Thu 5 Dec 2019
PI Stories I’m Reading: FLETCHER FLORA “Loose Ends.”
Posted by Steve under Stories I'm Reading[4] Comments
FLETCHER FLORA “Loose Ends.” Novelette. Percival ‘Percy’ Hand. First published in Manhunt, August 1958. Reprinted in The Second Pulp Crime Megapack (Wildside Pres, Kindle edition, 2016).
Fletcher Flora had one only series character in a long career of crime fiction writing, a policeman by the name of Lt Joseph Marcus, who appeared in six stories for the digest mystery magazines of the 1950s. He missed a bet, though, in not writing another story about Percy Hand. “Loose Ends” is a good one.
He’s hired In this one by Faith Salem, a very good looking woman, especially while tanning herself outside on her terrace. It seems as though he’s thinking of becoming wife number four to man with whom she presently has an understanding. She is wondering, though, why wife number three just suddenly disappeared without a trace. The police didn’t work very hard on the case, though, since the man she presumably was having an affair with disappeared at exactly the same time.
What Faith Salem wants Percy Hand to do is the obvious. Find out what really happened. And so he does, with adeptness and efficiency. Roots in the past are involved, as is true for a good percentage of all good PI stories.
And not only is Hand very good at his job, but author Fletcher Flora is also very impressive as a wordsmith whose words I ought to have reading all this time, and I’m sorry to say that I haven’t.
Some examples:
“I seem to remember that she left him, which wasn’t surprising. So did number one. So did number two. Excuse me if I’m being offensive.”
“Not at all. You’re not required to like Graham. Many people don’t. I confess that there are times when I don’t like him very much myself.”
And:
One more. Percy has gone to see the missing man’s brother, a high class gangster. In the room is Robin Robbins (not her real name):
“He looks like Jack Palance.”
“Jack Palance is ugly,” I said.”God, he’s ugly,”
“So are you,” she said.
“Thanks,” I said.
“In a nice way,†she said. “Jack Palance is ugly in a nice way, and so are you. I don’t really care if you’re poor.”
December 5th, 2019 at 1:30 pm
“Loose Ends” is a somewhat condensed version of LEAVE HER TO HELL! (Avon, 1958). The Manhunt version and the novel are the only appearances of Percy Hand. Why Flora chose not to turn him into a series character is a mystery; I agree that Hand would have made a good one.
December 5th, 2019 at 2:08 pm
I did not know that, Bill. Thanks! And if anyone is interested, including myself, the book is easily obtainable, having been reprinted by Stark House Press not too long ago, along with two other titles by Flora. I have copy somewhere. All I have to do is find it. Obviously I haven’t read it!
Bonus: The introduction is by Bill P. himself. Makes it doubly worth getting.
July 4th, 2022 at 3:37 am
Actually, Percy Hand appeared again in a story Fletcher wrote for Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in October of ’64, called For Money Received. It was released by Wildside Press on Kindle in July of 2019, I think. It makes me wonder now, like the Joseph Marcus stories, if there are more Percy Hand stories floating around out there somewhere, among the over 150 Flora wrote for digests.
July 4th, 2022 at 9:10 pm
Another Percy Hand story? Wonderful news. Thanks! And I’m sure you’re right. Where there’s one, there has to be more. WE just have to find them.