Sat 13 Feb 2021
PI Stories I’m Reading: ROBERT W. TINSLEY “Smuggler’s Bluesâ€.
Posted by Steve under Stories I'm Reading[5] Comments
ROBERT W. TINSLEY “Smuggler’s Blues.†PI Jack Brady #1. First published in PI Magazine, Spring 1989. Collected in The Brady Files, Kindle edition, 2011.
Jack Brady is a big guy, not easily intimidated. He’s a former Navy SEAL and now a PI whose home base in El Paso TX, which as far as I know is a first among fiction PI’s. At six feet four and 280 pounds, he also finds it difficult to find furniture that fits him. And with El Paso right on the border with Mexico, one suspects that many of the cases he gets involved with involve border incidents of one kind or another.
This first case, “Smuggler’s Blues,†certainly does. Brady is hired by the brother of a man who died while being smuggled across the border, a Salvadoran who had recently been released from prison there for political reasons. The man supposedly drowned, and his death would have been written off as that, if Brady and his client hadn’t interfered.
The story is too short to be more than an incident, and by itself leaves little impression. Brady, who tells the story himself has just enough of a way with words to make the telling enjoyable. Efforts to sound like a tough guy are just a little iffy; a little more “down and gritty†would have helped. Chalk this one down as an early one in Brady’s career.
The Jack Brady stories —
“Smuggler’s Blues” (Spring 1989, PI Magazine)
“Killer” (Winter 1989, PI Magazine)
“Graveyard Shift” (April 2002, HandHeld Crime)
“No Good-Bye” (June 2002, HandHeldCrime)
“Beating On The Border” (Summer 2003, Thrilling Detective Web Site)
“Hijack on the Border” (Oct/Dec 2003, SDO Detective)
“Horse of the Same Color” (Fall 2003, Hardluck Stories)
“Grasshopper” (Winter 2003, Hardluck Stories)
“Double Death” (February 2004, Shred of Evidence)
“A Kiss Is Just A Kiss” (April/May/June 2005, Futures)
“For Felina…” (Winter 2004, Thrilling Detective Web Site)
“Out of the Shadows” (June 2005, Mysterical-E)
“The Horse Holder” (Aug/Nov 2005,Shred of Evidence)
“Sweet Dreams”
“The Prodigal”
“Questioning the Dead”
“The Running Man”
“Moby Dick in a Can”
These last five may be original to the Kindle collection.
February 13th, 2021 at 11:21 pm
I’m not sure if he operates out of El Paso in any of the books, but wasn’t Michael Shayne supposed to have been based in El Paso before his first adventure?
February 13th, 2021 at 11:45 pm
New Orleans, I think.
February 14th, 2021 at 12:07 am
Luckily Hubin includes settings in CFIV. Shayne starts out in Miami, then one book takes place in Colorado, two in New Orleans, then (ta-da) one in El Paso, which I remembered too, as soon as David mentioned it, but not the title which was Murder Is My Business (1945).
Then basically back to Miami and environs for the rest of his career.
May 31st, 2021 at 4:12 am
If, as you say, “Smuggler’s Blues” was in the Spring 1989 issue of P.I. Magazine and “Killer” in the Winter 1989 issue then “Smuggler’s Blues” would be the second Jack Brady story (in order of publication) as, at the time, the Winter issues of P.I. Magazine were at the beginning of the year and preceded the Spring issues.
May 31st, 2021 at 9:56 am
This makes sense. The reason I assumed “Smuggler’s Blues” was the first was because it’s the lead-off story in THE BRADY FILES collection.
On the other hand, “Killer” is listed first in the list of copyrights for the stories themselves following the title page, which backs up your comment and I’m convinced you’re right. Thanks!