REPEAT PERFORMANCE. Eagle-Lion Films, 1947. Louis Hayward, Joan Leslie, Virginia Field, Tom Conway, Richard Basehart, Natalie Schafer, Benay Venuta. Director: Alfred L. Werker; based on the mystery novel of the same title by William O’Farrell.

   William O’Farrell wrote 13 or so crime novels between 1942 and 1962. Toward the end of his career he wrote paperback originals (Dell, Gold Medal, Lancer), but the first one he wrote was Repeat Performance, a hardcover from Houghton Mifflin in 1942. His next book didn’t come out until after the war, in 1948.

   As sometimes happens, it’s the first book that attracts the most attention, and so it was with this book. It was the only one of O’Farrell’s novels that was made into a movie until 1987, when a French company made Dernier été à Tanger, based on The Devil His Due (Doubleday, 1955). O’Farrell does have a handful of TV credits, according to IMDB: Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock, and so on, and a TV remake was made of Repeat Performance in 1989, a film entitled Turn Back the Clock, with Connie Sellecca in the leading role.

   In 1947, it was Joan Leslie who was the star, one of a number of leading roles she had for smaller companies like Eagle-Lion, and her career lasted long enough, thanks to television, for her to be given a walk-on role in the remake as a guest at a party. She was full-faced and very pretty without quite being beautiful, but then again your opinion need not necessarily be the same as mine.

   The beginning and end of Repeat Performance is dark and stylish enough for it to be considered in many quarters as a noir film, but without the beginning and end, it is frothy and soap opera-y and very nearly not a crime film at all. It begins with Sheila Paige (Joan Leslie) shooting a man in a Manhattan apartment on New Year’s Eve, then fleeing the scene of the crime through streets crowded and filled with merry-makers.

   The man, as it turns out, was her husband Barney, a failed and now-alcoholic playwright played by Louis Hayward. We don’t know any of the details right away, only that Sheila is frightened and needs help. And on the brink of the New Year, her wish to live the year over again, and to make things come out right, is granted.

   A nice fantasy touch. She remembers the year before, but no one else does, except (gradually) poet William Williams (Richard Basehart, in his first film), a tragically weak creature with hints of self-esteem. Sheila’s husband is not only a lush, but a louse and a womanizer, the woman in this case being an ultra- glamorous British playwright named Paula Costello (Virginia Field).

   Can Sheila live the year over again and make the outcome turn out differently? Can she keep her husband away from Paula by shuffling him off to California? Can she convince William that having Mrs. Shaw (Natalie Schafer) as a patroness, and a controlling one at that, is not likely to be in his best interest?

   You’ll have to watch and see. The fantasy elements give the movie a premise, but otherwise they are not followed up on. The crime element is shoved to the background. It’s always there, mind you, as you watch Sheila relive her life, with differences, but as I say, trim five minutes from both the beginning and the end, and you don’t have a mystery movie at all. And probably not much a story, either, so no, don’t trim it … a mystery film it is.

   Is it noir? Yes, if one aspect of noir films is seeing lives swirl and careen out of control, and another is a dark beginning and (hints are) a dark ending. No, if noir does not involve froth and soap flakes, which too much of this one does.

[UPDATE.] 01-22-08. For those of you conveniently located near San Francisco, Repeat Performance will be the lead-off attraction for this year’s Noir City film festival. Date: Friday, January 25th. Joan Leslie will be in attendance, and after the screening she will be interviewed by festival host Eddie Muller.

   Connecticut, unfortunately, is a mere 3000 miles away, else I’d be there for sure.

   A giant has left us, not in height, but in terms of his stature in the field. Marv Lachman emailed me earlier today with word from his wife Pat that Ed Hoch died this morning, and the news is spreading quickly. Bill Crider was perhaps the first to post it on the web, followed quickly by Jeff Pierce at The Rap Sheet.

   Even though I’d met Ed only once, back a few years ago when he was one of the Guests of Honor at Pulpcon, I’d interviewed him before that by for the print version of Mystery*File, and we’d corresponded ever since. In recent months we’d been in touch most often as he, Marv, Al Hubin and I came across the deaths of other mystery writers and we informed each other of them.

   Ed may have been the last living link to the detective pulp era. He wasn’t published in Black Mask, only the more recent trade paperback revival, but “Village of the Dead,” his very first story, was published in the December, 1955, issue of Famous Detective.

   And of course he was still very much active, with well over 900 short stories to his credit and hoping to reach 1000. While his first story in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine appeared in December 1962, his appearance in the May 1973 issue began a streak of consecutive appearances in EQMM that has not ended, there being a story even now in the issue cover-dated February 2008.

   It’s a record that will not be surpassed. As a person, Ed Hoch was both a gentle man and a gentleman, loved by all. He will be missed.

   Here’s an email I’ve just received from Fender Tucker, head exec at Ramble House:

    “Ramble House has just released its fourth Rupert Penny mystery, The Lucky Policeman, available at the Ramble House web site and their Lulu store. That leaves four more Penny books to bring back for modern readers.

    “Ramble House has few resources for finding and acquiring these books and in the past has relied on generous collectors who have loaned us copies of the book to scan, OCR and edit. If you have one of the remaining Penny books — in any condition, in fact, the worse the better — and would loan it to me, I will return it as soon as I’ve got the book edited and will send you a copy of the Ramble House edition as soon as its available.

    “This is the modern way of reviving old books so ordinary readers can enjoy them. The traditional method appears to have failed and the big publishers don’t seem to be interested in the classic old books of yesteryear. Ramble House doesn’t have to make any money — I assure you it doesn’t — but we’re eager to do it for love. And a damn good read.”

      From the Ramble House website:

   Between 1937 and 1941 British writer Ernest Basil Charles Thornett wrote several puzzle-oriented mysteries that until now have only been available in the UK. Using the pseudonym Rupert Penny and the first person friend of Police Inspector, Tony Purdon, the author takes you to the stodgiest of English manors where murder dwells, if not reigns. Inspector Beale must use all of his puzzle-solving skills, including acrostics and elaborate timelines, to track down the murderer in classic not-so-cosy style.

   1938’s The Lucky Policeman takes Tony Purdon and Inspector Beale to an insane asylum where an inmate has escaped and townspeople are dying from a mysterious spike to the lower brain. And they are all missing their left shoe!

   In Part 21 of the Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV is the following entry, which after I’ve expanded it a little, includes just about all that’s known about either the author or the publisher.

DAY, LULA M(ADELAINE). 1902?-1992?
      The Mystery of the Red Suitcase. Virginia: Hip Books, pb, February 1946. Add setting: Calumet, Indiana. Leading characters: Miss Lula Day, Squire Dunnett & Lt. Inspector Steve Badger. Note: Eleven other titles by this author were announced but none was published; all apparently were to have the same leading characters. [In Chapter One of this book, the man found shot in Miss Day’s garden turns out to be her ex-brother-in-law. Investigating the crime is Lt. Badger. Squire Dunnett is an aged attorney; as it happens, “Squire” is his first name.]

   The book is a regular paperback in size, although perhaps a trifle slimmer than others published in 1946 – thinner paper perhaps, as in all it’s 232 pages long, or in other words, a full-sized novel. This is the only book that Hip Books seems to have published, although as you will soon see, others were definitely in the planning stages. The only address given for Hip is Alexandria, Virginia, not exactly the publishing capital of the US, then or now.

   On the title page it says, under the Hip Books line, that the book was published “under arrangement with Owl Press, Inc.” Sherrie Tellier has followed up on this lead and reports back that “Owl Press is still in existence, but claims not to have any information on this book.”

   Not surprisingly, as it’s my feeling that Owl Press was hired to do the finished product only as an outside job, and they had nothing to do with the book from the editorial end.

   Oh, one more thing, before I get to the author herself, Lula M. Day. There’s nothing on the back cover but general information about Hip Books, and nothing about the story itself. You may have gotten the same impression about name of the company as I did, but no, the tagline for the one-book publishing firm is “They fit your hip.”

   It would seem as though tracking Lula Day down would be easy. How many Lula Day’s could there have been? The answer is another surprise. Lots of them, and believe it or not, she’s not the only Lula M. Day who shows up on Google. The dates as given above are extremely tentative, and come from this lady:

   The book takes place in Indiana, and Ohio is the next state over, making this my choice. Al Hubin has countered with:

   If you were to search online yourself, you’d come up with at least one other Lula M. Day, perhaps two. (It is not clear whether the two I just found are the same person or not.)

   This is all that various researchers, including Victor Berch, have come up with so far. We’ve all come to the same dead ends. Perhaps by posting even these incompleat results, someone will stop by, discover what we’ve found, and tell us more. That’s what we’re hoping.

   I’ve not read the book, but I’ve skimmed through the first couple of chapters, and at glance one and two, the story-telling appears solid enough. There are plenty of other reasons why there there were to be no more books from either Lula Day or Hip Books, but they did have plans, as I alluded to up above.

   What comes after THE END? [At the bottom of page 227.] Steve Badger has just proposed to Lula Day, upon which she “came unglued all at once.”

   And on the next page:

      AND SO THEY WERE MARRIED

      (More About Steve and Lula Badger)

2. “THE MYSTERY OF THE CAT THAT CAME BACK” …

Started on a motor honeymoon to California, McNulty’s wire reached them at Topeka, Kan. The wife of the city’s wealthiest manufacturer had fantastically vanished from her bed in the night; next night her frantic husband similarly disappeared; the third night it was their bachelor son. Was it kidnapping or the supernatural? Reluctantly the Badgers interrupted their wedding-trip. But the night they returned to Calumet to help solve the case, the missing woman’s huge Persian cat reappeared in the house. Lula writes in the first person how the clue of the Cat led to Chicago and Wisconsin and finally cracked the mystery wide open. . . .

3. “THE MYSTERY OF THE TALKING CARPET”

Arrived in Hollywood at the home of Lula’s relatives, Steven becomes embroiled in a different enigma. A waitress in a Drive-In Stand has been summoned home by plane to Arizona. Suddenly the plane veers over the Pacific and the girl is hurled out, falling so peculiarly that she lives to tell the story. Steven becomes interested. Quickly he develops a still greater mystery, involving well-known movie people, which he solves by a ruse of the girl’s bedroom carpet. Another inspirational detective mystery rich in the atmosphere of picturedom.

4. “THE MYSTERY OF THE WALKING SUSPENDERS” . . .

Returned to Calumet and ensconced in their new home in County Downe suburb, a wealthy Irish contractor is discovereddead in his skyscraper office with an arrow in his back and open window behind him. The contractor’s fine son is suspected of the killing. Steven follows the case to a night when rank upon rank of mysterious suspenders are seen “marching” in the darkness across the grounds of a country estate. In one of her most poignant and realistic stories, Miss Day tells the secret of the phenomena and the reconciliation that follows with the son’s wife when Steven – with Squire Dunnett’s aid – proves how the arrow reached the father’s back. , . .

5. “THE MYSTERY OF THE LAUGHING NUGGET” …

An eccentric old bank president is found frozen to death in his home in a town near Calumet. The coroner declares he has not died naturally and county authorities “borrow” Steven’s service. to determine the cause of death, and – if necessary- — apprehend his slayers. Steven and Lula find bloody tracks in an upper room that seem to disappear into a doorless wall. Finally a sizable gold nuggett is located on which is engraved a grinning face, opening an Alaskan chapter in the victim’s. life where the secret of his death is found, Squire Dunnett at his best in this volume. . .

6. “THE MYSTERY OF THE STRAWBERRY BLOUSE” …

An Indiana farmhand, cutting diagonally across a cornfield to catch a bus, notices a peculiar “cornstock” rising ten inches above the soil. Looking closer, he is horrified to recognize it as the hand of a woman. Presently the body of a girl is disinterred from her make-shift grave. Pinned to her “strawberry blouse” is an address in town for police to investigate. When the housewife at the address is summoned to identify the body at the morgue, she stuns authorities by screaming that the dead girl is herself at 23 years old. Furthermore, the dead girl’s clothes are identified as having been worn by the housewife at a party at the age she has indicated. Lula describes how Badger runs up against a wall in this one, but shrewd old Squire Dunnett traces the mystery to Chicago and developes an explanation that makes the case unique …

7. “THE MYSTERY OF THE MOON’S BREAKFAST” …

Six Scot brothers, reputable citizens of Calumet, die off a week apart by mysterious poisoning. With no hidden scandals in their lives that Badger can discover, the safe deposit box of the eldest is opened and a little bag of buttons comes to light, along with vague papers about “the moon’s breakfast.” In the midst of investigation into their deaths, Steven and Lula have a strange and bizarre guest at County Downe, their suburban home – apparently a foreign nobleman – who talks wildly of revolutions. Subsequently this personage is involved in Steve’s and Lula’s abductions while Squire Dunnett drops tragically from sight, and Lula, shut in an abandoned auto factory, almost loses her life. In the end the bag of buttons, the “nobleman” and the abductions, are uniquely tied together – and it isn’t a revolution. One of Miss Day’s best. . . .

8. “THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED COFFEE-CUP” …

Badger’s growing. reputation as a homicide sleuth causes him to be retained by a Chicago millionaire to investigate someone impersonating him back east. Steven and Lula journey to Vermont, find the “millionaire” as purported to have died and been buried the week before, but when the impersonator’s family vault is opened nothing is found within the casket but an old-fashioned moustache cup, with saucer. Convinced it has significance and is not a hoax, Steven follows the trail of the coffee-cup to Philadelphia and Florida, then back to Vermont. The reason the impersonation and the presence of the cup in the casket tie together one of the most poignant stories in the Lula Day series. . . .

IN MISS DAY’S STENOGRAPHIC BOOKS FOR FUTURE PUBLICATION

      “The Mystery of the Flying Elephant”
      “The Mystery of the Spinster’s Bedroom”
      “The Mystery of the Screaming Village”
      “The Mystery of the Thing Against the Moon”

   None of these, as far as can be determined, was ever printed. What would be interesting to discover is whether any or all of them were ever written.

   Another small-sized installment to the Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV this time, uploaded this evening and online now as Part 23.

   Says author Allen J. Hubin:

    “You’ll notice a fair number of titles associated with Ireland, and they came out of my work with Gangsters or Guerrillas? by Patrick Magee (the last reference work I plan to go through).

    “I’m thinking that the bibliographic end is in sight. Maybe after #24 I’ll finish updating my manuscript of the print Revised CFIV and leave all the rest to exist only online. (I’m sure the flow of new and corrected information will continue.)”

   I’ve been absent from the blog for several days now, as you may have noticed. The explanation has nothing to do with mysteries or crime fiction or paperback covers, but I’d like to offer one anyway.

   It was a week ago that Evelyn Ahlberg died. She and my wife Judy taught math together at the University of Connecticut’s Hartford branch for over 30 years, and over that time she and her husband Don had become our very close friends.

   In her early 70s, Evelyn had retired but had come back to teach one course a semester.

   She died very suddenly, struck down by previously undiscovered heart problem while swimming. Judy and I received the news last Monday while eating dinner out. Since then we’ve been helping Don contact her friends and people she knew, which is redundant, because everyone she knew became a friend quickly.

   We’ll miss her tremendously. We already do.

Hi Steve,

Thought you might be interested in seeing the following:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps

Everyone here frets about the British postal service but sometimes they do come up with some exciting things.

Best,

Tise

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hi Tise

I’d heard about these. They’re long stamps with four covers for each of the books used, one apparently the first British hardcover, the second an early Pan paperback, the third I’m not sure about, but the fourth ones are taken from the most recent set of trade paperbacks. Quite unusual, to say the least and, I’d be willing to wager, quite a money-maker for the postal service.

On the Yahoo FictionMags group, Phil Stephensen-Payne wonders if this is the first time that book or magazine covers have been featured on a series of stamps. Good question.

I used to collect stamps, so I’m tempted to purchase a set, but I long ago decided I’d better stick to one hobby, and collecting books it’s been ever since.

Steve

[UPDATE.] 01-09-08. Thanks, and a tip of the cap to Gordon Van Gelder, also from the FictionMags group:

[UPDATE] 01-10-08. From Jamie Sturgeon:

Steve,

The Royal Mail issued on July 17 last year a set of Harry Potter stamps featuring all the covers of the books. On the James Bond issue, the 3rd set of covers you could not identify were, according to the Royal Mail website, designed by Barnett Plotkin (and were on p/bs published in the US by Jove in the 1980s).

Jamie

   Still working with some “A” authors tonight, alphabetically speaking, as I was a few days ago, but this time from Part 4. One of these authors is rather well-known, but if you are a reader of vintage western fiction, you will recognize the name of another far more readily.

ADAMS, LETA ZOE. 1900-1953. Correction of both dates. [Also see the comment from Victor Berch.] Author of a number of stories for the romance and western pulp magazines in the 1930s and 40s. Of five novels to her credit, two for Young Adults, one is a mystery included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below.
      The Mirror Murder. Phoenix Press, hc, 1937. Setting: Washington state. Leading characters: Elsa Kent and Sheriff Alex Boone.

ARCHER, JEFFREY (HOWARD)
      -Kane and Abel. TV movie [mini-series]: CBS, 1985 (scw: Robert W. Lenski; dir: Buzz Kulik)
      Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. TV movie: USA, 1990 (scw: Sherman Yellen; dir: Clive Donner). [Archer’s first novel, said to have been inspired by his real-life experience of near-bankruptcy.]

ARRIGHI, MEL. 1933-1986. Born in San Francisco; a professional actor for many years before turning to writing. Author of three plays produced in New York City and 12 novels, nine of which are included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. A TV movie was adapted from one; see below.
      Alter Ego. Add TV movie: CBS, 1987, as Murder by the Book (scw: Michael Norell; dir; Mel Damski). Leading character: D. H. ‘Hank’ Mercer/Biff Deegan (Robert Hays). [A writer’s private eye creation appears to him as being real.]

ARTHUR, BUDD. Add: Pseudonym of Herbert Arthur, Jr., 1928- , who may have been born Herbert Arthur Shapiro, Jr. He was the son of western writer Herbert Arthur Shapiro, 1899-1975, who changed his name to Herbert Arthur. Both Burt and Budd Arthur were prolific writers of western fiction; after Budd began writing, they often wrote in collaboration. Confusing the matter of what their names were when is that their original last name was often spelled Shappiro. See Steve Holland’s blog for more information on their careers and a checklist of their western fiction, which sometimes appeared as by Cliff Campbell. There are two entries for Budd Arthur in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV, both apparently crime or gangster novels. See below.
      The Big Squeeze. Bouregy (Mystery House), hc, 1956. Phantom, Australia, pb, 1959. Add setting: Midwest; “Rock City.” Leading character: NYC cop David Ware.
      Swiftly to Evil. World Distributors, UK, pb, 1960. Setting: New York City.

AUERBACH, JESSICA (LYNN) (née SCHWARTZ). 1947- . Born in New Jersey; married Joshua Auerback, 1969. Author of four novels, two of which are included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below.
      Catch Your Breath. Putnam, hc, 1996. Headline, UK, 1996. [A young mother is accused of abusing her chronically ill two-year-old son.]
      Sleep, Baby, Sleep. Putnam, hc, 1994. Headline, UK, 1994. Setting: Connecticut. Add TV movie: ABC, 1995 (scw: John Gray; dir: Armand Mastroianni). [A woman leaves her six-week-old baby girl unattended for five minutes.] Shown is the US paperback edition from Fawcett Crest.

   Rightly or wrongly, this cover reminds me of the jackets of British adventure novels of the 1920s and 30s. The artwork was done by Winslow Pinney Pels, while the overall cover design was by Louise Fili. I’ve found no website for Mr. Pels, but his primary work seems to have been for children’s books. The cover at hand, while almost suitable for a boys’ aviation novel, appears to me to be just a little more “adult” than that.

   Perhaps I’m wrong.

   As for James McClure, I included a bibliography for him on the main Mystery*File website along with a short obituary I did for him when he died. I’ve obtained a sizable number of his books since then, but sad to say, I’ve not yet read any of them. This one, perhaps, after reading the back cover blurb below, may be the first.

Pantheon. Paperback reprint, April 1982. British First Edition: Macmillan, 1980. US hardcover: Harper & Row, 1981.

      From the back cover:

Six days into their search for the man who put a .32-caliber bullet into a South African antique dealer, neither Kramer of the Murder Squad nor his Bantu assistant, Zondi, has a single lead in the case. On the seventh day, Mrs. Digby-Smith opens the trunk of her car and discovers the hideous, tied-up corpse of her younger brother. Two violent crimes — seemingly unconnected. But as Kramer and Zondi pursue their investigation, startling connections turn up in the sordid underworld of Trekkersburg and in the secret, unresolved enmities of World War II.

“An altogether superior piece of work … McClure’s ability to create convincing characters, a wry sense of humor, and the rather exotic locale [puts this series] at the top of its class.”     Newgate Callander, The New York Times

“The concluding scene is one rarely matched for slashing irony and sheer impact.”     Publishers Weekly

“This well-plotted, well-written murder mystery is exceptional … sometimes grim, sometimes sourly comic, always shocking.”     Atlantic Monthly

   I spent some time with Part 21 this afternoon, largely in the S’s. There’s a PI series of sorts that Kevin Burton Smith doesn’t know about, yet, but what I also came across Van Siller, a writer with a lengthy career and over 20 books to her credit. There’s very little to be discovered about her on the Internet, and I have the strong feeling that she’s very nearly been forgotten.

FARROW, MICHAEL DAVID. 1944- . Pseudonym: Tommy Sledge, q.v.

HOWE, DORIS KATHLEEN. 1904-1994. Add as a new author entry. Ref: CA. English author of many works of romantic fiction under her own name and as Mary Munro & Kay Stewart. Joint pseudonym with sister Muriel Howe: Newlyn Nash, q.v.

HOWE, MURIEL. Maiden name and working byline of Muriel Howe Smithies, ca.1912-. Add tentative year of birth; also add joint pseudonym with sister Doris Kathleen Howe, 1904-1994: Newlyn Nash, qq.v. As Muriel Howe, the author of two mystery novels included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. See below.
      The Affair at Falconers. Macdonald, UK, hc, 1957.
      Pendragon. Macdonald, UK, hc, 1958.

NASH, NEWLYN. Add as a new author entry. Joint pseudonym of sisters Doris Kathleen Howe, 1904-1994, and Muriel Howe [Muriel Howe Smithies] ca.1912- , qq.v. Under this pen name, the author of two romance novels with strong criminous content.
      The Affair at Claife Manor. John Gresham, UK, hc, 1963. [The disappearance of a woman is invesigated by her brother.]
      Wild Garlic. John Gresham, UK, hc, 1962. Setting: Mediterranean Island.

SILLER, VAN. Pseudonym of Hilda van Siller, 1911-1982, q.v. Under this pen name, an American writer and author of more than 20 crime and mystery novels published between 1943 and 1974, some only in the UK. Series characters: Richard Massey (2 books), Allan Stewart (3 books), and Pete Rector (2 books). Massey appears in her first book (Echo of a Bomb, Doubleday Crime Club, 1943), which was a wartime espionage affair taking place in New York City and Virginia; its cover is shown below.

      The Red Geranium. Hammond, UK, hc, 1966. Delete: not criminous.

SKINNER, MICHAEL. 1924- . Pseudonym: Nicholas Spain, q.v.; other pseudonyms: Alix De Marquand, Cynthia Hyde. Under his own name, the author of three crime thrillers included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV. All three were published in the UK by Robert Hale between 1978 and 1983.

SLEDGE, TOMMY. Add as a new author entry. Pseudonym of Michael David Farrow, 1944- , q.v. Occupation, under this name: actor, “standup detective.” Besides his longtime stage routine – sample lines: “I just rolled into town. Boy, do my sides hurt.” – the author of two humorous private eye novels. SC: Tommy Sledge, in both titles. His short radio plays have also aired on stations across the country as Tommy Sledge’s Dime Novel.

      Eat Lead, Clown! Full Court Press, pb, 1987. “This is one gumshoe who’s in over his head – in hilarious hijinks and murderous mirth!”
      Kiss It or Die! Private Shadow Press, pb, 1995.

SMITHIES, MURIEL HOWE. ca.1912- . Working byline: Muriel Howe, q.v.

SPAIN, NICHOLAS. Pseudonym of Michael Skinner, 1924- , q.v. Under this pen name, the author of two crime novels included in the (Revised) Crime Fiction IV.
      Name Your Vice. Kozy Books, pb, 1963. Delete the dash previously assigned. Add setting: New York City.

      Wine, Women & Bullets. Kozy Books, pb, 1963.

van SILLER, HILDA. 1911-1982. Pseudonym: Van Siller, 1911-1982, q.v.