Tue 11 Jul 2023
A 1001 Midnights PI Mystery Review: THOMAS B. DEWEY – Only on Tuesdays.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
by Bill Pronzini
THOMAS B. DEWEY – Only on Tuesdays. Pete Schofield #8. Dell 6680, paperback original, 1964.
In addition to the “Mac” series, Dewey also created another private eye, Los Angeles-based Pete Schofield, for a series of paperback originals in the Fifties and early Sixties. The Schofield novels are much lighter in tone, much sexier (as sexy as paperback mysteries could get in that era, anyhow), and lacking the depth and quality of the Mac novels.
Schofield, who is married to a sultry lady named Jeannie (married private eyes never seem to work out well in fiction), is something of a bumbler and spends as much time trying to crawl into the sack with Jeannie as he does solving crimes. But things keep happening to prevent his connubial bliss — telephone calls, people showing up at highly inopportune moments, squabbles, battle wounds, and various other interventions.
Dewey’s technical skill and sense of humor make this sort of thing work: The Schofield books are exactly what they were intended to be-pleasant light reading — and no more.
Only on Tuesdays, perhaps the best of the series, begins when Pete comes home after a hard day and finds an unemployed actor holding a gun on Jeannie; he also finds. not irrelevantly, a new addition to the family (a dachshund, Hildy) hidden away in the bedroom closet.
It ends with a frantic sailboat race to Catalina Island and another confrontation in the Schofield domicile, this time with a murderer. In between he encounters a missing wife, a wealthy yachtsman named Conway, some highly compromising photographs, and of course plenty of murder and mayhem. The sailing scenes are genuinely exciting and suspenseful, and the byplay between Pete and Jeannie, which in some of the other books becomes a bit tedious, is restrained and amusing.
All the Schoficlds are worth reading; along with Only on Tuesdays, the best of them are Go to Sleep, Jeannie (1959), Too Hot for Hawaii (1960), and The Girl with the Sweet Plump Knees (1963).
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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.
The Pete Schofield series —
1. And Where She Stops (1957)
2. Go to Sleep, Jeanie (1959)
3. Too Hot for Hawaii (1960)
4. The Golden Hooligan (1961)
5. Go, Honey Lou (1962)
6. The Girl with the Sweet Plump Knees (1963)
7. The Girl in the Punchbowl (1964)
8. Only On Tuesdays (1964)
9. Nude in Nevada (1965)
July 11th, 2023 at 8:12 pm
It’s fluff, but good fluff, and I thought the general set up of the books might have made a good television series. I don’t know as I agree about married private eyes, I liked Arab and Andy Blake and Johnny Marshall and wife, though there are some others that rightfully made it into SON OF GUN IN CHEEK.
This is perfect light fare from the era, and Dewey proves he can do playful and light as well as serious and dark showing his breadth of talent.
July 12th, 2023 at 1:24 pm
Mike Shayne’s wife did not last long in the series, that’s for sure. The only well-know married PI couple was Nick and Nora Charles, but one single example just goes to show exceptional Dashiell Hammett was as a writer.
July 12th, 2023 at 3:56 pm
Hammett wisely made Nora smarter than Nick, had them both drink a lot and invested them with witty screwball repartee, innuendo and out the other.
Similarly enjoyable was Red Gardenias where Bill Crane was at least pretending to be married to Ann Fortune. They enjoyed similarly witty, drunken hardboiled patter.
Not at all enjoyable on the other hand was the married Philip Marlowe in Poodle Springs.
July 13th, 2023 at 11:01 am
Phyllis Shayne died between books because Hollywood demanded it when Dresser sold the movie rights to the books. It changed the whole tone of the series, too. There’s a tone of screwball comedy in the books with Phyllis that never comes back after Dresser killed her off. Not to the extent of, say, Mr. and Mrs. North, but it’s definitely there. The series becomes a lot bleaker and more brooding with Phyllis gone. Which makes sense, of course.
July 13th, 2023 at 3:08 pm
I believe that thus is the first time I have seen or read this observation made. As you say, i makes sense. Thanks, James!