Day Never Came by Steve Fisher

Day Never Came by Steve Fisher
Copyright 1938
Short Story in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Oct. 1953

He had no fear. If he died, then he died, and that would be that. But as long as he lived, he was looking out for himself. He took his living and his world without the hurrah of emotion.

Steve Fisher packs a lot in the pages of this short psychological thriller. Day Never Came is a bleak and dark story of a psychotic killer who gets a little too clever for his own good.

Set in prewar Shanghai as the Japanese are bombing the city, a isolated American Marine station waits for orders with a handful of jailed service members awaiting court-martial. Most involve petty stuff, but the Navy prisoner called Clark is in for espionage and as for moral principles, he has none. There is a witness out in the city and his only hope is to get to her before the trial. Clark plans and executes an escape which involves secretly murdering a guard. Dodging bombs he makes his way to the girl's apartment. The kicker is that the girl loves him, but that's a one way street for Clark and he ends up strangling her to keep her from testifying. Without being seen, Clark quitely sneaks back into the Marine brig and thinks he devised a solid alibi. Of course you can be a little too clever, and Clark surely is ... as we waits in his cell.

Readers of Steve Fisher's work know that he was a highly influential author in his day. Pulp, noir, and lives lost in the seedy underworld - his novels and stories are filled with a gritty, raw, (and yes, a romantic) edge on them. Day Never Came has all those. Unseen love, which Clark doesn't realize until it's too late. Madness, as he kills without remorse to save his neck. And pain, sadness, and a lost chance-as he sits in his locked cell at the end. For a short story it's very atmospheric and "the nasty's" what go around in Clark's head are oddly appealing. For me this short story came up as the best of the bunch in this fine 1953 edition of EQMM.

But that is not to say that the others weren't very good. Fredric Brown's 4 pager titled, Cry Silence is a masterfully written tale that questions, "was it murder or was it not." Which lines in parallel to the old question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Another enjoyable yarn is the retired cop story Before The Act. Thomas Walsh wrote solid cop mystery novels (some involve rogue cops) and after reading The Night Watch and Nightmare in Manhattan, I realized I'd stumbled on lost treasures. I enjoy his storytelling and when I come across an anthology with a short story of his in it, I'll but it. And that was the reason I bought this EQMM years ago.

Here are the stories in this October 1953 edition:

High Court by Thomas Kyd

Back In Five Years by Michael Gilbert
The Stroke Of Thirteen by Lillian de la Torre
Before The Act by Thomas Walsh
Laugh It Off by Charlotte Armstrong
Day Never Came by Steve Fisher
Cry Silence by Fredric Brown
A Wish For A Cigar by Will Scott
Ms. In The Safe by Frank Swinnerton
Night Of The Execution by Faith Baldwin
Helpless Victim by C.G. Lumbard
The World Series Murder by Rex Stout

The Last Score by Charles Runyon

The Last Score by Ellery Queen (penned by Charles Runyon)
Pocket Book 50486, Copyright 1964

In the early 60s, the Ellery Queen machine was spitting out quality mystery yarns that were authored by a hungry group of fine suspense writers. Charles W. Runyon wrote three of them for the establishment. All are excellent, which include "The Killer Touch" (1965) and "Kiss and Kill." (1969) But my favorite is this first one of his three, which takes the reader on a wild ride through the remote areas of 1960s Mexico.

" His attacker was all speed and power. A steel forearm had Reid's nose crushed against his face and his breath cut off; a knife caressed his throat. This is it, this is curtains, Reid thought - no preparation, no warning, the stupid end of a stupid enterprise."

Reid Rance is an adventurer/travel agent who specializes in taking his clients to locations that are far off the beaten paths. One day he gets a visit from May Gibson, the town matriarch of Greengrove, Texas. Mrs. Gibson has an unruly, bratty, and determined high school daughter, who has her mind set on a three-week trip to Mexico. She needs someone who will not only show the beautiful young Leslie the sights, but also one that will play bodyguard. At first Reid wants nothing to do with a "spoiled teen-aged nymphomaniac," but he needs the cash and reluctantly accepts.

Even though both seem to hit it off at the start, Leslie turns out to be a bit wiser than your normal teenager. Bored with seeing the sights, she lays it on Reid what she really wants out of this trip to Mexico, and that is to score some marijuana. After a "dangers of drugs" spiel by Reid, he agrees to help her out and that is when things go bad. Leslie gets kidnapped and Reid must get her back before Mrs. Gibson and the rest of Greengrove, Texas gets wind of it.

I loved the pace of this novel and Runyon keeps the reader glued to the story. He takes us south of the border, through the areas of Mexico's more unglamorous side. Dusty poor villages, shady seaport towns, and a violent ending in the jungle - and mixed in a group of devious drug users that grab at the opportunity to kidnap for ransom... all of this is compelling stuff for a 1964 novel.

Some might find it a bit dated for today and the illegal drug situation is not as violent as what is going on in Mexico now, but it is flawlessly written and it is suspenseful as hell. Reid Rance is a intriguing main character and you can't help but be on his underdog side. Throw in an adrenalin-filled ending, and all I can say is - I really, really enjoyed "The Last Score." (One of the best that came out of this Ellery Queen ghostwritten period.)

Note: If you ever do read "The Last Score," watch out for the outre chapter where Reid Rance is forced to smoke some of that wacky weed. (wow)

Kiss and Kill by Ellery Queen (Charles Runyon)

Kiss and Kill by Charles Runyon
Dell 4567, Copyright 1969

In the 60s, a couple of dozen mystery novels under the name of Ellery Queen were ghost written by a handful of authors. Writers like Richard Deming, Talmage Powell, Jack Vance and others contributed with some excellent offerings. Charles Runyon was another and I believe he authored three novels under the Ellery Queen title name. "Kiss and Kill" is one of them and though a bit uneven, I still enjoyed the read.

"The stench billowed out in waves. A balloon of a man was slumped in the fetal position on the closet floor, so swollen that the seams of his dark blue uniform had split open. Barney tried to drag the body out; it was too heavy."

Edward Tollman's wife has disappeared and progress by the police force has been slow. Tollman hires P.I. Barney Burgess, and together they head out to find her. Quickly, Burgess suspects that there may be a link between her disappearance and a Mexican vacation she was on months ago. Hunting down other members of the vacation tour, they discover the members are being killed off. They follow the tail, but it leads to more bodies. They eventually locate a surviving member, the beautiful Claire English. She joins the hunt for protection reasons and the three head for Mexico where they hope to find Tollman's wife and solve the mystery of the deaths.

You usually don't see a big city P.I. taking his client and a woman who is being pursed by killers, along on the case; but it seems to work.(if you let it) Runyon describes Barney Burgess as tough, gun ready Bogart-type P.I., which as the novel develops doesn't ring true. He's not timid though, and will comes up with some hardboiled dialog :

Barney said, "You get nothing. Not even death. Pain is what you get. Hours of it. Days, if necessary. Until you tell me where Mrs. Tollman is."

Drugs and money are the root cause here. The step by step trail to the missing wife works well, if you just overlook a couple of incidences where you know a person in a specific situation in the story wouldn't really react that way. The killers are psychopaths, and they provide just the right amount of violence to the story. Enjoyable enough to hold my interest and it's a quick mystery read. Also to Charles Runyon's credit, the ending does have a neat twist that I didn't see coming.

One of my favorite Charles Runyon short stories is in the March1962 Mike Shayne Magazine, titled "The Death Gimmick." It's set in the West Indies and involves vile people taking us down stinking, dark alleyways. Also, the cover of this issue is a hardboiled beaut.......