Wed 21 Jun 2017
A Pulp Fiction Review by David Vineyard: When The Death Bat Flies: The Detective Stories of NORVELL PAGE.
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Reviews[5] Comments
When The Death Bat Flies: The Detective Stories of NORVELL PAGE. Altus Press, hardcover, softcover, ebook, 2013. Introduction by Will Murray.
This thick Altus Press edition collects over 800 pages of detective and crime stories by pulp wunderkind Norvell Page, best remembered today for helming the best of the popular adventures of Richard Wentworth, star of the eponymous pulp The Spider. It is accompanied by an informative introduction and biographical look at Page and his career by pulp expert and Doc Savage chronicler Will Murray.
Page cracked the more highly regarded pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, and John Campbell’s Unknown, but by far his greatest output aside from the Spider epic was for the likes of Ten Detective Aces (his Ken Carter series), Detective Tales, Strange Detective Mysteries, and even the spicy pulps. Most of the stories collected here come from Detective Tales.
Most of the stories are novellas running about seven chapters and around 30,000 words. These novellas feature tough cops, private eyes, amateur criminologists, and the like, and enough gunfire for several small wars. Never let it be said Norvell Page spared bullets even when his language was spare. A few of the novellas venture into weird menace territory, coming out of Strange Detective Mysteries and Strange Detective Adventures.
If you like rough tough knock ’em sock ’em rock ’em action, relentless pace, breathless escapes, low-slung fast cars and faster women, gun-happy mugs and crafty villains, this book is a bonanza, with sleuths like Don Q. (Quixote) Ryan, big Swede Larsen, Richard Carter. John Stone (whose paralyzed face is mindful of Richard Benson, the Avenger), Aubrei Dunne (two-fisted inventor of countless gadgets, and star of the book’s title story), Bruce Shane (a two-gun man), Flinn McHurd, Walsh Devore, amateur criminologist, Grant Montana out to clear his Private Eye dad who did seven years for a crime he didn’t commit, and more.
“Conroy laughed sharply and his belly-gun blasted upward toward the sound of that voice.â€
“Pardon my rudeness,†she said pleasantly. “Go to Hell.â€
“… he seized a chair and used his impetus to snatch it back over his shoulder. Instantly he whipped it up and it smashed across the chest of Blackie, who was fumbling for a gun.â€
“… But see oh man of the West, how we of the East can die!â€
“It was glorious, Garner thought, to be able to fight against criminals who preyed on the people, to be a defender of innocents like … yes, like the knights of old did!â€
And that’s a random sampling just from page flipping.
The shorts tend to be crime stories, fast moving, with a lot of impact, but not strong on originality. They are better than filler because Page was incapable of not writing compelling prose, but they wouldn’t make anyone’s best list. For all that they have impact.
Page is a pulp master, not a great writer, certainly not a great innovator, but a skilled professional with enough personal demons and more than enough drive to make his work both interesting and fun to read. If you only know him from Spider reprints or his two collections of Prester John tales from Unknown, this is an ideal place to see him at work. More collections are coming, and I am particularly hoping to see the Ken Carter stories collected. Meanwhile sit back, pop some popcorn, and kick back. Norvell Page is taking you on a hell of a ride through the wild and woolly pulp jungle.
June 21st, 2017 at 2:49 pm
Over the decades I have developed a positive dislike for the hero pulps and as my old friend Harry Noble used to say about the character pulps, “they are unreadable crap.”
But there are a few exceptions and THE SPIDER is one of them. Page was brilliant at the crazy, weird menace, bizarre plots, all written at a headlong fast pace. I have this collection and I hope one day to find time to read it.
June 21st, 2017 at 5:34 pm
Black Dog Books has reprinted Page’s Ken Carter stories in a volume called CITY OF CORPSES. It’s available in both print and e-book editions. I’ve read about half of them so far. Great stuff. Like Walker, I have this collection and will get around to it sooner or later.
June 22nd, 2017 at 1:20 am
I’ve purchased well over half of the pulp fiction reprints that both Black Dog and Altus Press have published in the past few years, and when I run out of money I stop eating for a few days and purchase more.
We are living in a pulp collector’s dream of heaven, I kid you not!
June 22nd, 2017 at 5:19 am
Thanks for the kind words. This was an ambitious collection and it took quite some time to unearth all the stories it contained.
Chris Kalb deserves a lot of credit for the fantastic cover as well.
Altus Press will be issuing a complete Ken Carter collection as part of the Dime Detective Library (as the character appeared there too).
June 23rd, 2017 at 7:27 am
After reading David’s great review I ordered WHEN THE DEATH BAT FLIES. I’ve read some Novell Page, mostly THE SPIDER books. Love Altus Press and Black Dog Press. You’re right about us living in a Pulp collector’s Golden Age!