Mon 21 Aug 2023
One Shot Private Eyes: A List.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists[22] Comments
Even though Kevin Burton Smith says that I assisted him in putting this list of one-and-done PI novels together, it must have been done a while ago, since I don’t remember doing so. I just came across it again this afternoon while scouting around for something else, as one does while wasting Googling away an hour or so online.
As far as I know for sure, I’ve read only seven of these. What about you? Everyone reading this has read the first three, right? Of the others, which ones have you read that you can recommend? Have any suggestions as to good ones Kevin may have missed?
Here’s the link: https://thrillingdetective.com/2020/02/13/one-and-done/ Do take a look. Lots of cover images to go with it.
Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)*
Ben Jardinn in Death in a Bowl by Raoul Whitfield (1931)
Karl Craven in Solomon’s Vineyard by Jonathan Latimer (1941)
John J. Shannon in The Private Eye by Cleve F. Adams (1942)
Walter James in Deadly Weapon by Wade Miller (1946)
Steve Lawson in Hard and Fast by U.S. Andersen (1956)
Murray Kirk in The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin (1958)
Max Raven in Cain’s Woman by O.G. Benson (1960)
Neal Fargo in Interface by Joe Gores (1974)
The Eye in The Eye by Marc Behm (1980)
Cody in Texas Wind by James Reasoner (1980)
Ralph Poteet in Peeper by Loren Estleman (1989)
Bernardo Thomas in Tropical Murder by Louis Williams
Fritz Brown in Brown’s Requiem by James Ellroy (1981)
“Peekaboo†Frankie Fagan in Bohemian Heart by James Dalessandro (1993)
Ernest DeWalt in An Ocasional Hell by Randall Silvis (1993)
Reno Sloan in The Asylum by John Edward Ames (1994)
George Webb in The Light of Day by Graham Swift (2003)
August 21st, 2023 at 8:41 pm
I can only think of a few really good ones at novel length. There was a Dell original featuring Pat Columbo by Pat Columbo, the title escapes me.
Murder is for Keeps by Peter Chambers (ex RAF officer, not Henry Kane) got good reviews, not sure his P.I. is ever named.
The hero of W.T. Ballard’s excellent Murder in Las Vegas.
Rex Stout’s Dol Bonner only has one outing on her own though she appears in a Wolfe novella and a Tecumseh Fox novel.
Henry Kane’s Marla Trent.
Walter Brackett in Derek Marlowe’s Somebody’s Sister.
Lobo in James Jones Touch of Danger.
At least three of those deserve to be in the good tec list, certainly Brackett in the Marlowe novel.
August 21st, 2023 at 9:39 pm
I’ve read only three from the list, not counting the one I wrote: The Maltese Falcon, Solomon’s Vineyard, and Interface. I don’t think I’ve read Death in a Bowl, but I’m not absolutely sure. I have several of the others on my shelves but have never gotten around to them. I agree with David about Ballard’s Murder in Las Vegas. Fine book. I read A Touch of Danger by James Jones many years ago and remember liking it quite a bit. Duke Pizzatello, the protagonist of Robert Leslie Bellem’s Blue Murder, is a private detective, and as far as I know that’s his only appearance. Everybody’s mileage varies where Bellem is concerned, of course.
August 21st, 2023 at 9:42 pm
The character in Ballard’s book is Mark Foran. The name just came to me after I posted the other comment.
August 21st, 2023 at 10:29 pm
I started the Ballard book, but (this is embarrassing) I lost the book before finishing it, and it’s remained missing ever since. I hope I’m not the only one that that’s ever happened to.
The books toward the end of the list are mostly complete unknowns. Here’s a description of one of them:
GRAHAM SWIFT – The Light of Day
“On the anniversary of a life-shattering event, George Webb, a former policeman turned private detective, revisits the catastrophes of his past and reaffirms the extraordinary direction of his future. Two years before, an assignment to follow a strayed husband and his mistress appeared simple enough, but this routine job left George a transformed man.
“Suspenseful, moving, and hailed by critics as a detective story unlike any other, The Light of Dayis a gripping tale of murder and redemption, as well as a bold exploration of love and self-discovery. This powerful novel signals yet another groundbreaking achievement from Graham Swift, the author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Last Orders.”
All things considered. I think I’ll pass on this one.
August 21st, 2023 at 10:35 pm
Getting back to David and Comment #1, the Pat Columbo book was probably Throw Back the Little Ones (Avon, 1963).
An online description of the books says:
“Patrick Colombo, Private Investigator, U.S.A., goes to Rome to tangle with a powerful international narcotics racket. He was alone, vulnerable, and up to his neck in hot water.”
August 21st, 2023 at 11:04 pm
As for TROPICAL MURDER by Louis Williams, that was another unknown for me, until I Googled the book and, guess what, discovered that it was reviewed on this blog by Geoff Bradley a few years back. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1776
August 21st, 2023 at 11:56 pm
Missing is Ed Clive from Leigh Brackett’s terrific No Good From a Corpse.
I really liked Ellin’s Eighth Circle.
August 22nd, 2023 at 12:13 am
Until the posthumous sequel came out in 2020, Harold angel from William Hjortsberg‘s Falling Angel (film version Angel Heart) could’ve qualified….
A few more are listed here: https://web.archive.org/web/20190117100219/http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/results6.html
August 22nd, 2023 at 1:03 am
Credited as the first full length American detective novel, detective Mr. Burton in The Dead Letter (1866) by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor. Ain’t read it but I guess I should….
August 22nd, 2023 at 4:46 am
Kevin himself favorably reviewed Bill S Ballinger’s
PORTRAIT IN SMOKE, featuring the only appearance of PI Danny April .
August 22nd, 2023 at 5:09 am
Which would I recommend (beyond the first three)? All the ones I’ve read:
Wade Miller
Joe Gores
James Reasoner
Loren Estleman
James Ellroy
August 22nd, 2023 at 9:10 am
Well, this post and comments have given me a number of purchase ideas, and I have already ordered the least expensive copy available of Throw Back the Little Ones. It is interesting about that lukewarm notice for Tropical Murder: Negative reviews usually warm me towards a book rather than put me off it, at least if it sounds like it has some interesting features. Reviews serve a worthy function in alerting me to the existence of things, but the assessments they contain mean much, much less to me than they used to do. I scarcely write such assessments myself anymore, beyond maybe a sentence or two here and there. I guess I’ve arrived at the conclusion that when it comes to how a book / movie / etc hits you, what it means to you, we are all on our own.
August 22nd, 2023 at 12:39 pm
The best reviewer is one who will tell you whether or not you will like the book, either way. Such reviewers are hard to find, until you’ve sampled the way they think over a period of time. I think Geoff Bradley’s review says that if you don’t like Crumley, you won’t like this book. And (perhaps) vice versa.
August 22nd, 2023 at 10:08 am
To me, there’s something dangerous about a non-series PI. It means anything can happen. Even death of the detective. Normally the series PI novel is a safe haven for crime voyeurs. Rubberneckers. Ambulance chasers. You’ve got a safe narrator and guide who gives you an impenetrable window thru which to experience peril. Cf the straight crime novels of Jim Thompson, David Goodis, James M. Cain, etc. those guys give you no place to hide. It’s another reason that John D.’s standalones are generally more affecting than his mcgees.
August 22nd, 2023 at 11:48 am
Tony, I quite agree. I prefer a story to be a self-contained unit, and for me,one of the strengths of Chandler’s writing is how little the Philip Marlowe books refer back to earlier cases.
But the demand these days is for series. If I may indulge in Humblebrag, I wrote what I thought would be a stand-alone book, THE DEVIL & STREAK WILSON, but the publisher wouldn’t take it unless I promised at least 2 sequels.
August 22nd, 2023 at 11:52 am
Dan,
My understanding is that both Dan Marlowe and Donald Westlake were forced to change the endings of Name of the Game is Death and The Hunter, respectively, to make their protagonists Earl Drake and Parker survive as series characters.
August 22nd, 2023 at 12:20 pm
Is the asterisk next to The Maltese Falcon because Sam Spade also appeared in several short stories?
August 22nd, 2023 at 12:27 pm
No, I don’t believe that short stories count against one-and-done novels, but I might be wrong about that. According to Kevin’s webpage, the asterisk means that “In 2009, Joe Gores published Spade and Archer, an official “prequel†to Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.”
Kevin’s right. Books by other authors with the same character shouldn’t matter, but they should be pointed out. Hence the asterisk. (But books published posthumously by the original author, a la William Hjortsberg, are another kettle of fish. Borderline, maybe?)
August 22nd, 2023 at 8:24 pm
I should have thought of Ed Clive and Leigh Brackett, but they led me to remember Edward Cline who had a good debut with a one and done P.I. in FIRST PRIZE (Mys. Press 1988). I think the hero was Cash Molloy or something like that. There was a one and done eye called Yank Taggart, but for the life of me I can’t recall the title or writer.
I can’t recall if the Eye in Shepherd Rifkin’s THE MURDERER’S VINE is ever named or not, and the one in L. Q. Ross (Leo Rosten) DARK CORNER is a one and out.
I know he has been turned into a secret agent in film, but wasn’t the unnamed narrator in Marc Behm’s EYE OF THE BEHOLDER an Eye originally?
August 22nd, 2023 at 11:28 pm
Edward Cline’s PI character in FIRST PRIZE was named Chess Hanrahan. What I didn’t know either was that he came back in 2010 for three more books after a gap of 22 years. This was news to me, and quite a pleasant surprise.
Google is of no help in tracking down a PI character named Yank Taggart.
The PI in Rifin’s book, which was reprinted a short while ago bu Hard Case Crime, was named Joe Dunne.
And yes, the character in Behm’s EYE OF THE BEHOLDER is definitely a PI, a fellow who falls in love with the woman he is hired to follow.
August 23rd, 2023 at 7:31 pm
I had no idea Cline wrote three more in that series. Have to go hunting.
August 25th, 2023 at 2:21 pm
Wish Cain’s Wife was available in an affordable edition. Apparently JDM was responsible for getting it published:
https://thetrapofsolidgold.blogspot.com/2011/03/og-benson-on-jdm.html?m=0
“My chief influences, and I mean I studied them, were Chandler, John D. MacDonald and the man I admire most of the three… Charles Williams. No need to go into Chandler — he had his faults but just a great, great writer, a writer’s writer in many ways and more for unforgettable scenes that all over plotting.
“John D. for narrative drive, for sheer storytelling, for mastery of the craft of the unstoppable, can’t-put-it-down novel. And Williams because of the clean, pure, wonderfully honest and undemonstrarive piece of work he turned out again and again. Of the three he has never had his due to my mind though I guess he’s done well enough and probably is not complaining.
“I’m not a Travis McGee fan particularly, [I] prefer the early stuff, but John D. has probably taught more writers how to write than anybody. For me he was a revelation. He was studyable. You could read his stuff and learn craft from it. And of course I was influenced by any good writer I liked, it goes without saying. I hardly sprang full blown from Zeus’ ear.
“But more than someone to study only, I had met John D. through some mutual friends and it was he who sent me to Knox Burger. This after he had first recommended me to his agent, Max Wilkinson, who wasn’t interested, stating as his reason that he felt the private eye genre was a vein that had been thoroughly mined. ‘Okay,’ says John. ‘Max isn’t the last word. Send it to Knox Burger at Dell and I’ll ask him to look at it.’ Knox did and bought it. And mind you, John did this for a relative stranger. Decent, kind wonderful guy. I’ve heard other stories of his helpfulness too.”