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.”

SUSAN MOODY – Penny Dreadful. Fawcett Gold Medal, paperback; 1st US printing, August 1986. First published in the UK: Macmillan, hardcover, 1984.

   The Penny in the title refers to Penny Wanawake, girl photographer, whose sleuthing activities place her as as nearly the perfect opposite of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple as can be imagined. While she is British, Penny is tall, young, black (corn-row braided hairdo), a sophisticated world traveler, and while a possessor of one live-in lover at home, she is not adverse to having others when she’s not.

   But returning to the title of this one, it’s at least a double, if not triple, play on words. The dead man in the affair is a writer of cheap blood-and-thunder pulp fiction, supplementing his day job as a schoolmaster at an exclusive boys’ school in Canterbury. Penny dreadfuls, in other words. He’s a dreadful man, too, since his books incorporate much of the scandalous activities his roving eyes have uncovered.

   And so no one really minds when he’s found dead. The police think the cause of death was a heart attack. Snooping in the kitchen, Penny finds the smell of gin in the sink, and she wonders if somebody had added something to it before disposing of it. Her interest in the case is not that of bringing a killer to justice, but more of an intellectual exercise in discovering the truth.

   There are any number of suspects. Adding to the thrill of the chase is the competition Penny is provided by the visiting policeman from Detroit she is currently sharing living quarters with. On the other hand, though, what Penny Wanawake doesn’t have is a “Watson” to bounce theories off of, and to be bedazzled by her investigative techniques and abilities and so on.

   We (the reader) follow her activities through the story from nearly beginning to end, and are usually given access to her thoughts, except (of course) when it really matters. Thus when it comes time for revealing the killer, we find that she had eliminated many possibilities lone before, although there was little in what she said or did that would have allowed us to come to the same conclusions.

   Nonetheless, while the story might have moved a bit too slowly for me, I did enjoy Penny Dreadful as a detective puzzle, one populated by people I could see as individuals. Susan Moody has wicked sense of humor, too, maybe even a bit sharper than mine. I could probably quote you parts I liked all day long, but here’s a paragraph I thought you might like. It’ll tell you, at least, what I’m talking about. From pages 141-142:

      The Penny Wanawake series —

Penny Black. Macmillan, 1984.
Penny Dreadful. Macmillan, 1984.
Penny Post. Macmillan, 1985.
Penny Royal. Macmillan, 1986.
Penny Wise. Joseph, 1988.

Penny Pinching. Joseph, 1989.
Penny Saving, Joseph, 1990.    No US edition.

   All but the last were published by Gold Medal in the US as paperback originals.

   After ending the Penny Wanawake series, author Susan Moody began another, this one featuring professional bridge player, Cassandra Swann. Six of the latter’s adventures were recorded between 1993 and 1999, four of them appearing here in the US.

RICK BOYER – The Whale’s Footprints. Houghton Mifflin, hardcover, 1988. Ivy Books, paperback, 1989.

   The Whale’s Footprints, the latest of the Doc Adams stories by Rick Boyer, has a well-developed plot and effective misdirection, but the characters seem to emote rather than feel and communicate.

   Doc and Mary’s son Jack, studying whales at Wood’s Hole on Cape Cod, brings a friend, Andy, home for the weekend. But Andy dies in the night — someone has fiddled with his epilepsy medication. And the police rather think Jack might have been the fiddler.

   Doc and Mary, enraged and horrified, begin exploring on their own. Andy, it develops, wasn’t quite the blameless young man he might have appeared. Not that this clears Jack. Oh, no….

      The Doc Adams series —

Billingsgate Shoal (1982)     [Edgar Winner, Best Novel, 1983]
The Penny Ferry (1984)

The Daisy Ducks (1986)
Moscow Metal (1987)

The Whale’s Footprints (1988)
Gone to Earth (1990)

Yellow Bird (1991)
Pirate Trade (1994)
The Man Who Whispered (1998)

W. GLENN DUNCAN – Rafferty: Poor Dead Cricket. Gold Medal, paperback original, 1988.

   Poor Dead Cricket is the third in a series about Rafferty, a Dallas private eye. Having propounded many of Lachman’s Laws myself, including the first, “Never read a book with a Swastika on the cover,” which Jon Breen once quoted in EQMM, I was glad to see that Duncan thinks similarly, and he gives many of Rafferty’s Rules, such as (#39) “Smiting the wicked sounds biblical, but mostly it’s just good clean fun.”

   So is this book, about a decent, albeit wise-cracking detective who gets involved in an environmental case similar to the one involving Karen Silkwood. Rafferty does an excellent job in reconstructing the character of Cricket Dawes, who is killed before the book begins, and he sorts out the good and bad people while nicely imparting the flavor of Texas and its speech.

       The Rafferty series —

Rafferty’s Rules (1987)    Film: Cinepix, 1992, as Snake Eater III: His Law.
Last Seen Alive (1987)
Poor Dead Cricket (1988)
Wrong Place, Wrong Time (1989)
Cannon’s Mouth (1990)

Fatal Sisters (1990)    [Winner, Shamus award, Best Paperback Original, 1991]

   Some of Rafferty’s Rules are listed here on the Thrilling Detective website. Here are a couple of good ones:

11. To feel really dumb, be a smart ass once too often.

16. When you can’t tell the bad guys from the good guys, it’s time to get the hell out.

   This is a list of the female licensed PI’s featured in American TV series only. We will save the amateurs such as Murder She Wrote ’s Jessica Fletcher, female spies such as Mrs. Smith in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and female cops such as Samantha Spade in Without a Trace for other lists.

       THE LIST:

HONEY WEST (ABC 1965-1966). Based on a series of books by G.G. Fickling (Gloria and Forrest Fickling), the series starred Anne Francis as licensed PI Honey West. Honey West’s first television appearance was in Burke’s Law episode “Who Killed the Jackpot” (April 21, 1965).

MOST DEADLY GAME (ABC, 1970-1971) Yvette Mimieux played Vanessa Smith, one of three criminologists who worked together solving unusual murders.

CHARLIE’S ANGELS (ABC, 1976-1981) Charlie’s “angels” were female PIs Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson), Jill Munroe (Farah Fawcett), Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd), Tiffany Welles (Shelley Hack), and Julie Rogers (Tanya Roberts).

REMINGTON STEELE (NBC, 1982-1987) PI Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) created a fictional male boss for her agency to attract clients who thought the idea of a female PI was too feminine. Then one day he walked in…

TUCKER’S WITCH (CBS, 1982-1983) Catherine Hicks as Mrs. Amanda Turker. PI and witch. See: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=6805

PARTNERS IN CRIME (NBC, 1984) PI Raymond Caulfield left his agency to his ex-wives, proper brunette Carole Stanwyck (Lynda Carter) and fun loving blonde Sydney Kovak (Loni Anderson).

ME AND MOM (ABC, 1985) PI Kate Morgan (Lisa Eilbacher) solved crimes with her mom’s (Holland Taylor) help.

LEG WORK (CBS, 1987) Margaret Colin as former assistant district attorney turned PI Claire McCarron, who liked to live beyond her means in New York.

DIAMONDS (CBS Lste Night, 1987-1988) Married couple Christina Towne (Peggy Smithhart) and Mike Devitt (Nicholas Campbell) played PIs on a TV series. The series got cancelled and they got divorced. Later they decided to start their own PI agency.

SYDNEY (CBS, 1990) Sitcom starring Valerie Bertinelli as PI Sydney Kells.

BAYWATCH NIGHTS (Syndicated, 1995-1997) Ryan McBride (Angie Harmon) and Mitch Buchannon (David Hasselhoff) leave the beach to become PIs.

SNOOPS (ABC, 1999) PI agency owned by PI Glenn Hall (Gina Gershon). The staff featured Dana Plant (Paula Marshall), Roberta Young (Paula Jai Parker) and token guy Manny (Danny Nucci).

WILD CARD (Lifetime, 2003-2005) Zoe Busiek (Joey Fisher) teamed up with Dan Lennox (Chris Potter) as PIs for an insurance company. Rae Dawn Chong played PI Sophia Mason in the first season.

VERONICA MARS (UPN 2004-2006) (CW, 2006-2007) Veronica (Kristen Bell) was a student and part time PI in her father’s PI agency.

SEX DECOY (Fox Reality, 2009) Reality series with PI Sandra Hope. She and her operatives entrap cheating husbands for our viewing pleasure.

THE GOOD WIFE (CBS, 2009–present). Law drama. PI Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjab) works for the law firm Lockhart Gardner.

CHARLIE’S ANGELS (ABC, 2011) Remake with new “angels,” Kate Prince (Annie Ilonzeh), Eve French (Minka Kelly), and Abby Sampson (Rachael Taylor).

       PI or Not PI:

KHAN (CBS, 1975) PI Khan (Khigh Dhiegh) was helped by his two college aged children, a son, and his criminologist student daughter Anna (Irene Yah-Ling Sun).

MOONLIGHTING (ABC, 1985-1989) Model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) was horrified to discover she owned the Blue Moon detective agency. The agency employed one PI, David Addison (Bruce Willis). David and Maddie solved crimes and found ways to drive up each other’s blood pressure.

EYE TO EYE (ABC, 1985) PI Oscar Poole (Charles Durning) teams up with ex-partner’s young sexy daughter, Tracy Doyle (Stephanie Faracy).

TOTAL SECURITY (ABC, 1997) High-tech security firm with large staff including Jody Kiplinger (Debrah Farentino) and Ellie Jones (Tracey Needham).

V.I.P. (Syndicated, 1998-2002) Pamela Anderson plays Vallery Irons, the “Remington Steele” of bodyguards. While the public believes Vallery is the world’s greatest bodyguard, it is her staff that does all the work. The staff included ex-spy Tasha Dexter (Molly Culver), Nikki (Natalie Raitano) weapons expert, Kay (Leah Lail) computer expert, and Quick (Shaun Baker) marksman and ex-boxer.

THE HUNTRESS (USA, 2000-2001) Dorothy “Dottie” Thorson (Annette O’Toole) and her daughter, Brandi (Jordana Spiro) ran a bounty hunting business.

EYES (ABC, 2005) Harlan Judd (Tim Daly) ran a high-tech investigation firm. The female members of the staff included Nora Gage (Garcelle Beauvais), Meg Bardo (A.J. Langer), Leslie Town (Laura Leighton), and Trish Agermeyer (Natalie Zea).

   Did I miss anyone?

   I recommend the Thrilling Detective website as a good place to look, especially this page: https://www.thrillingdetective.com/tveyes.html

   Other sources include the usual “suspects”: IMDB.com, TV.com, and Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh (Ballantine, Ninth edition).

MARCIA BIEDERMAN – Post No Bonds. Scribner’s, hardcover, 1988. Penguin, paperback, 1989.

   Marcia Biederman makes her second excursion into our precincts with Post No Bonds. Phil Stark is a bail bondsman in Massachusetts. His wife Grace wants to redo the house, but Phil’s business is not flourishing. Grace’s attempts to improve Phil’s competitive position bring the law down around his neck, so he transfers the business and assets to Grace and tries selling insurance.

   Grace is a no-nonsense, middle-aged type, fully capable of larceny and pulling triggers in a good cause. The good cause shortly presents itself: she bails a drug dealer, who skips, leaving Grace holding a $30,000 bag. Attaching herself to Darcy, the dealer’s market analyst cum bedmate, Grace sets out to get her investment back. An amusing and inventive tale.

Bibliographic Data:   For some reason I thought Grace Stark was a recurring character, but not so.   [Footnote.]   Marcia Biederman wrote only three novels before leaving the field of crime fiction:

       The Makeover. Academy Chicago, 1984.
       Post No Bonds. Scribner, 1988.
       Sismo. Walker, 1993.

   One other online review of Post No Bonds is very positive, saying in part: “Pledging her condominium as collateral for Heywood’s bond is his girlfriend Darcy, who also teams with Grace to bring in Heywood. They make an effective, unorthodox pair of amateur sleuths. […] The incongruity of finding a housewife such as Grace Stark in such places gives the book much of its humor. Armed with a pistol and a bulletproof raincoat, Grace proves to be surprisingly resourceful and tough enough to hold her own. Added fun comes from the interplay between the incompatible Grace and Darcy.”

   Makes one wish that there was another book telling of their adventures.

[Footnote.]   Now I remember. The cover of the hardcover edition states:   “A Mystery Introducing Grace Stark.”

NORBERT DAVIS – The Mouse in the Mountain. William Morrow, hardcover, 1943. Handi-Books #40, paperback, 1945, as Dead Little Rich Girl. Rue Morgue Press, trade paperback, 2001.

    Norbert Davis was a mystery writer who entered the scene in the early 30s with a story in Black Mask magazine entitled “Reform Racket” (June 1932). He managed to switch to the slicks such as Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post, had a couple of detective novels published in hardcover, then one in paperback, and suddenly the bottom seemed to have fell out of the market for him. He committed suicide in 1949 when he was only 40 years old.

    This is the first of the three novels, all featuring the detective “team” of Doan and Carstairs. Doan is a little mild fat man who is also a private eye. According to his description on page 3:   “He looked like a very nice, pleasant sort of person, and on rare occasions he was.” Carstairs, his friend and constant companion, is an enormous Great Dane.

    Doan and Carstairs are in Mexico in this one, on a mission consisting (according to common knowledge) of finding and convincing a fugitive from the United States to stay in Mexico and not come home to bother a certain group of politicians who would rather certain activities remain unknown.

    “Common knowledge” may or may not be correct, as I’m sure you realize, and therein likes the story. What is most remarkable about Norbert Davis and his style of writing is how funny the story is, and how quickly the comedy can change into sudden violence.

    To reach the village of Los Altos, for example, Doan must take a sightseeing bus loaded with other typical American tourists, including the rich heiress to a flypaper company and a family with one of the brattiest kids this side of the comic strips. The laughter stops, however, at least momentarily, when they arrive and within minutes Doan must shoot an escaped fugitive in the mouth. Within days many more funny incidents have occurred, and so have several more deaths (not including the earthquake).

    It’s a top notch job of writing. Even though the plot itself is a little thin, it’s hard to complain about that. Davis makes writing seem so easy that anyone could do it, but if that were so, why can’t everybody write a novel that goes down as smoothly as this?

       The Doan & Carstairs series —

The Mouse in the Mountain. Morrow, hc, 1943.
Sally’s in the Alley. Morrow, hc, 1943.

Oh, Murderer Mine. Handi-Books, pb, 1946.

    A long article about Norbert Davis and one of his enthusiastic readers, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, appears here on the main Mystery*File website. Following the article are several home photos of Davis and a complete bibliography, including his short fiction.

STEVEN F. HAVILL – Heartshot. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, March 1991. Poisoned Pen Press, softcover, 2007.

   There’s always a small shiver of excitement that runs through a reader when a new writer comes along showing all the signs of being a natural-born storyteller. It’s a chancy thing, though, and while it was there at the beginning of Steven Havill’s debut novel Heartbeat, but by book’s end, sadly to say, the flame had flickered and was sadly diminished.

   Telling the story is Bill Gastner, an aging (and badly overweight) undersheriff for Posadas County, New Mexico. A relic of the past and chafing under the recent election of a PR-oriented sheriff, Gastner wonders if perhaps his days on the job are numbered. Then a carload of teenagers smashes up, leaving five of them dead, and in the car is $150,000 worth of cocaine.

   So Gastner, with the help of Estelle Reyes, the only detective on the force, gets a chance to show he’s still worth his keep. It’s an excellent start, but halfway through the book, things begin to go awry. A fine new secondary character is introduced, but the potential to do even better things with him is sadly wasted.

   Maybe Havill didn’t intend to write a mystery. Maybe he meant only to write a crime story taking place in small town near the Mexican border. But if you wish for matters like motives, opportunities and small clues to be connected up, you will have to wait longer than the author seems to have taken pages to tell.

   [WARNING: Plot Alert] It might have been a good idea at the time, but one thing I don’t understand is why Gastner contronts one of the villains while they are alone together in a private airplane. (I won’t reveal any identities, but any detective story reader who doesn’t know who it is long before they take off simply hasn’t been paying attention.) Not only that, Gastner has just stolen his way out of a hospital room afer suffering a severe heart attack, and the plane is not pressurized. Oh, oh.

   Don’t get me wrong. The characters in Heartshot are terrific. It’s going to be the first in a series, I’m sure, and the people in this one are worth coming back to, to find out more about them. The writing is fine, and the storytelling ability is there. So what’s missing? Simply somebody (an editor, most preferably) to tell the author that the story he’s telling just isn’t holding all the water it’s supposed to.

      The Bill Gastner series —

Heartshot (1991)
Bitter Recoil (1992)
Twice Buried (1994)
Before She Dies (1996)
Privileged to Kill (1997)
Prolonged Exposure (1998)
Out of Season (1999)

Dead Weight (2000)
Bag Limit (2001)

   After Bill Gastner’s retirement, the remaining books in the series feature Undersheriff Estella Reyes-Guzman:

Scavengers (2002)

A Discount for Death (2003)
Convenient Disposal (2004)
Statute of Limitations (2006)
Final Payment (2007)

The Fourth Time is Murder (2008)
Red, Green, or Murder (2009)
Double Prey (2011)

One Perfect Shot (2012)

[UPDATE] 03-07-12.   With all of the followup books in the series, it’s a good thing that Steven Havill did not read this review and decide to call it quits on a writing career, right then and there. Maybe you shouldn’t pay any attention to it, either. In any case, I don’t have any of the other books in the series, and I think I ought to remedy that.

JACQUELINE WINSPEAR – An Incomplete Revenge. Henry Holt & Co., US, hardcover, February 2008. Picador, US, trade paperback, November 2008.

Genre:   Historical Mystery. Leading character:  Maisie Dobbs; 5th in series. Setting:   England, 1931.

First Sentence:   The old woman rested on the steps of her home, a caravan set apart from those of the rest of her family, her tribe.

   An old friend hires investigator Maisie Dobbs to look into matters relating to a potential land purchase. Petty thefts have been blamed on boys from London there to help pick hops, but the residents distrust the Gypsies in the area as well.

   Maisie discovers that small fires have occurred every year but no one ever reported them to the fire departments or police. A family was killed during the war by a Zeppelin attack, yet no one will talk about it. Maisie must put together the pieces together while also dealing with her feelings about the soldier she loves who has been in a coma since the war.

   This is my second foray into Maisie Dobbs. I didn’t care for her the first time and, I must admit, nothing much has changed. Winspear does include information on the gypsies that I found interesting until it became redundant. She also includes details to the point of minutia on things that aren’t particularly important. Her descriptions are informative but not evocative, so that a feeling for the sense of place is missing.

   As a character, Maisie is the sort of person who would annoy me if I knew her. Yes, I can justify some of it by remembering she’s experienced the trauma of war, but not all. There is arrogance to Maisie that surpasses self confidence and is somewhat unappealing as it borders on arrogance. Her friend, Priscilla, is the complete antithesis to Maisie and annoying in her own way. In fact, the most interesting characters in the book are Maisie’s father, followed closely by the dog.

   The story itself is just not gripping. There’s no real suspense or emotion; everything is at a distance and somewhat dispassionate. The number of coincidences is overwhelming; Maisie’s perfection at everything becomes tiring. Everyone is willing to talk to her. There is no struggle or effort really required; it’s all quite neat and rather placid.

   For those who like cozies; no violence, no real threat, no swearing, no sex, no real evil, this would be perfect. Unfortunately, that’s just not my taste so although there were parts that were interesting, it was not really my cup of tea — single malt whiskey, please.

Rating:   OK.

      The Maisie Dobbs series —

1. Maisie Dobbs (2003)    Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (2004)
2. Birds of a Feather (2004)    Agatha Award Best Novel winner (2004)
3. Pardonable Lies (2005)    Agatha Award Best Novel nominee (2005)

4. Messenger of Truth (2006)    Agatha Award Best Novel nominee (2006)
5. An Incomplete Revenge (2008)
6. Among the Mad (2009)

7. The Mapping of Love and Death (2010)
8. A Lesson in Secrets (2011)
9. Elegy for Eddie (2012)

DONALD MacKENZIE – Death Is a Friend. Houghton Mifflin; US, hardcover, 1967. First published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, hardcover, 1967.

   One of the reasons I bought this was because one of the crooks in this ill-fated crime caper is a stamp dealer by profession. (I used to collect the things before I discovered that once hinged into an album there’s nothing you can do with them.)

   Three men brought together by greed are splintered apart by distrust jealous hatred — yes, there’s a woman involved — and a fine portrayal of the fickle finger of fate.

   MacKenzie is not a particularly good writer, but he’s often an effective one. Except for the ending, which made no sense at all, this is a pretty fair example of the destructive effects inherent in some human relationships. There’s nothing in the plot that seriously depends on stamps, though.     (C plus)

[UPDATE] 03-01-12.   Donald MacKenzie was a very prolific mystery writer, with nearly 40 titles to his credit between 1965 and 1993. Sixteen of these were cases solved in one way or another by John Raven, a hardboiled inspector from Scotland Yard described by some sources as a “maverick.”

   When I wrote this review I did not realize it was the second of three books with Henry Chalice and Crying Eddie as the two leading characters. At this late date I do not know who they are or what role they had in Death Is a Friend. All I can tell you is that neither of them are the stamp collector I was talking about, nor (I am sure) either of his two accomplices:

       The Henry Chalice & Crying Eddie series —

Salute from a Dead Man. Hodder, 1966.
Death Is a Friend. Hodder, 1967.
Sleep Is for the Rich. Macmillan, 1971.