Mon 29 May 2017
Archived PI Mystery Review: JONATHAN LATIMER – The Lady in the Morgue.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
JONATHAN LATIMER – The Lady in the Morgue. Bill Crane #3. Doubleday Doran / Crime Club, hardcover, 1936. Pocket Books #246, paperback, 1943 [several printings]. Dell, paperback, 1957 [Great Mystery Library]. International Polygonics, paperback, 1988. Contained in Triple Detective, pulp magazine, Winter 1952 [probably abridged]. Film: Universal, 1938, with Preston Foster (Bill Crane), Patricia Ellis, Frank Jenks (Doc Williams), Tom Jackson, Bill (Gordon) Elliott. Director: Otis Garrett.
After the staggering amount of every kind of liquor consumed by PI Bill Crane and his two associates in this book, in every combination of proportion thereof, it’s a wonder that by the time the case is over, anyone is left standing at all.
It’s a wild, woolly, and definitely risque affair, with the unidentified nude body of a beautiful young woman being stolen from the morgue late at night right from under Crane’s watchful eye. Various factions of gangsters and one very rich family either want the body back, don’t want anyone else to have it, or simply want to know if it’s that of a wandering daughter. Crane is left right in the middle.
There is actually some detective work going on here, in between bouts at a taxi dance hall, another mausoleum, various mobsters’ hangouts and so on, but with all the lowbrow humor (including some really nifty puns), it might be hard to notice.
Did I care? No.
May 29th, 2017 at 11:11 pm
The Bill Crane novels are excellent fun and if you are a beer drinker even more enjoyable! I’ve read the five novel series three times over the last 50 years.
The PI’s drink so much that they must be drunk much of the time. One of my favorite scenes is when Bill or Doc is laying on a bed reading a copy of BLACK MASK.
May 29th, 2017 at 11:32 pm
I’m not sure, but I think this one is my favorite of the five. Either that, or my favorite is the one I’ve just finished reading.
It’s too bad there were only the five.
May 31st, 2017 at 10:28 pm
My vote for the best example of the screwball school, by turns raunchy, tough, realistic, fantastic, mean, goofy, and brilliant. I have them in eBook now because I’ve gone through several paperbacks of each, enjoying, studying, and admiring them.