Fri 6 Jun 2014
William F. Deeck
RUFUS KING – The Case of the Constant God. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1936. Popular Library #193, no date [1949].
— The Case of the Dowager’s Etchings. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1944. Popular Library #362, 1951, as Never Walk Alone.
Not only is Sigurd Repellen a nasty blackmailer in The Case of the Constant God, he is allergic to shrimp, both of which drawbacks cause a young lady to commit suicide. When Repellen presumably is accidentally killed by the young lady’s husband, the other family members who witness the death try to cover it up.
They might have succeeded, but the blow on the head that caused Repellen’s seeming heart attack and death turns out, upon medical examination, to be a blow upon the head and a .22 bullet in the heart.
The family’s transporting the dead man around New York doesn’t help any. This odd behavior comes to the attention of Lieutenant Valcour, who joins the group on a yacht too late to prevent another murder, though in time to capture the killer.
Not quite fair play, but moderately amusing. And could someone tell me why King kept putting Valcour aboard yachts? For a New York City police detective, he spent a lot of time on the water.
Feeling guilty about not helping in the war effort, Mrs. Chatterton Giles, who is the dowager in The Case of the Dowager’s Etchings and who is in her seventies, decides to rent rooms to defense-plant workers. The four rooms are taken quickly, by two men Mrs. Giles likes — well, one of them had bought her etching at an art show — one man who looks uncomfortably like Humphrey Bogart, and a young woman obviously no better than she should be.
The night that several of the roomers move in, there is murder on the grounds of the Giles estate. What’s even worse, Mrs. Giles’s war-hero grandson appears to have been involved.
Mrs. Giles is an interesting character, but the plot is lightweight. Not one of King’s better efforts.
June 6th, 2014 at 11:00 pm
I never did know why a New York Homicide detective kept ending up on yachts.
I liked King, though today he is better remembered for his crime stories set in Florida and his suspense novels than the detective stories.
Good writer though, I always ranked him in that group like Lawrence Blochman of good, even superior, writers who often made the mid-lists more interesting than the top sellers.
June 6th, 2014 at 11:34 pm
The comparison with Blochman is a good one. Unfortunately neither author is remembered today. Besides you and me, who else? Maybe one other fellow, or perhaps two.
June 7th, 2014 at 8:04 pm
This is a good review. Added a link to it from my Rufus King article.
Yes, there are long articles on Rufus King and Lawrence Blochman on my web site.
Have done everything one can think of, to encourage interest in these two talented authors.
June 7th, 2014 at 8:12 pm
Mike,
You are the other fellow I was referring to in my comment #2. There may be others who remember Rufus King, but not many.
Here’s a link to your article on Rufus King:
http://mikegrost.com/rufusking.htm
and as long as I’m at it,
http://mikegrost.com/blochman.htm#Blochman
June 7th, 2014 at 8:23 pm
Steve,
Thank you!
On why Valcour seems to be on yachts:
Rufus King loved scenes on boats. I agree: they are often dragged in out of left field. But they allow him to include a favorite setting.
From my article:
“The book jacket of the US edition of Valcour Meets Murder asserts that he “has served with the marine division of the New York police”. It also says he salvaged a ship off Pernambuco, Brazil. The jacket of Murder in the Willett Family says that King was a former “New York river policeman. He was associated for some time with one of America’s most famous detectives, on whose methods those of Lieutenant Valcour are modeled.”
I’d like to learn more about this era in young King’s life, but have never seen any details.
June 8th, 2014 at 3:28 pm
Thanks Mike, that explains why Valcour was so often at sea, physically if not mentally.
I loved Blochman’s Dr. Coffee, but I think his Indian novels with Inspector Prike are his best, Bombay Mail filmed at least twice with Edmond Lowe and then Jon Hall Of course the B classic Quiet Please! Murder, apparently based on “Death in Sanscrit,” is, along with the Coffee books, his best remembered — at least by the three of us, though one or two more might recall the Patrick O’Neal Coffee series with — if I remember right — Chester Morris.
King is best known now as the author of the book Fritz Lang’s The Secret Beyond the Door was based on, and though I have never been able to confirm it, I’ve heard it suggested the Rod Cameron syndicated series State Trooper was loosely based on his work.
I do know, at least in the sixties through the eighties, Blochman and King were fairly collectable, unless I was competing for copies with the two of you.