Tue 11 Nov 2025
M. E. CHABER – The Flaming Man. Milo March #18. Holt Rinehart & Winston, hardcover, 1969. Paperback Library, paperback, June 1970; cover art by Robert McGinnis. Steeger Books, softcover, 2021.
Milo March isn’t quite a private eye, but as an freelance insurance investigator, he’s the next best thing. He’s hired in this case to handle a building fire in L.A. that occurred soon after the riots there. Worse, three bodies are found in the ashes, all three burnt beyond identification. Since the owner of the building has disappeared, it is assumed he is one of three.
As long time mystery readers, we know better than that, don’t we?
On a hardboiled scale ranging from 1 to 10, the best I can offer is 2.5, and at that, I think I’m stretching it. The pace is leisurely. Nothing much happens until it does and the book is over. Milo can be a little tough when he needs to be, but it doesn’t happen often enough. He does do a lot of drinking, and I mean a lot. He has a bottle or glass of liquid spirits in hand that averages out to nearly every other page. He is at one time forced to drink Cokes steadily over several pages. Never again, he says.
This is a book that at least one reader found entertaining enough to keep reading, but taking two months to do so is another long stretch of time that I thought maybe I should tell you about. You can take it from there.
November 12th, 2025 at 11:29 am
I really liked the first Milo March book, HANGMAN’S HARVEST. I read several others (not this one), found them mildly entertaining, but wasn’t nearly as impressed with them. I’ve found that Crossen is one of those authors I have to be in the mood for.
November 12th, 2025 at 12:59 pm
I’m going to agree with you that the earlier Milo March books are better than the later ones. That’s only a general impression, since it was the earlier ones I read when I was much younger myself and perhaps less critical. This one was good enough for me to keep plugging along at it, but not good enough to rate it very highly. It’s just rather ordinary. I wish I could say better of it.
November 15th, 2025 at 4:04 am
Agreed, later in the March series is more likely to be, for lack of a better word, tired. I really did enjoy the early ones, and while few really standout they more than fulfilled their role as fast paced hardboiled fare.
At his best Chaber/Crossen could come up with a good plot that kept things going. March was featured in at least one film played by Jack Palance (MAN IN THE MIDDLE), and there is one with Jock Mahoney as a character very much like him (THREE BLONDES IN HIS LIFE).