Victor Canning: The Rainbird Pattern (UK 2010)

From the Publisher:
Blanche stood up, panic coursing through her, destroying all but one thought. 'No! No... Oh no!' she cried and turned to run for the door.
Shoebridge put out an arm and caught her. He swung her round and held her with both hands, clamping her shoulders up against his chest. As Mrs Shoebridge came in front of her Blanche began to scream. Neither of the Shoebridges took any notice of the scream...... Mrs Shoebridge raised the hypodermic syringe.

What could be the connection between the ruthlessly professional Trader Abductions' - a series of high-profile kidnappings of Establishment figures - a lonely, and rich, 73-year-old spinster and the blousy Madame Blanche Tyler, self-styled clairvoyant, medium and psychic healer?

The answer lies in the title of the famous thriller by one of Britain's most prolic and best-loved popular novelists, Victor Canning. On first publication, The Rainbird Pattern gamered rave reviews - 'an unputdownable, multi-threaded thriller' (Guardian); 'the sheer imaginative weight holds you like a giant electro-magnet' (The Times); 'a most cunning Canning' (Daily Mirror) - and won the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger. The story was transposed from England to California and filmed by Alfred Hitchcock (his last film) as Family Plot in 1976.

First published in 1972.

Victor Canning: The Rainbird Pattern. Ostara Publishing, ISBN: 9781906288518 (November, 2010), 196 p., £10.99.

Victor Canning: The Rainbird Pattern (USA 1976)

From the Publisher:

The spine-tingling mystery that will soon become a major
ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILM THRILLER

He had already staged two well-publicized successful kidnappings the police couldn't solve. There were no clues. The kidnap victims could recall no details. The police could only sit back and wait for the pattern to repeat itself.

They didn't have long to wait. This time the victim was the Archbishop of Canterbury. And the price for his life was two-and-a-half million dollars!

Victor Canning: The Rainbird Pattern. New York: Award Books, 1976, AD 1294, 250 p., $1.50.

Victor Canning: The Rainbird Pattern (UK 1972)

From the Publisher:
Who is the high-flying kidnapper who calls himself Trader? Where is he, and when will he strike again? Already he has claimed ransom money for two political victims. The next person to be taken will be one of the highest in the land.

Bush and Grandison of the Department, with ice-cold persistence and the help of a computer and the police, are seeking Trader. But meanwhile -- where is Edward Shoebridge, old Miss Rainbird’s long-lost nephew? The son of her dead sister Harriet whose psychic presence now disturbs her dreams. Blanche Tyler and George Lumley are trying to find Edward Shoebridge by simpler-and subtler-means. For Blanche, earthy, warm-hearted and enigmatic, is a medium and George, unwillingly but out of love for her, does a little enquiry work on the side

"As a thriller writer Canning seems to be getting better and better," The Times Literary Supplement said when reviewing The Great Affair. With The Rainbird Pattern the process is brilliantly continued. His handling of the double search in this new novel is masterly: and his revelation of the last details in the ironical and deadly Rainbird pattern brings the book to a startling and memorable end.

Victor Canning: The Rainbird Pattern. London: Heinemann, 1972, SBN: 434 10773 5, 244 p., £1.90.