Sat 8 Sep 2018
Archived PI Mystery Review: ROSS H. SPENCER – Kirby’s Last Circus.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
ROSS H. SPENCER – Kirby’s Last Circus. Birch Kirby #1 (and only). Donald I. Fine, hardcover, 1987. Worldwide, paperback, November 1989.
Meet Birch Kirby, as the back cover of the paperback edition says. He’s a fourth-rate Chicago-based PI if there ever was one — and the CIA’s candidate to uncover what’s behind the secret messages being beamed to the Soviet Union from downstate Grizzly Gulch, the permanent site of Admiral Doldrum’s circus.
Their rationale : anyone so obviously incompetent and inept must be an absolute genius, complete with open fly. Good-natured bawdy humor prevails. Slapstick so pure, you wonder if Spencer can keep it up for over 200 pages. He does. It’s the story that doesn’t.
Bibliographic Note: Ross H. Spencer was also the creator of PI’s Lacey Lockington (3 books), Luke Lassiter (1 book), “Buzz” Deckard (1 book), and of course the legendary Chance Purdue (5 books).
September 8th, 2018 at 5:35 pm
I am a big fan of Chance Purdue and the writing style Spencer used for those books. I was always disappointed by his other characters. They all seemed interchangeable.
September 8th, 2018 at 5:39 pm
Oops typo by Steve and me, Spenser is spelled with a “c” not a “s” – Spencer.
September 8th, 2018 at 5:56 pm
How could we both have made mistakes like that, Michael? No matter. All instances have now been corrected!
More to the point, you’re quite right. Spencer’s non-Chance Purdue PIs are indeed all the same fellow. Third or fourth rate, mostly drunk and incapacitated, maybe street smart but more likely not. Perdue and his books are in a class by themselves.
September 8th, 2018 at 8:30 pm
He came on hard, but rapidly went south with me, the gimmicks wearing thin before I could finish the first of the Purdue’s and worse in the second, and his other novels couldn’t sustain past chapter one for me.
September 8th, 2018 at 10:23 pm
It has occurred to me that some readers of this blog may be unfamiliar with the Chance Purdue books. I’ve taken the liberty of copying what follows from the Thrilling Detective website.
https://www.thrillingdetective.com/purdue.html
Chance Purdue
Created by Ross Spencer (1921-1998)
A series of novels spoofing the private eye genre.
They feature the beer-soaked adventures and screwball cases of a Chicago-based P.I.
His name is CHANCE PURDUE.
They are all titled The “Something-or-other” Caper.
They are all written in one-sentence paragraphs.
Like this.
And no punctuation.
Except for periods and question marks.
Each chapter begins with witticisms quotes and aphorisms from Monroe D. Underwood.
No.
I don’t know who he is either.
Some people think they’re a real hoot.
Some don’t.
September 8th, 2018 at 10:44 pm
Kevin Burton Smith at Thrilling Detective also added that for the Spencer’s other books he drops the “annoying prose style.”
I have to admit I found that prose style to be one of the reasons I am a Chance Purdue fan and not for Spencer’s others.
I found the one sentence style helped the one-liners and gave a certain rhythm to the prose as you read it.
I felt the one line paragraphs satirized the DRAGNET and bad noir dialogue well.