Sat 19 May 2018
Pulp PI Stories I’m Reading: ERLE STANLEY GARDNER “At Arm’s Length.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[4] Comments
ERLE STANLEY GARDNER “At Arm’s Length.” Detective Fiction Weekly, December 9, 1938. Included in the collection The Case of the Crimson Kiss (Morrow, hardcover, 1970).
The reason I’ve chosen “At Arm’s Length” to talk about is not because it’s one of his better ones, for it isn’t, but because… Well, here’s how the blurb for the story on the contents page puts it:
Or in other words, “At Arm’s Length” serves as the introduction of a brand new character in Mr. Gardner’s long list of same — as well as his only appearance. It’s not that it’s a terrible story, for it isn’t, but in 1939 career writing for the pulp magazines was winding down. He was making good money with the Perry Mason books, and the first Donald Lam & Bertha Cool novel also came out in 1939.
There are overtones of Lester Leith in this tale. Jerry Marr is the kind of guy who reads a pair of unconnected stories in a newspaper, put two and two together and get five — and cash in his pocket. The lead story of the day is that of a murdered society girl, but what catches Jerry Marr’s eye is a story on page four about a man seen sweeping up large tacks on a street nearby.
Marr is also a semi-hardboiled kind of PI. What his does is, to put it bluntly, blackmail a possible suspect in the murder case into hiring him. Or at least he would be a suspect if Marr told the police what he knows.
Marr has a girl friend named Lorrain Dell, and not only do you get the idea that he and she are closer than Perry and Della ever were, but he allows her to do some of his legwork for him. This doesn’t work out all that well when he discovers that Lorrain has pushed someone’s buttons too far, and she ends up a captive. Not only that, but Jerry Marr pulls a Mannix, well before Mannix came along, and is knocked on the head at one point in the story by some unknown malefactor into a short oblivion
It all works out fine, though, almost making Marr’s client-under-duress happy. The key word is almost, because Marr’s primary motivation, as stated above, is cash in hand.
Reading back the last few paragraphs to myself, I see that I may have made the story sound better than it is. It isn’t, but nor is it terrible, either.
May 20th, 2018 at 10:14 pm
Sounds like Gardner on cruise control, which still wasn’t bad.
May 20th, 2018 at 10:24 pm
That sums it up perfectly, and in only ten words!
December 24th, 2020 at 1:06 pm
I’ve pegged “At Arm’s Length” as the worst short story ever. not of those only by Gardner. I’d love to have reference to a worse and funnier Gardner story — honest, not kidding. What’s funnier than the murderer stuffing sticks of dynamite way down the blouse of the detective’s girlfriend and the detective retrieving them hurriedly after?
December 24th, 2020 at 1:54 pm
Ha! I couldn’t say that I agree with you that this is the worst story ever, but I will tell you this, it is a totally forgettable one. This is a fairly detailed review I wrote, and I don’t remember reading the story at all. Not even the bit about the dynamite.