Luke Malone - Manhunter

In 1975, Atlas Comics - a little known comic book publishing company, released a three issue run featuring a rugged San Francisco private eye named Luke Malone. Luke Malone-Manhunter was the back story in the comic book series called Police Action featuring Lomax NYPD. Created and drawn by artist Mike Ploog, Malone is an ex-city detective who hits the bottle after his wife is killed in a botched bank robbery in which he was called on. Thrown off the force, Malone can be found crawling through dirty gin-joints and in the street gutters of Frisco. It is there where he mopes around with a “I don’t care” attitude. He is content being a violent rummy until a friend tells him that the mastermind of the bank robbery is still on the loose and convinces Malone to try his hand at being a P.I. Now he is on the prowl and hits the streets to settle the score. Tough-talk dialogue and fine artwork make Luke Malone-Manhunter a surprisingly good hard-boiled comic

I have the first two of the 3 issue run of the series. The first one is called "Requiem for a Champ" (February 1975) and has Malone solving the murder of a skid-row bum who was once a lightweight boxer. The P.I. starts interfering in police business which takes him to an old burlesque queen, mob men, and on the receiving end of thumps on the head. The second issue is "Whatever Happened to Luke Malone?" (April 1975) and this is an origin story about how Malone came to be a P.I., which I briefly outlined above. These are quick scripted stories, containing plenty of creeps as bad guys and violent 1970s action that fulls up every frame.

If you like detective stories that are told and illustrated in comic books and graphic novels, you'll find Luke Malone-Manhunter to be up your alley. It is unfortunate that the comic book character had a short run, because the plots are tightly packaged and the Luke has a hard-edged vigilante soul inside him. When Luke Malone steps in to play ball, he turns it into a mean game.

Eight Million Ways To Die by Lawrence Block

Eight Million Ways To Die by Lawrence Block
Arbor House Publishing
Hardcover edition, Copyright 1982

My life was a ice floe that had broken up at sea, with different chucks floating off in different directions. Nothing was ever going to come together, in this case or out of it. Everything was senseless, pointless, and hopeless.

This is the fifth novel in the Matthew Scudder series and it's been hailed as the one that propelled the character and the series into wide notability. But if you read the previous novel, A Stab in the Dark, you could see it started there. In Eight Million Ways to Die, the "unlicensed" NYC PI does really breakout and Lawrence Block gives us one of the best detective mystery novels that was published in the 1980s.

As he sits in Jimmy Armstrong's, his favorite watering hole, ex-New York cop Matthew Scudder doesn't take every case that walks through the door. He picks and chooses, and it has to "feel right." The money feels right when call-girl Kim Dakkinen hires Scudder to talk to her pimp about freeing her from his stable. After finally locating the elusive pimp that goes by the street name Chance, Scudder finds that this case is easy money because Chance has no problem letting Kim go. For him, there are girls getting off the bus every day in NYC that he can hustle. But when Kim Dakkinen is found brutally slaughtered in a hotel room the next day, all fingers point to Chance. Though still a suspect, he has an air-tight alibi and with the police lose interest in solving a prostitute's death, Chance wants Scudder to investigate into her murder.

There is really two stories (or three) going on in Eight Million Ways to Die. One of course is the mystery surrounding why Kim Dakkinen was butchered and who did it. Block actually gives us all the clues, but we miss them because we are absorbed by the second storyline in the novel, and that is Matthew Scudder's battle with alcoholism. On the wagon and falling off it, the day to day punishment to stay sober bleeds through the pages towards the reader. It's remarkably well done. Down church basements to sit in the back at AA meetings and never participating, Scudder is really alone fighting off this demon that has plagued him. It's powerfully written and I found it more interesting than the fine whodunit plot in the novel. Another thing Block excelled on was creating a NYC where the streets are gray, dismal and violent. He throws this at us by having Scudder reading from the papers or talking with a befriended cop about the amount of relentless murders that are occurring in the City. And this bleak atmosphere goes directly in parallel with the inner conflicts tormenting Matthew Scudder's life. Scudder finds himself not immune to this violence also. There is an outstanding scene where he is pushed into a dark alley, mugged, and has to battle with his attacker. After all he is one of the eight million living in New York City.

All I wanted was an excuse to walk through the door of that bucket of blood and put my foot upon the brass rail. I closed my eyes and tried to picture the place, and in an instant I was recalling everything about it, the smells of the booze and stale beer and urine, that dank tavern smell that welcomes you home.

I wasn't sure is I was rooting for Matthew Scudder in this one or feeling sorry for him. I do know that when I first read this novel it played with my emotions. I never read anything like this in a PI novel before. The novel is filled with well developed secondary characters, the best being the pimp Chance and his small harem of prostitutes. Add Matthew Scudder and great storytelling, and Eight Million Ways to Die becomes a monumental PI novel. It is that.

If you are going to read just one Matthew Scudder novel, this is the one you want to read. But beware, I guarantee after this one you will want to read more.

The Body Lovers by Mickey Spillane

The Body Lovers by Mickey Spillane
Signet P3221
Copyright 1967

Spillane's The Body Lovers was written when Mike Hammer came out for round two. Round one being the six explosive Hammer novels from 1947-1952. In the 60s, the toughest fictional PI reappeared in five more novels. Some say they fall a step behind when compared to the first ones, but to me The Girl Hunters (1962) and The Twisted Thing (1966) didn't miss a beat. As for The Body Lovers, I will agree that it's not even near being one of top novels that feature Mike Hammer. But it still is a Mickey Spillane novel, and it still has the violently vindictive Mike Hammer reeling out his own ways of justice, and it still is entertaining as hell.

But it wasn't her he was seeing. It was me he was watching. I was one of his own kind. I couldn't be faked out and wasn't leashed by the proprieties of society. I could lash out and kill as fast as he could and of all the people in the room, I was the potential threat. I knew what he felt because I felt the same way myself.

Bang page one, Hammer stumbles upon a body of a beautiful girl that was whipped to death. From his cop buddy Capt. Pat Chambers, he finds out that other girls have been found tortured and killed. The only lead is that all were found wearing exotic negligee. Mike stays out of this one, even though most of the press and the public believes otherwise. But not for long, because a crook that Hammer sent to the slammer hears about the murders and hires Mike to locate his missing sister. The sister knew the dead girls and might be next. Quickly Hammer is setup for a hit, botched of course with him blasting the hood to kingdom come. The trail leads to the high fashion world and shady UN delegates. And when Velda, Hammer's full-time secretary and part-time associate, gets caught in the action and Mike discovers her missing, not only does he pulled back his snarly grin, the hammer on the .45 gets cocked and he is ready to release his rage.

A little less hard than you'll find in other Hammer novels. But when I comes, it comes. The best by far is when Hammer is looking for a pimp named Lorenzo Jones. He locates Roberta, one of Jones' whores. Roberta agrees to tell him where Jones is hiding but on one condition, Hammer must take her along to watch him kick the crap out the pimp. It's Spillane at his best. In The Body Lovers, Hammer comes off a bit older. He even realizes it. At one point he talks about dissection thinking and missed clues in this head, "Little voices, I thought. They were saying something, but were too far away to be heard. It wasn't like the old days any more. I could think faster then." But when he's ready to cut down the evil that has spread throughout the city, our revenge seeking white knight doesn't fail the reader.

This one has all that makes Mike Hammer novels a fun read. Including Hammer's (and Spillane's) views about commies, diplomatic immunity, bleeding-heart liberals creating loopholes in the justice system-they are all here. The reader is never disappointed. You can't go wrong picking up a Mickey Spillane novel. He was an American icon and created one of the most memorable private detectives in fiction.

Every now and then you have to get your Mike Hammer fix.

The Long Night by Ovid Demaris

The Long Night by Ovid Demaris
Avon T-372
Copyright 1959

Their Buick was at least five years old. These boys weren't doing so well. That's the first place the hood spends his loot. A big flashy car. Next on the list is the big sparkler on the little pinkie. These characters had neither.

He's an ex-Marine who went through hell on Tawara. Then for 9 years he was a LAPD Vice cop until he got kicked out after beating up a hood who he caught in his ex-wife's bed. The last 4 years he's been a P.I., who specializes in locating delinquent debtors and squeezing them to pay up. When it comes to women, he's a "legs and buttocks" man and he doesn't mind getting his "biological needs" from a $5 whore or a classy pickup in a bar. His name is Vince Slader and he's on a hard case, getting little sleep, that involves clearing himself from a murder rap.

The Long Night has a unique start. Slader is in front of a Senate Crime Committee hearing, sassing it up against two powerful senators. It seems that the private eyes in LA have been getting a bit out of control and Slader is the committee's poster boy. He leaves the hearings with warnings that they will be watching him and he better keep his nose clean. Like that's going to happen. Slader is hired by a scumbag casino owner to find a guy called Ben Russell. Russell has a $28,000 gambling debt and Slader gets a percentage if Russell pays up. Russell also has a young wife who has plans of her own, and those include a life insurance scam. Of course P.I. Vince Slader gets caught in it. He first gets setup to be murdered and burned to a crisp in Russell's car, the idea is that the authorities will believe he was Russell. Slader gets banged up pretty bad, but survives. Next he walks in on Ben Russell's actual murder and here is where he gets pegged as the murderer. Along with Mrs. Russell's motives to get her husband's life insurance money, elements of the local crime organization have an interest in this case. So besides the Senate Committee, Slader has thugs and cops after him now.

As for a plot, there is really no new ground breaking in this one. It's your typical P.I. being played for a patsy story. But that's OK, it still was an enjoyable read. The Senate Committee angle in the story was different and refreshing. Slader has an ex-con as an assistant called Emilio Caruso, who he kiddingly refers to as his "little wop." I liked the guy, unfortunately he doesn't make it through to the end of the novel. There is a good dose of explosive (and descriptive) gunplay in The Long Night. One of the best takes place in the desert outside of Las Vegas, with Slader having some fun with two hired killers. Slader plays the ladies throughout the story and even with his rough mug, they are attracted to him. He even gets serious with a redhead who helps him survive in the end.

Reading the The Long Night, I was wondering if Ovid Demaris was trying to make a Mickey Spillane type of novel here. It's close, but the narrative is less hardboiled and the ending fell a little flat. As for P.I. Vince Slader, I liked him. And with more appearances in novels and a little more development, he could of had a future. The Long Night is a good P.I. crime mystery, and it came darn close to being a very good one. As Maxwell Smart said, "Missed it by that much."

Here is a taste of some lines that Slader spouts about the fairer sex:

I turned and looked her over closely. Her looks were better than average for a barfly, but nothing to get worked up over. She was stacked, and dressed to prove it. I ignored the cleavage. There was nothing there I hadn't seen before.

She led me into the room, and the calves pumped and the buttocks shook. I didn't know where to look.

There are only two approaches to women - sweet and tough. And ninety percent of the time the tough will get you farther, quicker than sweet.

I have never felt much compunction about sex anyway. Women have been conveniently relegated to the role of machines for fornication. This is a hard-boiled attitude, and, like all such attitudes, it's microscopic and bigoted.

Gator Kill by Bill Crider

Gator Kill by Bill Crider
Walker Publishing
Copyright 1992

“You don’t look like much of anything,” he said, “except maybe an out-of-work housepainter.”

Well, that may not be true. Truman Smith does paint houses to earn a few extra bucks, but he will put to use his past experiences as a detective to perform investigations for a friend in need. In the 90s, Bill Crider wrote five novels featuring the Galveston-based PI Truman Smith. And I found him as one of the most realistic private eyes that came through the pages of mystery crime fiction in the decade of the 90s. Bill Crider portrays Truman Smith as a loner and a bit of an introvert, add this to the depth-lined cases he gets himself involved in, and the results are an outstanding PI series that snares the reader into some capricious surroundings throughout Southeast Texas. My favorite is the second "Tru" novel, Gator Kill. (though I recommend starting with the first, Dead on the Island) I read Gator Kill for the third time this week and I'm glad I did, because reading a Truman Smith mystery is like visiting an old friend.

There were actually two doorways, one leading to a kitchen and one into a bedroom. The bedroom was where I looked.
That's where the dead woman was. She was wearing a dress that seemed obviously homemade and about two sizes too big. It was some kind of blue material, but it was stained red in the front by blood. There was a small pool of blood beneath her. Most of it had soaked into the floor, staining it black. She looked fail and helpless in death.

Fred Benton is a tough old cuss and when someone kills and skins an alligator on his land, he’s going to do something about it. Coming off a missing person case that got his name in the news, part-time private investigator Truman Smith leaves Galveston Island to head over to Fred’s marsh property and have a look-see. Though not a glamorous case, to Fred killing the gator is murder and Tru agrees to investigate into who killed it. Of course there is more at work here than a rotting alligator. It first looks like Fred is being harassed and there are rumors that the State will be gobbling up surrounding lands. Then Tru steps into a double homicide and before you know it he becomes the target. Not only is he being shot at, but a tinted-windowed monster 4X4 is out hunting him down at night. But he understands this is the consequences of sticking your nose where people don’t want it. And it all comes to a head one night in a creepy, mosquito-infested swamp, when Fred and Tru drive out to investigate suspicious activities. An unexpected fatal meeting takes place and it's here where Tru puts the pieces of all the mysteries together. But it may be too late for him and Fred, as the eyes of the gators gaze upon them.

There’s enough plot twists in this one to keep the reader tightly gripping onto the book. Bill Crider has us going down one road and then he throws the curve. And later he does it again! The novel is filled with an assortment of colorful characters. My favorite is Fred Benton, who is sort of a sidekick in Gator Kill. A man in his 70s who is not afraid to provoke a fight, smokes unfiltered Camels, and has the stamina of a 40 year old. Heck, growing up I remember a guy just like that. There are characters throughout Gator Kill that we can relate to because we have run across types like them in our lifetime. The history behind Truman Smith is so damn intriguing, that we crave for more on him. A man that shuns people, he continues to be haunted by his inability to locate his missing sister. (there's more detail on this in Dead on the Island) When her murdered remains are found, he shoulders the blame and this adds to his unsocial-like state. All of this enhances the likable P.I.

This is the way I like my private detective novels. A whodunit that is packed with action, an ending that is just as much horror as it is mystery suspense, and an eerie atmosphere where the muggy nights are filled with rifle shots, mosquitoes, and mean gators lurking in the swamps.
Your shirt will be sticking to you when you read this one.

Murder Doll by Milton K. Ozaki

Murder Doll by Milton K. Ozaki
Berkley Diamond D2016
Copyright 1952

She fluttered mascaraed eyelashes and laid a hand on my arm. "Has anyone ever told you you're handsome?"
"Sure," I said, "my mother. What's your name, baby?"

Novels containing characters that deliver a hardboiled narrative have always been a favorite of mine. And Milton Ozaki's Chicago P.I. Carl Good definitely fits that bill. Good describes himself as having "features like a fistful of dough and carrying the beginning of a paunch." He then adds in his favor are height and broad shoulders. In WWII, Carl Good was a paratrooper who saw plenty of action and did his share of killing. He's an impetuous guy who likes Scotch and girls, and fancies himself as a rough, tough guy in a fight. He knows the town and has plenty of connections, which is a big benefit for a man in his line of work.

Right out of the gates, Carl Good is trying to locate the missing Orville Pederson. Hired by his wife, Pederson has been gone for a few weeks and left her without any spending cash. Good finds Pederson's plaything in a Chicago B-girl joint, but in a few minutes she is dead after taking a poisoned drink intended for Good. He learns that Pederson is connected to the Chicago mob and performs real estate deals for them. And through his many street contacts, Good finds out the the heat has been turn up and this is making things difficult for mob operations. It's causing friction in the ranks that is leaving an opportunity for a Philadelphia kingpin to elbow in. Pisano, the standing boss, offers Good $25,000 to find the identity of the person the Philadelphia boys have sent to orchestrate the takeover. All they know is that it is a woman and she's a looker. Carl Good isn't one to let a financial opportunity go to waste, he adds that job to his plate because this is "real money." Later he realizes that both cases are interconnected and as usual in these PI plots, Good is smack dab in the middle of both of them.

As I said, I'm a sucker for hardboiled narrative and Murder Doll has some of the best I've read in a while. Here are a few that I liked:

"She's just a hooker," I insisted flatly. "She hasn't got enough brains to file her toenails."

I went up the side of a pile of two-by-fours like a scared cat and flattened myself on the rough timber like juice on a platter.

She came to me and lifted herself onto my lap. One arm went around my neck and her mouth searched for mine. I felt like spitting after the kiss, but I didn't.

As for the storyline, the majority of the time you can tell what is going to happen. But there are a few surprises. One is when an enraged Good chokes a thug to death after failing to make the guy talk. Later Good finds out that the thug had his tongue cut out. This didn't seemed to bother the PI at all. There's also a remarkable scene when Good is being hunted down in a lumber yard. In his pocket he happens to have a grenade that he took off a bobby-trap that was setup for him. Removing the firing pin with his teeth and lobbing it at his pursuers makes a satisfying payback. A couple of things come off silly in the plot. One is having a woman organizing the takeover of the deep-rooted Chicago vice organization. The other is a wild scene at a Nudist park where Carl Good is strutting his stuff trying to get the lowdown on how the woman is luring men away from Pisano's organization. And if you can swallow these, you'll find a good crime mystery in your hands. Milton Ozaki has Carl Good operating in the streets of Chicago where the surroundings are dark and grimy. Good isn't your compassionate P.I. and he definitely isn't in the game to be morally upright. He does it for the money and it also is a good occupation for him to release an inborn fury onto the bad guys. I liked the guy and will dig out a few more of his paperbacks. Chicago's Carl Good is a hard-headed and conniving private detective, who should have gotten more literary recognition.

This Berkley paperback edition was actually published in 1959. Murder Doll first appeared in the 1952 Phantom Books paperback authored under the name Robert O. Saber, a pseudonym used by Milton Ozaki.

Harry O by Lee Hays

Harry O by Lee Hays
Popular Library 445-00269-125
Copyright 1975

She smelled musty. Just as her clothes were different, so was her scent. Before she had been scrubbed, a little girl; now she was a woman of the world.

This paperback is the first of two tie-in novels that Lee Hays wrote for the popular 70s Private Detective TV show. For two seasons from 1974-1976, David Janssen portrayed the pensioned ex-cop living on the beaches of the West Coast. The series has been hailed as one of the best P.I. shows ever on television. No argument here, it's always been my favorite (especially the second season episodes) and when I had a chance to pickup these tie-ins, I had to have them.

The novel starts similar to the TV episodes, with Harry's telephone ring and him mulling over if it is worth picking up. We get a brief bio of Harry Orwell in the beginning; the painful bullet in the back which resulted in his early retirement from San Diego PD, why he became a P.I., working on The Answer -his boat that will never taste water, taking the bus because his heap is in the shop, and of course his views around the existence of telephones. A woman named Mary Alice Kimberly believes her husband is out to kill her because she won't give him a divorce. The way she tells it there is a rich land deal going down in Mexico and if she is divorced the husband gets all the profits. For Harry she becomes difficult to keep tabs on and comes off as an enigma. Harry discovers that besides her husband, there are others out there looking for Mrs. Kimberly. And they may not be honest citizen types. The following day he finds Mary Alice in her husband's office with a dead P.I. on the floor. Even though Harry lightly has fallen for her, he quickly realizes she's a bit eccentric. When the dead P.I.'s stripper wife is found shot in the head inside Harry's beach home, the police bring Orwell in for questioning. They can't get nothing to stick, but warn Orwell to stay clear of the investigation. But he can't, even being odd the girl concerns Harry and now that she can't be located, he sets out to find out what this is all about.

It's about the smuggling of heroin across the Mexican border. Everyone involved is dirty. Included in the cast is a Sydney Greenstreet type befittingly named Sydney Jerome, who has mannerisms right out of The Maltese Falcon. There is a pint-sized gunsel called Wylie who drops Harry a couple of times. And a Mexican connection named Ramirez who seems to be playing both sides of the street. (or is being used by both sides) Orwell is on the hook for all of the murders, there are three total. Mary Alice finally calls him and together they head back to Tijuana to meet Sydney Jerome for a "business" transaction. It's on the return trip that Harry figures the deal out and then knows who is the cold-blooded killer.

Thinking of Ramirez reminded me that he warned me to take a gun. I didn't tell him that I never carry one. I almost went to the closet and got the one I had when I was on the force, the one wrapped in a towel way in back on the shelf behind an old suitcase. But I didn't, I should have but I didn't.

This "Harry O" paperback is far from being a great crime novel, but as a huge fan of the series I did enjoy it. I would say that the characterization of Harry Orwell in the story is fairly close to the TV one. The spoken narrative on the show is definitely much better. And the book didn't capture that lonely, somber persona that David Janssen was able to deliver. I'll chalk that up as something that is difficult for a tie-in author to do. The writing is straightforward and the plot though interesting, wasn't too difficult to figure out. Even with the similarities of Hammett's Casper Gutman, I would of liked to have seen more of the Sydney Jerome character. He came off as the most colorful of all in the story. All-in-all, it still was a fun quick read for me. If you were a fan of the TV series, I'm sure you would get a kick out of this novel also.

In addition, the series character Lt. Manny Quinlan appears in the novel. He doesn't head up the murder investigations for the SDPD, but he does have a role in the story.

In 1976, Lee Hays wrote the second "Harry O" novel titled: The High Cost of Living. He wrote tie-ins for the TV shows Colombo and the Partridge Family. Lee Hays also authored the novelizations for the 1984 Sergio Leone film, Once Upon a Time in America and the 1974 horror movie, Black Christmas.

Find Eileen Hardin - Alive! by Andrew Frazer

Find Eileen Hardin - Alive! by Andrew Frazer
Avon T343, Copyright 1959

I had taken a man's life. Not in cold blood, but I had taken it. I waited for the first pangs of remorse. They didn't come.

Some fictional private eyes are lucky enough to have long careers and go down those mean streets in many novels, other excellent ones made an appearance is just one or two paperbacks. And this is the case with P.I. Duncan Pride in Find Eileen Hardin - Alive! Of course if you are a busy and prolific author, you most likely have many projects going on at once. And I would like to believe that this is the reason why Pride only appeared in two novels. The author Andrew Frazer is really Milton Lesser, or better known as Stephen Marlowe the creator of the successful Chester Drum series. And even with the Drum novels, Stephen Marlowe seemed to be a tireless writer and for decades filled up his large bibliography with a steady stream of quality work.

The history behind P.I. Duncan Pride is a darn intriguing one. He was an All-American quarterback at Wynant College located on Long Island. Big man on campus, beautiful girls in his arms, and first round draft pick of the L.A. Rams. He held the world in the palm of his hands. Well, that was before the West coast mob confronted him on the eve of his NFL debut with an offer to shave off points in the game. He refused, the mob lost money, and Duncan Pride got this legs broken in three places which ended his football career. So what is a big, tough, college graduate gonna do to earn a living? Not an accountant, not an architect, not a shoe salesman -Duncan Pride applies for a license and picks up a gun to become a West coast private eye. And as an avid reader of crime mysteries, I'm glad he did.

Find Eileen Hardin - Alive! starts with Duncan Pride returning East to his Alma mater, called in by his ex-college sweetheart Marjorie to locate her missing stepdaughter. Marjorie married Pride's college coach Ward Hardin (the father of Eileen) and her disappearance is tearing him up. Of course this is not a simple missing persons case. Pride's investigation runs into switchblade pimps, whorehouses, mobsters, addicts, and crushing intimate family secrets. The novel has an excellent mystery plot that has numerous twists that have you guessing what is the real reason behind having Pride hunt down Eileen Hardin. Questions I kept asking myself-Why are so many people interested in located her? And what in the past has caused this girl to flee? There is plenty of sexual tension throughout the novel, mostly between Pride and Marjorie. Pride has a sense of loyalty and respect for his college coach and Marjorie is making it tough for him. This strain bogs him down a little, but once he is in the dark alleys or sneaking through the back doors of NYC tenements, we realize Pride is in his element. Stephen Marlowe didn't make this into a basic P.I. novel, it has a quality complexity to it that has Pride wondering where this investigation is going. And even with being paid to lay off the case, getting knocked out a couple of times, shot at, and having to kill a man himself-he is determined to find Eileen Hardin.

To be honest when I starting into the first few pages, I almost quit on this one. I wasn't in the mood for this "P.I. returns his old college" storyline. I'm sure glad I continued. It quickly turned into a fine noir tale with many suspenseful hardboiled episodes. Four are standouts that have Pride lurking and hunting in a violent pimp's pad, an abandoned oyster cannery, a curious Men's health club, and a wonderful airport scene near the end that reminded me a bit of the ending in the Steve McQueen movie "Bullitt." A well-written and adventurous P.I. novel, that takes off and slams down to an exceptional conclusion.

Just one thing that lightly dated this paperback, and that is Pride's interaction with the college kids. You have your 1950s stereotypical crewcut boys here. In one scene you have Pride handing one of them a gun to watch over a suspect he has locked down in a motel room for a night. I kept thinking of Archie of Riverdale with a gat in his hand. But the college boys have no importance in the plot and their role is very minimal.

The other novel that Duncan Pride appeared in is called The Fall of Marty Moon, written in 1960. Marty Moon was the muscle who put out the order to have Pride's legs broken when he was a rookie with the L.A. Rams.

Murder on the Wild Side by Jeff Jacks

Murder on the Wild Side by Jeff Jacks
Fawcett T2515
Copyright 1971

"They told me you were just a crooked cop who drinks too much."
"I'm an ex-cop who drinks."

This one is aptly titled because in it we meet the oddest and strangest assortment of characters that I have ever came across in a private detective novel. There is a Bible preaching street ragamuffin, punchy ex-boxer, astrological charlatans, illegal abortionists, junkies and pushers, number runners, beautiful lesbos and sick S&M fags, filth-clad hippies, pimped out streetwalkers, a motorcycle gang, Black radicals, and a few more derelicts and chiselers that I haven't listed. All cross paths in a murder investigation conducted by a down-and-out NYC ex-cop playing P.I., called Shep Stone.

She took my raincoat. As she turned to hang it in the closet, I resisted the impulse to reach out and pat her on the ass. Like I used to.

Shep Stone was kicked out of the Police Department for taking drug bust money. Everyone was doing it, unfortunately he got caught and took the fall. He's trying to get his P.I. license by pulling in a few favors with his old cop buddies, but they mostly shun him. Stone is one step from skid row, a middle aged lush, and just keeps his head above water by hiring himself out to get the goods on cheating husbands or looking for missing persons. In the crap-hole boarding house where he has a room, he stumbles upon the murdered body of an old lady called "The Handkerchief Woman." Well, the cops get involved and they tell Stone if he helps them out (because he knows the pulse of the area) they will expedite getting the P.I. license approved. At the same time a Wisconsin man hires him to look for his runaway teenage daughter in NYC. And it's during these two investigations that we bump into all those quirky and unusual characters.

"Murder on the Wild Side" is the the best P.I. novel that I've read this year. The well-written (and unpredictable) plot takes the reader through the grimy and profligate streets of 1969 New York City. Everyone is out for themselves and willing to use anyone for their advantage. Shep Stone included. Stone comes off as an unemotional man who is trapped in this filthy concrete environment with no future hope of escape. The blend of the murder and the missing persons investigation is exceptional and as I flipped through the pages I eagerly waited to see who Stone was going to run into next. The novel is broken into compelling short chapters that have distinctive titles. And they really snap together to lock down this extraordinary detective novel. A wild ride on the wild side, and I loved every minute of it. I've had this paperback collecting dust for a quite a while, I waited way too long to read it. It is outstanding!

A young Chinese hooker gave me a smile. I decided she was what I needed. I paid for two hours of her time in a nearby hotel. Her cooper body was a lovely, professional instrument.

Besides the mystery surrounding the old woman's murder and location of the teenage runaway, there is one more mystery concerning this paperback. And that is - who the hell is Jeff Jacks? It's no doubt a pseudonym and I've had no luck researching the name. It would be interesting to find out!

In 1973, Shep Stone made a return appearance in "Find the Don's Daughter." (also authored by Jeff Jacks) I don't have that paperback, but I'll be on the hunt.

April in Peril by William Campbell Gault

April in Peril by William Campbell Gault
Short Story in Mean Streets, Ed. by Robert J. Randisi
Copyright 1986

I'm a huge fan of Gault's work, especially the novels that feature P.I. Brock Callahan. The ex-L.A. Ram tackle appeared in seven excellent novels between 1955-63. Reading all, I quickly discovered that this might be the finest written P.I. series during that period. Callahan had a return in the 1980s, when Gault penned seven more novels. (Gault passed away after the last novel was written) After a twenty year absence, Callahan inherited money, moved out of L.A., and finally married his longtime girlfriend Jan. He's a bit more involved in the social scene than in the earlier stories. A little less "dark alley" fare, but he is the same old compassionate Brock "The Rock" Callahan making things right in Southern California.

I believe "April in Peril" is the only short story that Gault wrote featuring Brock Callahan. It's a good one and I liked two things about it. One is that it's a flashback story about one of Callahan's first cases and the other is that it includes the presence of Gault's other P.I., Joe Puma. Puma was a big, handsome, tough, Italian-American detective out of Los Angeles. All the beautiful ladies fall for him and he has no trouble bedding a couple of them in every investigation. Joe Puma had his nose to the street in seven P.I. novels from 1953-61 and in a handful of short stories.

Taking place in 1986, "April in Peril" starts with Brock and Jan reading the morning paper over breakfast, when Jan comes upon an article about the famous actress April Fielding having her hands imprinted in cement on Hollywood Boulevard. That's when Brock tells the story of his early case, years ago, involving the voluptuous April Fielding. On that day the young rising starlet arrives at Callahan's Beverly Hills office to hire him after first offering the case to Joe Puma. Puma was picked because he carries a .38 and doesn't hesitate to use it. Though fully competent, the horny Puma seemed more interested in laying his paws on the Fielding girl. This turns her off and her next option is P.I. Brock Callahan. The story is about blackmail. Before reaching star status, April Fielding acted in a few "dirty" films to earn a living. Even after being paid off, the blackmailer continues to find copies of these films and demands more money. To avoid any harm to her career, she needs protection and someone to put an end to this. Between a couple of meetings with Joe Puma and April Fielding's agent, Callahan makes progress in the case. But he doesn't solve it. Some one else comes up with a plan to permanently end the blackmailing scheme. A double murder takes place, Callahan figures out what happened, and then lets it go for the good of everyone.

This crime yarn is quick and neatly packaged. As a fan of both private detectives, this is another William Campbell Gault story that I was hunting for. And I'm glad I did, I enjoyed it.

There are plenty of excellent stories in this second collection edited by Robert Randisi. Though good, the Gault story is not the best of the bunch. Max Collins has an exceptional one, I really liked Kaminsky's Tobey Peters story, and Loren Estleman's Amos Walker tale is terrific. (I also loved the title of that one) Here is the complete list:

House Call (Nate Heller) by Max Allan Collins
Body Count (Joe Hannibal) by Wayne D. Dundee
I'm in the Book (Amos Walker) by Loren Estleman
April in Peril (Brock Callahan) by William Campbell Gault
The Parker Shotgun (Kinsey Millhone) by Sue Grafton
Busted Blossoms (Toby Peters) By Stuart Kaminsky
Fly Away Home (Ben Perkins) by Rob Kantner
The Thunder of Guilt (Alo Nudger) by John Lutz
Missing in Miami (Jacob Asch) by Arthur Lyons
At the Old Swimming Hole (Warshawski) by Sara Paretsky
Ace in the Hole ("Nameless") by Bill Pronzini
Wrongful Death (Henry Paige) by Dick Stodghill

A quick note: Joe Puma's name comes up a few times in the Brock Callahan novels. He even met his demise in one. Early in "The Cana Diversion" (1984) the two detectives meet and exchange pleasantries at a police station. The next day Puma is murdered and Callahan is determined to find who killed him. (Sort of a professional ethics thing- he can't standby and let a fellow sleuth's murder go without a private investigation into it) What's interesting is that Gault paints Joe Puma as a struggling P.I. who is married and has a son. Having trouble making ends meet, he even resorts to taking slimy divorce cases. There is no mention of his good looks, his brazenness, or his virility. A moderately different character than seen in the Puma novels of the late 50s.
It's an excellent novel and worth a read.

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Pocket Book 212, Copyright 1940

"I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin."

My favorite Raymond Chandler novel. And of course there is more here than Philip Marlowe trying to get a lead on where Moose Malloy is hiding out and finding what became of little Velma. I've probably read "Farewell, My Lovely" more times than any other novel. And whenever I pick it up, I discover something in it that amazes me. This time it was Marlowe's interaction with the two main cops in the story. Detective Lieutenant Nulty is a sloppy, lazy, almost unhealthy homicide cop. He doesn't even leave his office in the 77th Street Division and depends on others to provide leads and services for him. Marlowe willingly helps him out, knowing he can use Nulty's name to benefit his investigation whenever an "official" question needs to be asked. For Marlowe, throwing Nulty a bone can do him some good, in the future he may need to cash in a little credit with the Hollywood Police Department.

Randall is the Los Angeles homicide cop assigned to the Lindsay Marriott murder. A professional all the way, he suspects Marlowe is withholding from him and he warns Marlowe to stay out of it. Later, Marlowe sort of goes through the back door looking into the Marriott murder as he discovers there was a connection between Marriott and the drunken Florian hag. The next time Marlowe and Randall meet, their relationship turns more respectful and the exchange of information is mutual. Of course, Marlowe has to first go through taking his "treatment" at Dr. Sonderborg's residence. The last chapter really captures Randall showing a high regard for Marlowe, as they meet and he tells of Velma's final fate.

Chandler also has Marlowe battling his share of corrupt cops. There are the two Bay City ones who sap him and take him to Dr. Sonderberg. And the Bay City police chief is in politically with the racketeer Brunette. But then there is the ex-cop Red Norgaard who takes a great risk to ferry Marlowe to the gambling ship Montecito. He is so mysterious and likable, that Marlowe sees a bit of himself in Red. Chandler must of liked the character also because in the end he gets his job back on the police force.

Good ones or bad ones, when it came to a P.I.'s interaction with cops, no one wrote them better than Raymond Chandler. It's just another magnet the draws you into a Philip Marlowe novel.

"After a little while I felt a little better, but very little. I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room."

Raymond Chandler's novels are not just enjoyable to read, they are a privilege to read.

Dame in Danger by Thomas B. Dewey

Dame in Danger by Thomas B. Dewey
Signet 1538, Copyright 1947

From 1947 until 1970, Thomas Dewey wrote 16 crime novels featuring the Chicago P.I. simply called Mac. Mac honed his detective skills working for the Chicago PD, until he got fired for shooting his mouth off to the commissioner. Since being a cop was all he knew, he got his private license with help from Lt. Donovan. Donovan is a hard veteran Homicide cop and he took Mac under his wing when Mac was on the force. The two remain close friends and throughout the novels they help one another during Mac's cases. "Dame in Danger" is Signet's seconding printing of Mac's first case. The original hardcover title is "Draw the Curtain Close" and in 1949 the first paperback (Signet 736) was printed with the original title. But I've always preferred this second paperback edition because of the sultry Robert Maguire cover.

They had just leaned over to pick up the corpse of Herman Losche when Donovan and I walked in. He looked even skinner and more moth-eaten dead than he had alive. There was a funny little twist to his lips, as if he'd been trying to figure out which was the bigger sucker, he or his murderer. I guessed it would probably come out even in the end.

The novel opens with Chicago's leading racketeer hiring Mac to keep an eye on his younger wife who may be in danger. Murders start quick in this one, as the racketeers bodyguard is killed delivering a package to Mac and then the cops find the racketeer himself murdered at his estate. The schooled puritan wife, Cynthia Warfield, becomes the prime suspect. Being a compassionate man, Mac believes she had nothing to do with the murder and hides her while he looks into things. A valuable family Bible and a stolen gem are at play here, and along for the ride are some ruthless tough guys and a redheaded bitch. The story gets complex as more murders mount up and a restrained sensual relationship develops between Cynthia and our P.I. As Mac battles through this one, he gets busted up a lot. Early on the hoods smack his face but good and he takes some serious slugs on the noggin all through the story. But he protects Cynthia, and has enough brain matter left to figure out why these murders are happening. And there is a pretty neat ending that takes place on the estate grounds, that is full of action.

I haven't found a Mac novel that I didn't enjoy. You'll find the early Mac stories more hardboiled than later ones. Authors were laying it down heavy on gunplay and rough stuff, during the time "Draw the Curtain Close" was written. Not long after, Thomas Dewey toned it down a bit and developed Mac into a formidable fictional character. The Mac character grew as the novels rolled on. He showed more sympathy and felt even pity for other characters, (good and bad) and with Mac being a more profound character the stories have more depth in the later novels. One of my favorites will always be "You've Got Him Cold." (1958) In the novel, we see Mac confronting his flaws, which causes some conflicts in how he interacts with others. Along with "The Mean Streets," (1954) it may be one of Dewey's most compelling mystery dramas. But don't overlook how the Chicago P.I. got started, his debut appearance is a damn good hard-knuckle detective story.

Thomas Dewey was a talented author who wrote many quality crime novels. But I lean to the Mac P.I. series, it contains his best work.

1st paperback edition of "Draw the Curtain Close"
Signet 736 (1949)

Goldfish by Raymond Chandler

Goldfish by Raymond Chandler
Short Story in "Trouble is My Business"
Pocket Book 2823

"Goldfish" is one of of my favorite Chandler short stories. Originally published in Black Mask in 1936, it featured a P.I. named Carmady. Almost all of Raymond Chandler's short stories were written before he created Marlowe, but these early P.I. characters are essentially the same L.A. dick -Philip Marlowe. You'll likely find Philip Marlowe as the P.I. (not Carmady) in most collections containing this story. That is the case in the four stories in this edition of "Trouble is My Business." (1957)

"I wasn't doing any work that day, just catching up on my foot-dangling." (opening line in "Goldfish")

In "Goldfish," Marlowe gets a tip on the location of the "Leander pearls." A guy by the name of Wally Sype heisted the gems 19 years earlier and he did his time without telling anyone where he stashed them. Sype was paroled and his location is unknown. The insurance company still has a $25,000 reward out on the pearls, so Marlowe looks into it. He finds Sype's old Leavenworth cellmate dead, after being tortured with a hot iron. And then Marlowe ends up meeting the two who performed the sadistic act. One is a shyster lawyer, but the one to watch out for is the cold-blood dame that goes by the name of Carol Donovan. They are also on the trail of the pearls, and after slapping their guns and giving Marlowe a "mickey," the two set out thinking they have the upper hand. But Marlowe unknowingly has the key and that is the word "goldfish."

Creative as hell, with all the wonderful Chandler descriptive elements in it. Murder, complex characters, sarcastic tough guy spilling out memorable dialogue, and a fine ending with Sype's wife trying to pull a fast one on the famous detective. A bonus is you get to meet the heartless Carol Donovan, a memorable character in the story. Hey, you can only keep reading Chandler's brilliant novels for so long. Hit the short stories once in a while, you will be rewarded.

"Red Wind" is also in this paperback. Besides having that marvelously written opening paragraph, (one of the best in any mystery short story) - the ending with Marlowe at the edge of the ocean is one of Chandler's most compassionate and sentimental. And the reference of the hot wind throughout this blackmail/murder story, has its own effect on each character and sets the mood throughout the story. The exchanges between Marlowe and the cop named Copernik are outstanding, with wiseass Marlowe playing the cop for a sucker. "Red Wind" was first published in Dime Detective Magazine in 1938, originally the P.I. was called John Dalmas. A great hardboiled read, one of Chandler's best.

The four "Marlowe" stories in this paperback:
"Trouble is My Business"
"Finger Man"
"Goldfish"
"Red Wind"

These four stories were published by Houghton Mifflin earlier in "The Simple Art of Murder,"(1950) which contained a total of 12 short works. A few years later, Pocket Books put together three paperbacks containing four short stories each from "The Simple Art of Murder." All are Marlowe stories and copies can still be found easily. I enjoy them all, how can you not.

The Big Kiss-Off of 1944 by Andrew Bergman

The Big Kiss-Off of 1944 by Andrew Bergman
Perennial Paperback P673, Copyright 1974

Having a tendency towards nostalgic things from the past, I’ve always enjoyed seeing detective stories where the author sends the reader back to a bygone era. In 1974, Andrew Bergman created P.I. Jack LeVine, and with him came a wonderful “time period” detective crime novel that took the reader back to the homefront days, when we were fighting two wars and the big-time politics were controlled by powerful conniving men using small-time hoods to do their dirty work for them.

"Every minute that I spent on this case I get sicker to my stomach. You walk in here, dump a pile of bills on my desk, and expect me to roll over and start wagging my tail. This isn't Washington, sweetheart. This is the big city."

New York gumshoe Jack LeVine (real name Jacob Levine) is described as a "38 year old, stocky, bald, Jewish bullfrog.” Not wanting to follow his father’s footsteps in the garment business, he opened a private eye office on Broadway and 51^st street. Honest and respected, his business has been successful enough to pay the bills and keep his blue collar lifestyle going.

It starts off as a simple blackmail case. Chorus girl Kerry Lane hires LeVine to retrieve some stag films she starred in when she was struggling. Now being in a big Broadway show, the blackmailers are willing to exchange the films for cash to keep her name clean. The story accelerates quickly as LeVine finds one blackmailer murdered and starts getting pressure from influential people to drop the case. Kerry Lane’s father turns out to be an important banker in Philly, with political ties to the 1944 Republican Presidential candidate Thomas Dewey. Seeing a way to weaken Dewey in the polls, high level Democrats loyal to Roosevelt have the films and plan to use them to their advantage. Jack LeVine is loyal to neither party, only to himself, so he isn’t bought off easily. He has a code of ethics, and even with his life threatened many times, he remains on the case to get the negatives and prints for Kerry Lane.

You will get the feel of June 1944 America in this one. The story is rich in the atmosphere of the day; D-Day, diners, everyone smoking, radio shows, and snotty elevator operators-you’re definitely walking the streets of New York in the 40s. Andrew Bergman does a fine job mixing real life characters and events, into Jack LeVine’s world. I was surprised with the scheme of throwing a grunt private eye into Washington’s political shenanigans. In fact, as I was reading I was skeptical if Bergman could pull it off, but he did. The novel starts hardboiled and that fooled me a bit. I was expecting a knockoff Marlowe or Spade type of character. Not so, everyone who meets Levine likes him and he presents himself as an “average joe” just doing his job. Suspenseful ending, but I had the feeling that Bergman might have been pulling the reader’s leg a bit here. It all ends at Radio City with every “thug, mug, and free-lance muscle” in town preventing LeVine and Kerry Lane’s father from entering the building. They don costumes to get to the studio, which came off a little too silly for me. But a chase takes place and LeVine gets to pop off a few rounds from his revolver, all to make sure that his client gets what she originally hired him to do.

Andrew Bergman is a very successful screenwriter, film director, and novelist. “The Big Kiss-Off of 1944” was private detective Jack LeVine’s debut, but you can find him in two other novels. He appeared the next year (1975) in “Hollywood and LeVine” and in 2001 made a revival in “Tender is LeVine.” All three are quality yesteryear crime fiction novels.

The Kremlin Plot by Don Smith

The Kremlin Plot by Don Smith
Award AQ1402, Copyright 1971

He pressed the sharpened end of the wood under the fingernail and the excruciating pain made me jerk and the rope cut into my throat. He sat back and watched the drop of blood ooze out and run down the strip of wood and fall to the stone floor.
"The offer is still open," he said calmly.

One of the better written adventure series that came out in the 60s/70s heyday era were the "Secret Mission" espionage novels by Don Smith. The stories are actually mysteries and American Phil Sherman is our agent in the field. Sherman's cover is selling business equipment and this allows him to enter any country where the Agency feels the need to deploy his "special" talent. Don't be fooled into thinking he's one of those super vigilante CIA operatives, Sherman is a shrewd detective and the world stage is his turf.

In "The Kremlin Plot," the mission literally falls in Sherman's lap. On a business trip to Moscow, an attempted hijacking occurs on his plane. The hijacker is shot by the co-pilot, but before he dies he drops design plans for a new Russian missile defense system on Sherman. He enters Moscow knowing this is too hot to have on him and quickly heads over to the American Embassy to pass them off. A snag prevents an easy hand off, and before you know it people are coming out of the woodwork to find out what Sherman knows and what he has. Beautiful young female engineers, the KGB, British Intelligence, and nasty Chinese agents that are lurking in the shadows,-all play a deadly game to get the plans from Sherman.

Photographs of the plans are stolen from his hotel and Sherman sets out find who took them and get them back. Sherman has a backbone, but he has his limits. Through torture, bedroom bribes, and KGB interrogation, -he almost breaks, but stays on the trail and carries this mission to the end.

Lately, I've found myself reading more and more of these fine Don Smith novels. I missed them when they first came out, and I'm sort of glad because they are not dated at all. They are written so well that they come off fresh and new. I actually find the stories more believable than the bulk of the stuff that was coming off the printing machines during this era. The plots are well developed, with devious international characters as adversaries. (watch out for a duo of Slavic black marketeers) Phil Sherman comes off as the real deal. He doesn't carry a weapon or have any high tech gadgets. He's just a "dick" on a cloak and dagger case, that plays like a well crafted mystery crime novel. There are around twenty paperbacks in the series and I've enjoyed every one so far.

As for Don Smith, he is becoming one of my favorite authors.

The Whosis Kid by Dashiell Hammett

The Whosis Kid by Dashiell Hammett
Short Story, Copyright 1925
"The Return of the Continential OP"
Dell Mystery #154, Copyright 1945

"The idea in the detective business is to catch crooks, not to put on heroics."

This is definitely the rule that Dashiell Hammett's nameless, portly operative lives by. I honestly can say that I never read a Continental Op story that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy, and I believe they contain some of Hammett’s best writings. All were originally published in Black Mask Magazine between 1923 to 1930, and for seven solid years they became the standard for P.I. pulp stories. Scott D. Parker had a interesting posting on his excellent blog featuring the 1923 story “Bodies Piled Up,” which he found in a 2008 issue of EQMM. My favorite collection of the short stories is this paperback edition that Dell published in 1945. In it contains one of the Op’s best, “The Whosis Kid.”

"For myself, I counted on coming through all in one piece. Few men get killed. Most of those who meet sudden ends get themselves killed. I’ve had twenty years of experience at dodging that."

The Op starts his own case in this one, having seen the Whosis Kid on the San Francisco streets. The Kid is a name from the past, the Op knew of him as a punk criminal out of Boston. Following the Kid, he quickly concludes he’s up to no good. Our patient detective stakes out a few places, does a wonderful tail job and eventually gets involved in a sort of “car-jacking” - where a distraught foreign woman seeking safety, takes refuge through him. The Op convinces her to take him to her apartment where he hopes to find out what connection there is between the woman, the Whosis Kid, and a mysterious French man called Maurois. The Op knows the woman isn’t leveling with him, as he describes it: She was an actress. She was appealing, and pathetic, and anything else you like-including dangerous. Later the woman's “gorilla” man friend shows up and an entertaining fight erupts between him and the Op. Before you know it the French dude arrives packing heat and our detective devises a way to get the Kid to show up. There are plenty of guns in the room and all are pointing at the foreign woman and the Op, but he has all the key players together in one spot and this is where the detective excels. It’s all about stolen jewels with the three crooks trying to cross each other. The Op calmly waits it out, looking for his opportunity to bring the axe down. And Hammett masterfully delivers as usual, with an action filled ending and the woman having a similar fate as Brigid O'Shaughnessy had in The Maltese Falcon.

This one has always been my favorite Continental Op story. We get a bit of a history lesson on the acute detective's past, working in Boston, quitting as a detective to join up for the Great War, and then returning to the agency after the war. We learn he lived in Chicago, Buffalo and then settled in San Francisco. I found this story a fairly violent one for it’s time, the well described fist fight scene between the Op and the woman’s friend is a good example of that. Also there are plenty of guns blasting and the Kid gets pretty handy with his deadly knife. But it’s the way the Op cleverly gets them together and plays for time that makes this story shine. Plus even being a short pudgy fellow, he puts on some moves in the end, jumping around and plugging away with his revolver.

All five stories in this Dell paperback have the detective operating at peak form, and it contains his last case from 1930 called “Death & Company.” It’s a short work with the Operative a lot less active as in the other stories. My guess is that Hammett was winding down on the character, but it’s an excellent who-done–it. In the story the Old Man puts the Op on a kidnapping case and mysteriously the pickup money doesn’t get claimed. Infidelity is at play here and of course a murdered battered body gets stumbled upon. All I'll say is, the final Continental Op appearance is another good one.

The five pulp stories in "The Return of the Continental Op" are:

'The Whosis Kid" (1925)
"The Gutting of Couffignal" (1925)
"Death & Company" (1930)
"One Hour" (1924)
"The Tenth Clue" (1924)

The Mighty Blockhead by Frank Gruber

The Mighty Blockhead by Frank Gruber
Superior Reprint M655, Copyright 1941

The Johnny Fletcher - Sam Cragg "detective" novels by Frank Gruber may not be for everybody, but the series was popular enough to produce 14 books. For those who never heard of the two pals, Fletcher is the schemer, always coming up with a scam or two to put a few coins in their pockets. Cragg's the big lug, who gets to throw his muscle around, usually to protect Fletcher. At the start of most of the novels, the two are always on their last dime, planning a way to peddle copies of "Every Man A Samson." It's a how-to-book that Fletcher had printed and he looks for opportunities to pitch it (usually in NYC) with Cragg demonstrating his awesome strength. They usually get enough from that to get a diner meal in their bellies, but somehow a murder or two lands in their laps and that's when the adventure blooms.

Sam Cragg cut in sarcastically, "We're playing detective again. You know what that means; I get the hell knocked out of me and we wind up without a dime."

In this one, Fletcher and Cragg return to their favorite flophouse and find a body inside their trunk of books. Wanting no trouble, Fletcher has Cragg move the body, but they get tangled in the murder investigation. This one leads to a group of publishing people who are involved with a successful superhero pulp magazine/radio show titled, "The Blockhead." Johnny Fletcher smells money so he plays private detective, with Cragg ready to slap around anyone who gets in their way. The murdered man turns out to be a blackmailer and later the owner of the 'The Blockhead" series is found dead. The trail leads our two protagonists to Iowa, where they find the origin of "The Blockhead." The two get roughed up by some goons, but escape back to NYC with the evidence and a few bucks in their pockets. (Cragg had a run of luck at a roadhouse dice table) Fletcher wraps it up for the cops, who seem always to be one step behind. Our boys end up with smiles on their faces, with Fletcher chasing a girl and a wad of cash for the two to throw around.

If you like your mysteries tongue-in-cheek, this is good enjoyable stuff. Plenty of wise cracking and mild humor. Frank Gruber was an accomplished writer and he shines in this series. It's a decent mystery, with a great snapshot of pre-war NYC. Speeding cabs, obnoxious hotel managers, saps to the noggin' and two entertaining, difficult to handle amateur P.I. fellas-expertly put together, it makes a wonderful who-done-it novel.

Like I said above, it's not for everyone. But you can't help but be amused with those two characters, Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg. (They sure look out for each other)

Vein of Violence by William Campbell Gault

Vein of Violence by William Campbell Gault
Award Books, Copyright 1961

"Two are already dead," I said. "A vein of violence has been brought into life. The first murder is always the hardest one; a killer gets hardened quickly after that."

Gault's Brock Callahan P.I. series is one of the best ever written. The novels are like a magnet; once you finish one, you're looking forward to the next. For those who are not familiar with "The Rock," he's a retired L.A. Rams defensive guard, level-headed, lives modestly, and likes to play poker with his old teammates. He has a fondness for Einlicher beer and is content driving his old groaning flivver. A practical guy, who you would love to have as a friend or on your side if you need help. Also, his on/off relationship with Jan Bonnett is always a welcomed enrichment in the stories. This is Gault's fifth Brock Callahan novel and he gives us another first-class murder mystery story with the honest California P.I.

Callahan's newly married Aunt Sheila pays the P.I. a visit with her new husband, Texas oil man Homer Gallup. We get the impression that the aunt likes to marry rich men. (she had a few) Anyway they would like to have Brock's girl, Jan Bonnet, help them find a house and help design the interior, which is her profession. They come across a dated mansion estate which belongs to an old silver screen scarlet named Mary Mae Milgram. Homer loves the place and purchases the property, despite the disapproval of Jan and Aunt Sheila. Brock has taken a liking to Homer for that. Homer throws an open house party and Mary Milgram is found dead, poisoned. Homer hires Brock to find the killer, and the cops let him assist as long as he keeps them informed. The road leads Brock into a world of blackmailers, greedy heirs, and other faded stars from a bygone Hollywood era. He stumbles onto another murder and discovers a family scandal that numerous individuals are determined to keep hidden.

No dark alleys or heavy gun play here, this is good honest detective work. The novel appears to be divided into two parts. The first having Brock and the group interacting with the real estate deal, the murder, and possible motives for Homer's mysterious interest in the property. There is the continual friction in the relationship between Brock and Jan, which heats up when Callahan is caught spending the night with the beautiful assistant to the murdered victim. The second half has Brock Callahan digging into the case with Aunt Sheila, Homer and Jan rarely around. The P.I. covers a good part of Southern California in his old flivver, uncovering leads and giving the cops just enough to keep them off his back. Eventually he puts the pieces together and just as he figures it out- we do too. And as readers, we get the privilege to go with him to lay it all out. -Wonderfully done by Gault.

As in all of the Brock Callahan novels, Bill Gault fills this story with terrific lines:

Brock describing his girl:
She is a fairly complex girl, loving both beauty and money. She is a girl of many moods, but I love her in all of them. She is the beginning and the end. She is Jan; what can I say?

Brock describing himself:
"I'm always for rent but never for sale."

Brock describing Hollywood:
I turned into the bright lights and swirling carbon monoxide of Sunset Boulevard, the street of stars, the treadmill of tourists, the winding, grinding, noisy street that leads where all streets lead -to the grave.

Brock describing L.A.:
The smog was behind and we were back in California. Los Angeles is not California, not in any way. Los Angeles is a fungus that will some day destroy California.

Brock describing reporters:
Small men working for big papers and it gave them a false sense of their own importance. Meaningless men with powerful weapons.

And one of my favorites, describing himself to the cops:
"I'm not a lecher, I said. "I'm not Joe Puma. I'm a square, Lieutenant, poor and honest. Occasionally, I am a victim of my strong romantic compulsions, but I have never accepted a dishonest dollar."
(Of course all Gault fans know about P.I. Joe Puma)

I'll say it again, the Brock 'The Rock" Callahan P.I. novels are some of the best ever published. To me he's right up there with Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer and Paul Pine. William Campbell Gault's "Vein of Violence" is a fine example of the huge talent he had as a mystery author. We find Callahan a little more upbeat in this novel. He has less worries and seems very content with his life. Highly entertaining, interestingly suspenseful, and as in all of Gault's novels- a damn good mystery.

Note: Don Siegel directed an 30 minute Adventure Showcase T.V. episode in 1959 called "Brock Callahan." Synopsis on TCM states: "The exploits of Brock Callahan, a retired Los Angeles Rams guard turned two-fisted private detective working out of Beverly Hills. The story relates Brock's attempts to find the killer of an interior decorator." Sounds interesting!

"Murder By The Dozen" by Hugh Wiley

"Murder By The Dozen" by Hugh Wiley
Popular Library 325, Copyright 1951

Between 1934 through 1938, Hugh Wiley penned 12 short stories for Collier's Magazine featuring the Chinese-American confidential operative James Lee Wong. In 1951, Popular Library published all 12 in a paperback and I am glad they did. They are wonderful quick pulp who-done-its, with the educated James Lee (Wong is rarely used in the stories) solving cases for the Department of Justice or as a private man for his Chinese community. If you enjoyed John Marquand's Mr. Moto novels or Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chan novels, you'll want to include Hugh Wiley's oriental sleuth in the grouping.

James Lee smiled. "I enjoy the game very much."

To me, the series is more seedy and violent than the Charlie Chan or Mr. Moto stories, which I find can be monotonous mostly due to their length. Wiley wrote no novels featuring Mr. Lee, these 12 action-packed stories contain brutal killings, Chinese gangs, corrupt businessmen, gangsters and the dark secret opium dens of San Francisco's Chinatown.

I find the stories very entertaining and I love the short lengths, so I can read a complete one in a few minutes. James Lee is well respected in the law enforcement community and with his people in Chinatown. He carries a black automatic and will bring it out when needed. Plus being highly intelligent and skilled in the forensic sciences of the day, he's a formidable opposition to any criminal element encountered. Surprisingly good!

"One thousand slices of his flesh-slow with a small knife so that he may suffer ten thousand years of torture," a kindly-faced ancient of Chinatown suggested.
"A quick death with the drug of sleep," James Lee countered. "I demand that you do not use ancient methods of torture."
After a moment's deliberation old Sang Kong nodded slowly.

Also, the Boris Karloff films (as Mr. Wong) weren't that bad.

A Stone Around Her Neck by Bob McKnight

A Stone Around Her Neck by Bob McKnight
ACE F-143, Copyright 1962

I have always admired the work of Bob McKnight. He put together a string of excellent crime stories that gave the reader a suspenseful tour of Florida in the late 50s/early 60s. McKnight was one of many authors, who moved to Florida with ambitions of writing mystery novels. Though not as well known as Day Keene, John D. MacDonald, William Fuller, or others that located to the "Sunshine State" after the war, his novels are worthy to be included in any discussion on the topic of post-war Florida authors.

"A Stone Around Her Neck" is one of McKnight's last novels and features his P.I. Nathan Hawk. Hawk is not a native of Florida, he located a few years back to reap in the climate. He has a keen sense of humor especially around his cop pal, Lt. Tobey Duane -who the P.I. calls "Florida cracker" or "damn rebel" and Hawk will throw in the hardboiled slang. (woman are 'babes" or "stacked skirts", cars are "heaps") He's not a sympathetic guy, he'll go right in and rough up his knuckles if needed. Anyway, the P.I. looks into a murder of a "babe" pulled out of the Gulf after being weighed down for a few days. The investigation leads Hawk into the world of bookie joints and horse-betting gambling schemes. Along the way, someone is framed for the murder and Hawk, knowing the ways of the track circuit, makes progress quickly. The P.I. moves swiftly, takes his lumps, raps it up, and leaves a couple of bodies along the way for the police to clean up.

"Anyhow, I didn't care if I killed him. I wasn't wasting any sympathy on a guy, who, in a few more minutes would have fastened weights to me and dropped me over the side. He could drown in his own vomit for all of me."

If you're looking for a quality Florida P.I., Nathan Hawk is your man. There is nothing special here, just a good quick (100 pgs) nicely packed mystery detective story. If you happen to give this one a try, you won't be disappointed with chapters 6 & 7; where a couple of "mugs" take Hawk on a one-way boat ride and a little gale comes in, effecting their plans. Those chapters are full of action and are queasingly written.

Bob McKnight was a track and horse racing fan, so it is understandable that he incorporates that setting in many of his novels. He even wrote a popular "how to" book called "Eliminate the Loser$, Pick the Winner$." Ironically, two of his novels that I like best, don't involve the horse track or feature P.I. Nathan Hawk; they are "Swamp Sanctuary" and "Kiss the Babe Goodbye," both published by ACE. They spin fast, with plenty of action-just the way I like them.

The "flip" novel of this ACE Double is "End of a Big Wheel" by Clayton Fox. It's a story of a city cop investigating the murder of an union leader. (I didn't read this one yet. )