Dennis Drabelle is a former mysteries editor of Book World. Yet the Rogue had it easy compared with the hero of Lionel Davidson’s terrific thriller Kolymsky Heights, first published in 1994 and newly reissued by Faber & Faber. He also wrote children's books under the pen name David Line. May Kolymsky Heights be the first installment of a full-fledged Davidsonian revival. In 2001, he was awarded the CWA's Cartier Diamond Dagger lifetime achievement award. He also won the CWA's Gold Dagger Award for A Long Way to Shiloh in 1966 and The Chelsea Murders in 1978. First published in 1994, it is essentially a late cold war era man-on-a-mission thriller with the emphasis firmly on the word. His … More other works include The Rose of Tibet and Kolymsky Heights. Kolymsky Heights is, on first analysis, just another spy thriller. It was adapted into a film entitled Hot Enough for June starring Dirk Bogarde in 1964. His first novel, The Night of Wenceslas, was published in 1960 and won the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger Award and the Author's Club First Novel Award. After the war, he joined the Keystone Press Agency as a freelance reporter. During World War II, he served as a telegraphist with the Royal Navy's submarine service in the Pacific. At 17, he was writing syndicated features for the Morley Adams Group. He left school early and worked as office boy at the Spectator magazine, which published his first short story when he was 15. Lionel Davidson was born in Hull, Yorkshire on March 31, 1922.
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