Sun 1 May 2022
Diary Review: RON GOULART – The Hardboiled Dicks (Part Two).
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Pulp Fiction[5] Comments
Note: Part one of this three-part review can be found here.
FREDERICK NEBEL “Winter Kill.†Kennedy of the Free Press & Captain Steve MacBride #32, Novelette. First published in Black Mask, November 1935. Collected in Winter Kill: The Complete Cases of MacBride & Kennedy, Volume 4: 1935-36 (Altus Press, 2014).
Newspaperman Kennedy of the Free Press gets beaten up quite a bit but manages to capture a murderer whose victim is found frozen to death on the streets. Complicated story, with lots of characters to keep straight. Not really as satisfying [as the first two stories in this anthology]. (2)
RAOUL WHITFIELD “China Man.†Jo Gar #18. Published under the name Ramon Decolta in Black Mask, March 1932. Collected in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Gar (Altus Press, 2013).
The servant of a Philippines importer is suspected of killing him, but Jo Gar has difficulty in obtaining proof. The flavor of the Orient comes through clearly. (3)
May 1st, 2022 at 10:10 pm
Updated (and lengthier) reviews will appear on this blog soon, from a perspective of almost 55 years later.
May 2nd, 2022 at 7:54 pm
The other day coincidentally I found a copy of Nebel’s short “The Bribe” basis for the film with Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner. It ran in COSMOPOLITAN and only took me forty years to track down.
The best of the Kennedy and McBride stories were usually too long for this anthology, probably why they weren’t reprinted as often as other stories in notable BM series.
I unreservedly love Jo Gar and Whitfield in general. This anthology started a long hunt for me for most of the writers but especially these two.
May 3rd, 2022 at 4:20 pm
[…] Note: I first wrote a review of this story in 1967, and I posted it on this blog a few weeks ago. Follow the link and you can read it here. […]
May 9th, 2022 at 8:07 pm
[…] Note: I first wrote a review of this story in 1967, and I posted it on this blog a few weeks ago. Follow the link and you can read it here. […]
May 10th, 2022 at 8:08 am
[…] Note: Part two of this three-part review can be found here. […]