Thu 12 Dec 2019
Pulp PI Stories I’m Reading: ROBERT LESLIE BELLEM “Suicide Scenario.”
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Stories I'm Reading[9] Comments
ROBERT LESLIE BELLEM “Suicide Scenario.” Novelette. Nick Ransom #6 (*). First published in Thrilling Detective, February 1948. Collected in Nick Ransom, Confidential Investigator (UPDproductions, Kindle edition, 2018).
If you thought this was going to be a review of one of Bellem’s “Dan Turner” stories, I can hardly blame you. After all, one source I found says that he wrote over 300 of them. But that’s only a small percentage of Bellem’s output, estimated by that same source to be in the 3000 range, almost all of it in the form of short fiction.
After appearing in a run of five stories in the early 40s, Nick Ransom took up shop in the pages of Thrilling Detective in 1948 for a run of nine more tales, beginning with “Suicide Scenario” in the February 1948 issue. Previously a Hollywood stunt man with is own business called “Risks Incorporated,” Ransom has decided that business wasn’t good enough and has changed the sign on he door to “Nick Ransom, Investigations.” Hollywood being the town it is, not only have bit players come calling, but so have producers, directors, stars, and “assorted geniuses of every size and gender.
He doesn’t have a client in this tale, however. While driving back to his office through the streets of Los Angeles, he stopped by a frantic woman who needs him to stop her husband from committing suicide. Which he does, cleanly and efficiently. It turns out (not surprisingly) that there’s more to the story. The man whom he stopped from shooting himself turns out to have been hired to play the part, and then the real husband is found, his face blown away.
This is not all. There are more twists and turns ahead. This is a real detective story, with lots of clues and red herrings to follow and be sorted out. Plus Bellem’s usual skill with the English language, somewhat toned down from the Dan Turner stories, and no emphasis at all on various parts of the female anatomy which took up a lot of space to describe back in Turner’s Spicy Detective days.
Well, not completely. Quoting from the first page:
—
The Nick Ransom series —
Peril for Sale (ss) Detective Dime Novels Apr 1940
Danger’s Delegate (ss) Red Star Detective Jun 1940
Hazard’s Harvest (ss) Red Star Detective Aug 1940
Jeopardy’s Jackpot (ss) Red Star Detective Oct 1940
Risks Redoubled (nv) Double Detective Aug 1941
Suicide Scenario (nv) Thrilling Detective Feb 1948
Mahatma of Mayhem (nv) Thrilling Detective Apr 1948
The 9th Doll (nv) Thrilling Detective Aug 1948
Serenade with Slugs (nv) Thrilling Detective Dec 1948
Homicide Shaft (nv) Thrilling Detective Apr 1949
Preview of Murder (nv) Thrilling Detective Jun 1949
Puzzle in Peril (nv) Thrilling Detective Oct 1949
Blind Man’s Fluff (nv) Thrilling Detective Feb 1950
Murder Steals the Scene (nv) Thrilling Detective Aug 1950
(*) There is a Nick Ransom in the story “Short Cut to Vengeance” in the December 1939 issue of Variety Detective as by John Gregory, but the latter is known to be a house name and no one seems to have connected it up with Bellem.
December 12th, 2019 at 8:44 pm
Rather than watered down Dan Turner the Nick Ransom stories are actually pretty good on their own, merely Bellem in a slightly different, and a bit less whacky, key.
December 12th, 2019 at 10:34 pm
“Watered down,” no. “Toned down,” yes. I’ve also been reading some of the Dan Turner stories from SPICY DETECTIVE in the late 30s, and they’re certainly as explicit as they could have be at the time.
This is the first of the Ransom stories I’ve read, and it’s really quite good, as you say.
December 13th, 2019 at 2:41 pm
To follow up on this comment from yesterday, I thought I’d quote from a real life Dan Turner story, thinking that perhaps some of you may not know what can go on in one of them. This is from “Sleeping Dogs” as published in the September 1934 issue of SPICY DETECTIVE:
“I kissed her on the mouth, her lips parted, and her tongue flamed against mine. Her breath tasted sweet — hot. She leaned back. I followed. My arms went around her and pressed her so close that she gasped for breath. As I stroked the smooth skin of her thigh I felt her tremble. Her full breasts were crushed against my chest. I reached up and switched off the light.”
December 13th, 2019 at 2:11 pm
Not familiar with these, thanks for the tip.
December 13th, 2019 at 2:31 pm
Rick, If you have a Kindle, the price for the entire Nick Ransom collection is only 99 cents. What else can you get for that kind of money?
December 13th, 2019 at 4:01 pm
Detective Dime Novels was renamed Red Star Detective with the second issue and was cancelled after four bimonthly issues. Double Detective was a Munsey title, like the other two. The fifth Ransom story was obviously a hold-over from Red Star Detective’s inventory. Bellem was still writing Dan Turner stories in 1948. It’s frequently conjectured that the style of the Dan Turner stories was an affectation given the Spicy slant. Variety Detective was a reprint title with names and titles changed to protect the guilty to make them look new.
December 13th, 2019 at 7:39 pm
I’m kind of curious about that story in VARIETY DETECTIVE myself. Nick Ransom isn’t all the common a name, even in fiction. And to update your statement about Dan Turner, his last appearance was in the form of three stories in the October 1950 issue of HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE.
December 13th, 2019 at 5:32 pm
Steve,
Thanks for the checklist of the Ransom stories. I had no idea he was in any other title other than Thrilling Detective. As a purist, I’d rather have the original pulps
to read, but I don’t think I’ll invest my money in the Red Star issues. They tend to be pricey. As far as reading these, to me they are the same as reading a Dan Turner
story. Lots of fun as long as you don’t consume too many at a clip.
December 13th, 2019 at 7:34 pm
Paul
Very few of us are going to be able to read those early Ransom stories, not unless we can find someone with deep pockets to reprint them. The stories are good but not so good that you’d want to pay maybe $100 an issue for them. And up?