Sat 19 Apr 2008
Pulp Magazine: COMPLETE DETECTIVE NOVEL MAGAZINE, November 1931.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Covers , Crime Fiction IV , Pulp Fiction[2] Comments
Another copy of COMPLETE DETECTIVE NOVEL MAGAZINE from my collection. It’s been a while, so please go back to this previous post for more information about the project this is a part of.

November 1931. Number 41. Total pages: 144, not including covers.
* 8 * John T. McIntyre * Blows in the Dark * novel * illustrated by Leo Morey
* 85 * Ward Andrus Scranton * The Almost Perfect Crime * short story (reporter Jimmie Reed)
* 95 * Jack Martin * The Subway Murders * short story (reporter Hemming Byrd)
* 114 * Ray Torr * The Doctor Crippen Case * true crime article * continued on page 116
* 115 * Samuel Davenport * Final Extra! * short short story
* 117 * James W. Poling * Steps of Death * short story
* 132 * James Moynahan * Rat Poison * short story
Comments: Reporters seem to have been quite the rage, as far as the short fiction in this issue is concerned. The leading character in “Blows in the Dark,” which does not seem to ever have been published anywhere else, is Bob Craige, an adventurer recently returned from Mexico and Central America, only to find waiting for him in New York City a dying man, a beautiful girl, and a Chinese gentleman (I believe I am using the term lightly) named Hong Yo.
As for John T. McIntyre, here is his entry in Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. I’m quite positive that this is the same author as the one who wrote “Blows in the Dark.”
McINTYRE, JOHN (Thomas)
* -The Ragged Edge (n.) McClure 1902
* In the Dead of Night (n.) Lippincott 1908 [New York City, NY]

* -The Street Singer (n.) Penn 1908
* Ashton-Kirk: Investigator (n.) Penn 1910 [Ashton Kirk; New York City, NY]
* Ashton-Kirk: Secret Agent (n.) Penn 1912 [Ashton Kirk]

* Ashton-Kirk: Special Detective (n.) Penn 1912 [Ashton Kirk; New York City, NY]
* Ashton-Kirk: Criminologist (n.) Penn 1918 [Ashton Kirk; New York City, NY]

* “Slag” (n.) Scribner 1927
* The Museum Murder (n.) Doubleday 1929 [New York City, NY]

* Steps Going Down (n.) Farrar 1936 [Philadelphia, PA]

* -Signing Off (n.) Farrar 1938
One of the books is available online. Follow the link above. About Ashton-Kirk, I’ve found a blogger who has said:
“Until you read the Conan Doyle imitators who were roughly his contemporaries, you can’t understand how reasonable, comparatively, Sherlock Holmes is. Ashton-Kirk is clearly based on Holmes, and yet —
“He’s one of those young, aristocratic cultured gentlemen. And yes, his eyes are piercing, and his fabulous house is in a bad neighborhood, and he’s irritatingly cryptic, but it’s all part of the formula.”
This observation is corroborated by Jess Nevins on his Pulp and Adventure Heroes website, where he says in part:
“Ashton-Kirk, one of the more obvious Holmes homages, was created by John T. McIntyre and appeared in The Popular Magazine and in four collections starting in 1910. Ashton-Kirk is much younger than Holmes, being only in his mid-twenties, the scion of wealth and an ancient line. He has an excellent physique and mind, capable of feats of deduction quite similar to Holmes’ own. Like Holmes, he has a talent for disguise and amateur theatrics, and has a Watson-like assistant.”
[UPDATE.] Regarding the previous entry in this series, the lead novel for which was “The Murders at Hillside,” by Virginia Anne Roth, Bill Pronzini had this to say about the author, after I mentioned to him that I had all of her novels, but I haven’t read one yet:
“I think you’ll enjoy the Rath novels. Good, solid Golden Age plotting, background, and characterization. A suggestion: Start with Death at Dayton’s Folly, her first for Crime Club and one of her best.”
April 20th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Virginia Anne Rath is a completely new name to me. Thanks for the look at her career!
The only McIntyre read (or owned) here is “Ashton-Kirk: Secret Agent”. I have the same exact inexpensive reprint edition pictured in the article, bought for $6 from a local used book store. McIntyre seems not untalented. But this book has problems. It starts out promisingly enough, with a household under siege from mysterious incidents of persecution. The whole thing is a direct imitation of the many Sherlock Holmes in which a “man with a past” settles down, only to have all sorts of frightening events constantly plague the family. Ashton-Kirk is consulted about the case, just like Holmes. A strange diagram is the center of attention, as in some Holmes tales. Various approaches are used to try to interpret it. At one point, Ashton-Kirk borrows some books on religious history and symbolism, from a friendly local priest. Ashton-Kirk’s assistant Fuller, his “Polton”, remarks humorously:
“They are rather out of your line, are they not?”
“Nothing is out of my line,” said Ashton-Kirk.
(See page 150).
However, McIntyre does not sustain the pure mystery elements. Soon, we are engulfed in a routine spy novel, imitative of William Le Queux. A key character is the household’s next door neighbor, a Japanese spy named Okiu. The sophisticated Okiu employs a whole houseful of spies, including a butler who is a gigantic Sumo wrestler – no well-appointed establishment should be without one! Here things really go bad. Sometimes Okiu is an interesting character – but McIntyre also mixes cheap anti-Asian stereotypes into the story. This turns a story that starts out as a not-bad historical curiosity, into a book that cannot be recommended to anyone.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am
[…] I’ll begin by saying that mystery writer John T. McIntyre was the subject of a post you saw here last Saturday, albeit somewhat accidentally so: he was the author of “Blows in the Dark,” the […]