Mon 21 Aug 2017
A Book Noted by Barry Gardner: WILLIAM F. NOLAN – The Black Mask Murders.
Posted by Steve under Books Noted , Pulp Fiction[7] Comments
WILLIAM F. NOLAN – The Black Mask Murders. Black Mask Boys #1. St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1994. No softcover edition.
There’s probably no one better suited to do a novel featuring Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner as detectives than Nolan, a Hammett expert of the first order and [editor] of The Black Mask Boys (1985), a homage to the pulp. This, the first book in a projected series, is narrated by Hammett, and plans call for the narration to rotate among the three in future volumes.
I’m not going into the plot any more than to tell you it involves gangsters and a maguffin, as I didn’t enjoy the book enough to finish it. Though obviously a labor of love on Nolan’s part, I couldn’t reward it with the same feeling.
It isn’t badly done, I just don’t particularly care for the type, and using mystery writers for the characters didn’t change my feelings as I’d thought it might. Nolan’s a competent writer, and if you like Kaminsky’s Toby Peters books I think you’d like this too.
The Black Mask Boys series —
The Black Mask Murders (1994).
The Marble Orchard (1996).
Sharks Never Sleep (1998).
August 21st, 2017 at 9:38 pm
I love Nolan’s work and enjoyed the first one, but somehow missed the others.
August 21st, 2017 at 11:32 pm
I don’t think the others played up the BLACK MASK connection very well, nor did (as I recall) any of them ever come out in paperback.
I have all three, but I’m pretty much aligned with Barry on this. Detective novels in which real people play critical parts just don’t interest me.
August 22nd, 2017 at 6:28 am
Well, I like the covers.
August 22nd, 2017 at 6:41 am
I enjoyed all three. Nothing major, but Nolan is an entertaining writer.
August 22nd, 2017 at 8:53 am
Much as i wanted to like these, I found them surprisingly uninvolving.
And I usually like the incorporation of real people into mysteries. For instance I enjoy Kaminsky’s Toby Peters series. But I find the Peters books to be seasoned with humor and charm. These…not so much.
August 28th, 2017 at 4:25 pm
I read THE BLACK MASK MURDERS too long ago to recall anything about it except that I thought it just okay. My reactions to the novels that followed were not a great deal more enthusiastic: https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2012/07/ffb-review-marble-orchard-1996-by.html and https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2012/11/ffb-review-sharks-never-sleep-1998-by.html
August 28th, 2017 at 8:24 pm
Thanks for the links, Barry. I enjoyed both reviews. That also reinforced my thought that I needn’t rush around and find the copies of both books. I own each of them, but as usual, they’re packed safely away somewhere.