Sat 12 May 2007
Review by Mary Reed: RANDALL PARRISH – The Case and the Girl.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Crime Fiction IV , Pulp Fiction , Reviews[3] Comments
And if after reading the review you’re prompted to look for a copy of the book itself, as I think you very well may, you’ll be glad to know that the book is online, or in print in POD format, since you aren’t going to find a copy of the Knopf edition anywhere for less than $250. In fact, there was only one that I could find, and that’s the asking price. – Steve
RANDALL PARRISH – The Case and the Girl
Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover, 1922. A. L. Burt, hc reprint, n.d. Paul (UK), hc, 1923.
Captain Matthew West has just been honourably discharged after twice being wounded during World War I. Feeling restless and not yet ready to return to civilian work, while browsing the newspaper at his club he decides to answer a personal ad running thus
“Wanted: Young man of education and daring for service involving some personal peril. Good pay, and unusual reward if successful. May have to leave city. Purpose disclosed only in personal interview.”
Instructed to bring his evening clothes — and a good job he has them! — he is soon off to a rendezvous with orphaned heiress Natalie Coolidge. She does not explain what task she requires him to undertake but Captain West agrees to help her even so, and is whirled off to the family mansion, where he is astonished to be introduced to the house party as her fiance. One of the guests is Natalie’s uncle and guardian Percival Coolidge. The two men dislike each other on sight – in fact, Uncle Percy accuses West of being a fortune hunter, the cad.
Next morning the gallant captain has a private chat with Natalie and learns someone is impersonating her. However, nobody believes her because the responsible party looks so like her she fools even Natalie’s friends, not to mention the servants and bank clerks who know her well.
Is Natalie telling the truth, mistaken, or demented? Despite doubts at times, West agrees to try to solve the mystery. There are a couple of odd happenings, statements made don’t quite check out, and then a death occurs and West is plunged into an adventure with enough twists and turns to make a scriptwriter swoon. The detective work is partly deductive and partly wearing out shoe leather and when it comes to action, West usually wipes the floor with his opponents, yet in a manner showing he is not a super hero.
My verdict: Apart from the occasionally annoying fact that Captain West is a bit slow on the uptake at times, this was a rollicking read and keeps the interest to the end. I particularly admired a sequence in which West and Natalie are trapped in…but no, I will not ruin the suspense, although I will say it gave me the creeping heeby jeebies.
Etext: http://www.gutenberg.org
RANDALL PARRISH (1858-1923) – A Partial Bibliography
● Crime Fiction (Thanks to Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.)
* -The Air Pilot (n.) McClurg 1913 [Air]
* -“Contraband” (n.) McClurg 1916 [Ship]
* The Strange Case of Cavendish (n.) Doran 1918 [Colorado]
* -Comrades of Peril (n.) McClurg 1919
* The Mystery of the Silver Dagger (n.) Doran 1920
* The Case and the Girl (n.) Knopf 1922 [Chicago, IL]
* Gift of the Desert (n.) McClurg 1922
● Titles available online, including non-mystery fiction:
* Bob Hampton of Placer
* The Case and the Girl
* The Devil’s Own: A Romance of the Black Hawk War
* Gordon Craig: Soldier of Fortune
* Keith of the Border
* Love under Fire
* Molly McDonald: A Tale of the Old Frontier
* My Lady of Doubt
* My Lady of the North
* Prisoners of Chance: The Story of What Befell Geoffrey Benteen, Borderman, through His Love for a Lady of France
* The Strange Case of Cavendish
* When Wilderness Was King: A Tale of the Illinois Country
* Wolves of the Sea: Being a Tale of the Colonies from the Manuscript of One Geoffry Carlyle, Seaman, Narrating Certain Strange Adventures Which Befell Him Aboard the Pirate Craft “Namur”
● Shorter fiction: (Thanks to The FictionMags Index.)
* The Devil’s Own (sl) All-Story Weekly Sep 1, Sep 8, Sep 15, Sep 22, Oct 6 1917
* The Strange Case of Cavendish (sl) All-Story Weekly Apr 20, Apr 27 1918
* The Pathway of Adventure (sl) Railroad Man’s Magazine Nov 9, Nov 16, Nov 23 1918
* Comrades of Peril (sl) All-Story Weekly Oct 4 1919
* Wolves of the Sea (sl) Chicago Ledger Feb 25 1922
● Three of his novels and stories have been adapted into film: (Thanks to IMBD.)
Keith of the Border (1918) (novel)
The Shielding Shadow (1916) (story)
December 16th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Oh, this is great! One quick google of the title and author when I found the book on PG, and this site–complete with a mini-review and synopsis–pops up! It’s so difficult to find synopses of long OOP novels from the turn of the century; this is an excellent resource.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:59 am
You missed the book: The Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:30 pm
I read the novel and it was very well written. I was a fun read.