Sun 26 Jun 2022
Archived PI Mystery Review: MIKE ROSCOE – One Tear for My Grave.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[10] Comments
MIKE ROSCOE – One Tear for My Grave. Johnny April #4. Crown, hardcover, 1955. Signet #1358, paperback, 1956.
If you’re a hard-boiled detective fan, you’ve surely already seen the recently released take-off of the form perpetrated by Ross H. Spencer in The Dada Caper (Avon, 1978), the first recorded case of one Chance Purdue, and written entir6ly 1n the punchy style of one-sentence paragraphs.
It’s very effectively done, and the temptation is overwhelming to open it at random and start reading aloud to whoever happens to be so unfortunate as to be in the same with you at the time. Take p. 126, for example:
I didn’t hesitate.
I hit the first shadowy figure right between the eyes.
I stepped over him.
I hit the second shadowy figure right between the eyes.
I stepped over him.
I looked for the scrawny guy.
I wanted to hit him right between the eyes.
The scrawny guy wasn’t there.
He was out on California Avenue.
He was hollering help police and any number of ridiculous things.
Notice how the last line sort of blunts the rhythm.
This happens to be a review of another private eye story, however [the one by Mike Roscoe], and one written much earlier, and to satisfy equal time requirements, try this from p. 67:
Then we were out in the other room.
I stopped. “I’m tired of hauling this lard-ass around. Out you go or I blow his head off.”
I turned my glance to the gun. Their eyes followed. I began to squeeze the trigger.
Christ, I almost had to shoot the guy.
Then Tommy hollered.
Okay, you win again. Come’n. He nudged the other boy.
The door closed behind them.
I removed the gun from his throat, then pushed with all I had, at the same time giving his neck a half twist. He spun away from me and fell to the rug.
Allow for a bit of exaggeration and a not-so-subtle counterbeat of ridicule. The tough private eye yarn is a pretty clearly an easy target.
Johnny April is the name of Roscoe’s detective, and the scene Kansas City. This particular case begins with a gambling deadbeat who’s found murdered and continues with a subsequent sequence of dead bookies. Gamblers and high society prove to be a volatile mixture.
The short staccato sentences do keep things cool and crisp, but maybe you’ve never heard of Mike Roscoe. That’s because style is hardly ever a satisfactory substitute for content. What you end up reading this for is for whatever pleasure is obtained from the individual ingredients, not for any great desire to see how it all comes out.
Overcooked.
Rating: C
The Johnny April series —
Death Is a Round Black Ball. Crown 1952.
Riddle Me This. Crown 1952.
Slice of Hell. Crown 1954.
One Tear for My Grave. Crown 1955.
The Midnight Eye. Ace 1958
June 27th, 2022 at 11:00 am
I have to admit that I can’t stand the one sentence paragraph style of hard boiled literature. Every once in awhile is ok but not a steady flow of such sentences. Someone recently did a book or movie review in short punchy paragraphs and I had to stop reading. I guess some readers like the style but not me.
June 27th, 2022 at 12:48 pm
I agree. Short snappy one-line paragraphs can be fun for a while, but at book length, it can turn into a chore to read, and quickly. I think that’s the big reason why I only gave the Roscoe book a “C”.
June 27th, 2022 at 3:14 pm
To be fair, your extract from Roscoe has two and even three sentence paragraphs. Very short sentences, true, but more than one to a paragraph.
June 27th, 2022 at 4:18 pm
True enough. Might I beg poetic license, on my part?
And oh, one other thing. I pointed out in my review that most people, even mystery readers, probably had never heard of Mike Roscoe. Even more true today, I’d say.
Nor Ross H. Spencer, for that matter. Quirky writing styles haven’t seemed to have helped either gentlemen.
June 27th, 2022 at 7:19 pm
Ken Bruen has a similar style of writing with short paragraphs/sentences, I didn’t mind his books at all, in fact kind of enjoyed his writing style. Might be more what was said than than the style with which it was written.
June 27th, 2022 at 9:54 pm
Not what I want for a steady diet. I don’t mind it for emphasis or to make a point though.
Probably not a whole book of it. It’s a tool and can be used effectively like any other, the famous McGuffey’s Reader quote was a simile, not instructions on how to write hardboiled fiction.
I have to admit I prefer the Roscoe to the Spencer. I never really did get into Spencer’s books. If I recall, I only read one and was out.
I would read another Roscoe, just not too close together.
There has to be a balance between this and James Michener’s infamous two-hundred-word sentence. Voice alone, as some hardboiled writers obviously missed, is not style. It’s only part of it.
Like a lot of music today it is all beat. There is no rhythm, lyric line, or complexity, just cadence, and cadence by itself gets tiresome quickly.
June 27th, 2022 at 10:01 pm
Sums it up.
June 27th, 2022 at 11:05 pm
Found an interesting related review:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1153
June 28th, 2022 at 8:31 am
Not only a well-written review, but some information about the authors and a list of all the Johnny April books.
June 28th, 2022 at 3:58 pm
“James Michener’s infamous two-hundred-word sentence. …”
Ha! Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann has – is -a 1000 page sentence. I was exhausted enough thinking about it, let alobe trying to read it.