Mon 21 Jan 2019
JOHN SPAIN – The Evil Star. E. P. Dutton, hardcover, 1944. Detective Novel Classics #44, digest-sized paperback, no date stated [1940s]. Popular Library #239, paperback, 1950.
John Spain was an alias for a hard-boiled pulp writer named Cleve F. Adams, who wrote mostly tough PI stories, of which this is not one. Instead its the only book appearance pf homicide detective Steve McCord, who gets mixed up with triplets in this one.
Their names? Faith, Hope and Charity. Yes. Hope seems to be the bad one. Charity is the one McCord falls for, but the ending is why you should read this one. The twist I spotted on page 125 is pointed out by Faith’s lawyer on page 137, but I never saw the second one coming.
PostScript: The Golden Age of Mysteries was really Golden if even a rather ordinary book such as this has an ending that will make your head swivel as much as this one does. Plotting a decent puzzle type mystery is something too many of today’s wriyers seem to think is old hat and old-fashioned.
If what you’ve been reading lately seems to be missing something, ask yourself if the ending knocked your socks off or not. (Sometimes you can even ask yourself if it made sense.) Too many of today’s mystery writers just don’t have it, in comparison to Agatha, Ellery or the master of them all, Mr. John Dickson Carr, and nobody can tell me they do.
What’s worse, too many of them don’t have it in comparison to John Spain, who — there’s no two ways about it — was hardly one of the biggest names that the world of mystery fiction ever produced.
January 21st, 2019 at 8:16 pm
I know both W.T. Ballard and Robert Leslie Bellem wrote with Adams at various times and I had the impression this was supposed to be ghosted by one of them, or at least finished.
This one does have a great turn on the twist.
The post-script reminds me of a complaint of mine about modern mysteries, mostly that they leave the mystery out. No one seems to understand that part of the appeal, the game aspect, seems to have been forgotten and suppressed. Even when they get most of the other elements right they don’t seem capable of the kind of intricate plotting we once took for granted.
January 21st, 2019 at 8:59 pm
I’ve not read anywhere that anyone but Adams was involved with the writing of this one, but with Adams, you never know.
But with a little bit of digging online, I came up with the following bi of information from fellow blogger Evan Lewis’s review of this same book. This I did not know before:
“I’m pleased to report that Mr. Chad Calkins, through some astute detective work of his own, has discovered that ‘The Evil Star’ was based on the story ‘Triple Threat,’ published under Adams’ own name in the April 1940 issue of Detective Story Magazine. Though much shorter, that tale follows the same basic plot. The main difference is that the story triplets are named Constance, Hope and Valour, while in the novel they’re rechristened Faith, Hope and Charity.”
http://davycrockettsalmanack.blogspot.com/2015/01/forgotten-books-evil-star-by-john-spain.html
January 25th, 2019 at 9:03 am
I’ve never seen a copy of THE EVIL STAR. Nice detective work!
January 25th, 2019 at 5:17 pm
It was easier to find back then when I wrote this review, but I found 20 copies on abebooks just now, starting at $12 and up. There’s even a copy of the hardcover in jacket for $15 or so, in Good condition. Depending on how big a fan of hard-boiled pulp fiction you are, George, it wouldn
t be hard to get your hands on a copy.
January 26th, 2019 at 8:20 am
A previous MYSTERY*FILE review for THE EVIL STAR:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=246