Mon 18 Oct 2010
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: PAUL HAGGARD – Dead Is the Door-Nail.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Crime Fiction IV , Reviews[3] Comments
William F. Deeck
PAUL HAGGARD [STEPHEN LONGSTREET] – Dead Is the Door-Nail. J. B. Lippincott, US, hardcover, 1937.
One of the many problems associated with a lack of a sense of humor by a reviewer is the inability to tell when an author is teasing the reader. What is one to make of this: “The paunch and jowl of raffish apartment houses catapulted their elegant heights above the streets in a pageant of foppish decadence.”
And yet it is closely followed by: “…to the wise mob of drunks, hop-heads and flamboyant slatterns of both sexes, it was a sanctuary and first-aid station. In Hilton’s electric cabinets, steam baths, needle showers and sun booths, the elect were tried and found wanton.”
In the first of four novels featuring Mike Warlock, sports reporter for the New York Globe, and his faithful companion and cameraman, Abner Gillaway, they are assigned by the paper to cover the murder of Doris Castle, rich and the World’s Champion Lawn Tennis Player.
Lots of suspects here, despite a few getting knocked off along the way. Did Castle’s husband, crooner Ira Wells, kill her because the marriage was unconsummated after three months? Or one of Wells’s many lovers? Or the odious Professor Ott, who once peddled a combination cough medicine and dandruff cure? Or Ott’s assistant, a coward and a blackmailer? Or the devilish Dr. Delcro, up to who knows what?
Considerable action in an amusing hard-boiled novel in which the author just may have had his tongue in cheek. And if he didn’t, it’s still funny.
Bibliographic Data: [Expanded from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.]
HAGGARD, PAUL. Pseudonym of Stephen Longstreet; other pseudonym: Henri Weiner.
Dead Is the Door-Nail. Lippincott, 1937. Mike Warlock
Death Talks Shop. Hillman-Curl, 1938. Mike Warlock.
Death Walks on Cat Feet. Hillman-Curl, 1938. Also published as: The Case of the Severed Skull, as by Henri Weiner.
Poison from a Wealthy Widow. Hillman-Curl, 1938. Mike Warlock.
LONGSTREET, STEPHEN. Born Chauncey Weiner; 1907-2002. Pseudonyms: Paul Haggard & Henri Weiner. Also a screenwriter.
The Crime. Simon & Schuster, 1959.
-The Pedlock Inheritance. McKay, 1972
The Ambassador. Avon, pb, 1978.
WEINER, HENRI. Pseudonym of Stephen Longstreet; other pseudonym: Paul Haggard.
Crime on the Cuff. Morrow, 1936. “Introduces one-armed sleuth John Brass, former Secret Service man who is also a popular cartoonist, creator of the comic strip, ‘Georgie the G-Man.'”
The Case of the Severed Skull. Mystery Novel of the Month, pb, 1940. Reprint of Death Walks on Cat Feet, as by Paul Haggard.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
This author was also a screenwriter, a painter and cartoonist. Check out http://www.stephenlongstreet.com for a website developed by his grandson and dealing in fascinating detail with an interesting life.
October 19th, 2010 at 12:55 am
In answer to the question Stephen Longstreet clearly had his tongue in cheek, and a considerable cheek it was considering his literary gifts and accolades.
As Walker points out he was a man of many gifts. This is one I will have to look for. Though somewhat forgotten today Longsteet was one of the titans of the literary scene in his day.
October 19th, 2010 at 1:16 am
I missed following through on this author. Thanks for the link, Walker. I knew he wrote more than mysteries, and in fact, right now on the desk next to me, by pure coincidence, there is a copy of WILD HARVEST, a Gold Medal paperback original he wrote in 1960:
“A bold, earthy novel of the girls who work the fields under the California sun, by the author of THE PEDLOCKS and THE CRIME.”
And as it turns out, he’s one of the classier authors who’s turned up on this blog, and that, I’m sorry to say, I didn’t realize until now.