Fri 27 May 2022
THE VALUE OF MIDDLE OF THE ROAD DETECTIVE NOVELS, by Tony Baer.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[10] Comments
or WILLIAM ARD’s The Diary and JONATHAN LATIMER’S Murder in the Madhouse, by TONY BAER.
There was some review on the back of a Maigret book that said something about how many countless traveling businessmen had been comforted, salved, and assuaged in their lonely motel rooms by these books.
So I guess that’s where I’m going with this.
Murder in the Madhouse is the first of the Bill Crane detective novels. He’s been assigned to investigate a theft of a strongbox of one of the inmates. He enters incognito, ‘disguised’ as a crazy drunkard who thinks he’s a great detective.
Once he arrives, a series of murders ensue, for which he serves as a chief suspect of the local stupid sheriff.
Crane’s detection is surprisingly effective, and justice, after drinks, is served.
The Diary (Timothy Dane #3), is pretty much a straight ripoff of The Big Sleep. Dane gets called in by a millionaire widower because he is being blackmailed over his sexpot 18 year old daughter’s stolen diary. Murders ensue, for which Dane serves as chief suspect of the stupid DA. Dane’s detection is surprisingly suspect, and justice, hold the drinks, is served.
Both the books are well told. The authors are natural born writers, who write smoothly, entreatingly, and know how to tie a thing together.
You finish the book, and it’s done. You won’t remember it.
On the other hand, in the time that you’re in it, you’re in it. It holds you.
And all of the terrible shit of the world, and of the day, it disappears.
And the smartass detective, buzzing off highballs, poor, honest, and self sufficient, keeps punching onward against a screwed up world.
Thank you, Mr. Hardboiled Detective, for showing us the way.
“I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” — Beckett
May 27th, 2022 at 4:00 pm
Well said.
May 27th, 2022 at 6:16 pm
Totally agreed. Nor do I think you could have chosen a better pair of authors to illustrate your point.
May 27th, 2022 at 8:46 pm
I would hold Latimer generally much more than middle of the road and Ard once in a while, but in general I agree about these two books and the average mystery novel, as well about writers in general who are professional and capable, but not always memorable.
I think this is true of middle of the road fiction to a great extent regardless of genre.
We tend to dismiss escape as somehow unworthy, but a book, a film, whatever, that just takes you away from the ills of the world or you own problems for a few minutes is valuable in itself.
And as addictions go, relatively healthy if not cheap.
May 27th, 2022 at 9:42 pm
Works of art in any genre can be the means of taking the reader, listener, beholder away from the cares of the real world, but I take Tony’s point to be that the hard-boiled novel is uniquely positioned to do so.
May 27th, 2022 at 9:56 pm
I strenuously object to characterizing Latimer as a middle-of-the-road writer, although I’d have to agree that MURDER IN THE MADHOUSE doesn’t hold up as well as LADY IN THE MORGUE, HEADED FOR A HEARSE, or even THE DEAD DON’T CARE.
William Ard, on the other hand, strikes me as exactly in the middle of the middle of the road. And I’m darned if I can remember *any* of his novels.
May 27th, 2022 at 10:15 pm
The hardboiled detective novel, even in its most rote and unmemorable form, generally possesses a forward trajectory involving one isolated, lonely man, pressing against a world gone wrong. And while the plot might be throwaway, once you close the cover, you’re still left with newton’s law of motion where you tend to stay in motion. Which, in turn, helps this particular isolated reader make it thru another day in this no horse town on this god forsaken planet. It’s more than just temporary escape. It’s momentum and a sense of justice: consequences be damned. With the added bonus of mastery of my favorite of defense mechanisms: sarcasm—which any self respecting wisecracking detective has in spades.
May 27th, 2022 at 10:27 pm
No offense meant to latimer. Even good writers are capable of middle of the road stuff. Latimer was capable of stunning stuff like Solomon’s vineyard. Madhouse is the weakest latimer I’ve read—much weaker to my mind than red gardenias, which others have cast aspersions to.
May 28th, 2022 at 5:41 am
So, we read about imaginary terrible shit to forget the real terrible shit of the world. Tony’s probably right, Steve – George Orwell cited a cartoon of a soldier in a trench reading “Thrilling Stories” while real bullets fly inches from him – but it’s an interesting aspect of human psychology. I’d guess that “the smartass detective, buzzing off highballs, poor, honest, and self sufficient” who “keeps punching onward against a screwed up world” probably punches effectively more often than people in “the real world”.
May 28th, 2022 at 9:57 pm
The hardboiled voice has become in many ways the American literary voice to the extent it is difficult to find a genre, even the literary genre, that hasn’t been affected by it.
It is uniquely suited to telling a story in straight forward and easy to read manner being one of the reasons it has become so ubiquitous.
May 29th, 2022 at 12:50 am
Amen.