ELIZABETH PETERS – Crocodile on the Sandbank. Dodd, Mead & Co., hardcover, 1975. Paperback reprint: Fawcett Crest, 1976. Many other reprint editions, both hardcover and soft.

   Crocodile on the Sandbank is a wonderfully amusing romp in Egypt in the 1880s with all the trimmings — dahabeeyahs (houseboats), royal tombs, and mummies, both dead and walking. Into the world of archaeology blunders a self-proclaimed “middle-aged spinster” (age thirty-two) who has used her newly inherited fortune to leave England and her avaricious relatives.

   Sensing herself to be plain, Miss Amelia Peabody has decided against marriage, saying, “Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet any man as sensible as myself.” But then she meets Radcliff Emerson, a voluble and single-minded sociologist. A Tracy-Hepburn relationship immediately develops.

   Where she meets Radcliff is at an archaeological dig he and his brother share on the Nile. Amelia and her companion, a young woman she befriended in Rome, have stopped there for a brief visit, but the short stay they envisioned is lengthened by a series of threatening events, endangering the artifacts and finally the lives of the four protagonists.

   The story is told from Amelia’s viewpoint. She is exceptionally well educated, full of endurance, and never, never forgoes her principles. Peters’s skill is in keeping the friction inherent in this situation amusing, yet making the characters just realistic enough to be credible and immensely likable. And though the reader realizes the outcome of the plot before Amelia does, it doesn’t matter, it is the interchange between the characters that is the delight of the book.

   In further adventures, presented in the form of Amelia’s memoirs — The Curse of the Pharaohs (1981) and The Mummy Case (1985) — she marries Emerson and returns to the Nile with an expanded cast of characters, including her precocious son, Ramses, and an Egyptian cat, Bastet.

   Peters (whose real name is Barbara Mertz, and who also writes as Barbara Michaels) has written such other entertaining novels as The Jackal’s Head (1968), Borrower of the Night (1973), The Copenhagen Connection (1982), and Die for Love (1984).

         ———
   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.

ELIZABETH PETERS – The Camelot Caper.

Avon, paperback reprint, 2001. Meredith Press, hardcover, 1969. Hardcover reprint: Detective Book Club [3-in-1 edition], September 1969. Other paperback editions: Dell 3521, 1970, as Her Cousin John; Tor, 1988,1990.

   Elizabeth Peters is one of the smoothest writers around, and she has been for quite a long time. This one was written in the heyday of the gothic romances, and her take on the damsel-in-distress-while-traveling-alone sort of tale is absolutely priceless, not to mention rollicking and sometimes rowdy.

   Jessica Tregarth has been called to England by her dying grandfather, and she is to bring the ring her father, disowned by his father, took with him when he left for America. When she reaches England, the ring suddenly seems to attract a pair of villains, intent on stealing it from her, in any way that they can.

   Of course there is a hero to come to her aid and assistance, one David Randall, the author of the very same gothic paperback Jessica is reading on page one. It’s cut and chase, and backtrack and chase again, but in reverse. The bus ride in Chapter Two is worth the price of the book itself.

   Farce, though, or even near farce, is very difficult to maintain, and even more difficult when the structure of a plot starts to work its way in. The second half of the book (once David and Jessica finally reach her grandfather’s dilapidated, run-down mansion) does not nearly match the story one has been led to expect — anticipation is one thing, fulfillment is another.

   It would make a great movie, though. Cybil Shepherd, say, and any handsome and dashing good-looking British actor for the other. Considering all of the medieval cathedrals they dash in and out of, not to mention Stonehenge at midnight — and of course the Arthurian connection — Hollywood’s missing a good bet here.

IT CAN’T LAST FOREVER.

Columbia, 1937; Hamilton McFadden, director; Ralph Bellamy, Betty Furness, Robert Armstrong, Raymond Walburn, Thurston Hall.

Specialty acts include The Dandridge Sisters, with a 13-year-old Dorothy performing as the middle sister, and a brief, unbilled appearance by Donald O’Conner in a tap sequence, his first role in the movies. Shown at Cinecon 41, September 2005.

   This film’s strong suit is the polished performances by the cast. Raymond Walburn takes top honors as a bogus mind reader who’s promoted by struggling theatrical agents Bellamy and Armstrong who conceive the ill-fated idea of staging a robbery to showcase their client’s talent.

   Unfortunately, Walburn’s role is too quickly reduced and Bellamy replaces him as the mind reader on a spectacularly successful radio show. The film moves quickly at 67 minutes and is one of those pleasant musical oddities that Cinecon and Cinevent are particularly adept at recovering.

    [EDITORIAL COMMENT.]   The crime content of this film, I suspect, is minimal, but from Walter’s description, I’m going to say that it’s there. If I’m wrong, the error is mine, not Walter’s!       — Steve

HAKE TALBOT – The Hangman’s Handyman. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1942. Pulp magazine reprint: Two Complete Detective Books #24, January 1944. Trade paperback: Ramble House, 2005.

   Some peculiarities of construction prevent Hake Talbot’s first novel from attaining the first rank, but it remains an engaging curiosity with plenty of atmosphere. A few years down the pike, he would write Rim of the Pit, one of the great detective novels of the twentieth century, and while this is far from that, it has its moments.

   Rogan Kincaid makes a memorable entrance, dripping in oilskins, on the morning after an orgiastic dinner at The Kraken, the baronial stone mansion on its own island off the Carolina coast. Only Rogan could have braved the storm, Rogan Kincaid, the man’s man, dangerous gambler whose exploits around the world are legend in the underworld.

   But he’s not all bad, he’s sensitive and loves to give women a good time. As showgirl Nancy Garwood struggles to tell him what happened the night before, bits and shards of memory return to her until, with a scream, she recalls a repressed memory, that their host, Jackson Frant, the owner of The Kraken, had been cursed by his half brother Lord Tethryn of England, according to the old family curse, and he had instantly died.

   Laid up in his bed, he now awaits the police. When Rogan goes to see Frant, he can barely make out the features of his old friend: a seemingly supernatural power connected to the family curse (“”Od rot you!””) has caused decay to happen at super-fast rates — the body seems as if it has been dead for weeks instead of mere hours!

   Talbot drapes layers and layers of medieval and early American horror/folktale material on the bones of his fragile story. You can tell he really loved his research. As Rim of the Pit depends on the native American legend of the Windigo, The Hangman’s Handyman just drips and squelches with Undine trivia. You will believe that a heap of seaweed can stand up of its own volition, move across the room towards you, and strangle you to death!

   Much of the action of the book turns into an “origin story” explaining the true and romantic background of the hardened gambler who calls himself Rogan Kincaid. This part of the story: unbelievable to the point of being ridiculous, and I notice that Talbot discarded Kincaid’s aristocratic origins by the time he embarked on the superior work of Rim of the Pit, but Talbot completists won’t mind a little icing on their cake.

NATALIE SUMNER LINCOLN – The Red Seal. D. Appleton & Co., hardcover, 1920. Hardcover reprint: A. L. Burt, n.d. Trade paperback reprint: Dodo Press, 2007.

   Twins Helen and Barbara McIntyre arrive at court to give evidence against one John Smith, caught burgling the McIntyre mansion. Strange to relate, the sisters ask lawyer Philip Rochester, who happens to be present, to defend Smith, which task he undertakes.

   Smith is taken ill as he leaves the witness box and dies, whereupon he is discovered to be in disguise. He is James Turnbull, cashier of the Metropolis Trust Company, Helen’s fiance, and Rochester’s room mate. Incredibly, all three claim not to have recognised him. Turnbull’s angina pectoris is thought to have caused his death, but Helen insists on an autopsy.

   It transpires Turnbull was burgling the house because of a silly wager made with Barbara that he could not pull it off. Barbara asks her sweetheart Harry Kent, Rochester’s partner in a legal practice, to find out who murdered Turnbull, for she and her sister are convinced his death was the result of foul play.

   Soon the deceased Turnbull is suspected of forgery, Rochester goes missing, an eavesdropper lurks at a window, and a handkerchief is suspected as being the murder weapon. To further the busy plot, various characters play pass the red-sealed envelope, whose contents turn out to be the last thing most readers will expect.

My verdict: While the initial pace is slow, it picks up after a few chapters. The solution is complicated, not to say outrageous, so don’t try reading The Red Seal if there is anything to distract you from noting every nuance.

   Cleverly worked red herrings mislead, and the explanation of the characters’ roles in the tragedy and subsequent events features what must be the largest number of culprits-named-and-then-it’s-someone-else’s-turn-to-be-accused many readers will have read — and all in a single chapter!

   Or to put it another way, the plot features twists galore. I suspect not many readers will guess whodunnit.

Etext: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1747

      Bibliographic data (taken from Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin) —

LINCOLN, NATALIE SUMNER. 1881-1935.

* The Trevor Case (n.) Appleton 1912 [Washington, D.C.]
* The Lost Despatch (n.) Appleton 1913 [Washington, D.C.; 1865]
* The Man Inside (n.) Appleton 1914 [Washington, D.C.]
* C.O.D. (n.) Appleton 1915
* The Official Chaperone (n.) Appleton 1915 [Washington, D.C.]
* I Spy (n.) Appleton 1916 [Insp. Mitchell; Washington, D.C.]

* The Nameless Man (n.) Appleton 1917 [Insp. Mitchell; Washington, D.C.]
* The Moving Finger (n.) Appleton 1918 [Insp. Mitchell; Virginia]
* The Three Strings (n.) Appleton 1918 [Insp. Mitchell; Washington, D.C.]
* The Red Seal (n.) Appleton 1920 [Detective Ferguson; Washington, D.C.]
* The Unseen Ear (n.) Appleton 1921 [Detective Ferguson; Washington, D.C.]
* The Cat’s Paw (n.) Appleton 1922 [Insp. Mitchell; Washington, D.C.]
* The Meredith Mystery (n.) Appleton 1923 [Insp. Mitchell; Virginia]
* The Thirteenth Letter (n.) Appleton 1924 [Maryland]
* The Missing Initial (n.) Appleton 1925 [Insp. Mitchell; Washington, D.C.]
* The Blue Car Mystery (n.) Appleton 1926 [Insp. Mitchell; Washington, D.C.]

* The Dancing Silhouette (n.) Appleton 1927 [Insp. Mitchell; Washington, D.C.]
* P.P.C. (n.) Appleton 1927 [Insp. Mitchell; Washington, D.C.]
* The Secret of Mohawk Pond (n.) Appleton 1928 [Connecticut]
* The Fifth Latchkey (n.) Appleton 1929 [Maryland]

* Marked “Cancelled” (n.) Appleton 1930 [Washington, D.C.]

* 13 Thirteenth Street (n.) Appleton 1932 [Washington, D.C.]

MARILYN TRACY – Cowboy Under Cover.

Silhouette Intimate Moments #1162; c.2002; SIM edn, July 2002.

   I’m not going to go back and scour through all of the previous 1161 to check them all out, but I’ve recently discovered that quite a few of the SIM books are criminous in nature (like this one), although usually not out-and-out detective novels (like this one). SIM, if you didn’t know, is a line of books published by Harlequin, known primarily for their romances.

   This one takes place near the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, where a young recently widowed woman, Jeannie McMunn, is trying to start a working ranch to house orphans and disadvantaged children. Opposing her is a villain straight from the lurid western pulps, El Patron. The US marshal working undercover for her as a ranch hand is Chance Salazar. She does not know his primary occupation, only that she seems to be depending more and more on him every day.

   Stock characters, in other words, but in a cozy setting that seems to blur the artificiality of the situation. The best characters are Jeannie’s two wards: the thorny young teen-aged girl named Dulce, multi-pierced and sullen, and José, an even younger Mexican boy, mute but cheerful. Being a romance novel, the growing sexual attraction between the two main protagonists is inevitable, and it eventually takes its natural course.

   The finale, though, is rather brutal and gory, in strong contrast to the warm, comfortable coziness of life on the ranch, but you don’t have to read too many novels like this to know that everything will turn out just about right.

[UPDATE] 11-04-08.  This book came out in 2002, too late to be included in Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV, which covers mystery fiction only through the year 2000. Here’s her current entry as given in the online Addenda:

TRACY, MARILYN. Pseudonym of Tracy LeCocq, ca.1954- , q.v. Under this pen name, the author of many series romances, some having criminous elements.
      Almost a Family. Silhouette, pb, 1997. [Eleven-year-old triplet boys scheme to get their choice of a father, a Texas Ranger, by inventing a murder.]
      Almost Perfect. Silhouette, pb, 1997. Setting: Texas. [A single mother’s bodyguard may be a murderer.]
      Blue Ice. Silhouette, pb, 1990. Setting: Russia. [Art dealer Aleksandra Shashkevich’s most trusted friend is killed just as she is to purchase a collection of rare items from him.]

      Code Name: Daddy. Silhouette, pb, 1996; Silhouette, UK, pb, 1997. [The aftermath of a hostage situation that ends with four dead.]

LeCOQ, TRACY (née HUBER). Ca.1954- . Pseudonym: Marilyn Tracy, q.v. Add maiden name. Lives in Roswell, NM. Under her married name and with her sister Holly Huber, the creator of the Santa Fe Tarot Deck. Their father, newspaper humor columnist Robert “Bob” E. Huber, was one of two hostages taken during a 1967 armed assault on the Rio Arriba County courthouse.

DOROTHY DANIELS – Affair in Marrakesh.

Pyramid X-1786; paperback original, 1968. Pyramid N3342, 2nd printing, 1974 (shown).

   Whether Dorothy Daniels actually wrote the gothics attributed to her, or if they were all written by her husband, long-time pulp writer Norman Daniels, has been the subject of some recent email discussion between long-time mystery bibliographer, Al Hubin, and myself. In the end, as I understand it, he decided to say something to the effect that some of her books (in particular, those copyright in Norman’s name) were likely to have been written by him.   [See UPDATE below.]

   This one’s billed as “a novel of gothic intrigue.” No castles shrouded in fog, in other words, but a Helen MacInnes sort of romantic adventure, with a naive young woman finding herself in the midst of an affair of international importance.

   More important to Margo Addison, however, are matters that are all personal: (1) on an around-the-world trip she has been followed everywhere she goes; (2) her father, who has been travelling with her since her mother’s strange death, suddenly disappears; (3) she seems to be falling in love with Gil Morley, a young American handicraft importer; and (4) no surprise, the possibility that her mother did not die after all.

   It is difficult to lose track of all of these plot-lines, as Margo seems to go over them in her mind often enough to keep even the most drowsy reader well on the right direction — sometimes, as indicated above, well before her.

   For those looking for entertainment, an evening’s enjoyment, no more, no less. For the more analytically minded, two rather obvious plot contrivances — “coincidences” as they’re called in the real world — make the taste not quite as savory as it might have been otherwise.

[UPDATE] 11-04-08.   All of the entries for Dorothy Daniels in Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV now state that they were ghost-written by Norman Daniels. Whether she had any input into the stories, and if so, how much, has not been established.

CHRISTIANNA BRAND – Fog of Doubt. US hardcover edition: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953. Previously published in the UK as London Particular, Michael Joseph, hardcover, 1952. US paperback reprint editions: Dell 881, 1956; Carroll & Graf, 1984,1995. UK paperback: Penguin, 1955.

   Fog of Doubt is, Christianna Brand states, her own favorite of all of her novels, and its amazing construction sets up seven suspects all in a row, positions each one as the killer, then eliminates them one by one till none are left.

   (The dotty grandmother likens their situation to the notorious Ten Little N-word nursery rhyme is a passage we can no longer cite.) Then one of the seven emerges, the impossibility overcome, and Cockrill has solved yet another case.

   The reader has to visualize the floor plan of two very different houses, for the solution depends on being able to “see” what is happening in both, and not just the floor plan but a good 3-D working knowledge of upstairs, downstairs, on the stairs, and what’s outside the windows of each house.

   Each belongs to a doctor: in one, lonely bachelor Ted Edwards (“Tedward”) keeps his office and moons over the lovely, Rose Birkett-like Rosie Evans, recently returned from a finishing school on the Continent and secretly pregnant with a mystery baby.

   In the other, Rosie lives and sulks and plans an abortion, while her staid older brother, Dr. Thomas Evans, may be the only character in the book from whom her pregnancy is a secret.

   His wife, Matilda, is busy with her own housekeeping and the care of a two year old, Emma; his grandmother, the dotty one, throws furniture from the windows and gets lost in the bodice-ripping Valentino silents of her youth. A sort of secretary, Melissa Weeks, lives in the basement mooning over men; and nearby a communist organizer, Damien Jones, wants to do the right thing by the errant, blowsy Rosie.

   When an unexpected visitor from Europe arrives, on the night of the worst fog in ages (a “London particular,” which Brand used for the UK title of the novel), a bloody murder occurs in the family’s midst — and no one, oddly enough, hears a sound…

   I didn’t really “buy” that in this one, Cockie is supposed to be a friend of the family. His friendship never seems convincing and they never explain how any of them came to know him. And, as the plot wears on, and one suspect after another becomes first the top suspect, then gets eliminated, the story presently turns on Brand’s less appealing characters, so the second half of the book has its longueurs.

   But on the whole Fog of Doubt is amazing, and some of its characters will live forever for their humor, charm, and valiant efforts to make sense of a suddenly violent world. Matilda Evans in particular anticipates Celia Fremlin’s trademark harried wives and mothers, with lives poised in an eternal and uneasy balance between tragedy and comedy; she might well be the mother of Lady Lydia Timms, the irrepressible housewife heroine of Peter Dickinson’s classic The Lively Dead (1975), reviewed earlier on this blog by Steve Lewis.

   I arrived at the Ramada Inn in Bordentown at about 8:00 am Saturday, November 1 and found dealers already bringing in dozens of boxes filled full of pulps, paperbacks, books, DVDs, and artwork. The official start of the show was 10:00 am but the action was already gearing up for a day of selling and buying. By the ten o’clock start all 50 or so tables were open for business.

   During the day I sold vintage paperbacks, pulps, DVDs, and cancelled checks made out to pulp authors. I had Dashiell Hammett’s first appearance in print priced at $2,000 but it did not sell. However I did sell his third or fourth appearance for $200.

   The above will give you an idea of items available at the show. I picked up a few pulps and books but my main acquisition was a pulp cover color preliminary for the first issue of Strange Stories. It’s amazing that this somehow survived; I bet the original cover art was destroyed or lost a long time ago.

   David Saunders was there with an advanced copy of the book on his father Norman Saunders. It looked stunning with hundreds of color reproductions of Saunders artwork.

   Bob Lewis was there with his friend Craig Poole, and Martin Grams came with hundreds of DVDs and copies of his immense new book on The Twilight Zone. I recommend this book highly; it seems to have everything in it that you would want to know about the TV series. David Kurzman was there with four tables crammed full of high quality condition pulps and first editions.

   Nick Certo has found the mother lode of Black Mask‘s and had many copies for sale. There probably will not be another large cache of these pulps available in our lifetime. John Gunnison had several tables of pulps.

   Cowboy Tony had an amazing number of magazines available. You name it, he had it: pulps, paperbacks, slicks, dime novels, men’s adventure magazines. The smell at his tables of musty, woody, pulp and slick paper, was overpowering. It was a heavenly smell.

   After the dealer’s room closed at 5:00 pm, about 15 of us met for an hour or so to talk about Pulpcon 2009 which is to be held in Columbus, Ohio July 31-August 2, 2009. Rich Harvey kindly provided the pizza and soda. All members of the new committee were present to discuss the Columbus Pulpcon and answer questions. Thank you Mike Chomko, Jack Cullers, Barry Traylor and Ed Hulse. All pulp collectors should visit the Pulpcon 2009 website which gives some details.

   These pulp shows are great for stirring up interest and usually result in visits with other collectors before the show and after the show. For instance, on Friday Steve Lewis and Paul Herman, visited me and we discussed pulp artwork and DVDs among other subjects. After the show was over, Scott Hartshorn and Nick Certo visited me and we watched film noir and horror movies until 2:00 am. I’ve been friends with all these collectors since the 1970’s when we met at Pulpcon or other conventions.

   So ended another day of great books and pulps, great friends, and plenty of fast food.