Fri 3 Jan 2020
Pulp PI Stories I’m Reading: J. LANE LINKLATER “Mystery of the Mexicali Murders.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[6] Comments
J. LANE LINKLATER “Mystery of the Mexicali Murders.” PI Alan Rake. First published in 10-Story Detective, January 1941. Reprinted in The Noir Mystery Megapack (Wildside Press, Kindle edition, 2016).
Although the author of several hundred stories for the pulp fiction magazines, J. Lane Linklater, the pen name of Alexander William Watkins (1892-1971), certainly qualifies as an unknown author today.
He did write seven hardcover mystery novels, all with a private eye character named Silas Booth. I’ve always meant to read one, but for some fault of my own, I never have.
One series he wrote for Detective Fiction Weekly had lawyer Hugo Oakes as the leading character, and Monte Herridge wrote about him earlier on this blog here.
He had few other recurring characters in the stories he wrote for the pulp magazines, but as far as I know, “Mystery of the Mexicali Murders” is the only appearance of private eye Alan Drake, a fellow who reminds me a bit about a fellow who Dashiell Hammett often wrote about.
Here is the first paragraph of the story:
This is, of course, Alan Rake. He is here in the area along the border between California and Mexico after receiving an urgent telegram from the head of a big fruit shipping outfit, but when the man is shot dead in front of him when he first meets him, he decides to stay on the case and see if there’s some way he can still get paid the $5000 that was promised him.
The case is a complicated one, with lots of suspects and a setting that is over 100 degrees during the day and not much better at night. One girl in particular, a young spitfire with flashing eyes named Edna, catches his attention.
But more than the characters, and who it was who killed Warnbecker, takes second place to the setting, a cantaloupe-growing area that Linklater must have known well to describe it in as much depth as he does, including its vast underbelly of criminal activity. Rake mixes in well, seeing and observing, and quite remarkably, thinking too.
Linklater was no Hammett — I should make that totally clear — but a better editor could have helped make the ending a lot tighter, and if so, this might be the small gem of a story that it almost is.
January 3rd, 2020 at 6:47 am
Great start to the New Year, speaking of which, Best wishes for a happy one.
I’m doing some research on Linklater, and read a few of his stories.
Most of his stories that I’ve read have a California backdrop, and this particular one is set in El Centro. El Centro is a desert city made liveable by irrigation; the primary industry is agriculture, and Linklater must have known the area well. Rake the detective travels through the area – going to Lebber, Calexico and Mexicali in the course of his investigations.
During the investigation, Rake meets a Brigid O’Shaughnessy character and almost dies twice in her house before the finale. Unlike Hammett’s Sam Spade, Rake does help this Brigid escape the consequences of her actions. This seems in line with Linklater’s heros – all seem to be in the knight errant mode, helping damsels in distress, even when the damsels don’t deserve it.
As you say, Steve, in the hands of a better editor this could have been much tighter – remove Curver, reduce the inscrutability of Soo Ling and the story would move faster and be more hard-boiled. A pity.
PS:
This particular story of Linklater’s is available for free from Pulpgen. It’s worth a read.
January 3rd, 2020 at 1:01 pm
Sai
I am amazed, no, astounded that first of all, anyone else has heard of J. Lane Linklater before, much less read the very same story I just did.
And I’m pleased to know you have the same opinion of the story as I do. Thanks for adding and expanding on the comments I had.
It helps that you’ve read more of his work than I have, so you can pick out common themes etc that he uses in his stories. Nicely done!
I don’t know if this pulpgen link is a permanent one, but it should work for a while, so that anyone reading this can go there directly:
https://pulpgen.com/pulp/downloads/getpdf.php?id=1537
January 4th, 2020 at 11:31 pm
He’s one of those forgotten writers worth a bit of rediscovery if not any attempt at revival. It’s nice a few stories and books are still around to provide a taste.
January 4th, 2020 at 11:55 pm
I do own three maybe four of his hardcover novels. I’m going to make an effort to find one of them to read, but without a locator map for my storage area in the basement, you can wish me luck on that!
January 4th, 2020 at 11:59 pm
There are some notes on one of his novels on my website:
http://mikegrost.com/hardboil.htm#Linklater
January 5th, 2020 at 12:11 am
Thanks for the link, Mike. I found what you had to say very interesting. I hope you don’t mind my quoting the first few paragraphs:
“Shadow for a Lady (1947) is the first novel about private eye Silas Booth. It’s a genial book, pleasant to read. I wish I could report that it is some sort of classic, but I can’t.
“In his collected reviews The Anthony Boucher Chronicles, Anthony Boucher suggests that the author of Shadow for a Lady is a member of the “Gardner school”. I agree.
“Shadow for a Lady has a setting that recalls Erle Stanley Gardner. It takes place in Southern California, It oscillates between Los Angeles and a nearby small town in the orange-growing district. Similarly, Gardner set many of his novels in Los Angeles and small neighboring towns. And Gardner characters often make trips between their base in Los Angeles and such small towns: just like the heroes of Shadow for a Lady. Shadow for a Lady has a setting that recalls Erle Stanley Gardner. It takes place in Southern California, It oscillates between Los Angeles and a nearby small town in the orange-growing district…”