Snape hadn't believed a word we'd said — but for once I couldn't blame him. I mean, how often do secret agents drop in on you, swap coats, get shot and then vanish in a puff of smoke, taking the nearest telephone box with them?
South by South East is a 1991 British children's detective/comedy novel by Anthony Horowitz which is the third story of the Diamond Brothers series. The title is a spoof on the movie North By Northwest and parodies various elements of the film throughout.
Nick and Tim are visited by an MI5 agent being chased by Charon, a notorious assassin hellbent on causing war, and subsequently discover the agent dead. His dying words to them set off a series of events that will take the brothers to the Netherlands, as they work for MI5, and try to catch Charon.
A TV series with roughly the same plot was also made in 1991, although considerable confusion exists over whether the TV series was an adaptation of the book (as suggested by later Diamond Brothers books), or if the book was actually a novelisation of the TV series screenplay, as subsequent research by fans suggested.
Shows examples of:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: When Horowitz wrote the screenplay, Charon (or Charlotte) tries to kill Tim on a date at a funfair. Nick electrocutes Charon to prevent this. ITN felt this was inappropriate for a TV series aimed at children, and removed it: in the TV series, Charon confronts the brothers in their office with a gun, but is arrested by Snape and Boyle. However, when the series was published in novel form, Horowitz restored the original ending.
- Adults Are Useless: Nick saves everything. Even when nearly at the end of the book, no one believes him that Charon is still at large!
- Affectionate Parody: Chiefly of North By Northwest (framing an innocent man for a stabbing, a plane chase in a cornfield, a character called Ernest Lemmon), as well as of The 39 Steps (Charon's missing a finger)
- Afraid of Blood: Tim always faints.
- Against the Setting Sun: The book ends with Nick's having saved Tim and reflecting on the adventures, while staring at the sunset from Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Waverley forces the brothers to work for him
-
Anti-Climax Boss: it initially seems that way when MI5 and the police think the captured henchman is Charon. - Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Tim to the kidnapping cab driver"Kidnap and murder," I said. "You think you can get away with it?"
"Yeah," Tim added. He nodded at the cab. "And you've parked on a yellow line." - Assassination Attempt: Charon on Tim at the bank, Charon on both brothers in Amsterdam, Charon on Boris.
- Asshole Victim: In the original screenplay, Charon kills property developer Ernest Lemmon (a pun on Ernest Lehmann, North By Northwest's scriptwriter), who specializes in destroying famous buildings such as the Royal Albert Hall, in order to build profitable but ugly structures like multi-story carparks.
- Auction: Much of the key action occurs at Sotheby's
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Charlotte, the Dutch crime writer who helps the boys and has a relationship with Tim, turns out to be Charon.
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Boyle and Snape, respectively.
- Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: Tim and Ernest Lemmon, in a clear homage to North By Northwest.
- Big Bad Friend: Charon/Charlotte.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Tim is a moron and barely seems to care for Nick, while Nick's parents are completely heartless and apparently didn't care when they realised he has stayed in the UK instead of going to Australia with them
- Bittersweet Ending: Nick and Tim survive, Nick is grateful to Tim, and they have averted war, but Tim's hopes of romance have been dashed.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: It turns out that MI5 chief Waverley has been paying Charon. Plus, as Nick says, he clearly doesn't care if Charon kills the brothers, so long as he therefore gets to catch Charon.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Instead of killing the brothers in a simple, normal way, Charon goes for the fighter plane approach
- Chained Heat: The brothers after the motel's guests catch them
- Death by Irony: Agent 86, a champion ice skater, is stabbed to death with a pair of ice skates.
- Heat Wave: The book starts in the middle of one
- Idiot Ball:
- Hugo Rushmore arranges to meet the brothers late at night on a deserted ice rink. This, despite knowing that Charon is incredibly dangerous, and has already killed one MI5 agent in broad daylight. Sure enough, by the time the brothers arrive, he is murdered.
- Nick, when he blabs the entire plot to Charlotte. Sure, Tim has already given away bits of it, but Nick tells her even the most vital details, down to the name of the ice rink and the number: both things Tim continuously forgets or cannot remember, so could not have told her.
- It Was Here, I Swear!: Nick and Tim encounter a dead MI5 agent in a telephone booth. By the time the police have arrived and Nick and Tim return to the scene, both the body and the phone box have vanished.Snape hadn't believed a word we'd said — but for once I couldn't blame him. I mean, how often do secret agents drop in on you, swap coats, get shot and then vanish in a puff of smoke, taking the nearest telephone box with them?
- MacGuffin: The entire book title and plot motivation — and even the name of the dead MI5 agent. Nick places immense value on McGuffin's dying words ("south by southeast"), but it actually turns out that McGuffin said nothing of the sort. Rather, he said "Sothebys: Tsar Feast", mentioning the painting due to be auctioned, where the bomb would explode.
- Master of Disguise: Charon, or Charlotte.
- Mature Younger Sibling: Nick, who constantly has to bail out Tim. Everyone but Tim realises this.
- Not My Driver: Nick is rightly suspicious as soon as he and Tim jump into a convenient cab upon escaping from Jake McGuffin's hotel
- No-Tell Motel: The cheap and less than cheerful guesthouse the brothers stay at, once on the run for bank robbery and the murder of Lemmon. Partially averted, as the motel's other inhabitants are suspicious of the brothers, realise who they are, and do try to arrest them.
- Police Are Useless: Throughout the book, the police and MI5 fail at every step. They wrongly arrest Tim for a murder Charon framed him for, they don't believe Nick's claims at the auction house of a bomb, they assume that the henchman Ted shoots is Charon, despite Nick's being adamant it isn't the right person. Averted in part — Snape is reasonable, but when confronted with overwhelming evidence, is forced to arrest the brothers.
- The Stateroom Sketch: Everyone bundling into the lift at McGuffin's hotel.
