Thu 22 Mar 2012
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: CORTLAND FITZSIMMONS – The Evil Men Do.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[3] Comments
William F. Deeck
CORTLAND FITZSIMMONS – The Evil Men Do. Stokes, hardcover, 1941.
Having turned down several lucrative offers to go to Hollywood and do screen writing, mystery writer Ethel Thomas finally accepts as a ploy to help out her niece, an aspiring movie actress.
The niece’s fiance, fighting for her honor, has apparently killed a man. It’s obvious that the “killing” is but a variation of the old badger game, but these two youngsters get themselves involved with a blackmailer who runs a gambling club. Naturally, he is soon bumped off. The niece, the fiance, the niece’s mother, and Thomas are unlikely suspects.
Since the idea should be a winner from the start, there ought to be a law that authors writing about septuagenarian lady mystery writers who also detect produce at least a halfway decent novel. If there were such a law, Fitzsimmons would be given twenty years without the option.
The Ethel Thomas series —
The Whispering Window. Stokes, 1936.
The Moving Finger. Stokes, 1937.
Mystery at Hidden Harbor. Stokes, 1938.
The Evil Men Do. Stokes, 1941.
Editorial Comment: In a crime fiction writing career that extended from 1930 to 1943, Cortland Fitzsimmons wrote or co-authored another thirteen novels, two of which featured Arthur Martinson as the leading character, and two with Percy Peacock. I know nothing about either of the two, but Bill Deeck’s review of the author’s book The Girl in the Cage, displays an equal lack of enthusiasm for his work: “…reading Fitzsimmons is like watching grease congeal.”
March 23rd, 2012 at 7:11 pm
My friend Bill Deeck–and how sadly he is missed–was unmatched in his ability to encapsulate mystery writers who were not quite first rate. In fairness, though, Fitzsimmons was a writer who improved as he went along. The Arthur Martison books, about a totally colorless would-be Philo Vance are terrible; the sports-themed books are campy but fun to read; Ethel Thomas, though her cases may not have been gems, was at least a well-drawn and amusing character; and his last novel, the homefront-in-wartime mystery TIED FOR MURDER, starring the admittedly unmemorable Peacock, is really pretty good.
March 23rd, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Jon
It sounds as though you’ve read more of Fitzsimmons than anyone else in the world! Thanks for all the tips. Even though Bill Deeck didn’t care much for THE EVIL MEN DO, I’ve always liked mystery stories about mystery writers, and you’ve convinced me to see if I can’t find a copy anyway.
An inexpensive one, though, all things considered.
March 29th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Can I chime in on Fitzsimmons’ work? RED RHAPSODY, which features no series detective and has a cast of nasty, despicable characters who play a murderous game of hide and seek in the dark at a cocktail party, is the absolute pits! But not as bad as that prize winning mystery of abysmal quality STRANGE MURDERS AT GREYSTONE that Bill wrote up in a hysterical diatribe and was posted here a while back.