Fri 29 Jan 2021
Archived PI Mystery Review: ALAN RIEFE – The Lady Killers.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[10] Comments
ALAN RIEFE – The Lady Killers. Huntington Cage #1. Popular Library, paperback original, 1975.
The gimmick here is that super-sleuth New York City detective Hunt Cage has a convenient twin brother in New Jersey, an artist ready to leave his models to take up the chase when needed. This of course causes much confusion to criminals, and to girl friends.
Girls who are not friends, but are “hit-men†for the Mafia, are the brothers’ target in this adventure. Women’s lib advances. Lots of bullets – mostly between the bad guys’ eyes – but there is a light touch to be found here and there midst the shootings. I think it safe to say that you can read this at the same time as chewing gm, or even watching TV.
There are already four more on the stands.
Rating: C.
The Huntington Cage series –
1. The Lady Killers (1975)
2. The Conspirators (1975)
3. The Black Widower (1975)
4. The Silver Puma (1975)
5. The Bullet-Proof Man (1975)
6. The Killer with the Golden Touch (1975)
Note: Among other fictional work Alan Riefe might also be noted for writing a dozen or more adult westerns as J. D. Hardin, and a large number of romance novels as Barbara Riefe.
January 29th, 2021 at 2:04 pm
Riefe created the Raider and Doc series that he and others wrote under the house-name J.D. Hardin, and he also wrote some of the early Slocum novels under the house-name Jake Logan. He also wrote all the entries in a couple of other Western series, Fancy Hatch as by Zachary Hawks and Slaughter and Son as by E.B. Majors. As far as I know, he never wrote any traditional Westerns, which is a little surprising because almost all of the Adult Western authors also wrote traditional ones, too. I’ve found him to be a fairly consistent writer, never outstanding but always entertaining. I’ve never read any of his mysteries, though.
January 29th, 2021 at 2:24 pm
Riefe also wrote two books about a character named Tyger Decker, about whom I know nothing:
Tyger at Bay (Popular Library, 1976)
Tyger by the Tail (Popular Library, 1976)
and that’s about it as far as mystery fiction goes.
I was unaware about all of the other adult westerns he wrote. Thanks for adding a mention of all those, James. The Cage books only scratched the surface of all the books he did. He died in 2001.
January 29th, 2021 at 2:32 pm
Well here we go. From the Amazon page for the book TYGER BY THE TAIL:
“Tyger Decker is a hard-nosed private dick who moves with the savage speed of a big cat and doesn’t mind a little blood. Criminals are his prey, women are his favorite game, and he’s ever ready to spring into action at the drop of a corpse. TYGER BY THE TAIL sends tiger leaping the Atlantic to taste the perils of Old World evil and the pleasures of willing young flesh. A man who everyone loved to hate is dead, his adoring little girl has seduced Tyger into tracking down the killer, and Tyger discovers that behind the elegant façade of a great European city lies a human jungle where killing is the law of life, and a woman’s arms can close around him like the deadly petals of a Venus fly-trap.”
Strangely enough, I don’t remember ever seeing the cover before. I see someone is trying to sell a copy in New condition for $99.99. Good luck with that!
January 29th, 2021 at 8:47 pm
It sounds like a better gimmick for a television than book series, but intriguing.
Johnston McCulley had the Avenging Twins in the pulps and in the Republic serial SPY SMASHER Kane Richamond played twins, one of which was the title hero. Most instances of twins I can think of either did the Jeckyl and Hyde thing or one twin was unaware of the other rather than working together to fight crime. I can think of sevral male/female twin villains though.
January 29th, 2021 at 10:14 pm
David, I think you’re right. Riefe should have sold the idea to a TV producer.
I wish I’d read more of the series. I don’t have much to go on from what I said back then, other than I gave it a “C.” Maybe the fact that this is the only one I read should give me a hint.
I also wish I knew more about the Avenging Twins. I’ve never read one, but I did find this quote on an Amazon page: “…brothers who have turned to crime to right the wrong done to their father. Exciting pulp action at its best!”
January 29th, 2021 at 10:40 pm
Reminds me of the neat ‘dualism’ in characters beloved by the team of Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir. ‘Too much symmetry’ is a hobgoblin of any author or artist.
January 29th, 2021 at 10:41 pm
Nicely put and observed, Lazy.
January 30th, 2021 at 11:12 am
There was indeed a made for TV movie TWIN DETECTIVES (1977). It’s pleasant light entertainment. It might still be available on YouTube. It does not sound directly related to the Cage tales.
And the series TRIGGER TWINS ran in the 1950’s comic book ALL-STAR WESTERN. Sheriff Walt Trigger is helped out, and impersonated, by his twin brother Wayne Trigger.
January 30th, 2021 at 11:39 am
IMDb calls this a failed TV pilot, and why am I not surprised they gave the idea a try?
Synopsis: Two identical twin brothers who own a detective agency hatch a plan to expose a phony group of psychics, but soon find themselves involved in a murder.
Jim & Jon Hager played Tony & Shep Thomas, respectively.
January 30th, 2021 at 2:41 pm
I remember the Trigger Twins in ALL-STAR WESTERN. The stories were pretty repetitive (not surprising, since Robert Kanigher wrote them, and while Kanigher wrote some great stories here and there, most of his work is very formulaic), but the art by Carmine Infantino was good. There was a long series in the Western pulps about a good-guy outlaw called the White Wolf, who sometimes masqueraded as his twin brother who was a sheriff. These were written at first by Hal Dunning, then by Frederick C. Davis, Walker A. Tompkins, and possibly others using the Hal Dunning name after Dunning died. I have a few but have never read them. They’re supposed to be pretty good, though.