Fri 17 Feb 2023
A 1001 Midnights Review: DAVID DELMAN – He Who Digs a Grave.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[10] Comments
by Marcia Muller
DAVID DELMAN – He Who Digs a Grave. Lt. Jacob Horowitz #2. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1973. No paperback edition.
The combination of protagonists David Delman has used in this engaging novel — that of a small-town female sheriff and a male cop from New York-is an inspired one. Sheriff Helen Bly and Lieutenant Jacob Horowitz are as different on the surface as two people can be.
She’s a country woman with strong roots in the area around Cedarstown, an elected official who’s never had to handle a murder before. He’s a tough city cop who’s seen more than enough violent death. And they hold opposing views about whether Horowitz’s old army acquaintance Ian Kirk (who has asked Horowitz to come to town and investigate in an unofficial capacity) murdered his wife and her lover. But Bly and Horowitz are both strong, fair, and sensitive people-characteristics that allow them to work together and also allow them to fall in love.
As Bly and Horowitz piece together such facts as a missing suicide note, an unwanted pregnancy, a vanished housekeeper, and a pair of thugs who have been paid to intimidate the outsider from New York, the author skillfully depicts small-town life through his characterization of the other residents. A well-plotted novel with a realistic and satisfying conclusion.
Delman’s other mysteries: A Week to Kill (1972), Sudden Death ( 1972), One Man’s Murder ( 1975), and The Nice Murderers ( 1977)-feature Jacob Horowitz. His most recent book, Murder in the Family, appeared in 1985.
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:14 pm
It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I come across an author and series character I know nothing about.
Here’s an example — and I can’t be the only one as new as I am to both David Delman and Lt. Horowitz, can I?
There were four more in the series after this review was written, with the last one, for some reason, published only in England (1992).
In any case, the male-female connection between the two leading characters sounds interesting to me, and I’m going to see if I can’t find a copy. It shouldn’t be difficult, I don’t think
February 17th, 2023 at 10:01 pm
I knew Delman by name only, but never read anything by him, though that seems to have been an oversight.
February 17th, 2023 at 10:11 pm
I have just set myself a Fun Project.
It seems that this novel, He Who Digs A Grave, was filmed in 1973 – after a fashion.
David Delman’s novel was adapted into the third season opener of Cannon, airing September 12 of ’73.
… I knew it sounded familiar …
So Anyway, the Cannon show ran as a two-hour special; for syndication, it was split in two, and that’s what’s on the DVD, which I happen to have.
This is where the Fun Project comes in: I just ordered the long out-of-print novel from Amazon – which I’m not gonna get for a couple of weeks at least … which puts me on at least temporary hold.
I did do a quick back-and-forth between the post here and the IMDb listing for Cannon:
– Apparently, Lt. Horowitz’s part in the story is assigned here to Bill Conrad as Frank Cannon, while Sheriff Bly has been ‘upgraded’ to Mayor Blyth, played by Anne Baxter.
Ian Kirk, meanwhile, is played here by David Janssen, who was between jobs at this point (his last previous series, the Jack Webb-Treasury thing, had gone off the year before, and Harry O was a year away).
As to the other characters and incidents – well, I gotta wait till I get the book …
Of course, if any of you Out There happen to have the raw materials at hand, please feel free to beat me to this; I promise to take it with a becoming grace …
Happy Hunting!
February 17th, 2023 at 10:13 pm
Thanks, Mike! Your research on Delman overlapped some information I was in the process of digging up, but since yours has a LOT more detail, I’ve deleted mine.
I haven’t found out anything about Delman himself yet, other than books he wrote being offered for sale online.
He doesn’t even have a page at Fantastic Fiction.
But apparently Horowitz and Helen did get married. From a description of DEATH OF A NYMPH (1985):
“After her husband Jacob is shot and bodies are discovered marked with a bloody clue, Sergeant Helen Horowitz must find the killer or pay with her life.”
February 17th, 2023 at 10:41 pm
Well, here’s more. There was a TV movie (a failed pilot) titled Conspiracy of Terror (1975) based on Delman’s characters, at least. If they used a specific novel, nobody’s told me that yet.
Michael Constantine played Horowitz, while Barbara Rhoades played Helen.
From IMDb:
“A husband-and-wife detective team investigate the existence of lethal Satanic cults, while the husband battles with his Orthodox Jewish parents who haven’t forgiven him for marrying a Gentile woman.”
I guess someone will have to read the books to see which one they might have used.
February 17th, 2023 at 11:48 pm
Thanx for the swift action; time now for a clarification:
I wasn’t researching David Delman, but the Cannon episode, which I recalled had been based on a novel (not the first Quinn Martin show to do that, nor the last: see under Streets Of San Francisco).
I vaguely remembered the TV movie with Michael Constantine and Barbara Rhoades, mainly because of the critical blasting it got from the World’s WORST TV Critic, Gary Deeb of the Chicago Tribune (then, anyway).
Deeb, who was notorious for scathing “critiques” of shows that he hadn’t actually watched, was down on the very idea of Enter Horowitz (as the series would have been called had it sold), for his usual specious reasons.
I wanted to see it for myself, but never got to; I was hoping for a sale (or at least a syndie repeat), but ’twas not to be – and apparently the film has vanished, So There Too …
I guess that now I have to look up David Delman; that’s next up – maybe tomorrow …
February 18th, 2023 at 10:48 am
David Delman bio here:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118966288/david-delman-bio-part-1/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118966385/david-delman-bio-part-2/
February 18th, 2023 at 11:18 am
Thanks, Sai!
Not an uncommon story. He went from fighting in Korea to selling lingerie before making a lot of money in advertising, all the while writing books for an hour every night.
February 19th, 2023 at 11:17 am
I wrote about the Delman novel and the CANNON adaptation here:
http://craneshot.blogspot.com/2012/03/he-who-digs-grave.html
February 19th, 2023 at 6:07 pm
Thanks for the link, Marty. I enjoyed the review!