Sat 29 Jan 2011
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: BAYNARD H. KENDRICK – The Eleven of Diamonds.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[6] Comments
William F. Deeck
BAYNARD H. KENDRICK – The Eleven of Diamonds. Greenberg, hardcover, 1936. Penguin #616, paperback, 1946.
Edward Fowler is found in the poker room of the Sunset Bridge Club with a knife in his back and the eleven of diamonds in his hand: Fowler was a gambler and a lover and a burglar, and he may have been other things besides.
Since the case is an unusual one, the police call upon Miles Standish Rice, the Hungry, for assistance. Rice is also hired by a rich man whose son, verging on the ne’er-do-well and a confirmed and not very talented gambler, owed Fowler a large gambling debt.
In this portrait of post-boom Florida, Rice eats a lot and often and puts his life in jeopardy on several occasions as he tries to figure out not only who killed Fowler but how he was killed.
While the characters are interesting, I was disappointed in not being able to find the spies promised by the paperback publisher. Though not as good as many of Kendrick’s novels featuring Duncan Maclain, there is sufficient action and cerebration to keep most readers entertained.
The Miles Standish Rice series —
The Iron Spiders. Greenberg, 1936.
The Eleven of Diamonds. Greenberg, 1936.
Death Beyond the Go-Thru. Doubleday, 1938.
NOTE: Deputy sheriff Miles Standish Rice also appeared in several novelettes and short stories, including “Headless Angel,” Black Mask, September 1939. See also Comments #2 and #3.
January 29th, 2011 at 8:56 pm
IRON SPIDERS is the only Rice novel I’ve read though I read several of the shorter works. I’m a bigger fan of the MacLain series, but the Rice tales are good for the most part and a good regional portrait of Florida in the era.
January 30th, 2011 at 8:59 am
Deeck understandably gives a mixed review to this book. I agree. This is not as good as Kendrick’s best MacLain books.
The Eleven of Diamonds is the kind of book that is not really good enough to recommend to readers – yet has some good mystery ideas, and is not junk. Books like this cause critics gray hairs – we don’t really know what to do about them!
The main murder, and the tricky physical method behind it, are chief attractions here. The way the crime is built around a floor plan is also good. But they are embedded in a novel that is not so good.
An impression: this is the 2nd of the Rice books, and The Iron Spiders is the first.
Francis M. Nevins is a big fan of the third, Death Beyond the Go-Thru. I’ve never seen a copy of that one. Unlike the first two Rice novels, it apparently never was released in paperback, and is much, much rarer.
January 30th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Mike
If you’ve read both of the first two Rice books and you think SPIDERS is the first, I’m sure you’re right.
If two (or more) books from a given author come out the same year, a lot of bibliographies then list the books for that year alphabetically by title. That’s what Al Hubin does in his book, which is where I obtained the list of Rice books from.
But based on your impression, I think I’ll switch them around in the list following the review. If this is wrong, I can always switch them back!
— Steve
January 31st, 2011 at 3:20 am
Steve
According to the CLASSIC CRIME FICTION site the British editions of the books were issued with THE ELEVEN OF DIAMONDS coming out in August of ’37 and IRON SPIDERS in Feb. ’38 in the UK. Whether that means anything or not is hard to tell as they might have published the more recent book first and then followed up if it sold well rather than in the order they were published here.
January 31st, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Steve & David – That website has a lot of erroneous bibliographic info regarding US editions & titles. For UK editions it’s fairly thorough, but still flawed. I try to avoid it for authenticating publishing info. As a resource for UK edition DJs, though, it’s excellent.
February 4th, 2011 at 11:36 am
Victor Berch has come through us. It didn’t take him long. According to what he found, Iron Spider was copyrighted Feb. 25, 1936 and The Eleven of Diamonds was copyrighted
Oct. 5, 1936. So Mike, your impression was right on target.
Here’s another question. Bill’s review makes Rice sound like a private eye kind of guy, but other sources, ones which I relied on in my note at the end, describe him as a “deputy sheriff.”
Other reviews I’ve come across since posting the review also call him a PI. He may have made a career change somewhere along the way, do you suppose?