John William Wainwright (25 February 1921 – 19 September 1995) was an English crime novelist and author of 83 books, four of which have been published under the pen name Jack Ripley. He also wrote some short stories (mostly uncollected in book format), seven radio plays, and an indefinite amount of magazine articles and newspaper columns.

Biography

Wainwright was born in

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the Leeds city centre, city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside (ward), Hunslet and Riverside ward of Lee ...

, an area of inner-city south

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, in 1921. He left school at fifteen and served as a

rear gunner A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun or auto ...

in Lancaster bombers during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1947 he joined the

West Riding Constabulary The West Yorkshire Constabulary (WYC) was, from 1968 to 1974, the statutory police force for the West Riding of Yorkshire, in northern England. It was formed under the Police Act 1964, and was a merger of the previous West Riding Constabulary a ...

as a Police Constable. While serving as a policeman, he went back to studying in his spare time – earning himself a law degree in 1956 – and in 1965 he tried writing a crime novel, which was accepted by

George Hardinge George Hardinge (1743–1816) was an English judge, writer and Member of Parliament. Life He was born on 22 June (new style) 1743 at Canbury, a manorhouse in Kingston upon Thames. He was the third but eldest surviving son of Nicholas Hardinge, ...

, the editor of

Collins Crime Club Collins Crime Club was an imprint of British book publishers William Collins, Sons and ran from 6 May 1930 to April 1994. Throughout its 64 years the club issued a total of 2,012in "The Hooded Gunman -- An Illustrated History of Collins Crime ...

, and published as ''Death in a Sleeping City''. In 1966 Wainwright left the force and became a full-time novelist. In 1968 Hardinge became senior editor at

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...

, taking Wainwright's contract with him. Wainwright died in Blackpool in 1995, a few months after the publication of his last novel, ''The Life and Times of Christmas Calvert... Assassin''.

Works and style

An extremely prolific author – from 1966 to 1984 he kept an average of three books a year – Wainwright published 78 crime novels, a short-story collection and four non-fiction works, including two autobiographical volumes, ''Tail-End Charlie'' and ''Wainwright's Beat''; a career guide, ''Shall I Be a Policeman?'' (1967), and a home security handbook, ''Guard Your Castle'' (1973; new edition, 1983). One of his most popular novels is ''Brainwash'' (1977), upon which the movies ''

Garde à vue ''Garde à Vue'' (also known as ''The Inquisitor'') is a 1981 French psychological crime drama directed by Claude Miller and starring Romy Schneider, Michel Serrault, Lino Ventura and Guy Marchand. It is based on the 1979 British novel ''Brainwas ...

'' and '' Under Suspicion'' are based. ''Cul-de-sac'' (1984) was also very well received in its days, mainly thanks to a warm endorsement by fellow writer

Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Early life and education ...

, who defined it "an unforgettable novel".On the dustjacket of the novel's hardcover edition, Macmillan 1984 Most of his novels fall into the

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

category, but Wainwright also tried his hand at the

suspense thriller Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

(''Square Dance'', 1975; ''Portrait in Shadows'', 1986), the

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

novel (''A Ripple of Murders'', 1978), the

spy novel Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligenc ...

(''The Crystallized Carbon Pig'', 1966; ''Cause for a Killing'', 1974), and the

legal thriller The legal thriller genre is a type of crime fiction genre that focuses on the proceedings of the investigation, with particular reference to the impacts on courtroom proceedings and the lives of characters. The courtroom proceedings and legal a ...

(''The Jury People'', 1978; ''Man of Law'', 1980), with a couple of forays into the classical

whodunit A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the cl ...

and the

locked room mystery The "locked-room" or "impossible crime" mystery is a type of crime seen in crime and detective fiction. The crime in question, typically murder ("locked-room murder"), is committed in circumstances under which it appeared impossible for the perpetr ...

(''High-Class Kill'', 1973). His novel ''All on a Summer's Day'' (1981), which chronicles twenty-four hours in the life of a

police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, al ...

in the north of England, is quite similar in conception to

Ed McBain Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino,(October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005) was an American author and screenwriter best known for his 87th Precinct novels, written under his Ed McBain pen name, and the novel upon which the film ''Blackbo ...

87th Precinct The 87th Precinct is a series of police procedural novels and stories by American author Ed McBain (a writing pseudonym of Evan Hunter). McBain's 87th Precinct works have been adapted, sometimes loosely, into movies and television on several occ ...

novel ''Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here'' (1971). Wainwright was also a passionate

traditional jazz Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, played by musicians such as Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine, based on a reviva ...

and

swing music Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands ...

fan, and some of his novels have a strong jazz background, particularly the

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

''Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me'' (1977). In an interview given to the Italian periodical ''

Il Giallo Mondadori ''Il Giallo Mondadori'' is an Italian series of mystery/crime novels published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore since 1929. Their original title was ''I libri gialli'', where ''giallo'' in Italian means "yellow", a reference to the color of the co ...

'' in 1975, Wainwright cited

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

and

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

as his favourite authors.

Critical assessment

Wainwright always led a very private life, almost never giving interviews and rarely appearing in public, while enjoying a steady if not spectacular success in his lifetime. As a consequence of this, his name is all but forgotten nowadays (his death went completely unrecorded by newspapers and reference books until 2003), and a critical assessment of his huge output is still yet to come, considering also that all his books are currently out of print.

Novels as Jack Ripley

*''Davis Doesn't Live Here Any More''. (Hamish Hamilton, London). 1971 *''The Pig Got up and Slowly Walked Away''. (Hamish Hamilton, London). 1971 *''My Word, You Should Have Seen Us''. (Hamish Hamilton, London). 1972 *''My God, How the Money Rolls in''. (Hamish Hamilton, London). 1972

References

External links