Sat 16 Jul 2016
Stories I’m Reading: LOUIS L’AMOUR “Unguarded Moment.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[4] Comments
LOUIS L’AMOUR “Unguarded Moment.” First appeared in Popular Detective, March 1952. Collected in The Hills of Homicide (Bantam, paperback, 1983).
The first paragraph caught my attention:
Arthur Fordyce had never done a criminal thing in his life, nor had the idea of doing anything unlawful ever seriously occurred to him.
The second really had me sitting up and taking notice:
The wallet that lay beside his chair was not only full; it was literally stuffed. It lay on the floor near his feet where it had fallen.
And the third had me hooked all the way:
His action was as purely automatic as an action can be. He let his Racing Form slip from his lap and cover the billfold. Then he sat very still, his heart pounding. The fat man who had dropped the wallet was talking to a friend on the far side of the box. As far as Fordyce could see, his own action had gone unobserved.
But of course he was seen, and therein lies the story. It continues with some petty blackmail, an accidental death, the dead man’s girl friend who wants to …
This is Cornell Woolrich territory, maybe with clearer and simpler language, but pure noir from beginning to end.
July 16th, 2016 at 5:39 pm
I’ve read close to 20 of L’Amour’s detective pulp magazine stories. This is the best of the lot but even it, like all the others, is pedestrian in plot and execution. A few are set in the West but none have the authenticity (or quality)of his historical western fiction. Not counting his earliest work in the literary magazine field, the western genre is where he really shines especially in his novels from the 1950s.
July 16th, 2016 at 6:06 pm
I believe this to be the best of his detective stories that I’ve read also, Steve. I like his western novels from the 50s as well, but after that, I think he started to churn them out far too quickly.
July 16th, 2016 at 7:04 pm
Have you read the Ponga Jim Mayo adventure yarns, collected in WEST FROM SINGAPORE and NIGHT OVER THE SOLOMONS? I remember liking them quite a bit. I think L’Amour was a better short story writer than he was a novelist.
July 16th, 2016 at 8:11 pm
I’ve read both collections, James, and enjoyed them. The stories are quite good, as you say. I think of them, as adventure stories, though, not crime or mystery tales — not that it makes much difference if you have fun reading them.