Thu 1 Apr 2021
ANNOUNCING: The Adventures of Blackie Savoy, by David L. Vineyard.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists[14] Comments
If you’re as big a fan of obscure mystery writers and characters as I am, you’re going to enjoy this immensely.
Over the past twenty years David Vineyard has been tracking down information about a man who certainly qualifies as all but totally forgotten, Australian thriller writer Paul Savoy and his primary series character Blackie Savoy. Tidbit by tidbit, piece by piece, David has also painstakingly put together a bibliography of perhaps the most difficult set of books to find in all of mystery fiction.
Over the past several weeks, David and I have compiled all of this information into a single article and posted it on the primary Mystery*File website. (Follow the link.)
The article is far too long to have been posted it here on the blog. Cover images have been included, but the books, both hardcover and paperback, are so scarce that many of the scans are in far poorer condition than I’d have preferred. Nonetheless, working on the principle that something is better than nothing, I’ve included everything that David has been able to send me.
The article plus the bibliography, which includes adaptations of Savoy’s work into a single film, Blackie Savoy Gets His (Centaur Studios, 1935), comic strips, radio shows, and a four-year syndicated program on Australian TV that seems to have slipped the memories of almost everyone, is, we believe, all that is known about the author.
Obviously if anyone can supply any more information, including specific publishing dates, reprint editions, and any covers that David has not come across on his own, would be extremely welcome.
April 1st, 2021 at 11:55 am
UPDATE. Long time followers of this blog will recognize this as a previous post seen here some eleven years ago. In that time, absolutely nothing further has been learned about either the author or his work. It is as if all traces of each have vanished from the face of the earth. It is truly one of the great mysteries of mystery and detective fiction.
Or in other words, help is desperately needed!
April 1st, 2021 at 12:17 pm
Steve,
Is this article for real?
Or is a humorous hoax, entirely made up?
I’ve tried and failed to track down alleged actors Hopewell Hoppe, Lawrence Lothar and Maximilian Zamphir.
April 1st, 2021 at 12:29 pm
You’re right.
All trace of everyone who has ever been involved with Blackie Savoy, no matter how tangentially, has completely disappeared.
April 1st, 2021 at 1:01 pm
And a happy April Fools day to you too. Fooled me…up to the ghost for Carter Brown part. Well done!
April 1st, 2021 at 6:41 pm
Is the author’s picture actually a picture of Desmond Bagley?
April 1st, 2021 at 7:04 pm
I suspect maybe so. David V. Do you remember?
April 1st, 2021 at 7:49 pm
A quick Google search for a photo of Bagley says yes. David P, you have good eyes!
April 1st, 2021 at 8:29 pm
It’s Bagley, he was an actor and related to Basil Rathbone, I thought he might appreciate it, plus he had the dramatic look.
If I recall the original thread a ‘relative” of Savoy’s showed up with additional information.
The actor shown is Don Stannard who played Dick Barton in three B films from early Hammer studios based on the BBC radio serial.
April 1st, 2021 at 9:50 pm
The issues of the Blackie Savoy comic are Hart Amos long running Australian character Devil Doone. The book covers are repurposed from Peter Cheyney, Sexton Blake, and a few other sources. The comic strip panel is from some unnamed European strip.
April 1st, 2021 at 10:24 pm
I recall actor Don Stannard. Kind of paunchy for Brit TV intrigues, and with a lot of hair.
As for Australia, I wasn’t aware they had private detectives.
Humor in a jugular vein! Good on ye.
April 1st, 2021 at 11:22 pm
A bit off the subject, perhaps, but maybe not. Here’s a list of Australian mystery writers and their characters, many of them Private Eyes. Most of the don’t show up in the US very often, though, and that’s a sad fact that ought to be remedied:
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/LocationCats/Australia.html
Perhaps the most well known are the Cliff Hardy books by Peter Corris:
The Dying Trade (1980)
White Meat (1981)
The Marvellous Boy (1982)
The Empty Beach (1983)
Heroin Annie (1984) [SS]
Make Me Rich (1985)
The Big Drop (1985) [SS]
Deal Me Out (1986)
The Greenwich Apartments (1986)
The January Zone (1987)
Man in the Shadows (1988) [SS]
O’Fear (1990)
Wet Graves (1991)
Aftershock (1991)
Beware of the Dog (1992)
Burn and Other Stories (1993) [SS]
Matrimonial Causes (1994)
Casino (1994)
The Washington Club (1997)
The Reward (1997)
Forget Me if You Can (1997)
The Black Prince (1998)
Finalist 1999 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel
The Other Side of Sorrow (1999)
Finalist 2000 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel
Lugarno (2001)
Finalist 2002 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel
Salt and Blood (2002)
Finalist 2003 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel
Master’s Mates (2003)
Finalist 2004 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel
The Coast Road (2004)
Taking Care of Business (2004) [SS]
Saving Billie (2005)
Finalist 2006 Ned Kelly for Best Novel
The Undertow (2006)
Finalist 2007 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel
Appeal Denied (2007)
The Big Score (2007) [SS]
Open File (2008)
Deep Water (2009)
2009 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel
Torn Apart (2010)
Follow the Money (2012)
Comeback (2012)
The Dunbar Case (2013)
Gun Control (2014)
That Empty Feeling (2015)
Win, Lose or Draw (2017)
April 2nd, 2021 at 2:17 am
Though their detectives are American both Carter Brown and Larry Kent were long running writers of private eye fiction (though half of Kent was American Don Harling) from Australia.
Cliff Hardy is certainly the best known. I don’t know if you can properly call Phrynne Fisher a private detective, but she behaves like one to some extent.
Though he is a cop Jon Cleary’s Scobie Malone operates like a private eye in most books.
April 2nd, 2021 at 8:41 pm
Being from Tasmania, I was initially rather excited to see an article about this unknown locally-born author (and reading it two days past April 1st)
You’ve got the Australian parts pretty right although it would only be a cricket match and not matches he was covering and “Sidney” can give it away.
There are far more police procedurals than PI novels here. Dave Warner, Shane Maloney and Peter Temple are worth seeking out for PI or quasi-PI novels set in Australia.
April 2nd, 2021 at 10:26 pm
‘ppreciate the info on Aussies. I have a good crony in Perth. I’ll fwd this great list to her the next time the topic comes up.
I often kid about Australia and Greenland –but while I am unfamiliar with Australia’s hard-boiled traditions –I am aware they have some really wonderful mystery novelists. Arthur Upfield, for example. Plenty of fine fiction in general, down under.
Wanted to return to Don Stannard for a sec. As I recall he died far too young, in a car wreck. I gave him too short shrift, above. The ‘Dick Barton’ character he played, was a hugely popular and long-lived fictional character in Britain, which I don’t think most Yanks have ever heard of. Sorta like a Brit counterpart to our Frank Merriwell.
At least that’s my impression, I’d welcome correction in this. Haven’t thought about Barton in a long time. If anything, I’m a fan of Roy Rockwell!