EDWARD RONNS Say it With Murder

EDWARD RONNS – Say It with Murder. Graphic #76, paperback original; 1st printing, 1954. Berkley Diamond D2041, paperback, 1960. Reprinted as by Edward S. Aarons: Macfadden, paperback, 1968; Manor, paperback, 1973.

   In case anyone’s not quite sure, Ronns was the pen name, Aarons was his real name. His writing career, as far as mystery novels were concerned, began back in 1938, when he was 22 years old, with a hardcover novel entitled Death in a Lighthouse, published by Phoenix Press. He didn’t use his own name until 1948 and a book called Nightmare, also in hardcover, this time for McKay.

EDWARD RONNS Say it With Murder

   His career really didn’t start rolling, though, until 1950, and the era of the paperback original. His first book for Gold Medal was again as Ronns and a book entitled Million Dollar Murder. He was especially prolific in the early 1950s, with five books in 1950, two in 1951, three in 1952, four in 1953, and two in 1954, including Say It for Murder. His first Sam Durell novel, Assignment to Disaster, the long-running spy series for which he is best known, came out in 1955.

   I have sometimes wondered if the four books he wrote for Graphic Books between 1953 and 1955 were rejects from Gold Medal, or if he had so many books in him at the time that he had to spread them out over more than one publisher.

EDWARD RONNS Say it With Murder

   Personally, I don’t believe that Say It for Murder is as good as the books he was writing for Gold Medal at the time, so I have a feeling that Graphic was only a backup market for him. It does have something of a noirish feeling to it, a la Day Keene, Gil Brewer and Charles Williams, with the protagonist, pianist Bill Carmody, getting into one jam after another, either with the police on one side and the guys he’s forced to hang around with on the other.

   But Carmody is essentially a nice guy who only made one mistake, and not a guy who continually tries to cut sharp corners as he makes his way through life, and we have the sense he’s going to work his way out of his troubles – and get the girl – with the only question being how.

   I don’t know. I was going to tell you more about the plot, which begins with Carmody joining up with two other former Korean prisoners of war in getting even with the guy they think turned traitor on them, and the mysterious death of the man’s wealthy wife, but maybe this is all you need to know.

   There’s nothing deep to the story, but there’s certainly something going on in it all the time, and sometimes that’s all you need just before heading off to bed at night.