Thu 6 Jun 2019
Pulp PI Stories I’m Reading: T. T. FLYNN “Barred Doors.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[7] Comments
T. T. FLYNN “Barred Doors.” Short novel. Mike Harris & Trixie Meehan #7. First appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly, May 18, 1935. Probably never reprinted.
I may be wrong, but whenever female private eyes have come up for discussion on this blog, especially those who primarily appeared in the pulp magazines, the name Trixie Meehan has never been mentioned. It’s true that she always played second fiddle to Mike Harris, her fellow operative for the Blaine Agency, but she’s her own woman with her own cases, and the fact that every so often she’s able to give Harris a helping hand is no reflection on her ability.
In “Barred Doors” Harris is given the job of tracking down the secretary who seems to have disappeared with a half million dollars worth of unregistered Liberty bonds taken from the safe of the agency’s client, Sir Douglas Carter MacClain.
Naturally there is a gangster involved and the gangster’s ex girl friend, who has lately been seen gong out on the town with the missing secretary. There is a kidnapping involved, and a strange form of blackmail, or so it is revealed, but with both Mike Harris and Trixie Meehan on the case, everything eventually works out justice finally prevails.
The story is suitably complicated and well told, but to me, there’s just not enough zip to it to make it more than just a step above average, but above average it most certainly is. There doesn’t seem to be anything of a romantic nature between Mike and Trixie, just a lot of light bickering and back-and-forth banter, nothing more serious than that.
Having sold off a large number of my DFW collection, I may not get a chance to read another of their adventures, but I’d like to. There were sixteen of them between 1933 and 1951, all but the last published in Detective Fiction Weekly. That final one appeared in Detective Tales, some ten years after the previous one. (It is possible that this last one is a reprint of an earlier story under a new title.)
June 8th, 2019 at 6:33 pm
I added a link to this review, in my own tiny article on Flynn.
Have tracked down 3 Mike & Trixie tales so far. Very much liked two. “The Deadly Orchid” is reprinted in Bernard Drew’s anthology “Hard-Boiled Dames”. It’s good.
The cover painting shows Mike busting down a door – presumably one of the “Barred Doors” of the title. Question: is this scene actually in the story? Or did the illustrator make it up?
June 8th, 2019 at 10:27 pm
Oh yes, the scene is actually in the story. As part of their joint investigation, Trixie makes her way into a suspicious house alone, but when she doesn’t come out in the allotted time, Mike goes in after her.
June 8th, 2019 at 9:00 pm
Flynn was a staple along with Roger Torrey at PRIVATE DETECTIVE, but Trixie was probably his most memorable sleuth for my money. Above average dependability, but not among the best is where he falls in my view.
June 8th, 2019 at 10:49 pm
As far as I can tell, Flynn never had a story published for PRIVATE DETECTIVE, David. Roger Torrey, yes. For a longest time he had a story in almost every issue. You may be thinking of another author. Flynn’s detective stories appeared mostly in DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, DIME DETECTIVE and CLUES, along with a scattering of other titles.
Flynn also wrote his share of westerns as well, mostly for the better ones, such as DIME WESTERN and WESTERN STORY. He’s one of those writers whose work was published in most of the top line pulps, but who somehow never had anything appear in BLACK MASK.
June 10th, 2019 at 2:22 pm
This series, along with T. A. Tinsley’s ‘Carrie Cashin,’ absolutely should be collected into an anthology or two. Definitely deserves to be put back into circulation.
June 10th, 2019 at 4:19 pm
I most definitely second the motion, Bob. particularly for Carrie Cashin, who’s been mentioned on this blog, but only briefly now and then.
From her page on the Thrilling Detective website:
https://www.thrillingdetective.com/cashin.html
“Attractive as sin, hard-boiled as hell. One of the very first of the hardboiled lady dicks of the pulps, and certainly the most popular was Manhattan eye CARRIE CASHIN, who appeared in over three dozen action-packed, fast-paced stories, starting in the November 1937 issue of Crime Busters, and continuing in that magazine through a name change (to Mystery Magazine in 1939) right up to her final appearance in November 1942.
“In all, there were fifty issues of Crime Busters/Mystery Magazine, and Carrie appeared in all but twelve of them. “
December 22nd, 2020 at 12:39 am
[…] and Mike Harris before. You can find my review of “Barred Doors,†the seventh in the series, here. To recap quickly, though, they both work for the Blaine Agency and are always casting barbs at […]