Fri 17 Dec 2010
RICHARD DEMING – Hit and Run. Pocket #1271, paperback original; 1st printing, February 1960. Expanded from a shorter version that appeared in Manhunt, December 1954.
Richard Deming was a hack, and generally not a very inspired one, but he managed a couple of mildly interesting efforts, including Body for Sale (1962) and Hit and Run (1960.) Other than that, it was mostly bland novelizations, some TV-tie-ins and even ghost-writing for Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.
Hit and Run starts off with PI Barney Calhoun witnessing (did-you-guess?) a minor hit-and-run accident committed by a pair of illicit and wealthy lovers. But when he approaches them, it’s not for blackmail but for performing the very real service of getting them out of trouble and smoothing things over with the law while hiding their involvement.
As you’d expect in a story like this, things spin very quickly out of control when it develops that the accident was more serious than it looked, and the woman in the case won’t stop at murder to cover her tracks.
This is mostly a very skillfully-worked job, and Deming offers some pleasing chills as Calhoun finds himself getting in deeper and deeper till the only way out is …
Well, I won’t reveal too many twists, but there are several in Hit and Run, and they’re pretty nicely handled till the wrap-up, which strains credulity (mine anyway) entirely too far, with the sort of stretchy coincidence a writer like Woolrich could carry off, but one like Deming fumbles badly. Which I suppose is the difference between a poet and a hack.
Editorial Comment: This is Barney Calhoun’s only case to have seen print.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Deming wrote some of the Mike Shayne stories in MSMM as Brett Halliday, too.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Thanks, James. I can add that information to the list of things I didn’t know, until now.
I’ve been looking online for a site listing his work for the pulp and digest magazines, but without much success so far. He had a lot of pen names and he ghosted under lots of others, and I’m far from having a list of those. There seems to be a lot to learn about him.
As another example, he also wrote one of the Hardy Boys hardcovers: #66, The Vanishing Thieves (1980), as by Franklin W Dixon.
I found this at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/richard-deming/
Lots of covers there, too.
In terms of other online discoveries I’ve made, August West talked about Deming a little bit on his blog a while back:
http://vinpulp.blogspot.com/2008/02/edge-of-law-by-richard-deming.html
From the Ellery Queen site http://neptune.spaceports.com/~queen/Whodunit_12.html —
“Richard Deming (b.Apr 25, 1915 – d.Sep 5.1983) Captain in U.S. Army, social worker, employee of American Red Cross, 1976-83; wrote several novels, including Mod Squad, Dragnet, and other serializations. Deming was best known for these novels and for his work in the mystery field. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America from 1976 until his death in 1983.”
And from IMDB:
1. “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” (1 episode, 1965)
– The Second Wife (1965) TV episode (story)
2. “M Squad” (1 episode, 1959)
– Mugger Murder (1959) TV episode (story)
3. “Mike Hammer” (1 episode, 1958)
… aka “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” – USA (complete title)
– A Shot in the Arm (1958) TV episode (story) (teleplay)
4. “Suspicion” (1 episode, 1958)
– Comfort for the Grave (1958) TV episode (story)
5. “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (1 episode, 1956)
– The Better Bargain (1956) TV episode (story)
6. “Gruen Guild Theater” (1 episode, 1952)
– Too Gloomy for Private Pushkin (1952) TV episode (story)
December 26th, 2010 at 9:07 am
I liked HIT AND RUN a lot. The sleazy PI is one of my favourite tropes and I think Deming handles the character pretty well. As I read the possibly abridged Finnish translation, I’m not sure about the solution. I remember being disappointed in it, though. The premise and the scenes following naturally from it are great.