Mon 5 Mar 2018
Archived PI Mystery Review: WILLIAM WOODY – Mistress of Horror House.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
WILLIAM WOODY – Mistress of Horror House. Ace Double D-379. Paperback original; 1st printing, 1959. Published back-to-back with Drink with the Dead, by J. M. Flynn.
In spite of the lurid title — attempting to attracy who know what kind of person — this is a PI novel, and if you’ve never heard of Houston McIver, this is the only appearance he ever made in print. It’s also Woody’s only mystery. at least under that name.
The locale is El Paso, and there would be no story if McIver’s beautiful client and her aristocratic grandfather bothered to tell him exactly why they hired him. Counterfeit plates? Pancho Villa’s treasure? A blackmailing ex-husband? International espionage?
In spite of the cover and the title, this is not a very good book. Just to give you a better idea how generally inept it is, when McIver is hunting for either the plates or a stash of gold and silver (he doesn’t know which), he calls the chief of police and requisitions both a Geiger counter and a mine detector, neither of which does he know how to operate. Luckily they both come with a manual.
March 6th, 2018 at 9:06 am
I was bitterly disappointed myself, “Inept” is the right word for it.
March 6th, 2018 at 10:17 pm
Ace sometimes seemed to be betting they could sell anything if the cover was interesting.
March 6th, 2018 at 11:05 pm
Behind those covers was an awful lot of dreck, as I have discovered over the years. And every so often, I slip up and try one again, usually with the same result, over and over. I don’t know why I can’t learn from my own mistakes and stick to Gold Medals.
March 7th, 2018 at 12:26 am
Once in a while Ace would slip a ringer in, usually something that had actually had hardcover publication and decent reviews or a writer who wasn’t just trying to make that months water bill.
Not often mind you, not in the mystery genre, but once in a while, just enough to keep you hoping and spending another quarter or half dollar.