Tue 1 Apr 2014
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: LAURENCE DWIGHT SMITH – Follow This Fair Corpse.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
William F. Deeck
LAURENCE DWIGHT SMITH – Follow This Fair Corpse. Mystery House, hardcover, 1941; Mystery Novel of the Month #29, digest-sized paperback, n.d. [1941] as The Case of the Rented Coffin.
With a publisher, mystery-novel authors, and agents gathered for a weekend, almost anything can happen. It doesn’t help matters that the publisher is a man who doesn’t read books, who takes nude photos of his girlfriends who then often become or are other people’s girlfriends, and who suspects his wife is trying to kill him.
The publisher invites the writers to his mansion to propose a contest in which each writer will construct a novel from the same first chapter. Acting out the first chapter himself, the publisher apparently goes further than he had planned.
On the scene is Dick Whelan, M.D., Smith’s series character. He is there at the behest of the police and is taking the place of a pseudonymous mystery writer who is a doctor. Not too demanding a task apparently; as a policeman remarks, “Any ass can fake being a writer.” At the end, Whelan solves a series of murders.
This novel was not as enjoyable as I thought it would be from its amusing start; on the other hand, it’s a good mystery. In addition, there are some perhaps moot quotations about publishers — “You can’t leave anything to those damned fools!” — and detective-story writers and their work — “It’s always been a mystery to me why otherwise intelligent people read detective stories. Still, I suppose it’s no worse than going to the movies.”
Bibliographic Note: The earlier case solved by Dr. Whelan was The Corpse with the Listening Ear (Mystery House, 1940).
April 1st, 2014 at 1:45 pm
FYI, if interested:
There are two copies of the hardcover edition this book currently offered on Abebooks, one without a jacket for $30, the other with a jacket and inscribed by the author for $300. Take your pick!
April 1st, 2014 at 6:23 pm
While this is far from a rave review I have to admit it sounds like fun. I tend to like mysteries from this period in general, and this one sounds as if there is a bit of wit at its heart.
The review doesn’t say, but the title suggests the victim is female. If not, it is a very misleading title.
April 1st, 2014 at 7:12 pm
I would assume the victim to have been female also, David, not only from the title but the front cover art on the jacket is quite convincing as well.
Relative to my comment #1, there are two copies of the paperback up for sale on ABE, both in the much more affordable $18-20 range. Interested parties who agree on the affordability are welcome to partake and report back.
April 2nd, 2014 at 12:10 am
A quick library search came up with these non-fiction titles by Smith:
Counterfeiting : crime against the people,
New York : W.W. Norton & company, inc. [1944]
Cryptography, the science of secret writing, New York, W. W. Norton & company, inc. [1943]
April 2nd, 2014 at 12:17 am
2/3. Or it could be a fair play mystery with a helpful corpse.
April 2nd, 2014 at 1:01 am
I’ll accept that. Within the realm of possibility anyway!
April 2nd, 2014 at 1:10 am
#4 / Tony —
There may be more true crime titles to Smith’s credit, as his entry in Hubin suggests (followed by a list of his crime fiction work) —
SMITH, LAURENCE DWIGHT (1895-1952); Born in New York City; graduated from Yale and went into the real estate business, then into writing novels and true crime books; died in the Veterans Hospital in Albany, New York. (chron.)
_The Case of the Rented Coffin (Mystery Novel of the Month, 1941, pb) See: Follow This Fair Corpse (Mystery House 1941).
*The Corpse with the Listening Ear (Mystery House, 1940, hc) [Dr. Dick Whalen; Long Island, NY; Hospital]
*Death Is Thy Neighbor (Lippincott, 1938, hc) [Long Island, NY]
*Follow This Fair Corpse (Mystery House, 1941, hc) [Dr. Dick Whalen; Long Island, NY] Hurst, 1943. Also published as: The Case of the Rented Coffin. Mystery Novel of the Month, 1941.
_The G-Men at Bay (Foulsham, 1940, hc) See: The G-Men in Jeopardy (Grosset, 1938).
*The G-Men in Jeopardy (Grosset, 1938, hc) [G-Men] British title: The G-Men at Bay. (Foulsham, 1940). Intended for younger readers.
*G-Men Smash the “Professor’s†Gang (Grosset, 1936, hc) Intended for younger readers. British edition: Foulsham, 1944, as by William Engle.
_G-Men Smash the Spy Ring (Foulsham, 1940, hc) See: The G-Men Trap the Spy Ring (Grosset, 1939).
*The G-Men Trap the Spy Ring (Grosset, 1939, hc) [G-Men] British title: The G-Men Smash the Spy Ring. Foulsham, 1940. Intended for younger readers.
*Girl Hunt (Lippincott, 1937, hc) [New York City, NY]