war years at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington state. At the end of World War II, Williams began writing fiction while living in San Francisco. The success of his backwoods noir Hill Girl (1951) allowed him to quit his job and write fulltime.
Williams’s clean and somewhat casual narrative style distinguishes his novels—which range from hard-boiled, small-town noir to suspense thrillers set at sea and in the Deep South. Although originally published by pulp fiction houses, his work won great critical acclaim, with Hell Hath No Fury (1953) becoming the first paperback original to be reviewed by legendary New York Times critic Anthony Boucher. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, such as Dead Calm (published in 1963) and Don’t Just Stand There! (published in 1966), for which Williams wrote the screenplay.
After the death of his wife Lasca (m. 1939) from cancer in 1972, Williams purchased property on the California-Oregon border where he lived alone for a time in a trailer. After relocating to Los Angeles, Williams committed suicide in his apartment in the Van Nuys neighborhood in early April 1975. Williams had been depressed since the death of his wife, and his emotional state worsened as sales of his books declined when stand alone thrillers began to lose popularity in the early 70s. He was survived by a daughter, Alison.
Please see: Charles Williams
Charles Williams was one of the preeminent authors of American crime fiction. Born in Texas, he dropped out of high school to enlist in the US Merchant Marine, serving for ten years (1929-1939) before leaving to work in the electronics industry. He was a radio inspector during the war years at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington state. At the end of World War II, Williams began writing fiction while living in San Francisco. The success of his backwoods noir Hill Girl (1951) allowed him to quit his job and write fulltime.
Williams’s clean and somewhat casual narrative style distinguishes his novels—which range from hard-boiled, small-town noir to suspense thrillers set at sea and in the Deep South. Although originally published by pulp fiction houses, his work won great critical acclaim, with Hell Hath No Fury (1953) becoming the first paperback original to be reviewed by legendary New York Times critic Anthony Boucher. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, such as Dead Calm (published in 1963) and Don’t Just Stand There! (published in 1966), for which Williams wrote the screenplay.
After the death of his wife Lasca (m. 1939) from cancer in 1972, Williams purchased property on the California-Oregon border where he lived alone for a time in a trailer. After relocating to Los Angeles, Williams committed suicide in his apartment in the Van Nuys neighborhood in early April 1975. Williams had been depressed since the death of his wife, and his emotional state worsened as sales of his books declined when stand alone thrillers began to lose popularity in the early 70s. He was survived by a daughter, Alison.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 25, 2021
Two Nautical Pulps
This double novel contains two masterpieces by the great craftsman, Charles Williams, one from 1958 and one from 1960. The two novels are nominally connected through their nautical themes, the Florida Keys, and Panama, but approach the crime novel from entirely different angles.
The Sailcloth Shroud is a story, as so many are, about an innocent man up to his eyeballs in trouble from being blamed for killing a man at sea and stealing his fortune to being accused of lying about t by deadly serious mobsters. Sailing a small ketch from Panama to a Texas shouldn’t mean much trouble, but the crew of two don’t survive long. One man dies if a heart attack at sea and is given a watery burial. The other beaten to death days after landing, but not before this penniless bum flashes literally thousands in cash. Captain Stuart Rodgers is one of the good guys, but quickly everyone turns on him. It’s only on his say so that Baxter died at sea. No one else can vouch for what happened. The FBI have a few questions for the Captain, least of all who Baxter was and what happened to his money. The mobsters who hit to the surviving mate don’t believe Rodgers’ tale of a heart attack at sea and are out yo force the truth out of him no matter what it takes. You can feel the walls closing tightly around Rodgers as he has few directions left to turn.
The Concrete Flamingo” by Charles Williams was first published in 1958 under the title “All the Way” and then published in the United Kingdom in 1960 under the title “The Concrete Flamingo.”
What happens when Jerry Forbes, a guy who has been drifting between jobs, ends up in Miami Beach, and meets a Marian Forsyth, a woman who just wasted six years of her youthful vigor on a wealthy executive before being dumped for a younger model? Marian knows everything about Jerry and he is just the guy she has been looking for – – to pull off a murder and a complicated con job on her ex-boss, the guy who dumped her. Why is he the perfect guy for this part in the con? Well, Marian heard Jerry talking and, on the phone, he is Harris Chapman.
Jerry falls for her hook, line, and sinker. Murder, sure why not? Pilfering brokerage accounts? Why not? As long as they can run off to some Mediterranean isle when its done. Of course, it is never that simple when it’s a pulp novel and there are some twists and turns along the way that the reader does not expect.
Marian, meanwhile, is a different kind of femme fatale. She bewitches Jerry without even trying, but she “was as beautifully adept and as pleasant and as far away and unreachable as ever.” You wonder reading this if Marian had all the life sucked out of her by Harris Chapman and what she has left to give Jerry. She has a one-track mind and is on a mission and she will do whatever is necessary to keep Jerry in the game.
What’s terrific about this novel is the detail that Williams puts in as to the planning and execution of one of the most complicated and detailed scams ever invented. Week after week is spent preparing, rehearsing, getting ready for the role of a lifetime. Marion tells him: “In ten days of extensive study, you could become Harris Chapman.” If he pulls this off right, then Not even Chapman’s own fiancé should suspect anything. Yeah, right. No detail is left unplanned. Nothing is left to chance.
The actual plot line can be boiled down fairly simply, but this book is not about the plot so much as it is about getting there and what happens ultimately when the con is pulled off.
This double novel contains two masterpieces by the great craftsman, Charles Williams, one from 1958 and one from 1960. The two novels are nominally connected through their nautical themes, the Florida Keys, and Panama, but approach the crime novel from entirely different angles.
The Sailcloth Shroud is a story, as so many are, about an innocent man up to his eyeballs in trouble from being blamed for killing a man at sea and stealing his fortune to being accused of lying about t by deadly serious mobsters. Sailing a small ketch from Panama to a Texas shouldn’t mean much trouble, but the crew of two don’t survive long. One man dies if a heart attack at sea and is given a watery burial. The other beaten to death days after landing, but not before this penniless bum flashes literally thousands in cash. Captain Stuart Rodgers is one of the good guys, but quickly everyone turns on him. It’s only on his say so that Baxter died at sea. No one else can vouch for what happened. The FBI have a few questions for the Captain, least of all who Baxter was and what happened to his money. The mobsters who hit to the surviving mate don’t believe Rodgers’ tale of a heart attack at sea and are out yo force the truth out of him no matter what it takes. You can feel the walls closing tightly around Rodgers as he has few directions left to turn.
The Concrete Flamingo” by Charles Williams was first published in 1958 under the title “All the Way” and then published in the United Kingdom in 1960 under the title “The Concrete Flamingo.”
What happens when Jerry Forbes, a guy who has been drifting between jobs, ends up in Miami Beach, and meets a Marian Forsyth, a woman who just wasted six years of her youthful vigor on a wealthy executive before being dumped for a younger model? Marian knows everything about Jerry and he is just the guy she has been looking for – – to pull off a murder and a complicated con job on her ex-boss, the guy who dumped her. Why is he the perfect guy for this part in the con? Well, Marian heard Jerry talking and, on the phone, he is Harris Chapman.
Jerry falls for her hook, line, and sinker. Murder, sure why not? Pilfering brokerage accounts? Why not? As long as they can run off to some Mediterranean isle when its done. Of course, it is never that simple when it’s a pulp novel and there are some twists and turns along the way that the reader does not expect.
Marian, meanwhile, is a different kind of femme fatale. She bewitches Jerry without even trying, but she “was as beautifully adept and as pleasant and as far away and unreachable as ever.” You wonder reading this if Marian had all the life sucked out of her by Harris Chapman and what she has left to give Jerry. She has a one-track mind and is on a mission and she will do whatever is necessary to keep Jerry in the game.
What’s terrific about this novel is the detail that Williams puts in as to the planning and execution of one of the most complicated and detailed scams ever invented. Week after week is spent preparing, rehearsing, getting ready for the role of a lifetime. Marion tells him: “In ten days of extensive study, you could become Harris Chapman.” If he pulls this off right, then Not even Chapman’s own fiancé should suspect anything. Yeah, right. No detail is left unplanned. Nothing is left to chance.
The actual plot line can be boiled down fairly simply, but this book is not about the plot so much as it is about getting there and what happens ultimately when the con is pulled off.
January 5, 2023
1/23
All the Way
1958
I didn't like this one so much. On it's own I'd give it three stars. The introduction said it was 40 years out of print, and I guess I can see why. For a Charles Williams book it doesn't have good suspense. It does have boats and fishing though.
11/22
The Sailcloth Shroud
1959
The main character is sailing a small boat from the Bahamas to Florida or Texas or something (how much attention did I pay?). The two guys helping him are unknowns, and one of them has a heart attack on board and dies. They want to hold the corpse til they dock, but the trip is taking too long and it's a small boat so they bury him at sea.
When they do land in Texas or Florida, bad guys are stalking them, looking for half a million dollars the dead man stole. The other unknown is murdered, no one believes the main character never even saw the money. So, to solve the mystery, he needs to discover the world of the heart attack victim. Who faked his own death twice. Ends with lie detectors and a physical fight which lasts several pages (I read this on Kindle, but it felt like it did).
All the Way
1958
I didn't like this one so much. On it's own I'd give it three stars. The introduction said it was 40 years out of print, and I guess I can see why. For a Charles Williams book it doesn't have good suspense. It does have boats and fishing though.
11/22
The Sailcloth Shroud
1959
The main character is sailing a small boat from the Bahamas to Florida or Texas or something (how much attention did I pay?). The two guys helping him are unknowns, and one of them has a heart attack on board and dies. They want to hold the corpse til they dock, but the trip is taking too long and it's a small boat so they bury him at sea.
When they do land in Texas or Florida, bad guys are stalking them, looking for half a million dollars the dead man stole. The other unknown is murdered, no one believes the main character never even saw the money. So, to solve the mystery, he needs to discover the world of the heart attack victim. Who faked his own death twice. Ends with lie detectors and a physical fight which lasts several pages (I read this on Kindle, but it felt like it did).
July 6, 2025
2.5 stars for The Sailcloth Shroud
4.5 stars for All the Way
4.5 stars for All the Way
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews