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| Cover by Don Maitz |
| PSTALEMATE Lester Del Rey New York: Berkley Medallion Books, May 1955 (1971) |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-425-02292-4 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-425-02292-7 | 190pp. | SC | $0.95 | |
The mills of the gods, it is said, grind slowly but they grind exceeding fine. This novel, the first from Lester Del Rey in ten years, is exceeding fine. Some authors are prolific as well as gifted at writing. Del Rey is not prolific, but he writes very well (with no grammatical errors) and crafts his plot carefully. He's a bit light on the character development here, but only a bit; and it is just a 190-page novel.
That novel concerns the coming-of-age struggle of Harry Bronson, inventor of a remarkable auto engine which he and partner Sid Greenwald are shopping around to various manufacturers. But the free-piston engine is only a backdrop to the real story. A former physician named Phil Lawson hypnotizes Harry as a parlor trick, and puts him through some ESP tests using the standard deck.1 Harry does remarkably well. A reporter is present, and next day there is a story in the local paper about the event. From that date Harry begins to develop the ability to read minds. The conflict between this and his hard-headed engineer attitudes is only part of the problem, for he senses that madness impends only three months in the future.
In fact, he's been having nightmares for some time — nightmares in which a strange woman screams his name and shouts incredible warnings and imprecations at him.
" 'Henry!' " "The voice from his nightmare screamed at him, jolting him and cutting into his mind with a blast of raw fear that froze his lungs and heart. He caught his breath and staggered back a step, tense with the same horror that had sometimes brought him awake in a cold sweat from his sleep. He had to get out of here! Up there, something foreign to all human feelings was waiting for him, something that must never..." "Then he mastered it. A trace of dread remained, along with his surprise at being caught by it while awake; the call usually came only in the middle of deep and otherwise dreamless sleep. He took a slow breath, rubbing sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, then started up the stairs again." – Pages 15-16 |
He gets a call from his guardian, lawyer Charles Grimes, who was alerted by the newspaper story. He attempts to discuss the problem. But Grimes brooks no discussion, ordering him flatly to drop the fortune-telling stuff cold. Since Grimes controls the trust fund Harry is using to develop his engine, this order carries some weight. There's a childhood friend he remembers: Ellen Palmero, also a ward of Mr. Grimes; she often works in his office. Harry is disappointed not to find her there. Grimes tells him she left months ago, and forbids him to try and find her.
It's a somewhat unusual situation. Harry is an orphan; his only memory of his parents is of them being killed in a fiery automobile accident when he was about ten years old. Since that time he has been watched over by Grimes, a friend of his physician father. Now Grimes warns him of the grim fate that awaits those who dabble in fortune-telling and related matters—like Nick Palermo, Ellen's father, who had been a stage mentalist and ended up in a home for the criminally insane after strangling his wife.
When Harry answers the phone now, he knows who's calling and what they want to talk about. Time passes and his powers grow stronger. Shortly they so pervade his daily life that he has to act. Intuition tells him Ellen Palermo may be the key to the whole thing. He decides to defy Grimes's edict. Taking out a map of the area, he tries to divine her location, but to no avail. Frustrated, he goes for a drive, taking random roads into upstate New York. Around lunchtime he stops for a meal. The place serves good food, belying its rather crass image. But then he notices a fortune-teller at another party's table. The waitress asks if he's interested in a reading, and finding that it's free, he agrees. Soon the woman, heavily made up and costumed as a gypsy, sits down at his table. He doesn't realize who she is until, shocked, she says, "Harry!" It's Ellen Palermo. She tells him urgently to get out of there. "I can't explain, not here. I'll get in touch with you as soon as I can. But now go. Please!" Harry goes.
Things quickly get stranger. The premonition of impending madness persists. At times he has visions of what he thinks of as an alien entity, powerful and implacable, trying to take over his mind. He has a breakdown at one point. Only the fact that Ellen arrives at his door just then, fulfilling her promise, and pounds until he manages to open it, saves him from catatonia. It seems their powers bind them together, and the association strengthens both of them for the struggle to find out what's behind Harry's sense of doom. They also have the help of other friends, behind the scenes.
I don't think I'm giving too much away to reveal that no there's no alien entity or mutant human2 waiting to infiltrate Harry's mind as a prelude to world domination. Harry's trouble is much more mundane, but still fraught with jeopardy. The author develops the characters well and portrays their various crises in gripping fashion. The resolution of the plot, when it comes, brings a sense of satisfaction: an "Of course" reaction. This is an excellent novel in all respects, worthy of top marks.
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