Unlikely to be recognized as a crime fiction novelist by many, even perhaps by himself, author Fred Mustard Stewart died last Wednesday at his home in Manhattan.

   His entry in Allen J. Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV is admittedly meager, but it’s certainly enough to warrant a tribute here. (Thanks to the comment left by his nephew Brough Stewart, his year of birth has been corrected to 1932 from 1936, as was originally given.)

   STEWART, FRED MUSTARD (1932-2007)
      * * The Mephisto Waltz (Coward, 1969, hc) [New York City, NY] Joseph, 1969. Film: TCF, 1971 (scw: Ben Maddow; dir: Paul Wendkos).
      * * -The Methuselah Enzyme (Arbor, 1970, hc) [Switzerland] Joseph, 1971.
      * * -A Rage Against Heaven (Viking, 1978, hc) [1800s] Hutchinson, 1978.

   Regarding that one definite entry (the dashes indicating that the other two are only marginally crime-related), his obituary in the New York Times goes on to say:

    “Originally trained as a concert pianist, Mr. Stewart drew on this background for his first novel, The Mephisto Waltz (Coward-McCann), published in 1969. (The publicity materials for the book included a 45-r.p.m. recording of Mr. Stewart playing the title piece, by Liszt.) In 1971, the book became a film with Alan Alda as a young writer whose body is usurped by an aging pianist.”

   The last line gives it all away. The tale should be be categorized more precisely as a horror novel, more related to Rosemary’s Baby than to Sherlock Holmes — and to be sure both the book and the film based upon it were marketed that way.

Mephisto

   From the archives of the New York Times, here are the opening sentences of a review written by Howard Thompson, published April 10, 1971:

    “Shift Rosemary’s Baby to California, with the nice young couple abruptly exposed to some chic, jet-set zombies, including the world’s greatest pianist. When this old demon dies, the husband acquires both his soul and pianistic genius, pounding out Liszt to prove it.
    “The sensible wife, who squares off early with the old musician’s horrible dog, expects and gets the worst, with a couple of murders. Add some angular photography and a spooky, haunted-house score …”

    A complete bibliography for Mr. Stewart can be found online here. He will perhaps be best remembered for what the Times calls his “multi-strand family narratives,” of which one entitled Ellis Island (Morrow, 1983) may be as representative as any. The novel follows the lives of “five young penniless people who came to America at the turn of the century — a land of shining hope and breathtaking challenge. They came to fulfill a glowing promise and take the fearful gamble of a new life in a land where anything was possible.”

Ellis

   Ellis Island was made into a television mini-series on CBS in 1984, a Golden Globe winner for Faye Dunaway (Best Supporting Actress) and recipient of several Emmy nominations.