NAT EASTON – A Book for Banning. Bill Banning #7 (?), Boardman / British Bloodhound series, UK, hardcover, 1959. No US publication.

   Bill Banning is so successful as a writer of crime fiction that he can be taken for a doctor by the Bentley he drives. He also, on the side, owns and operates a private detective agency, complete with a small staff of amateur, but dedicated, operatives.

   In this, his fifth adventure, he’s hired by a worried aristocrat to find a book that’s mysteriously disappeared, claimed to contain forbidden official secrets. The man, as Banning quickly discovers, also has a nymphomaniac for a wife, and a pair of spoiled, but married, daughters.

   Banning is not the brightest detective in the world. His secretary-assistant, Josie, seems to have the sharpest mind in the firm. Banning is also — how should I put this? — woman hungry. Sex starved.

   This is all pretty much tolerable, but the last couple of chapters are mucked up something awful. The killer is fairly obvious, but the “book” is impossibly found in the wrong apartment, and the interview leading into the final summing up is badly set up.

   Or was I just asleep already?

Rating: C minus.

NOTE: There were in all eleven Bill Banning books. The Goodreads list of the books is here. Nat Easton is assumed to be a pen name, but who actually wrote the books does not seem to be known.

RAY BRADBURY “Gotcha!” First published in Redbook, August 1978. Collected in The Stories of Ray Bradbury (Knopf, 1980). Reprinted in The Year’s Finest Fantasy Volume 2, edited by Terry Carr (Berkley, 1979) and A Century of Horror 1970-1979, edited by David Drake & Martin H. Greenberg (MJF Books, 1996). TV Adaptation: Ray Bradbury Theater, February 20, 1988 (Season 2, Number 4). [See comment #15.]

   There are authors whose work you can easily recognize – or even more easily, make a pretty good guess – by reading only the first paragraph or two, even if it’s a game you’re playing and it’s hidden from you. Case in point:

   
   Well, what do you think?

   On the particular night that this story takes place, the lady suggests they play a game. In bed. One called Gotcha, she says. He hesitates but then he agrees, That’s when things get scary. Very very scary.

   It gets scarier. You may want to leave the light on tonight when you go to bed, whether alone or with someone else. The ending is not quite as effective as what has come before, but it’s good enough:

JACQUES FUTRELLE – Great Cases of the Thinking Machine. Dover, softcover, 1976.

   Editor E. F. Bleiler has selected from the almost fifty stories about the incredible brain, “The Thinking Machine,” thirteen cases for this book. Only one has appeared in book form before; the others were collected from newspapers of 1906-1908.

   These have been called “societal stories,” different from the stories in Best “Thinking Machine” Detective Stories. The journalistic, telegraphic writing style illuminates the American Edwardian period of the tales, which involve mostly the shenanigans of rich Back Bay Boston life. Once again the testy professor is able to recall his maxim, “Nothing is impossible. It might be improbable, but not impossible.”

   The stories are short — they are set up as a Problem, then the professor’s explanation. or Solution. Many involve exotic suspects, impersonations, vague stock-market machinations, jewel thefts, and menagerie solutions (animals hold the crucial clue).

   From “The Problem of the Cross Mark,” we learn to beware of drugged cigars. From “The Roswell Tiara.” we learn to keep our eye on the cockatoo. And if there’s an old house, there’s a treasure. These tales pale in comparison to the earlier volume — science hardly enters into most of the solutions. It seems that a thoroughly bizarre situation is set up, allowing the mastermind to give an explanation and then say, “Any problem may be solved by logic.”

   The longest story, “The Haunted Bell,” was put into some editions of one of  Futrelle’s novels. It contains an exotic dream sequence, but the solution is straightforwardly scientific; only the ending has a surprise, even for the Thinking Machine.

———
   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION. October 1967. Seventeenth anniversary issue. Editor: Frederik Pohl. Cover artist: Gray Morrow. Overall rating: ****

ROGER ZELAZNY “Damnation Alley.” Novelette. Previously reviewed here. (*****)

POUL ANDERSON “Poulfinch’s Mythology.” Non-fact article. A look from the future at twelve gods of contemporary America. This did not interest me enough to make me want to see if I agree with Anderson or not. (1)

H. L. GOLD “The Transmogrification of Wamba’s Revenge.” Novelette. A secret formula of the Pygmies, capable of shrinking all living beings to a tenth of their former size, is used on mankind. This means the end of all warfare under the benevolent rulership of the Pygmies, on whom the formula does not work. Pretty obvious when you think about it. (3)

GEORGE O. SMITH “Understanding.” A fifteen year old boy, Terry Lincoln, without Understanding, is given a secret message to Earth that he cannot understand. To obtain the message from him, the Xanabarians must see to it that he obtains Understanding. Which is impossible to explain to he who has it and unnecessary to mention to he who has it, but it is a sort of refined premonition or intuition, necessary for all interstellar traveling cultures, ready to take on responsibility. So why not a better story to go with it? (3)

THE SOUND OF FURY. United Artists, 1950. Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson, Lloyd Bridges, Katherine Locke, Adele Jergens. Director: Cyril Endfield.

   There’s a lot going on in The Sound of Fury (also released as Try and Get Me!), a film adapted by screenwriter Jo Pagano from his novel, The Condemned (1947), which itself was based on real life kidnapping case which ended in a public lynching. Directed by Cy Endfield (Zulu), the movie begins with a street preacher passionately bellowing about something. I forget what exactly, but it probably had something to do with repenting.

   Which would make sense given the themes of the film; namely, crime, guilt and punishment. Indeed, one can argue that those themes permeate this film noir from beginning to end, with each main character’s arc reflecting these thematic aspects (or lack thereof) throughout the overall narrative.

   The story is as follows. Down and out Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy) has moved from Boston to California in search of a better life for himself and his growing family. Things are, to put it mildly, not going well financially for him. A chance meeting with low-level criminal Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges) in a bowling alley changes things dramatically. Initially, the two knock off gas stations and the like. But then they move onto kidnapping and murder, choosing the son of a wealthy citizen as their target.

   It doesn’t take long for guilt to overcome Tyler, who believes he is being watched by God. Slocum, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have much remorse. The contrast between the guilt-ridden Tyler and his sociopathic accomplice couldn’t be more pronounced. Even after the men are captured by law enforcement, the divide between the two criminals remains poignant.

   At the same time that all this is happening, local news columnist Gil Stanton (Richard Carlson) is using his position to incite rage against the two suspects. His vitriol is so strong that even the local sheriff worries that Tyler and Slocum might not get a fair trial. As it turns out, he’s right.

   This is where the movie shifts tonally from film noir territory to a morality play about the rights of the accused, mob violence, and the like. It’s a notable departure from the gritty first half of the film and is, in my opinion, less effective. Grating at times, even.

   That said, where the movie goes next is a return to film noir. There’s a harrowing scene of a mob storming the courthouse, freeing the two men, and then dragging them out into the street for a lynching. When that happens, it is Stanton’s chance to feel guilt. He rightfully recognizes how his overwrought yellow journalism columns contributed to this act of mob justice.

   Overall, I appreciated this film and particularly liked Lovejoy’s transformation from model citizen to accessory to murder. I’ have always believed he has been underappreciated as an actor. Here, he’s great as an everyman who gets in way over his head. The cinematography by Guy Roe (Armored Car Robbery) is standard noir fare. Nothing spectacular, but solid enough.

   Recommended, but with the caveat that not everyone will appreciate the morality play aspect of the film, particularly given how notable a departure it is from the film’s beginning.

BARRY FANTONI – Mike Dime.  Mike Dime #1. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1980. Sphere, UK, 1982. Franklin Watts, US, hardcover, 1980.

   In 1948 the two leading detective pulp fiction magazines were Black Mask and Dime Detective Magazine, probably in that order, Neither, alas, is around today, but Black Mask it was which provided the birthplace and main stomping ground for all the great private detective heroes of the 1920’s and 1930’s. And from Dime Detective comes the name of Barry Fantoni’s new detective hero, Mike Dime, and he’s a private eye. What else?

   In Mike Dime the novel, Fantoni does his best to recreate the world and atmosphere of the year 1948. The city is Philadelphia, and Harry Truman has just pulled off his surprising upset victory over Tom Dewey.

   But 1948 was a long while after Dashiell Hammett had quit writing, and Raymond Chandler had long since been swallowed up by Hollywood. In their wake, all the wise-cracking imitators had taken over, and Mike Dime, the detective, manages to place no higher than in the midst of these, most of whom — anybody remember Rex McBride? – -are forgotten today.

   It’s not because Barry Fantoni hails from England. He has the local lingo down pat, and historically all his people and places are exactly right. Dime, who is hired first to protect a bagful of money and then to help a girl with a blackmailer problem, is grubby but honest.

   His greatest problem is rather that, as Fantoni attempts to develop a sense of the comedic as well as the dramatic, in what are obviously intended to be the lighter moments, the result, twice at least, is outrageously silly slapstick instead.

   It’s fun to read, in a way, but unfortunately what it also does is to remind us that this is the sort of private eye caper which is nothing more than a make-believe fairy tale, with beautiful women falling willy-nilly, for example, all over the feet of the invincible hero, who comes complete with dirty socks and a three-day old beard .

   It is the story of a dream, a fantasy, one that doesn’t exist, and as Fantoni inadvertently reminds us, except in the world of fiction, it never really did. This book has its heart in the right spot, but its world is built on a faulty foundation.

Rating: C

NOTE: A second and final book in the Mike Dime series was Stickman (1982). There were also two short stories: “Hopper and Pink” (New Crimes, 1989) and “Holy Smoke” (New Crimes 2, 1990).

PERFECT MURDERS “Un Bon Chanteur est un Chanteur Mort.” France, 19 Decemeber 2017 (Season 1, Episode 1). MHz, streaming in the US, 2020. Isabelle Gélinas (Agnès), Arthur Mazet (Thibaud). Director: Didier Le Pêcheur.

   Roughly translating, the title of this first episode is “A Good Singer Is a Dead Singer,” in which a record producer is having trouble making ends meet. To assist in alleviating his financial problems, he decides that a singer he has had under contract for quite a while would be more helpful to him dead than he would be if he stayed alive.

   Thus it is only a short while before the singer ends up dead, drowned in the producer’s swimming pool. This is an elaborate production on his part, involving drugs, a watch, an automatic lawn sprinkler system, and a lot of nerve. Investigating the case are Isabelle Gélinas, as the senior officer, and Arthur Mazet as the new recruit and her new partner, fresh from a desk job to this, their first case together.

   The series is billed as one covering impossible crimes, but the fact is, this one isn’t. It’s a well concocted one, but it’s more like one to be solved by a Columbo-like character, not a fictional Gideon Fell, or a Jonathan Creek in a TV sense. The two leading characters have a good rapport, but maybe that’s because the male half of the new partnership is still in the learning stage of his career, and he allows the female half to do all of the detective work.

   It also seemed to me that much of the key detective work is done off screen, perhaps to cover over the fact that the case against the killer does not take up a lot of time and effort on their part, and other things are done instead.

   It’s still an enjoyable episode to watch, and perhaps after the “getting to know the characters” episode is over and one with, later cases will afford a greater challenge for them. The series has been on for five seasons, but note that the leading characters in this first one do not show up in all of them.

ALEXEI PANSHIN – Star Well. Anthony Villiers #1. Ace G-756; paperback original; 1st printing, October 1968. Cover by Kelly Freas. Reprinted by Ace, paperback, August 1978. Cover by Vincent Di Fate.

   An Anthony Villiers adventure, a costume piece of the 15th Century, common reckoning, or the year 3418 AD. Villiers himself remains an unknown quantity, but he has that something about him that causes events and crises.

   In this instance, a smuggling operation working out of Star Well, a planetoid in the Flammarion Rift, is broken up by the coincidental visit of Villiers; an Inspector General; and a group of girls being chaperones to Miss McBurney’s Finishing School.

   Emphasis on customs and costumes; clothes make the man, custom eliminates decision-making. Which will become more and more difficult as pressures of society grow and grow.

   A conversational style of writing is used. Here and there, it reminded me Lafferty , and also of Delany. The story, not told precisely in chronological order, but never mind, is slight, and the effort may not hold up over an entire series.

Rating: ****

         The Anthony Villiers series –

1. Star Well (1968)
2. The Thurb Revolution (1968)
3. Masque World (1969)

   A fourth book in the series. The Universal Panthograph, was announced but never published and perhaps never finished.

GEORGE HARMON COXE – Focus on Murder. Kent Murdock #15. Knopf, hardcover, 1954. Dell 970, paperback, February 1958.

   A newspaper colleague of Ken Murdock, a reporter named Stacy, is found murdered in his apartment. Murdock had been with him earlier in the evening when he had been shot at in his car, and two women had been looking for him after that, at least one with a gun.

   What is amazing is that the next morning Murdock is shocked to hear of the man’s death. It also take him to page 61 [of the paperback edition] for him to realize that the dead man was doing a brisk sideline business in blackmail. Other than that, the mystery is solved in typically good Coxe style.

ELLERY QUEEN “The Adventure of the Seven Black Cats.” Ellery Queen. First published in The Adventures of Ellery Queen (Stokes, hardcover, 1934). Reprinted in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January 2016, the opening story in the first month of the magazine’s year-long 75th anniversary celebration.

   Ellery stops at a pet store thinking perhaps to buy a dog and ends up solving a very strange case involving cats, seven of them, all black, all purchased from the store at a rate of one a week by a bedridden older lady named Euphemia Tarkle, who is known to hate cats. Ellery’s curiosity is aroused. What is going on?

   The owner of the story is one Marie Curleigh, young and very pretty. Realizing he needs assistance in any sort of investigation to follow, Ellery asks: “Miss Curleigh, I’m an incurable meddler in the affairs of others. How would you like to help me meddle in the affairs of the mysterious Tarkle sisters?”

   And of course she does. The story that follows is meticulously planned out, and will be a lot of fun to read by any mystery fan who likes, no loves, following along with the clues. One negative note should be mentioned, however. The culprit at the end can easily be discerned by the judicious process of elimination. Too few suspects there are, that is. (Not that I did, but I could have, and should have.)

   And if asked, I could come up with a couple of other notes. The superintendent of the building where Miss Tarkle lives is named Harry Potter. And Miss Curleigh is such an agreeable assistant in this case that one wishes she might have appeared as well in other tales in Queen canon. I don’t believe she did. She should have.