Thu 13 Oct 2022
An Archived PI Mystery Review by Jim McCahery: PAUL E. WALSH – The Murder Room.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
PAUL E. WALSH – The Murder Room. Paul Damien #1. Avon #767, paperback original, 1957.
Paul E. Walsh appears to have written only three detective novels, beginning with KKK (Avon, 1956) and ending with Murder in Baracoa (Avon, 1958).
The Murder Room is a low-keyed first-person affair featuring private eye Paul Damian, a former insurance investigator now in business for himself with two other operatives. He is hired here by Mrs. Clarence Standish whose brownstone in Brooklyn Heights has witnessed the death of a hood working for racketeer Vincent Manola.
She expressly wants him to protect her younger daughter Laura who has been keeping some shady company of late, but it’s her older daughter Iris whom Damian finds more interesting. The Standish chauffeur is found dead in short time as well. and. it all looks very much like a mob affair with the Standish clan as innocent bystanders until the locked family beach home becomes the sight for some interesting activity of its own.
The role of the “murder room” is kept nicely hidden until the denouement even though ghosts from the past are fairly obvious all along. Damian is just a bit too intuitive and the wrap-up a bit too brusque and pat to be completely satisfying, but the author does have a pleasant style and sets an otherwise nice pace.
Perhaps you will enjoy, as I did, the nice nostalgic glimpse of the changing face of Brooklyn and sections of Long Island in the late 50’s. I certainly wouldn’t hesitate reading the other two novels after this one.
October 13th, 2022 at 10:37 pm
I’ve Googled the book and have come up blank. This may be the only review of it ever written.
I’m intrigued by Jim’s use of “locked family beach home.” Is this a locked room mystery of any kind?
Inquiring blogmasters want to know.
October 14th, 2022 at 7:13 am
The only other review I could find is this tiny caption review from The Saturday Review. It makes no reference to locked rooms and rather casts it as more hard boiled genre. https://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1957sep28-00031/
October 14th, 2022 at 6:12 pm
Thanks for spotting this one, Tony. It (the review) is too short to tell us anything very much, but so far, based on very little evidence, I doubt this is a Locked Room mystery.
October 14th, 2022 at 9:26 pm
Sounds worth looking up though suspiciously close to THE BIG SLEEP (if you are going to borrow only the best will do), not unusual for hardboiled writers including many of the big names.
A new Eye from that era is always worth checking out.