JACK IAMS – A Shot of Murder. William Morrow, hardcover, 1950. Dell #722, paperback, 1953.

   When a young American woman, Nita Romaine — a night club singer — disappears in Eastern Europe, recently married reporter “Rocky” Rockwell of the Riverside, Ohio Record manages to talk his editor into sending him and his bride to Europe in order to look for her — the missing woman’s fiancé being a local man.

   It isn’t long before Rocky realizes that someone doesn’t want him to be successful. A man mistaken for him is thrown over the side of the ocean liner transporting them, and efforts are made in Paris to get him entangled with the French police.

   Rocky is helped in Paris by Mrs. Pickett, the paper’s society columnist but is forced to go to Poland alone (though an attractive French woman with reasons of her own for going to Poland attaches herself to him) and continue his search.

   From reading the dust jacket, I gather that this was the third book in a series in which Mrs. Pickett was the lead character. Mrs. Pickett is something of a Rosalind Russell type. In this book, however, Rocky is definitely the major character.

   If I were to compare this with another series I would say it was entertaining in the same way that Manning Coles’ Tommy Hambledon novels are entertaining. Lightweight fluff, that is, a pleasant read, but about as realistic as a three dollar bill.

   One wonders how big a city Riverside, Ohio, is and how a local paper can afford to pay to send a reporter and his wife gallivanting through Europe.

Bibliography:    [Taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin]

JACK IAMS, 1910-1990.

   The Body Missed the Boat (n.) Morrow 1947.

   Girl Meets Body (n.) Morrow 1947.

   Death Draws the Line (n.) Morrow 1949.

   Do Not Murder Before Christmas (n.) Morrow 1949 [Rocky Rockwell; Amelia Pickett]

   What Rhymes with Murder? (n.) Morrow 1950 [Rocky Rockwell; Amelia Pickett]

   A Shot of Murder (n.) Morrow 1950 [Rocky Rockwell]

   Into Thin Air (n.) Morrow 1952.
   A Corpse of the Old School (n.) Gollancz 1955 [Amelia Pickett]

Editorial Comments:   Al seems to have missed Amelia Pickett as a character in A Shot of Murder. Perhaps her role was small, but I’ll still send him a note to make sure he knows. It’s interesting to see that Iams’ last book, another Amelia Pickett novel, was never published here in the US.

RICHARD GOYNE – The Lipstick Clue. Stanley Paul, UK, hardcover, 1954. No US edition.

   Collectors of clergyman detectives may want to try Goyne’s series featuring The Padre — the Rev. Peter Eversleigh — whom I do not remember seeing on lists of clergy detectives.

   One of the reasons The Padre may not have made such lists is that his denomination, at least in this novel, is not revealed, though I would speculate on High Anglican. Another reason, again at least in this novel, is that Eversleigh may as well have been a lawyer or a doctor or unemployed, for that matter.The religious aspect is negligible.

   Still, the plot is a good one. A retired colonel, who is something more than a scoundrel, asks his estranged family to give him another chance as a father. For reasons unclear at the start, they all do come to spend the weekend with him, despite each of them despising him for various reasons. As is to be expected, the not-so-good colonel finishes the first night of the weekend dead to the last drop.

   The Padre had been invited as a sort of leavening for the group. He ends up investigating the murder, discovering what is in some respects an unusual motive for killing, and learning who the murderer was. An interesting case that makes one not reluctant to read the other novels in which The Padre appears — for the detectival aspect, not for his role as a clergyman.

       The Peter Eversleigh (The Padre) series —

   The Crime Philosopher (n.) Paul 1945.

   Savarin’s Shadow (n.) Paul 1947.
   The Dark Mind (n.) Paul 1948.
   Traitor’s Tide (n.) Paul 1948.
   The Courtway Case (n.) Paul 1951.
   The Lipstick Clue (n.) Paul 1954.

   Besides a long list of books under his own name, Richard Goyne (1902-1957) is credited with another two dozen or so as by John Courage, plus a scattered handful under the names Aileen Grey, Scarlet Grey, Kitty Lorraine, Paul Renin & Richard Standish.

   Other series characters under his own name are: Paul Templeton (13), Sexton Blake (2), and Supt. “Tubby” Greene (2).

THE FRONT COVER:

THE INSIDE FRONT JACKET FLAP:

To Readers of Detective Stories:

   One day last December our editorial and sales departments agreed that too many mystery stories are being published in America and decided to accept no more such novels for at least six months. The next day two manuscripts were received. They were both by the same author. They were both detective stories. They were both accepted at once for publication.

   The Case of the Velvet Claws is one of those manuscripts. The second will be published in the fall. (*) And both sales and editorial departments claim the credit for being the first to prophecy that Erle Stanley Gardner will find a place immediately as one of the most popular authors of detective fiction.

   We hope that after reading this book you will agree we were justified in changing our minds.

* The Case of the Sulky Girl.

   Perry Mason, criminal lawyer, is retained by a much-too-beautiful woman who obviously is concealing more than she is telling. She has heard that Perry Mason not only a law unto himself, but that he never lets a client down. She has been indiscreet, and is involved in blackmail.

   The case is immediately complicated by murder, and Perry Mason finds himself as busy keeping clear of the law himself as he is in saving his client. The action is swift, dramatic, convincing. The handling and solution of the case are well developed and logical — perhaps because the author is a practicing lawyer with a trained legal mind.

   Mr. Gardner’s writing has a style and personality of its own. His characters are colorful and vital. The lawyer, Perry Mason, and his charming secretary, Della Street, we believe, will become famous characters to all detective story enthusiasts.

THE INSIDE BACK JACKET FLAP:   A detailed synopsis of –In Time for Murder, by R. A. J. Walling, a mystery novel also published by Morrow.

THE BACK COVER:   A statement of the philosophy of the publisher relative to detective fiction, and a list of the titles they had recently published:

R. A. WALLING
   Stroke of One
   –In Time for Murder
CHARLES G. BOOTH
    Those Seven Alibis
    Gold Bullets
CHRISTOPHER BUSH
    The Case of the April Fools
    Cut Throat
WALTER F. EBERHARDT
    A Dagger in the Dark
ROGER DENBIE (upcoming)
    Death on the Limited (April 1933)

COVER PRICE:   $2.00.

NOTE: Thanks to Bill Pronzini and Mark Terry for the cover images used to provide the information above.

KAREN KIJEWSKI – Kat’s Cradle. Doubleday, hardcover, March 1992. Bantam, paperback, December 1992.

   Throughout the decade she was active, the 1990s, Karen Kijewski was a prolific and well-regarded mystery writer. She won or was nominated for several awards, and she seemed to be doing well sales-wise. Living in northern California at the time, and perhaps still, she seems to slipped off the map since her final book (so far), Stray Kat Waltz (1998), the ninth adventure for her female PI character, Kat Colorado.

   I admit to being optimistic to adding the parenthetical phrase (so far) in that line above. It’s been 13 years since that last outing, though, so I’d have to agree that the chances are slim to none that we’ll ever see another entry in the series. Someone once suggested to me that when her contract ran out and wasn’t renewed, she decided to call it quits, but as I say, that’s only hearsay, if not an out and out and totally wild guess.

   In Cradle Kat is hired by a young heiress, Paige Morell, whose strong-willed (i.e., domineering) grandmother has just died. She never knew her parents, and she wants Kat to find out more about them. While she takes the job, Kat knows that digging around in the past may bring up more than her client might want to know, but convincing her of that is another story. (And not this one.)

   Her client also appears more than a tog unstable, with many emotional ups and downs as the story goes along. Under the circumstances, it’s nothing very surprising, but it also becomes clear that there’s several important things she’s not telling. Otherwise the case seems straightforward enough, but not so. It turns out to be a thoroughly exhausting affair for Kat, both physically and otherwise.

   That Kat is unable to establish on her part an emotional distance away from the case she’s on is part of the problem. This is Ross Macdonald territory, not Hammett, but Kat is no Lew Archer, who often observes but fails to get involved himself.

   Besides the investigation she finds herself an integral part of, in more ways than one, she allows her relationship with Hank, her close cop friend who lives in Las Vegas – which is more than a short hike from the Sacramento area, her base of operations – to wither away.

   Let’s change that last phrase to something more akin to “actively pushes away.” My feeling is that PI’s should not allow themselves to become romantically involved with clients, suspects, or suspects’ families and friends, nor can you always foresee what will happen on the rebound. There’s more than enough of a hint here to tell you what I found as a fatal flaw to this book’s telling, and you should immediately forget I said anything, if you ever intend to read this book.

   In any case, it was obviously Karen Kijewski’s intent to write a wrenching tale of dysfunctional family relationships, and that is exactly what she did. Kat is lucky to have escaped alive, in more ways than one.

      The Kat Colorado series:

1. Katwalk (1988)
2. Katapult (1990)

3. Kat’s Cradle (1991)
4. Copy Kat (1992)
5. Wild Kat (1994)
6. Alley Kat Blues (1995)

7. Honky Tonk Kat (1996)
8. Kat Scratch Fever (1997)
9. Stray Kat Waltz (1998)

   The first part of this article on pulp writer Victor Maxwell appeared earlier here on this blog. As Monte Herridge pointed out in the comments that followed, there was a quasi-autobiography of Maxwell in the January 5, 1929, issue of Detective Fiction Weekly. Monte, by the way, is indeed a DFW scholar. Now to be honest, I’ve never put a lot of stock in DFW’s authors’ writing about themselves because some were obviously pure fiction.

   Now what Max did was a blend. He had his Halloran character meet Victor Maxwell. Probably made perfect sense to him since both names were fiction. Halloran is telling young Willis of his encounter the next day. The germane part is very brief and the underlined words are my way of highlighting new information.

    “Well he says as how he began what he calls his ‘nefarious career,’ whatever that is, in New Yawk on the Sun, an’ went from there to the New Yawk City News Association, an’ then to Brooklyn an’ other bad luck burgs Includin’ Wilmington, Delaware and Boston, which went Democratic – yuh know the place — an’ then how his feet got to itchin’ and he come out West, infestin’ for some twenty years all the live burgs an’ them as was foredestined to become live burgs.

    “Most of the time, he says, he was a newspaperman, but once or twice he deteriorated into bein’ an editor, an’ once he was an advance man for a show. One time, he says, he ran for sheriff an’ got as far as gettin’ the Democratic nomination; an another time he says he was a special agent for the Governor of Oregon, doin’ high-class gumshoe work after Wobblies an’ such.

    “An it was then, he says, that he run across Don Thompson, who writes for DFW an’ he thought Thompson was a right smart guy. From what he says I got a hunch, too, that he done some Intelligence work durin’ the war; but yuh can’t tell about those guys.”

      BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.   Non-Crime Pulps.

* The Little Girl Who Got Lost.    The Popular Magazine, Jan 20 1916.
* Why Arabia Kissed Me.     The Popular Magazine, Aug #2 1916.
* No Show at All.     The Popular Magazine, Apr 5 1917.
* Opals Are Unlucky.     The Popular Magazine, Apr 20 1917.
* “Honest Jawn”.     The Popular Magazine, May 20 1917.
* Doubling the Double Cross.     The Popular Magazine June, 7 1917.
* A Personal Vengeance.     The Popular Magazine, June 20 1917.
* No Imagination.     The Popular Magazine, Sept 7 1917.
* Mushrooms and Airships.     The Popular Magazine, Sept 20 1917.
* Justified Piracy.     The Popular Magazine, Dec 20 1917.
* The Making of a Hero.     The Popular Magazine, July 20 1928.
* I Remember When.     Railroad Man’s Magazine, Feb 1930.
* Check and Double Check.     Railroad Man’s Magazine, Jan 1931.
* The Side-Rod Bender.     Railroad Man’s Magazine, Feb 1931.
* Rolling Sixty-Five or Better.     Short Stories, Oct 10 1931.
* Red Lantern Oil.     Railroad Stories, Aug 1932.
* The Deadhead Passenger.     Railroad Stories, Nov 1933.
* One Thing Leads to Another.     Street & Smith’s Complete Stories, May 20 1934.
* Crazy Like a Fox.     Street & Smith’s Complete Stories, Sept 3 1934.
* The Payoff Comes Last.     Street & Smith’s Complete Magazine, June 1935.
* A Good, Smart Girl.     Street & Smith’s Complete Magazine, July 1935.

B.   Detective Magazines.     DFW indicates variously Flynn’s, Flynn’s Weekly, Detective Fiction Weekly.

* The Plainly Marked Track.     DFW, Aug 8, 1925.
* The Work Of An Artist.     DFW, Sept 5, 1925.
* Threads Of Evidence.     DFW, Sept 19, 1925.
* What The Cipher Told.     DFW, Oct 24, 1925.
* The Honest Thief.     DFW, Nov 7, 1925.
* Another Use For Water.     DFW, Dec 5, 1925.
* Three Out On Christmas.     DFW, Dec 12, 1925.
* Mister Somebody Else.     DFW, Jan 9, 1926.
* The Ghost Burglar.     DFW, Feb 13, 1926.
* A Jeweler’s Reputation.     DFW, Feb 27, 1926.
* Two In The Dark.     DFW, Mar 27, 1926.
* The Hole In The Chimney.     DFW, May 8, 1926.
* The Haunted Street.     DFW, Aug 21, 1926.
* For A Point Of Honor.     DFW, Sept 4, 1926.
* Quick Work.     Sept 11, 1926.
* All Covered Up.     DFW, Sept 25, 1926.
* Something New in Vanities.     DFW, Oct 2, 1926.
* Riordan Seems Stupid.     DFW, Oct 23, 1926.
* A Darned Good Tailor.     DFW, Nov 20, 1926.
* An Open And Shut Case.     DFW, Dec 11, 1926.
* Died From Other Causes.     DFW, Dec 18, 1926.
* Politics.     DFW, Feb 26, 1927.
* The Staples Case.     DFW, Mar 5, 1927.
* The Bomb.     DFW, Mar 12, 1927.
* The Stolen Street Car.     DFW, Apr 9, 1927.
* Framed.     DFW, Apr 23, 1927.
* The Power Of The Press.     DFW, June 11, 1927.
* Applied Psychology.     DFW, July 16, 1927.
* All Crossed Up.     DFW, Oct 15, 1927.
* Riordan Uses Tact.     DFW, Oct 22, 1927.
* Straight Police Work.     DFW, Oct 29, 1927.
* One Thing After Another.     DFW, Feb 18, 1928.
* The Truth About The Prince (Pt.1).     DFW, Feb 25, 1928.
* The Truth About The Prince (Pt. 2).     DFW, Mar 3, 1928.
* The Truth About The Prince (Pt.3).     DFW, Mar 10, 1928.
* Tod Nevis Tells The Story.     DFW, Apr 21, 1928.
* A Young Man In Trouble.     DFW, May 5, 1928.
* The Other Side Of The Story.     DFW, Sept 1, 1928.
* He Learned To Use His Eyes.     DFW, Nov 10, 1928.
* The Dark Finger-Prints.     DFW, Dec 1, 1928.
* Mostly Head Work.     DFW, Dec 15, 1928.
* Too Good To Be Straight.     DFW, Jan 5, 1929.
* Riordan Foils A Press Agent.     DFW, Jan 26, 1929.
* The Murder Of Joe Parrish.     DFW, Feb 16, 1929.
* Marked Money.     DFW, Mar 16, 1929.
* Evidence Of Murder.     DFW, June 22, 1929.
* Protection Money.     DFW, Aug 17, 1929.
* The Bullet Holes In The Ceiling.     DFW, Oct 12, 1929.
* Suspicion Of Murder.     DFW, Jan 25, 1930.
* On Getting Out Of A Jam.     DFW, Feb 1, 1930.
* Hit-And-Run.     DFW, Apr 19, 1930.
* Brass Buttons.     DFW, Aug 2, 1930.
* The Invisible Death.     DFW, Sept 6, 1930.
* Two Confess Murder.     DFW, Sept 20, 1930.
* The Hazardous Path.     DFW, Oct 18, 1930.
* Fast Time On The Main Line.     DFW, Nov 1, 1930.
* A Fine Night For Murders.     DFW, Feb 28, 1930.
* One Of These Seven.     All Star Detective Stories, May 1931.
* The Man Who Left No Trace.     DFW, May 2, 1931.
* Handicapped By Facts.     DFW, May 16, 1931.
* Very Well Framed.     DFW, June 10, 1931.
* Missing Persons.     DFW, June 27, 1931.
* Accidental Death.     DFW, Aug 15, 1931.
* Halloran Makes A Case.     DFW, Sept 12, 1931.
* The Morning Alibi.     DFW, Sept 26, 1931.
* The Convicting Alibi.     DFW, Dec 19, 1931.
* Captain Brady Takes A Cue.     DFW, Jan 23, 1932.
* The Things They Saw.     DFW, Mar 5, 1932.
* More Than Satisfied.     DFW, Apr 9, 1932.
* The Corpus Delicti.     DFW, June 11, 1932.
* The Station House Murder.     DFW, July 2, 1932.
* Halloran Spots A Boner.     DFW, Dec 31, 1932.
* Pearls Before Swine.     DFW, Mar 4, 1933.
* The Serge At 2242.     DFW, May 20, 1933.
* Find The Woman In Red.     DFW, July 15, 1933.
* The Trail To The Treasure.     International Detective Magazine, Oct 1933.
* Way Up In The Air.     DFW, Nov 11, 1933.
* The Girl In The Hidden Cell.     DFW, Dec 9, 1933.
* The Old Lummox.     DFW, Dec 30, 1933.
* The Death In The Binoculars.     DFW, Mar 31, 1934.
* Straws Of Doom.     DFW, July 7, 1934.
* Cold Decked.     DFW, Sept 29, 1934.
* Murder On The Limited.     DFW, Dec 29, 1934.
* The High-Frequency Eliminator.     DFW, June 8, 1935.
* A Clever Job.     DFW, July 20, 1935.
* Shake And Shake Again.     DFW, Oct 2, 1935.
* Loose End.     DFW, Jan 11, 1936.
* Four Petrified Men.     DFW, Feb 15, 1936.
* Diamond Death Trail.     DFW, Mar 28, 1936.
* The Cart Before The Horse.     DFW, June 20, 1936.
* Dangerous Millions.     DFW, Aug 1, 1936.
* Dames Are Poison.     Detective Action Stories, Oct 1936.
* On The Mayor’s Doorstep.     Detective Action Stories, Dec 1936.
* Willis to Riordan to Halloran.     DFW, Dec 26, 1936.
* The Thunderbolt.     DFW, July 3, 1937.
* The Suicide Clues.     DFW, Aug 28, 1937.
* The Hundred Flyaway Skulls.     Detective Action Stories, Apr-May 1937.
* The Devil Wears Diamonds.     DFW, July 1, 1939.
* A Trick For Halloran.     New Detective Magazine, Nov 1943.
* Murder, Ahoy!     New Detective Magazine, Jan 1944.

   Corrections and additions are most definitely welcome.

      SOURCES:

Michael L. Cook & Steven T. Miller: Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U.S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974.
The FictionMags Index.
The personal files of Maxwell Vietor, aka Victor Maxwell.

EDNA BUCHANAN – Miami, It’s Murder. Britt Montero #2. Hyperion, hardcover, January 1994. Avon, paperback, 1995.

   Buchanan’s first Montero, Contents Under Pressure, got a lot of good press, though I liked it less than most because of a to me unbelievable plot.

   [In Miami, It’s Murder, the city] is plagued by a serial rapist. Britt is doing the story, and has annoyed the police by printing information they wanted withheld. At the same time, a friend of hers on the police department is being forced into retirement because of a bad heart, and he is agonizing over cases he never broke.

   One was the 20-year-ago sexual murder of a young girl. He was convinced of the guilt of a young man who is now a grown politician running for governor, but could find no evidence. Britt decides to dig into the old case and see what she can find.

   She continues to write about the rapist, and begins to get threatening letters from him. A series of deaths begin to occur, some seemingly accidental, some not, all involving people who were suspected of old murders but never convicted. Not surprisingly, all three situations — rapist, politician, murders — are eventually resolved.

   As with the first book, the narration is excellent, the writing fast-paced and effective. Again, too, there are plot elements that won’t wash. Britt’s acceptance of her cop friend’s assertion of the politician’s guilt without any real evidence makes either her or the author just plain foolish; as does her eagerness to personally offend the man without even her paper’s knowledge or concurrence.

   More so than in the first novel, she often acts foolishly. But the main problem I have with the book is that it (and Montero) ethically offended me. I can’t go into reasons without giving away the plot, so I’ll just say neither she nor the author seem to have the same ethical values that I do. No go, Montero.

Bibliographic Notes:   In spite of Barry’s clearly stated misgivings, Miami, It’s Murder was nominated for an Edgar in 1995.

   For more on the author, a visit to her Wikipedia page may suffice: “As one of the first female crime journalists in Miami, she wrote for the Miami Beach Daily Sun and the Miami Herald as a general assignment and police-beat reporter. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for general reporting.” She is also the author or co-author of 17 crime novels, including the nine Britt Montero novels listed below.

   For even more, check out the author’s own website. There’s much of interest there.

      The Britt Montero series —

1. Contents Under Pressure (1992)

2. Miami, It’s Murder (1994)
3. Suitable for Framing (1995)
4. Act of Betrayal (1996)

5. Margin of Error (1997)
6. Garden of Evil (1999)
7. You Only Die Twice (2001)
8. The Ice Maiden (2002)
9. Love Kills (2007)

   Here’s something of a surprise, at least to me: the only novel by Len Zinberg (Ed Lacy) to be published under his other pseudonym turns out to be crime fiction. As per the attached from the dj. Very scarce book; the copy I just bought is the first I’ve seen in 40 years of collecting.

STEVE APRIL – Route 13. Funk & Wagnalls, hardcover, 1954. Setting: NYC

      STORY DESCRIPTION     [Taken from both inside jacket flaps.]

   There was a lot that Manson Cornwall wanted to do, but becoming a mailman wasn’t on his list. In spite of his uncle’s love for the postal service, he was sure it would be the dullest job in the world. What he meant to do first was graduate from high school, and then somehow he would become a doctor. But Uncle Harry was murdered, and Manny thought he had to make some money quickly to help his aunt and at the same time look for his uncle’s killer. Thelma, who lived with her family in the apartment upstairs, understood and sympathized with him, but even she lost patience when he tried to settle for quick and easy money in professional boxing.

   After his brief, bitter experience in the ring, Manny began job hunting, but his high school diploma wasn’t enough. Then the post office appointment for which he had applied to please his uncle came through, and Manny went to work as a mailman, determined to resign at the first possible opportunity. He was not surprised at the hard work, but what did surprise him was the pleasure he found in working with others, in the security of a steady job with a good salary, and in the fact that people depended on the mail and on him.

   Letter-carrying, night school, and crime detection didn’t mix very well, but Manny combined them for a while, and by the time the sleuthing was finished he had grown up enough to distinguish between dreams of what he would be and the real world in which he had to do. He had learned that for him the post office could provide a rewarding career; in his job he was important, not just as himself, but as part of an organization doing important work and doing it well.

      STEVE APRIL     [A Biography of the Author, taken from the back cover.]

   Born in upstate in New York, outside Syracuse, Steve April left there before he was ten and moved to New York City, and ever since has been wondering if that was a mistake, although he thinks New York City is “terrific.” Traveling being his only hobby, he nosed around Los Angeles, Dayton, Topeka, Montreal, Salt Lake City, Port-au-Prince, Athens, Paris, San Juan, Oran, and Nice, as well as Rome and various other Italian cities. Most of this was done under his own steam, but during the war Uncle Sam gave his hobby an assist by putting a uniform on Mr. April and shoving him around the USA and Europe for three years.

   Although this is Mr. April’s first book, he has had stories and articles in many magazines and newspapers, including Collier’s, This Week, Esquire, Family Circle, the Montreal Standard, and the Toronto Star.

   A substitute and regular mailman for several years, Mr. April gave up the job to devote full time to his typewriter, and because he hates getting up early in the morning. Sometimes, when sales are far between, he wonders if this wasn’t a mistake, but as he says, “Writing and being a mail carrier have at least one thing in common — both professions give one a very satisfying sense of doing things.”

LESLIE CAINE – Manor of Death. Dell, paperback original; 1st printing, February 2006.

   I do my best to keep up to date with all of the mysteries that come out every month, or at least those that come out in paperback. Honest, I do. I buy almost all of them, but I have to confess, at 30 or so a month, that averages out to a book a day, and in my reclining years it takes me two or three days to read a detective novel, and those are on the good days. You do the math.

   And there are all of the older books in this house to be read. This book by Leslie Caine came out in February, and it’s being reviewed in February. Can I keep this up? We will have to see. I’ll give it my best shot, but I will also promise you this: No promises.

   There are two previous books in Caine’s “Domestic Bliss” series, namely:

        Death by Inferior Design. Dell, pbo, October 2004.

        False Premises. Dell, pbo, June 2005.

   Take a look at the short amount of time between these three books. And do you know what else? All of the books are nearly 400 pages long. The lady writes faster than I can read, and I’m not kidding.

   Here’s a quick recap of the series, using Amazon.com as a guide. In Inferior Design, in trying to determine which of three couples are her real parents, two sets of which end up being killed – can that be right? – home decorator/designer (and primary series character) Erin Gilbert ends up nearly being murdered herself.

   In Premises, Erin finds that the antiques that she has used to decorate a wealthy client’s home have all been replaced by fakes.

   Her “nemesis” in these three books, if you care to call him that, segueing into Manor of Death now as well, is her primary competitor in Crestwood CO, Steve Sullivan. (If you don’t get the play on names, let me be blatant about it.) Sullivan is, of course, also a strong quasi-romantic interest in the stories as well.

   The major events in Manor occur in the house next door to the one where Erin is currently renting living space for her and her cat. It seems as though the ghost of a young girl who fell, committed suicide, or was murdered forty years ago has now come back and is haunting the present inhabitants. Erin’s involvement is ensured by the fact that she has been hired to remodel the house, including the girl’s former room and the upstairs tower from which she met her death.

   Erin, who tells the story in first person singular, is appropriately smart and sassy, but the pacing is oddly off. The opening premise runs on to great length, with only the ghostly happenings (supposedly) and a seance to keep one’s interest alive.

   Or, and this is entirely possible, my interest, at least. With home decorating such a powerfully significant part of Erin’s life, you might question whether or not I am among the intended readership for this book, and that would probably be a fair inquiry to make, if you were to make it.

   On page 106, there is at last a death to investigate. By this time in the series Erin has become a good friend with the primary investigating officer (female and in no way competition for Sullivan), and as good friends do, the police politely make themselves (relatively) scarce. This allows Gilbert and Sullivan to combine forces and dig up the necessary clues from the past – high school yearbooks and the like – on their own.

   By page 273 the story has finally started to move into higher gear. I went along for the ride, but to tell you the truth, by that time all of the squabbling neighbors and their ofttimes trifling concerns had largely taken their toll on me.

   The mystery is not bad. The problem is that it’s too small for the book. I’ll take that back. That was my problem, possibly gender based, and it may not necessarily be yours.

[UPDATE] 07-15-11.   First of all, there have been several more books in the series. Most series these days end after three. With seven in total, I believe this one may easily be called successful:

      4. Killed by Clutter (2007)

      5. Fatal Feng Shui (2007)
      6. Poisoned by Gilt (2008)
      7. Holly and Homicide (2009)

   There has been a gap between 2009 and now, however, and with nothing in the pipeline, as far as I’ve been able to discover, this “Domestic Bliss” series may have succumbed to declining sales and/or the general overall malaise in the mass market paperback mystery business.

   Under her own name, Leslie O’Kane, the author has also written seven books about Molly Masters (1996-2002), a greeting card designer (or cartoonist — I am not clear about this) and three books about Allie Babcock (1998-2002), a dog therapist.

   I can’t tell you for sure whether or not I bought all of O’Kane’s books, either as herself or as Leslie Caine, but I may have quite a high percentage of them, although the ones about the greeting card designer are kind of iffy. And now that I think about it, the ones about the dog therapist are even iffier.

   As I said in my review, these modern day cozies are not meant for male readers. And now, some five years after I wrote the review above, the bulk of mass market paperback mysteries are this kind of book (up to ninety percent?). By this kind of book, I mean those involving hobbies (quilting), small unique kinds of businesses or occupations (herb shops), animal trainers (cat sitters) and the like.

   It’s been quite easy to go into Borders these past few months and come out empty-handed. My problem of buying too many mysteries has been solved for me.

   At which point my wife would be laughing at me, if she were ever to read that last statement. There are still many mysteries published in hardcover and trade paperback quite worthy of attention, even if they aren’t sold in Borders, and online they can usually be obtained at huge discounts, especially if you’re willing to wait a while.

   And there are older mysteries which I do not yet own, and many of them can also be obtained inexpensively online. And so I do.

ROBERT LEE HALL – Murder on Drury Lane. St. Martin’s, paperback reprint; October 1993. Hardcover edition: St. Martin’s, November 1992.

   Checking back over Hall’s career, he seems to have worked exclusively in the historical mystery subgenre. In doing so, he has also been no slouch in choosing either his characters or the period settings he’s put them in. Here’s what I found, in terms of his crime-oriented fiction:

       Exit Sherlock Holmes. Scribner’s, hc, 1977. Playboy Press, pb, 1979.

       The King Edward Plot. McGraw-Hill, hc, 1980. Critics Choice, pb, 1987.
       * Benjamin Franklin Takes the Case. St. Martin’s, hc, 1988; pb, 1993.
       Murder at San Simeon. St. Martin’s, hc, 1988. No paperback edition.

       * Benjamin Franklin and a Case of Christmas Murder. St. Martin’s, hc, 1991; pb, 1992.
       * Murder on Drury Lane. St. Martin’s, hc, 1992, pb, 1993
       * Benjamin Franklin and the Case of the Artful Murder. St. Martin’s, hc, 1994; pb, 1995.
       * Murder by the Waters. St. Martin’s, hc, 1995; trade pb, 2001.
       * London Blood. St. Martin’s, hc, 1997. No paperback edition.

   The Ben Franklin cases of detection, of which Murder on Drury Lane is one, are marked with an asterisk. Sherlock Holmes made an appearance in Hall’s first mystery only. Murder at San Simeon takes place at the California mansion of William Randolph Hearst, with Marion Davies, Louella Parsons, Jean Harlow and Charlie Chaplin all making at least cameo appearances.

   That leaves The King Edward Plot, which takes place in England in 1906, during the reign of Edward VII, and one online source describes it as “the first novel-length story to feature Holmes as a character.” This does not appear to be so. Holmes’s appearance is not mentioned in a Kirkus review of the book, and the statement seems in itself to contradict the existence of Exit Sherlock Holmes.

   Other mystery novels that Holmes had a role in and which also came before Hall’s first book are:

       Ellery Queen [Paul W. Fairman], A Study in Terror, Lancer, 1966.

       Michael & Mollie Hardwick, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Mayflower (UK), 1970.
       Nicholas Meyer, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Dutton, 1974.

       Philip José Farmer, The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, Aspen, 1974.
       Don R. Bensen, Sherlock Holmes in New York, Ballantine, 1976.

       Richard L. Boyer, The Giant Rat of Sumatra, Warner, 1976.

       Nicholas Meyer, The West End Horror, Dutton, 1976.
       Austin Mitchelson & Nicholas Utechin, The Earthquake Machine, Belmont, 1976
               – Hellbirds, Belmont, 1976.

   I may have missed one or two, but I don’t believe many more than that. Keep in mind that this is a list of novels only, and that I deliberately attempted to avoid self-published works. Ever since 1977 (what happened then, timewise?) the dam has burst, and Sherlock Holmes has unquestionably become the one single fictional character, detective genre or not, who has appeared in the works of more novels by other authors than any other. (You can question the statement, if you like, as long as you can come up with an alternative.)

   I seem to have gone off on a tangent here. The Sherlockian connection that exists in The King Edward Plot, and there is one, is that two of the four amateur detectives who uncover the plot reside at 221A Baker Street. One of them nicknamed “Wiggins.” I will have to read it.

   Mr. Benjamin Franklin is getting restless, I am sorry to say. The book I have just read is about him, and he is being neglected. Here is a quote from page two. Franklin’s son William, a law student while in London, has just walked into the home where the Franklin entourage is staying, but he is unable to talk about the experience he has just had:

   If Mr. Franklin’s explanation behind his deductive reasoning processes does not match that of the master, the attempt is well taken, at least by me, and the language is well appropriate for the tale that follows. Telling the story is Nick Handy, a twelve-year old lad who is Mr. Franklin’s illegitimate son. (Franklin made more than one trip to London, and there is a story behind this, one that was told in the first installment of the series. See above.)

   To tell you the truth, the language, the vocabulary and the insight of the narrator is far beyond those of a twelve-year-old boy, but if you assume that Nick is rather precocious and add some sense of wonder, you will soon not notice.

   The year, lest I forget to mention it, is 1758, and Drury Lane (as the title aptly suggests) is the center of the mysterious misadventures taking place. David Garrick hires Ben Franklin to investigate, who obligingly allows young Nick to tag along, making sketches of the various places they go and the people they meet.

   It also turns out that Mr. Franklin is a pioneer in the field of fingerprints and handwriting analysis, but it is the later – with regard to the threatening notes that Garrick has been receiving – that is the more important of the two this time around.

   The pace of the tale is leisurely, to say the least. Perhaps more important to the mystery, until the end, of course, are the sights and sounds of the theater itself, as well as the area and people around it, bit players included. Other famous personages have roles as well: Sir John Fielding, Dr. Samuel Johnson. Horace Walpole attends a play, as does Tobias Smollett.

   A well-manufactured atmosphere has been created here, in other words, with a melodramatic ending that fits the mood perfectly. If the detection takes second place, it is only a minor quibble on my part to say so.

   Jamie Sturgeon has continued to search out details of the life of Richard Sheldon, author of Poor Prisoner’s Defense, a mystery novel published in England in 1949. Bill Deeck’s review appeared here on this blog earlier this week.

   To this end Jamie has purchased a copy of Harsh Evidence, Sheldon’s second book and final crime novel, and with some success to show for it. A photo of the author is shown to the right, along with the biographical blurb I’ve transcribed and posted below.

   There seems to be sufficient detail here to track down more about Richard Sheldon; indeed if more is learned that may be of general interest, I’ll report about it here.

[UPDATE] 07-09-11.   Jamie has just sent me a cover scan for Sheldon’s second book. Here it is:

[UPDATE #2] 07-15-11.   John Herrington has inquired of Random House, current holder of the Hutchinson archives, and he reports back that “Richard Sheldon” is a pseudonym; his real name bears no resemblance to it.

   (Random House cannot say more, because of a data protection act, or so I’m told.)