Richard Jessup's Night Boat to Paris

Night Boat to Paris is a spy thriller by Richard Jessup (1925-1982). It was a paperback original, published by Dell in 1956.

Jessup was an American writer, mostly of paperback originals in various genres notably spy fiction, crime and westerns. His best-known book was The Cincinnati Kid.

It’s clear from the outset that this is going to be a hardboiled spy novel. The protagonist did a lot of work for the British during the war. Intelligence work, top-secret stuff behind enemy lines. The stuff that makes you a hero during wartime then the peace comes and you’re a nobody and you figure out that the skills you picked up are really only useful for a criminal career. So he became a moderately successful criminal. He owns a pub.

When British Intelligence wants him back for one job it doesn’t take much to persuade him. Arguments about patriotism, Queen and Country, duty, that sort of stuff - those things don’t interest him at all. But he’ll do the job if he’s offered enough money. Boyler, his old boss in British Intelligence, offers him enough money. More than enough.

The job is a heist. Reece will need five very reliable men. They have to be common criminals. I’m not giving away any spoilers here - the entire British Intelligence plan is explained right at the very start of the book. There will be a party in Arles, in France. The kind of party that attracts the rich, the powerful, the famous. There will be rich pickings for any gang of thieves at that party. Very rich indeed. As far as Boyler is concerned Reece and his gang can keep whatever they steal. British Intelligence just wants one thing - one envelope. They want to it appear that the envelope was stolen by accident. It has to appear to be just a simple, albeit ambitious, robbery.

Reece assembles his team. They’re good men but Reece has the sneaking suspicion that there may have been a leak. Perhaps he’s just jumpy. In fact he knows he’s jumpy. He has another suspicion - that maybe he was the wrong man for this job. Maybe he’s lost his nerve.

His gang are a motley crew. They were all in the war. Reece fought for the British. Tookie for the Americans, Jean Sammur fought for the French. Marcus was in the Italian army. Otto was in the German army. They all lost something in the war - their innocence. They lost their belief in Causes. They don’t care about causes or ideals now, but they do care about money.

This is both a heist story and a spy story. In common with most good heist stories most of the novel is concerned with the lead-up to the heist.

There’s a very hardboiled feel to this novel, and definitely a suggestion of noir fiction. Reece is more like a typical noir protagonist than a typical spy fiction hero. He’s cynical and embittered. He really just wanted to be left alone. His criminal record is long but it’s mostly fairly petty stuff. The only murders he has ever committed were committed for King and Country. He didn’t like what being a wartime secret agent did to him. He doesn’t like what being forced back into the job is doing to him. British Intelligence is making him a murderer again. He has already had to kill men on this job. These were murders for Queen and Country but that doesn’t make it feel any better.

Reece is a troubled flawed hero. Perhaps this job will solve his problems. He’ll have enough money to become a respectable businessman. Perhaps the job will destroy him. There’s that slight noir hint always lurking in the background in this novel.

The book succeeds as a heist thriller, a spy thriller and a noir novel. The plot has some genuinely shocking twists and a nicely nasty edge to it. There’s some fairly shocking violence. The spy game is a very dirty game. The obvious twist is not the real twist. There’s plenty of action and there’s decent suspense.

Night Boat to Paris is very much above-average pulp fiction and it’s highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed another of Jessup’s spy thrillers, The Bloody Medallion (written under the pseudonym Richard Telfair). It’s excellent.