Tue 11 Sep 2018
A GOLD MEDAL Mystery Review: BRUNO FISCHER – Murder in the Raw.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Reviews[8] Comments
BRUNO FISCHER – Murder in the Raw. Gold Medal #694, paperback original; 1st printing, August 1957. Cover art: James Meese. Reprinted as #1011, 1960.
I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say that Bruno Fischer wrote hundreds of pulp mystery stories, or if it is, it isn’t by much. (I’m counting stories under his own name as well as Russell Gray and Harrison Storm.) The first of these was “The Cat Woman” which appeared in the November 1936 issue of Dime Mystery Magazine under the Russell Gray byline.
He wrote one hardcover mystery novel in 1939 (So Much Blood, for the obscure Greystone Press) but it wasn’t until the mid-1940s that he made the transition to novel length work for good. He was one of the early authors to sign up with Gold Medal when they began publishing, circa 1950, writing 11 novels for them throughout the first year they were in business.
Obviously the most provocative thing about Murder in the Raw — well, make it two — are the title and the cover art, both designed to catch the eye of a would-be buyer (male, of course). I don’t know if the title was Fischer’s choice, but the scene shown is in the book.
But even so, both the title and the cover art disguise the fact that this is a pretty good detective story and an even better character study. When newspaper reporter Clem Prosper tries to take a short vacation in a lodge along a lake, he finds his host missing and himself falling in love with a young woman living nearby who has been badly scarred by having been acquitted of killing her husband, a man she loved but did not know his secret life was that of a notorious gangster.
Fischer does a good job of hiding the identity of the true killer, suggesting at one time it is one person, then another, and convincing the reader each time that it could have been him or her. I think that’s the sign of a good author, to flesh out and define his (or her) characters well enough to make what’s essentially a puzzle plot actually work.
September 12th, 2018 at 12:11 am
Not to be confused with the William Campbell Gault novel that has the very same title.
September 12th, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Right you are, Dozy. Here’s the cover of the Dell edition:
September 12th, 2018 at 6:37 am
I will always remember this book as part of my reading transition from Childhood to Young Adultery.
September 12th, 2018 at 6:45 am
Dan, I know several people who have very fond memories of their first Young Adultery.
September 12th, 2018 at 10:49 am
Back when I was 15 I wish I knew what I think I know now. Books like this one were certainly steps along the way.
September 12th, 2018 at 1:44 pm
Steve, I just wish I were half as smart now as I thought I was at 15.
September 12th, 2018 at 5:01 pm
Fischer’s books, especially for Gold Medal had a reputation for being just a shade kinkier than most of the company’s fare often reflected by their covers. I don’t really recall them as quite as racy as they promised, but they still were “hot” compared to much of what was on the kiosks with them, even from GM.
Fischer wrote a few good hardcover mysteries with a series PI in the transition period from pulps to paperbacks, but really seemed to hit his stride with these “spicy” slightly kinky paperback originals. By the time I hit the right age there was much racier fare available, but I can imagine the impact these had on many a young hormonal reader.
Which unfairly suggests that was all there was to Fischer’s GM novels, which is really unfair, because when I read them in the mid sixties they were still well written mysteries that caught and kept your attention, Fischer’s sure hand showing well beyond those cover scenes that may have lured us to read the book in the first place.
Once you got past the cover it was his skill as a mystery and suspense writer and not the sleaze that kept you turning the pages.
September 12th, 2018 at 6:18 pm
Exactly right, David. Exactly right. Even the cover scene, which is in the book, and shows pretty much what took place as Clem rescues the girl from the lake, is nowhere nearly as salacious as what I’m sure many readers were looking for. In spite of the cover and the title, what this book really is is a fairly decent detective novel.