Mon 15 Apr 2024
E. BAKER QUINN – One Man’s Muddle. Heinemann, UK, hardcover, 1936. Macmillan, US, hardcover, 1937.
James Strange just spent the past four years in prison for manslaughter and morphine dealing in London. He was insinuated with dirty members of Scotland Yard and was selling confiscated drugs as a side gig. It was a pretty lurid scandal at the time, and his face was infamous.
Upon release, he’s decided to go straight. So he heads for the nice, quiet village of Cold Spring. No history, no connections, no hassles. A chance to begin again.
On arriving, first thing he does is run into one of his former junkies. She’s married the local squire, doing pretty well for herself. But still using junk on the sly.
The junky freaks out on seeing Strange, sensing blackmail, and the squire comes finally to know of her junked out ways.
And then she’s murdered. With Strange the leading suspect. Strange is forced to become detective again to prove himself innocent and find the one to blame.
Strange has a compelling voice. Imagine morphing George Harvey Bone (of Hangover Square) with Philip Marlowe. Described as looking like Gary Cooper, sarcastic and witty, but with a flashing psychopathology that scares you enough that you don’t wanna invite him to dinner. Or turn your back.
It’s a strong, tough, uncompromising piece of work, belonging on a shelf with Hangover Square and Brighton Rock. Long out of print, but worth checking out if you can get your hands on a copy.
NOTE: David Vineyard reviewed it previously here on this blog: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1369
April 15th, 2024 at 9:25 pm
Besides David Vineyard’s review earlier on this blog, I found only one other review of this book online. It’s from Kirkus, and here’s the link:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/e-baker-quinn/one-mans-muddle/
It’s short and with some effort, I was able to copy it:
“English mystery in creditable imitation of Hammett and Whitfield, et al. Wherein secretive Strange, anxious only to be let alone gets involved in the death of a woman from his past. Good pace, good baffler depending on drug racket theme.”
Any book mentioned more or less favorably with Hammett and Whitfield — and note that David brings up Chandler in his review — really ought to be better known.
And as Tony suggests, one that one can get one’s hands on a lot more easily.
April 17th, 2024 at 7:41 am
Available copies are scarce and pricey, but you make this sound worth it, Tony.
April 17th, 2024 at 8:35 am
Dan,
I was able to read it via getting the NYC public library to scan and email a copy to me. As part of my quest to read all of the books on James Sandoe’s “Hard Boiled” checklist, it is one of the hardest titles to find:
https://thrillingdetective.com/2021/06/22/the-hard-boiled-dick/
Pretty much everything on Sandoe’s list has quite good.
April 19th, 2024 at 11:49 pm
There is at least one other Strange novel, but it is even rarer than Muddle. I think most of us first heard of it through Sandoe.