Fri 22 Aug 2014
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: LEWIS PADGETT [HENRY KUTTNER] – The Brass Ring.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[3] Comments
William F. Deeck
LEWIS PADGETT [HENRY KUTTNER] – The Brass Ring. Duell, Sloan & Pearce, hardcover, 1946; Bantam Books #107, paperback, 1947, as Murder in Brass.
A year earlier, Seth Colman had stopped participating actively in his detective agency. Although he was good at investigating, he had begun to hate the work. Despite his best efforts to avoid it, however, his wife, Eve, who has apparently seen too many Powell/Loy movies, gets him involved in trying to find a lunatic. As soon as Colman arrives on the scene in Westchester County, N.Y., the lunatic — or someone — commits murder.
Not only does Eve show up to view, not necessarily take part in, the proceedings, but Colman is saddled with the assistance of Art Bednarian, who is interested in money only because it can buy booze and broads. Bednarian possibly possesses some form of telepathy, having been known to have spotted murderers through their “smell.” However, he also suspects females of varying crimes when they turn down his kind offers to take them to bed.
Colman is a fascinating character, whose depths Padgett plumbs well. The ending is definitely not upbeat.
Bio-Bibliographic Notes: According to both Hubin and Wikipedia, Lewis Padgett was the joint pseudonym of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, a husband and wife team who are much more well-known as science fiction and fantasy authors. Under the Padgett byline they also wrote The Day He Died (Duell, 1947).
August 22nd, 2014 at 5:27 pm
This is a good one, and of course Kuttner under his own name penned the Dr. Michael Gray series, a well done set of psychological mysteries with an attractive hero. I assume Moore co wrote those as well since they came from that period. They also turned out scripts for Warner for CHEYENNE and MAVERICK among others.
August 22nd, 2014 at 10:47 pm
Haffner Press intends to publish all four of the Michael Gray novels under the title of THE MICHAEL GRAY MYSTERIES. The preorder price is $40.00 for the collection.
Collected in one volume will be:
THE MURDER OF ELEANOR POPE
THE MURDER OF ANN AVERY
MURDER OF A MISTRESS
MURDER OF A WIFE
I have the paperback editions but they are pretty fragile, so this is good news.
August 23rd, 2014 at 8:29 am
I have to confess that I once started one of the Michael Gray books, and I didn’t get very far into it. Of course I was much younger then, and I don’t believe that stories with a psychoanalyst as a protagonist had a lot of appeal to me at the time. Things may be different now.
But if I come across my paperback copy of MURDER IN BRASS any time soon, I’ll give that one a try right away. I’ve had this one, plus the Gray books, for way too long, just sitting idle.