Thu 1 Oct 2009
A Review by Geoff Bradley: PETER CARTER BROWN – Meet Murder, My Angel.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[10] Comments
PETER CARTER BROWN – Meet Murder, My Angel. Horwitz-Transport, Australia, paperback, 1956.
I’ve written before that one of my guilty pleasures is the Al Wheeler books of Carter Brown. Back in the 1950s and early ’60s, when I was an impressionable teenager, I read a lot of Brown in those large but thin Horwitz paperbacks.
I found them to be fast, breezy and humorous reads and those few I’ve read in later days have been similarly entertaining.
I saw this 1954 production — when Carter Brown was still Peter Carter Brown on the spine and title page, though he had morphed to just Carter Brown on the front cover — in a second hand bookshop and, though it was rather tatty, it was cheap and I couldn’t resist it.
More fool me. When I got it home and started on it I expected a couple of hours of brisk humour but what I got was absolute rubbish. The story, narrated by Californian attorney Mike Stone, involves hidden treasures, old gangsters and beautiful women but is absolute tosh. Worse, it isn’t in the slightest bit funny.
EDITORIAL COMMENTS. I think it confirms Geoff’s judgment on this book to point out that unless it came out under a different title, this book was never published in either England or the US. It’s also a scarce book. There are no copies for sale anywhere on the Internet.
Luckily Geoff kept the one he reviewed — I wasn’t sure after I read the his comments about the book! — so that’s the one you see up above. He adds: “The book is number 23 in the Horwitz series, and I believe it’s an Australian edition though the copyright page lists distribution agents for the UK, Ireland and Europe. The cover also has 2/- which is two shillings (or was in 1956).”
October 1st, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I share the Brown guilty pleasure thing, though they aren’t all gems. I prefer Mavis Seidlitz to Wheeler, but enjoy all the Brown series. Anthony Boucher championed them, and they were popular enough in Australia to inspire a Carter Brown comic strip that featured Wheeler and Brown as a newsman who followed his career.
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
I once had about three shelves worth of Carter Brown titles, but at some point in my past I decided I no longer had room for them and disposed of them. Every so often I regret this decision. They were everywhere on the newsstands and I have always had a fascination for authors who wrote lots of books — probably the fault of having read so much Alexandre Dumas when I was a boy.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Randy
You always regret the books you didn’t buy or the ones you let get away. Except for the sheer number of them, you could always build your Carter Brown collection back up. They were 35 and 50 cents then, the earlier ones, and they shouldn’t cost you more than $3.50 or $5 apiece now, unless you want pristine mint copies.
You gotta keep in mind, though, he did write 100s of books…
— Steve
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
David
There’s also been a musical based on Brown’s book THE STRIPPER. I’m told it’s in a current production somewhere in England right now, and in fact, Geoff Bradley will be going to see it soon. Here’s a link
http://www.ambassadortickets.com/1298/657/Milton-Keynes/Milton-Keynes-Theatre/The-Stripper
but in case the information there disappears, here’s a poster or some other advertising artifact worth seeing (in my opinion, that is):
October 6th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Robert Silverberg said to me that he wrote some Carter Browns in the early sixties, but he doesn’t know whether they were published.
October 6th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I believe the consensus is that they weren’t, but it’s one of those statements that just doesn’t seem to stay nailed down.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:09 am
I am an avid fan of Carter Brown’s Al Wheeler and have almost all of them, I think. I have never found a complete list but I do know there are several Horwitz Al Wheeler books I don’t have. Any idea where I can get them?
BLONDE VERDICT
CHORINE MAKES A KILLING
KISS AND KILL
MISS CALLED MURDER
STAB IN THE DARK
WENCH IS WICKED
WALK SOFTLY WITCH (I know this is a Danny Boyd title but have also seen this as Al Wheeler?)
Thanks,
Jim
October 19th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Jim
From CRIME FICTION IV, by Allen J. Hubin:
— AL WHEELER —
o The Wench Is Wicked (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1955
o Blonde Verdict (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1956
o Booty for a Babe (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1956
o Delilah Was Deadly (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1956
o No Harp for My Angel (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1956
o Chorine Makes a Killing (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1957
o Doll for the Big House (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1957
o Eve-It’s Extortion (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1957
o No Law Against Angels (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1957
o The Unorthodox Corpse (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1957 [California]
o The Blonde (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1958 [California]
o The Lover (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1958
o The Mistress (n.) Horwitz-Transport 1958 [California]
o The Dame (n.) Horwitz 1959 [California]
o The Desired (n.) Horwitz 1959
o The Passionate (n.) Horwitz 1959 [California]
o Terror Comes Creeping (n.) Horwitz 1959 [New England]
o Walk Softly, Witch! (n.) Horwitz 1959 [California]
o The Wanton (n.) Horwitz 1959 [California]
o The Bombshell (n.) Horwitz 1960
o The Brazen (n.) Horwitz 1960 [California]
o The Corpse (n.) Horwitz 1960
o The Temptress (n.) Horwitz 1960 [California]
o The Body (n.) Horwitz 1961 [California]
o The Exotic (n.) Horwitz 1961 [California]
o Lament for a Lousy Lover (n.) Horwitz 1961 [Los Angeles, CA; Mavis Seidlitz]
o The Stripper (n.) Horwitz 1961 [California]
o The Tigress (n.) Horwitz 1961 [California]
o Angel! (n.) Horwitz 1962 [California]
o The Dumdum Murder (n.) Horwitz 1962 [California]
o The Hellcat (n.) Horwitz 1962 [California]
o The Lady Is Transparent (n.) Horwitz 1962 [California]
o Girl in a Shroud (n.) Horwitz 1963 [California]
o The Lady Is Not Available (n.) Horwitz 1963 [California]
o The Sinners (n.) Horwitz 1963 [California]
o The Dance of Death (n.) Horwitz 1964 [California]
o The Vixen (n.) Horwitz 1964 [California]
o A Corpse for Christmas (n.) Horwitz 1965
o The Hammer of Thor (n.) Horwitz 1967 [California]
o The Plush-Lined Coffin (n.) Horwitz 1967 [California]
o Target for Their Dark Desire (n.) Horwitz 1967 [California]
o Until Temptation Do Us Part (n.) Horwitz 1967 [California]
o The Deep Cold Green (n.) Horwitz 1968 [California]
o The Up-Tight Blonde (n.) Horwitz 1970 [California]
o Burden of Guilt (n.) Horwitz 1971 [California]
o The Creative Murders (n.) Horwitz 1971 [California]
o The Aseptic Murders (n.) Horwitz 1972 [California]
o W.H.O.R.E. (n.) Horwitz 1972 [California]
o The Born Loser (n.) Horwitz 1973 [California]
o The Clown (n.) Horwitz 1973 [California]
o Wheeler Fortune (n.) Signet 1974 [California]
o Wheeler, Dealer! (n.) Signet 1975
o The Dream Merchant (n.) Horwitz 1977
o Night Wheeler (n.) Horwitz 1977 [California]
o Busted Wheeler (n.) Horwitz 1979
o The Spanking Girls (n.) Horwitz 1979
o The Wicked Widow (n.) Horwitz 1981
o Stab in the Dark (n.) Horwitz 1984
As for WALK SOFTLY, WITCH, yes, besides the Danny Boyd book, there is the following:
Walk Softly, Witch! (Sydney, Australia: Horwitz, 1959, pb) [Al Wheeler; California] British title: Terror Comes Creeping (Horwitz 1960). U.S. title: Victim. Signet, 1959. Rewritten reissue of: Eve-It’s Extortion, q.v.
As for finding the ones you’re missing, your best bet may be http://www.bookfinder.com or the British eBay site.
I hope this helps!
— Steve
October 19th, 2009 at 11:10 am
THANKS STEVE!!!!
I’ll update my list and check the web site you sent me.
October 9th, 2010 at 3:37 am
i collect carter brown books and according to the catalogue list i have it contains 290 books not including his omnibus book of which 13 is listed and even then books come up for sale not on my list.
i would love to find a full catalogue of all his books