Fri 2 Jan 2015
RAOUL WHITFIELD – The Virgin Kills. Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover, 1932. Quill, paperback, 1985. Apparently did not appear first in a pulp magazine. Currently available in ebook form.
If you’ve never read the book, right now you probably have the same wrong-headed idea of what the title means as I did when I picked it up, not long ago. The Virgin is a boat; a yacht, to be precise. A murder is committed on board. The victim is the owner, a gambler named Vennell.
And even before that another murder has taken place. The leading oarsman of the California shell is somehow poisoned, and he collapses just before the finish of the big Hudson River collegiate regatta. That California loses as a direct result has obviously a great deal to do with the plot.
Vennell had just as obviously been expecting trouble, however. Along with the many society guests he has on board, he also has a newly-acquired bodyguard, a hard-boiled hoodlum by the name of O’Rourke. As a not-always-successful interface between the slick set and the underworld from which he clearly comes, Nick O’Rourke is the object of some amusement and conjecture. He is probably the best developed character in the book.
The repartee is dated and, mired in subtleties no longer operative, it no longer has the bite it might once have had. The pace picks up considerably after the murders occur, and we have a full-fledged detective novel on our hands. Even though the story is complexly motivated, I might warn you that the obvious person did it.
Note that that doesn’t mean that you’ll catch on at all, any more than I did!
Rating: B
January 3rd, 2015 at 5:05 pm
This is yet another book I read and reviewed way back when that I’m going to read again, the next chance I get. According to my records, I have the hardcover Knopf edition as well as the Quill paperback published by William Morrow.
Without a jacket, the hardcover edition is offered online in the $30-35 range. I think I’d rather keep mine a while longer before selling it.
January 3rd, 2015 at 7:48 pm
This was a let down after GREEN ICE and DEATH IN A BOWL, but then THE THIN MAN was a let down after THE MALTESE FALCON.
I enjoyed this and the ones he wrote as Temple Field, but I don’t rank them with his classics or with the Jo Gar stories.
That said, dated or not, Whitfield is usually a pleasure to read, and I can’t say I wouldn’t have thought more of this if I read it before ICE and BOWL. I suspect if I had read it not knowing Whitfield’s name and reputation I would have been more impressed, but it just isn’t in a class with those others.
Luckily in the case of Hammett I read THE THIN MAN before FALCON, RED HARVEST, or THE GLASS KEY so it was no let down at all, just a perfect entrée for the main course.
January 3rd, 2015 at 8:02 pm
I’d have to agree. I don’t know where my reviews of GREEN ICE and DEATH IN A BOWL might be, but I’m sure I’d have given them both A’s, and as you see, VIRGIN rated only a B. And yes, Whitfield’s Joe Gar stories are true gems, no doubt about it.
LATER: To explain that second sentence, I’ve always meant to organize all of the reviews I’ve written over the years, and that’s one of those projects that like New Year’s resolutions, you just never get around to. I don’t know if it’s too late, but with all of the other books and movies I plan to read for the first time, I suspect that it is.