Mon 17 Feb 2020
NORBERT DAVIS – Oh, Murderer Mine. Doan & Carstairs #3. Handi-Book #54, digest-sized paperback, 1946. Rue Morgue Press, softcover, 2003. Collected in Doan and Carstairs: Their Complete Cases, Altus Press, softcover, 2016.
Doan is a fiftyish and overweight private eye based in L.A., and fans of the stories he appeared in, starting back in the pulp magazines, constantly bemoan the fact that there weren’t more of them: only three novels and two short stories. Carstairs is his constant companion, a Great Dane, and one of he largest ever of his breed. And together they tackle the wackiest combination of hard-boiled fiction and goofy humor that you can possibly imagine.
Unfortunately Oh, Murderer Mine is strong on the goofiness, but weak on the hard-boiled side of things. It may be the reason that the only publisher willing to take it on was a third-rank paperback outfit named Handi-Books. Their books were in size somewhere between regular paperbarks and digest-sized ones(a la EQMM). Many of their books were condensed down drastically from their earlier hardcover appearances; some, such as this one,were paperback originals.
The setting is academia, which of course makes a very easy target of jokes and other funnery, and it begins with an anthropology instructor named Melissa Gregory going to her office and finding another faculty member ensconced there, courtesy the head of the school It turns out that he’s married to the fabulously wealthy Heloise of Hollywood, who has hired Doan to keep young impressionable women from throwing themselves at his feet.
Somehow or another murder comes into play, and by story’s end at least three people has been killed. In the meantime, Carstairs has taken over much of the book, including a madhouse romp on his part through Heloise’s salon facility, including the mudbath area.
There is no depth to any of the characters, however, some of whom have only walk-on parts but who are just as wacky as those who have much larger roles. In all in the name of good-natured fun, except perhaps for the murder victims. I think the earlier two books were better.
The Doan & Carstairs series —
Novels:
The Mouse in the Mountain (1943).
Sally’s in The Alley (1943)
Oh, Murderer Mine (1946)
Short stories:
“Holocaust House” Argosy, Nov 16 & 23, 1940.
“Cry Murder!” Flynn’s Detective Fiction, July 1944.
February 18th, 2020 at 3:02 pm
I agree on the first two books being better, but it is the kind of wackiness I don’t mind.
February 19th, 2020 at 7:07 am
Might the original version have been a full-length book which Handi-books condensed before they published it, perhaps? As Davis was Wittgenstein’s favourite writer, we could turn academics loose in a quest for his lost writings.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:28 am
That’s a thought that hadn’t occurred to me, Roger, and one well worth looking into, if possible. Whether academic or not!
February 19th, 2020 at 3:34 pm
This one does read like either a first draft or a condensed version of something by Davis, and it is very much the least of the series. Since there is no mention in the article for anyone unfamiliar with the series it helps to know that the well bred Carstairs has nothing but disdain for his less pedigreed owner, Doan, a running gag throughout the series.
February 20th, 2020 at 4:36 pm
Hi Steve—
It’s certainly possible that OH, MURDERER MINE was condensed from a longer manuscript, but my guess is that it was written to order for Handi-Books as part of a two-book deal (the other book being the condensed reprint of MOUSE IN THE MOUNTAIN).
Davis was a very fast and facile writer; he knocked off several 35,000-40,000 word short novels for the pulps, so OMM wouldn’t have taken him long to do.
Seems to me that if it had been written earlier than 1946 as a full-length novel and rejected by Morrow, his agent would have been able to sell it to another hardcover publisher, even if necessary to a bottom-line outfit like Mystery House which published the pseudonymous Davis/W. T. Ballard collaboration, MURDER PICKS THE JURY, in 1947.
February 20th, 2020 at 4:56 pm
Everything you say makes a lot of sense to me, Bill. Thanks! It helps a lot to know what publishers etc that Davis was working with at the time.
February 21st, 2020 at 12:38 am
Norbert Davis is one of my favorite writers for many of the reasons you find as a negative. I could not care less about the murder. It is just something for the characters to talk about.
But his prose is so delightfully witty it is all I need to be entertained.
February 21st, 2020 at 12:59 am
I did finish the book, Michael, so from my point of view, it was quite acceptable, with the caveats I either mention or hint at. (There are many many books these days I get halfway though or less and just quit, and you never hear about them here.)
From your comment, though, I think it safe to say that you enjoyed this one more than I did. Have you read all three of the Doan & Carstars books? If so, would you agree with my final assessment that the first two are better than this one?
February 21st, 2020 at 11:27 am
Steve, I have read all the Doan and Carstairs stories and liked SALLY IN THE ALLEY best and the other two books about the same.
Of all the different Davis’ characters I like Doan and Carstairs the best – though I did get the feeling Davis didn’t like them much.