Wed 14 Aug 2013
GEORGE BAGBY – Country and Fatal. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1980.
Need further proof that riding the Manhattan subway system can be dangerous to your health? On page one of Bagby’s latest mystery-adventure, you’ll find him being pushed off the Times Square station platform smack into the path of an oncoming train.
A series of such attacks has surprisingly nothing to do with Bagby’s friendship with Inspector Schmidt of Homicide, and the many cases they’ve worked on together. Rather it has everything to do with an ex-con country singer named Shad McGee (almost married to the phenomenally shelf-bosomed Lucinda Belle), who wants Bagby to give him a hand with his memoirs.
Names and any resemblances etc. etc. entirely coincidental. Not your usual background for a detective murder mystery, but it’s fun, and what’s more, the clues are fair. In fact, there’s one in particular that should have been obvious, and I missed it. I really don’t know what I was thinking of.
Rating: B minus
Vol. 4, No. 4, July-August 1980 (very slightly revised).
UPDATE [08-14-13]. George Bagby, pen name of Aaron Marc Stein, (1906-1985) was an extremely prolific mystery author who also wrote as Hampton Stone. I think I’ll repeat my update of my review of another of Bagby’s works of detective fiction, I Could Have Died, which you’ll find here:
“I don’t believe that George Bagby — in real life Aaron Marc Stein, under which name he wrote an equally long list of other detective novels — got nearly the critical attention that I always thought he should have, and he’s definitely forgotten by all but a few devoted aficionados now.
“Perhaps he was too prolific, and maybe the endings didn’t match the cleverness of other writers’ mysteries (nor perhaps the openings of his own books), but I always admired the way he had for descriptive passages, making the most prosaic actions — such as taking the cap off a toothpaste tube or hunting for a set of lost keys — seem interesting.
“George Bagby, by the way, if the review wasn’t quite clear on this, was both the pen name and the character in the Bagby novels who tagged along with Inspector Schmidt and chronicled his cases for him.”
I don’t remember who I was referring to in the first sentence of the third paragraph. It was 33 years ago when I wrote it, and while you may think everything you say or do will stay with you forever, it doesn’t. Thank goodness.
August 15th, 2013 at 7:46 am
I’ve read this one and remember enjoying it. I read a bunch by Stein under both his own and the Bagby name in the Sixties and Seventies but haven’t tried one in years. I ought to. For some reason I’ve never read any of the Hampton Stone books.
August 15th, 2013 at 10:22 pm
I was hoping someone else would leave a comment today, but so far, no takers. There was a time when I wondered if I was the only one who enjoyed Stein’s writing. It’s nice to know, James, that there are two of us!
(If there are more, please jump in and say so.)
August 16th, 2013 at 5:54 am
I never read Stein through most of my life.
Then read the extensive reviews at MYSTERY*FILE, and became intrigued.
Have now read 15 of Stein’s books. And find him a very interesting writer, and plan to read more. After all, he wrote over 110 novels.
Have been concentrating on the earliest Steins available in Michigan libraries and used book stores. Most of the novels read are from 1946-1955. So far have not been able to track down any of his pre-war books from the 1930’s.
Best books so far:
Blood Will Tell (1950)
Death Ain’t Commercial (1951)
Mask for Murder (1952)
The Body in the Basket (1954)
Among his sleuths, I prefer (so far) the Inspector Schmidt by “George Bagby” and archeologists Tim Mulligan and Elsie Mae Hunt by “Aaron Marc Stein”. Would especially like to track down the early Tim Mulligan and Elsie Mae Hunt books. They are remarkably colorful, with rich backgrounds and settings. And the Schmidt books tend to be the classical whodunits I love. They too have lively subjects.
What I’ve read about Assistant District Attorney Jeremiah X. Gibson by “Hampton Stone” tends to suffer from blandness.
Matt Erridge by “Aaron Marc Stein” is too much of an “action hero”.
Still, there are probably some good books about both I just haven’t read yet.
Detailed reviews are at:
http://mikegrost.com/stein.htm
August 16th, 2013 at 8:17 am
Thanks for the long comment on Stein and his mystery fiction, Mike. Anyone whose interest may have been piqued should follow the link your provided, and at once.
Thanks also for reminding me that Mike Nevins is also a fan. Here’s another link to follow: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=618 , one in which Mike gibes a long overview of Stein and his career.
August 16th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
The best part of reading through these forgotten books posts is discovering what to move off of my shelves and into the to-read stack. I’ll die before I get to everything, but it’s so nice to have some expert recommendations to make sure I don’t miss the good stuff.