Wed 12 Oct 2016
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: FRANKLIN MAYFAIR – Over My Dead Body.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
William F. Deeck
FRANKLIN MAYFAIR – Over My Dead Body. Book Company of America #009, paperback original, 1965.
Rodney Valino, soon not to be a publicity man for Magno-Feierstrein Studios, has as a last assignment the publicity for Antietam, a Civil War epic starring one of the most detested men in Hollywood, Robey Hardin. Among other things, Hardin is a lecher and perhaps a blackmailer, and he has ruined several careers. He is also responsible for Valino’s losing his job.
With most of the people involved in the new picture hating Hardin passionately, it is no surprise that he is murdered during filming. Because of Hardin’s proclivities, suspects are numerous. But the police, among them a friend of Valino’s, have their eye on the publicity man. Because of this, Valino feels he must detect on his own. He identifies the murderer and puts his life at risk, somewhat to his surprise.
This is an amusing, literate and well-plotted novel that should have been picked up by a major publisher.
Bio-Bibliographic Notes: Franklin Mayfair was the pen name of Felix Mendelsohn, Jr. (1906-1990). This is the only crime novel he wrote under either name. Under his own name, he was also the author of “two unremarkable comic sf novels, Club Tycoon Sends Man to Moon (BCA, pbo, 1965) and Superbaby (Nash, hc, 1969; Paperback Library, 1970).” Thanks to the Science Fiction Encyclopedia for the quote.
Book Company of America was a short-lived paperback published based in Beverly Hills CA. In the years 1964-65 they published a total of 17 books, three of which are regarded as criminous and included by Al Hubin in his comprehensive bibliography of the field, Crime Fiction IV.
October 12th, 2016 at 1:04 am
More on the author, from http://archives.nypl.org/the/21683
“Felix Mendelsohn, Jr. (1906-1991), was an advertising copy writer based in Chicago. As a young man, Mendelsohn aspired to be a journalist. He found work writing promotional copy, booklets and brochures for various companies. He died in 1991 at the age of 84. The Felix Mendelsohn scrapbook holds a number of interviews with prominent actors and actresses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the age of 21, aspiring journalist Felix Mendelsohn, Jr. conducted a number of interviews with famous stage performers in which he asked each one to describe the “most thrilling moment” of his or her career. Mendelsohn developed these interviews into profiles, and hoped to sell the resulting series to a newspaper or magazine, but was unable to do so. He later compiled the profiles into a scrapbook, adding photographs of all the interviewees, some of which were inscribed to him. The performers profiled were Helen Hayes, Otis Skinner, Helen Gahagan, John Drew, Irene Bordoni, Richard Bennett, Helen Menken, John Cromwell, Ina Claire, Dennis King, Fay Bainter, Laurette Taylor, Grant Mitchell, Lowell Sherman, Ruth Draper, Florence Reed, Estelle Winwood, John E. Kellard, Wilton Lackaye, O.P. Heggie, Effie Shannon, Elsie Janis, Frank Keenan, Leo Carillo, Amelita Galli-Curci, Arthur Byron, Louis Mann, Lenore Ulric, and Raymond Hitchcock.”
October 12th, 2016 at 12:21 pm
Sounds like the Hardin character should have run for President.
October 12th, 2016 at 4:52 pm
Truth is often stranger than fiction.
October 12th, 2016 at 8:40 pm
Too bad, this one sounds better than some that reached major publishers that year.
October 12th, 2016 at 10:58 pm
Not a difficult book to find online, should you go looking. I don’t believe I own this, so I think I shall.