Wed 7 Jun 2023
STEPHEN MARLOWE – Francesca. Chester Drum #15. Gold Medal k1285, paperback original; 1st printing, March 1963.
If my count is correct, there were in all twenty cases for Washington DC-based PI Chester Drum, but somewhere along the way, through his many contacts in the higher levels of government, he became more and more involved in overseas adventures. Francesca, the novel, is one of these, taking place in Switzerland and France and the skiing areas up in the mountains of each.
Offered employment by a Geneva-based and wealthy consultant to international criminals – nice work, if you can get it – Drum at first turns him down, but of course you noticed my use of the phrase “at first,†and soon enough, yes, he is up to his neck in danger and adventure once again. The man who hires him is named Axel Spade – and I’ll wager you caught that as soon as I did. His problem is that his daughter’s fiancé has absconded with three million dollars of his, and he wants it back.
He also would like his daughter back, too, and safely, but apparently she has disappeared with him, willingly.
The daughter is not the Francesca of the book’s title. Francesca is the beautiful movie star who is engaged to Mr. Axel Spade, and of course sparks are created as soon as she and Drum meet. There is also another villain involved, a man as ugly as sin, and as evil. Thus ends the list of major characters, a list not including the usual assortment of policemen, monks (with guns), and innocent bystanders.
Enough to make a short book, only 144 pages, go by very quickly and pleasantly, however. The Drum books were always a lot of fun to read when I bought them new from the supermarket spinner rack on my way home from school, and so was this one today. I probably didn’t notice back then how smooth and confident Marlowe writing was, describing as he did people and places and adventures I could only dream of meeting and visiting and having.
And I still haven’t. But one can still dream, can’t one?
June 8th, 2023 at 4:37 am
One can usually dream. Tough part is keeping up when it happens, as it infrequently does in most lives (one gathers), perhaps never in others, and surprisingly often in those of some of us. That it has happened at all in my life has been at least somewhat unlikely.
June 8th, 2023 at 8:45 pm
All in all, while I don’t know about you or anyone else, it’s probably a good thing that dreams come true so very seldom. For me, it’s probably best that way.
But we will always have the books. This one was a good one.
June 8th, 2023 at 7:27 pm
Marlowe (Milton Lesser) started out in SF in the pulps mostly and moved into original paperbacks. With THE SUMMITT he moved into mainstream hardcover suspense following with books like THE MAN WITH NO SHADOW then broke big critically with the Historical Biographical novel COLOSSUS about the Spanish painter Goya.
That one was the first of a few NY TIMES Notable Books of the year that included his final novel about Edgar Allan Poe THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE WORLD which was also an International Award winner.
I always enjoyed the Drum books that were a slick cross between International Intrigue, adventure, tough guy Private Eye, and suspense seasoned by Drum’s distinct character voice. Francesca was a particularly successful one.
The crossover late in the game between Drum and Richard Prather’s Shell Scott was surely one of the oddest team ups ever but worked extremely well without sacrificing the unique voice of either character.
In terms of literary success among the key Gold Medal regulars only John D. MacDonald did better with more critical recognition. National Book Awards (JDM) and the NY TIMES Notable Book of the Year list would have seemed a stretch for the paperback original market in the heyday of the Fifties and Sixties even with the likes of Robert Wilder and MacKinlay Kantor contributing as they did.
June 8th, 2023 at 8:38 pm
Yes, the one time Milton Lesser certainly grew as a writer over the years. His name has come up several times on this blog. His early science fiction wasn’t going to get his career going anywhere, but even though it wasn’t intended to be anything more than it was, I liked this new direction PI novel slash international thriller quite a bit.
To my mind he made a good choice in leaving the SF to other writers. (Note that John D. MacDonald made the same decision.) I haven’t read any of his historical fiction, but I know they were very well regarded.
All in all, good for him! A fine career.
June 9th, 2023 at 2:37 am
And among others enjoying their good work rewarded in paperback originals during their heyday were the likes of Marijane Meaker, who went on to even more sustained success in YA writing, her friend Richard Matheson, who kept finding new audiences, and William McGivern, another ZD writer (along with Lesser before the latter changed his name to Marlowe legally) who would have a mixed career of hardcover and paperback successes in the ’50s and ’60s…and further successes after following some of his work’s adaptation into AV.
June 13th, 2023 at 8:48 am
Just by coincidence, I’m reading the new edition of Stephen Marlowe’s BLONDE BAIT by STARK HOUSE. My review will be posted to my blog later this week.
Like you I bought and read those Chester Drum paperbacks back in the 1960s. Loved the international settings!
June 13th, 2023 at 12:44 pm
Bill Pronzini has spoken quite favorably about BLONDE BAIT. This was in a long essay about Marlowe on this blog at the time of his death:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=542
I’m not sure if I’ve read it or not. It’s good to know that Stark House will be reprinting it.