Tue 3 Apr 2018
Archived PI Mystery Review: ROBERT RAY – Dial “M” for Murdock.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[7] Comments
ROBERT RAY – Dial “M” for Murdock. Matt Murdock #3. St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1988. Dell, paperback, May 1990. Camel Press, softcover, 2018.
Robert Ray is an English professor, so who am I to argue, but he likes prologues in books, and I still don’t, especially when they’re as useless as the one in this book, the third in his PI Matt Murdock series. Actually it’s worse than useless, and I tell you about it after I tell you what the book’s about.
What it is that’s going on is an elaborate scam being pulled on various life insurance companies. Murdock is drawn in, falls in love with one of the “widows,” and along the way does very little detective work himself. (It’s nice to have friends who are computer whizzes.)
[WARNING: Plot Alert!] Murdock tells his own story in this book, all but for the prologue, and that’s where we learn all we really need to know for about 90% of the plot yet to come. Not so for Murdock, who is left completely in the dark about what happened before he came along.
This makes first half of the book is pretty much wasted, whiel we (the reader) watch him as he pieces together everything we knew ever since the book started.
There is a lot of action in this book, but as I mentioned up above, there is very little in the way of brainwork going on. What is somewhat unusual and worth pointing out, is that there is a vein of crime so deep here that the masterminds behind it are hardly even annoyed by the local police department, much less rugged individualist PI’s. Ants under their feet, no more.
And so what chance does Murdock have? None, and that’s what the epilogue tells is as well. (Yes, one of those, too, and it’s about as interesting as someone breathing heavily in a sandstorm.)
There is a unique aspect of the ending, however, something I don’t believe either Spenser or Marlowe had to deal with, and while you’ll have to read the story yourself to know what it is I’m talking about — and this I won’t tell you — if it has any precedent in PI fiction over the years, I wish you’d let me know right away.
The PI Matt Murdock series —
Bloody Murdock (1986)
Murdock for Hire (1987)
Dial “M†for Murdock (1988)
Merry Christmas, Murdock (1989)
Murdock Cracks Ice (1992)
Murdock Tackles Taos (2013)
Murdock Rocks Sedona (2015)
April 3rd, 2018 at 9:00 pm
I had no idea that there was 6th and 7th book in the series until just now. I expressed some dissatisfaction about the one I reviewed back in 1990, but I finished it, so it couldn’t have been all bad. Given a chance, I think I’d give it a second one.
Then if all went well, I’m willing to try the last three, maybe four in the series, which I know I’ve never read.
April 3rd, 2018 at 9:03 pm
And oh yes, the matter I was referring to at the end of the review. I see no reason why not tell all, not now, so many years later.
I hope I remember what happened correctly, but as I recall, one of Murdock’s lady friends is pregnant at book’s end, and as a direct result of Murdock’s doing.
April 3rd, 2018 at 9:59 pm
I remember seeing this in the bookstore, and finding the title hilarious.
He also wrote a book called “The Hit Man Cometh”.
April 3rd, 2018 at 10:04 pm
Another intriguing title!
April 4th, 2018 at 11:33 pm
Ray’s first book as I recall featured a private eye called Yankee Taggart, a Texan with an international caseload more 007 than Philip Marlowe and written in the third person.
I read a couple of Murdoch’s, but never managed to get hooked though they weren’t bad.
April 5th, 2018 at 6:11 pm
Matt Murdock is also the name of the Marvel Comics character “Daredevil” which was created in 1964.
Apparently, superheroes were so ‘under the radar’ in 1988 nobody noticed or cared about the duplication.
Fast forward 30 years and superheroes rule pop culture while PIs are fading to black.
April 5th, 2018 at 6:36 pm
Jee Jay
Back in 1988 I noticed, even though I didn’t bring it up in this review. If it had been earlier in the series, maybe I would have. (And maybe I did.)
But you’re right. I wonder how any other people did. Not anyone involved with putting the book out: the author, his editor, anyone on the publishing staff.
You’re also right about superheroes being the big cheese now in the entertainment world. No argument there!
But don’t count the lowly PI out just yet. They’ve been all but counted out before, and they’re still hanging in there.