Thu 22 Sep 2016
Archived Review: [BILL PRONZINI writing as] JACK FOXX – Dead Run.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
JACK FOXX – Dead Run. Bobbs Merrill, hardcover, 1975. Detective Book Club, hardcover 3-in-1 reprint edition. Carroll & Graf, hardcover, 1992, as by Bill Pronzini; paperback, August 1992. Speaking Volumes, trade paperback, 2012, also as by Bill Pronzini.
Honest work in Singapore having become scarce since his recent affair with the jade figurine, Dan Connell takes a job as overseer of a rubber plantation in Malaysia’s Selangor province, but the trip up the coast by slow steamer leads him into more trouble and adventure than even a man of Connell’s unsavory past has a right to expect.
Two men are seen throwing overboard a third man, a fired bank employee who had stopped briefly in Connell‘s cabin, but quickly it becomes obvious that they were frustrated in getting from him what they wanted. There’s a girl, too, the plantation owner’s daughter, with whom Connell ends up lost in a leech-infested jungle, and a hair-raising airplane flight with a madman lovingly caressing a grenade ready to go off at any minute.
The plot ingredients are easily recognized as those of countless pulp adventure thrillers. but they are bv no means outdated, as Foxx/Pronzini capably shows. It’s reassuring to learn that there are still places in this world far enough away for the special flavor of the exotic unknown to be kept alive, capable of giving the reader that intimate thrill of escaping into another world of romantic adventure.
Indeed, this has the same immediacy as that provided by the urgent voice-over narration of a top-notch radio drama. The early dialogue may seem stilted, but as`the full artillery is let loose, the theater of the reader’s mind will have that pair of deadly killers breathing down his or her very own neck. What more can you ask?
Rating: A minus.
Bibliographic Notes: The previous adventure of Dan Connell that was alluded to in this review was The Jade Figurine. (Bobbs Merill, 1972). This first book was an expansion of the story “The Jade Figurine” that appeared in the January 1971 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, as by Bill Pronzini. This story may also be the same as the one entitled “Jade” which appeared in the Pronzini collection Sleuths (Five Star, 1999).
September 22nd, 2016 at 7:43 pm
I remember reading DEAD RUN back in the Seventies. Fun, fast-paced adventure! I liked THE JADE FIGURINE, too.
September 22nd, 2016 at 8:29 pm
Nice review, Steve. I don’t recall having seen it when it first appeared. You’re entirely right about the stilted dialogue in the early scenes, and not the first to point out that I had the same poor ear for British speech as many Brits have for American. I learned my lesson: I haven’t included a British character in any piece of fiction since DEAD RUN.
September 22nd, 2016 at 9:10 pm
To tell you the truth, Bill, while I remember the book reasonably well, augmented by my review as I read it again before posting it, I had no idea what I was referring to as stilted dialogue. I’ll have to read it again and see what I think now.
No matter, I enjoyed the book, as you can tell. I always wished you’d written more of Dan Connell’s adventures.
September 23rd, 2016 at 11:10 pm
Bill also wrote a good historical mystery as Foxx, but the he is one of the most consistently reliable writers in the genre.
I’m sure he could name one, but personally I don’t think I’ve read a bad book by him, and many were much much more.