FLETCHER FLORA – Skuldoggery. Belmont B50-738, paperback original, 1967.

   A talented writer whose work received regrettably little attention during his lifetime, Fletcher Flora was one of the best producers of criminous short stories in the 1950s and 1960s. His range was remarkable: everything from hard-boiled tales for such magazines as Manhunt to police procedurals, to straightforward whodunits,to light whimsey, to literary stories that transcended the genre.

   As a novelist however, Flora was less successful. His books are extremely well written, with engaging characters and strong suspense; but they are all short on plot, tending to be slices of life or collections of incidents rather than fully realized novels. Skuldoggery falls into that category, but everything
else about it is so good that it ranks as Flora’s best novel — though probably his least known, owing to the fact that it was published by a small paperback house and poorly distributed. (The fact that a front-line publisher failed to recognize its merits is beyond comprehension.)

   When Grandfather Hunter dies, he leaves an estate of $10 million, which his greedy family — Uncle Homer, Aunt Madge; Junior; Flo; and Flo’s twins, Hester and Lester –expects to inherit. Ah, but no; grandfather’s will instead gives the dough to Senorita Fogarty, who happens to be a Chihuahua of questionable breeding, for her exclusive use throughout her lifetime and the lifetimes of her pup’s pups ad infinitum.

   Of course there is a proviso that should Senorita Fogarty and all her subsequent pups expire, the inheritance then passes on to the family. And of course what the novel is all about are the humbling attempts of Uncle Homer, Aunt Madge, Junior, Flo, and Flo`s twins to dispose of Senorita Fogarty, and the determined efforts of grandfather’s faithful servants, the Crumps, to thwart them.

   This sort of farce is not unfamiliar, but it is nonetheless beautifully conceived and written with considerable drollery and wit. Anyone willing to spend the time and effort tracking down a copy will not be disappointed.

   Most of Flora’s other novels were also paperback originals; among the more notable of these are The Hot Shot (1956) and Leave Her to Hell (1958), both of which are in the tough vein. He also published three hardcovers, Killing Cousins (1960), another delightfully murderous farce, which won the Macmillan Cock Robin Award; The Irrepressible Peccadillo (1962); and Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene (1969), which he was commissioned to finish when Stuart Palmer died, and which he completed shortly before his own untimely death [in 1968].

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.