RAINES. NBC-TV, March 15 thru April 27 2007. Created by Graham Yost. Cast: Detective Michael Raines: Jeff Goldblum, Captain Lewis: Matt Craven, Carolyn : Nicole Sullivan, Lance: Linda Park, Boyer: Dov Davidoff. Recurring Characters: Dr. Kohl: Madeline Stowe, Charlie: Malik Yoba.

    Raines is a rare example of a creative television series with a premise so different even the seasoned TV mystery fan will be pleasantly surprised.

   Detective Michael Raines is a failed writer turned homicide detective who needs to talk out the crime with someone. When he loses his partner, and no one else will partner with him because they think he is a weird jerk, Raines turns to the dead victims.

   Raines is not Topper meets Sherlock Holmes. The dead victims are not ghosts but figments of Raines’ own imagination. Because of this, the victims can not tell Raines anything he does not know. In “Fifth Step,” the victim’s head had been shot off by a shotgun blast. Raines sees the headless victim walking around until he sees a picture of her.

   In each episode we watch how the victim changes as Raines learns more about the dead person. In the pilot, Raines imagines the dead girl as a young innocent woman. As he learns more that image changes. When he learns she may have had an affair with a married man, Raines’ image of her changes to resemble Kathleen Turner in Body Heat, complete with the film’s theme song playing on the soundtrack.

   As Raines and the viewer learn more about the dead body the character of the victim becomes more developed. No longer is the victim just a body to start the mystery. He or she becomes more and more real to the viewer, so much so we mourn the loss and tragedy of the victim’s death.

   Raines is eager to solve the case and get the victim out of his head. When he does solve the mystery, we have grown close enough to the victim to share Raines’ relief and sadness of closure.

   The humor is dark, sarcastic, and at times can be laugh out loud funny. With the dead victim hovering around Raines waiting for answers, we feel the anger that fuels such humor. As a result the humor in this series has substance that is rare outside Raymond Chandler.

   Jeff Goldblum is perfect as Raines, a man who lives with the terror he might be insane, yet driven to help find closure for the dead victims and those close to them.

   Award winning showrunner Graham Yost (Justified, The Pacific) enjoys twisting the normal roles and rules of the mystery genre. In “Meet Juan Doe,” the police artist wants to do “graphic novels” and his sketch of a badly disfigured Mexican looks like Eric Erstrada.

   Perhaps the best genre description of Raines is Victim Noir. Everything including the plot is centered around the victim. In “Stone Dead”, the plot begins as a story about a racist’s revenge against a judge, but as we learn more about the victim the crime changes. Often the backdrop of the crime challenges Raines’ perspective regarding social issues such as the homeless, addiction, and illegal immigration.

   Raines is a series no TV mystery fan should miss.

   All seven filmed episodes can be seen at Hulu.com.

        #1. SHAMUS MAGUIRE, by Stanley Day.

    The “Shamus Maguire” stories by Stanley Day were a short series of eleven stories (some short stories and some novelette length) published in Detective Fiction Weekly from 1932 to 1934. There may be more.

    The series involves the exploits of a hotel detective of indeterminate age, although he is noted as being a former policeman of 30 years service. Maguire retired on a pension four years before (according to his statement in the last story in the series) and became a hotel detective in the super-exclusive Hotel Paragon “to preserve himself from boredom.”

    His service time “had given him an air of authority that was no respecter of persons.” (The Glass Eye of the Corpse) He weighs 240 pounds (260 in some stories), a bit overweight, and smokes Little Policeman cigars. He lives in a house elsewhere, and doesn’t room in the hotel.

    Hank Shaw is the assistant manager of the hotel, and gives orders to Maguire. He also likes to play jokes on Maguire, but in one case this backfired on him when a murder took place.

    Maguire wasn’t concerned with the reputation of the hotel or whether the guests would flee if a scandal broke out. “He was concerned entirely with wrongdoing. And he possessed an unshakable belief that crime in the Hotel Paragon was his affair and his only.” (The Glass Eye of the Corpse)

    When the city police got involved in the hotel on investigations, Maguire would interfere and if possible mislead them. Maguire’s “contention that he was capable of doing the hotel’s police work single-handed had a firm basis in fact.” (The Glass Eye of the Corpse)

    Flynn and Schultz, two police detective-sergeants, also appear in the stories whenever a police investigation is called for. Maguire usually outsmarts them easily. Each story, it seems, is a ready-made conflict between Maguire and the police, and a kind of race to see who will solves the crime or crimes.

    “Error in Time” is the first story in the series, and Shamus Maguire is actively involved in working on a case of kidnapping. One of the wealthy guests in the hotel has gone missing, and Maguire was assaulted by the kidnappers seeking his hotel keys. He recognizes one of the kidnappers, and sets out to track them down. His broken wristwatch provides the key clue.

    “The Glass Eye of the Corpse,” the second story in the series, involves the murder of a guest in the hotel lobby. No one saw the murder, but the victim had recently told the assistant manager he thought he had seen a murder victim upstairs in one of the rooms. It takes a bit of work for Maguire to piece together what really happened and have the police arrest the guilty.

    “Murder by the Window” is the third story. This involves a series of supposed suicides from the hotel windows by guests who have plenty of money. Maguire and the police are certain it is murder, but are not sure how the crimes were arranged. Maguire figures out the solution and puts it to the test with a fake guest and some money. As usual, Flynn and Schultz of the police are on hand for the investigation.

    “Shamus Adds Them Up” is an interesting story. Thirty-seven pairs of pants have been stolen from occupants of the fifteenth floor of the hotel, and Shamus Maguire is puzzled as to the reasons. Money and valuables were left behind. Maguire suspects that the real reason may have something to do with the British lord and his relatives, and finally figures out the motive behind the crimes.

    “Kindergarten Stuff” is a simple case for Shamus Maguire. A millionaire in the hotel seems to have been seriously injured by a fall. He is taken to the hospital where he later dies. His secretary seems to have been first on the scene with Maguire opening the hotel room door to discover the injured man. Maguire spends the rest of the story manipulating the secretary and the situation until he gets the secretary to sign a confession that he injured the millionaire. The title comes from Maguire’s statement to the secretary at the end: “It was simple as hell — kindergarten stuff for any cop.”

    “Dead Man’s Eyes” is another good entry in the series. Shamus Maguire investigates a supposed suicide by hanging in one of the hotel rooms, and decides it was really murder. He is generous enough to tell the police detectives his idea, which they take in another direction guaranteed not to solve the case. Meanwhile, Maguire figures out the reason for the murder and who the victim really is.

    “Shamus Spots a Phony” is a better than usual entry in the Shamus Maguire series. This particular story is a good example of the kind of puzzling mysteries Maguire runs across, and it takes him a long time to figure out the solution. As usual in this series, he has to solve the crime despite the interference of two of the local police detectives.

    “Other People’s Business” is a story that keeps Maguire on his toes, trying to get the better of a well-known professional criminal named Harry the Boss. An expensive oil painting is at stake here. It is on exhibition in the hotel, and Flynn and Schultz as usual are on the scene. When the painting is stolen, Maguire enjoys the discomfiture of the two policemen. However, Maguire figures out where the painting is hidden and prevents the criminals from escaping the hotel with it.

    “A Doctor in the House” involves a kidnapping and a murder, as well as various goings on that seem to mystify the two police detectives. Shamus Maguire soon gets a handle on the entire affair and very quickly the crooks are behind bars.

    “Social Error” involves a jewel theft and a murder which seems like it could be a suicide. The jewel theft is of the least valuable piece of jewelry in the ball-room full of rich people at the Hotel Paragon. Shamus Maguire solves the problem and makes the two detectives look especially foolish.

    “Cold Blood” is the last story in the series, and is of novelette length. Maguire becomes an involuntary witness to a murder in the hotel, and sets out to discover the real story behind it. Maguire sees certain discrepancies in the murder scene, and this sets him off on his investigation. He is assisted in this case by an insurance investigator named Culver, who winds up saving Maguire’s life during the investigation. A better story than some of the others in the series.

    This is an above average series, with very good stories. There is an element of humor in the stories, with Shamus Maguire and his interactions with the two police detective-sergeants. There were many series in DFW of similar attraction to the Shamus Maguire series, and these series gave the magazine its distinctive personality.

        The Shamus Maguire series by Stanley Day:

Error in Time     February 6, 1932
The Glass Eye of the Corpse     March 12, 1932
Murder by the Window     December 24, 1932
Shamus Adds Them Up     January 28, 1933
Kindergarten Stuff     February 18, 1933
Dead Man’s Eyes     April 15, 1933
Shamus Spots a Phony     May 20, 1933
Other People’s Business     September 2, 1933
A Doctor in the House     December 30, 1933
“Social Error”     January 20, 1934
Cold Blood     October 6, 1934

THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ. 20th Century Fox, 1954. Dale Robertson, Debra Paget, Thomas Gomez, Kevin McCarthy, Lisa Douglas, Douglas Dick, Jay Novello, Woody Strode, John Wengraf, Donald Randolph, Henry Leontal, Parley Baer, Peter Mamakos. Screenplay by Gerald Drayson Adams & Irving Wallace, based on a story by the former. Director: Henry Levin.

   A Southern swashbuckler rather than a Western, this entertaining outing is a canny variation on The Count of Monte Cristo.

   Robertson is Captain Vance Colby, of the Louisiana Volunteers, returning in the early 1840’s to New Orleans after four years serving under Sam Houston in Texas. The son of a well known gambler, he returns to encounter social prejudice from dilettante Andre Rivage (Kevin McCarthy) after aiding Rivage’s beautiful sister Yvette (Lisa Douglas) with her carriage.

   As Colby rides to meet his father after leaving his cold reception at Rivage’s plantation Araby, he is wounded when ambushed by Rivage’s man Etienne (Peter Mamakos), but escapes to the river where he is rescued by Melanie Barbee (Debra Paget) and her riverboat captain father (Thomas Gomez) whom he met earlier, and their man Josh (Woody Strode).

   Recovering from his wound he returns to New Orleans to find his father murdered by Rivage, accused of cheating, with three witnesses; Claud St. Germaine (Douglas Dick), the weak fiancee of Yvette; Nicholas Cadiz (John Wengraf), the owner of the casino the Saint Cyr where his father was killed; and Jay Novello, the waiter serving that night.

   With the police (in the person of the Commissioner played by Henry Leontal) on the side of the city’s Creole elite and the wealthy Cadiz, Colby must discover why his father was set up and murdered and avenge himself on the three men who committed the crime after having lost their new riverboat to Colby’s father in a game of 21, but in such a way the police can’t touch him.

   The day he came home from Texas Colby pocketed a playing card, the three of spades, now he has written the names of his father’s murders on it and sets out to destroy them one by one.

   The film is handsomely shot, with fine sets and costumes, and Robertson makes a dashing hero — even doing his own blade work in the final sword fight with McCarthy and handling it quite well.

   The theme of the three of spades runs throughout the film, with the neat touch that in the final confrontation with McCarthy in a game of 21, it is the three of spades that puts McCarthy over 21 and loses the game for him, taking both the riverboat, and Araby, his family estate.

   A well handled plot well written by Adams and Wallace, capable direction, and a handsome cast all combine to insure this one delivers everything it promises and more. Robertson is steadfast and dashing, Paget gorgeous, Gomez up to his usual scene stealing, and McCarthy a fine villain, by turns arrogant, snide, scheming, cowardly, and ruthless.

   There are no surprises here, save perhaps for how well it all plays, and how good this little film really is. Dumas himself would have been proud to have inspired it.

SHELDON SIEGEL – Judgment Day. MacAdam/Cage, hardcover, June 2008; trade paperback: June 2010.

Genre:   Legal thriller. Leading characters:   Mike Daley & Rosie Fernandez; 6th in series. Setting:   San Francisco/Bay Area.

First Sentence:   The oldest man on death row is eying me from his wheelchair.

    Attorney Mike Daley, in spite of a promise to his ex-wife and law partner Rosie Fernandez, takes on a death-row appeals case. Former powerhouse-attorney Nate Fineman, is due to die in eight days. He was convicted of killing three men in a Chinatown restaurant shooting, but he claims he is innocent and the gun was planted by the police.

    Now Mike has not only to prove Nate’s innocence, but to find and identify the killer in order to prevent Nate’s execution. There is one slight conflict; Mike’s late father was one of the officers at the scene of the shooting.

    Living in the Bay Area, I do love books set here and it is delightful to read of places I know or have been and people whose names are iconic with the area. But it is also nice that Siegel gets the geographic and atmosphere right as well.

    Siegal has a great voice, writes realistic dialoque and uses humor well, but it’s his characters I particularly like. His people are … people; not over-the-top or infallible. Mike and his ex-wife Rosie work together, are occasionally intimate but can’t life together yet they make it work so they are both involved in their children’s lives.

   The contrast between Mike and his ex-cop brother, Pete, is a study in contrasts and adds dimension to both characters. The story is very well plotted.

    The element of time counting down is always effective and, although I don’t know how realistic they may be, I do particularly like the courtroom scenes. [An attorney friend tells me the courtroom scenes are very well done.]

   Siegel is a writer whose books I very much enjoy and was pleased to learn there is a new book on its way.

Rating:   Very Good.

      The Mike Daley & Rosie Fernandez series —

1. Special Circumstances (2000)

2. Incriminating Evidence (2001)
3. Criminal Intent (2002)
4. Final Verdict (2003)

5. The Confession (2004)
6. Judgment Day (2008)
7. Perfect Alibi (2009)

ELAINE VIETS – Killer Cuts. Obsidian, paperback original, May 2009.

    Viets, returning to her “Dead-End Job” series after what was apparently a successful recovery from a stroke, has her protagonist Helen Hawthorne working in a high-end hair salon, with a marriage to her boyfriend, Phil, finally in the planning stages.

    When Helen’s boss becomes a prime suspect in a murder case, the business at the salon bottoms out overnight, and Helen’s job and her marriage are both threatened.

    Helen’s still living in an apartment at the Coronado Tropic Apartments, with an engaging, eccentric landlady, and still wondering if her ex-husband will once again turn up to threaten her precariously grounded existence.

    Of course, the reader can be certain that the murder plot will be resolved, but that Helen’s long-term problems will linger into the succeeding novels in the series. And, as long as Viets’ light touch is as secure as it still in this eighth entry, that should be just fine with her faithful readers.

Editorial Comments:   For a list of the novels in all three mystery series that Elaine has written, along with covers with most, follow this link to the Fantastic Fiction website. The three series: “St. Louis journalist-sleuth Francesca Vierling,” “Dead End Jobs,” and “Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper.”

   An interview that Pamela James did with Elaine Viets appears on the main Mystery*File website. It was conducted in December, 2004, which was quite a few books ago, but it’s not entirely out of date and (in my opinion) still interesting.

FEAR IN THE NIGHT. Paramount Pictures, 1947. Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Ann Doran, Kay Scott, Charles Victor, Robert Emmett Keane. Screenplay: Maxwell Shane, based on the short story “Nightmare” by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich). Director: Maxwell Shane.

   A nicely-done ”B” with some good atmospherics buoying up so-so characterizations and an indifferent script, wrapped around a fine, dream-like plot.

   DeForest, haunted by nightmares that he’s killed someone in a make-believe room, confides in his Cop Brother-in-Law Paul, then finds that the room really exists and the murder actually occurred.

   With a little sharper writing, this could’ve been a much better film, but as it is, it just misses the mark. DeForest is written as a trepidant weakling, and Paul as a Tough Cop, and the two of them never manage to break out of the cardboard confines of their cliche’d characters (he alliterated.)

   Worse, writer/director Maxwell Shane seems perfectly content not to develop DeForest’s character, as if he never realized the Dramatic Potential in the story of a man trying to convince the World and himself that he’s not a Killer.

   Well, it’s at least noir-ish enough to keep it interesting.

Editorial Comment:   The movie in its entirety can be watched online here. (Follow the link.)

KINGSLEY AMIS – The Crime of the Century. Mysterious Press, US, hardcover, 1989; reprint paperback, October 1990. UK edition: J. M. Dent, trade paperback, 1989.

   In London, three women are found stabbed to death within a few days, each with a similar “clue” planted on the Body. So the Police have a Serial Killer on their hands, and to quiet growing unrest, the Under-Secretary, with the wisdom of his breed, forms a Committee to deal with the problem.

   But as the murders continue, it becomes obvious to one of the Committee-Men that the Killer must be one of his fellow-members.

   Crime of the Century was originally a serial in the Sunday London Times in 1975, and like most serials it’s passably entertaining but ponderously lightweight. Amis fills the Committee (read Suspect list) with every modem “type” he or I could imagine, and rings in some rather banal Red Herrings, such as the Terrorist Group extorting money and the Nice Guy who suffers Mysterious Blackouts.

   After the Fifth Installment in the Times, readers were invited to submit their own endings, and the winner is reprinted here, along with Amis’ own finish. I hate to say it, but the Winner’s solution was a bit better.

MICHAEL ALLEN DYMMOCH – The Man Who Understood Cats. St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1993. Avon, paperback, 1995.

   This is a first novel, an entry in St. Martin’s 1991 Best First Malice Domestic Novel contest. Dymmoch is a pseudonym (and a rather odd one) for “a woman who is a municipal bus driver in one of Chicago’s upscale neighborhoods.” Okay. Seems kind of strange to me, but whatever.

   Dr. Jack Caleb is a Chicago psychiatrist with two cats, Freud and Skinner, and John Thinnes is a Chicago police detective. They meet when one of Caleb’s patients, an accountant, is discovered dead of apparent suicide. Neither Thinnes nor Caleb believe that the man killed himself, and the story deals with their efforts to find out what really happened, and their own somewhat troubled lives.

   The novel opens with a dream sequence done in purple, flowery prose, which really isn’t all that well crafted; after that, the prose style is completely straightforward, and quite adequate for a first novel. Both Thinnes and Caleb emerge as reasonably sympathetic characters, but everyone else ranges from stick to not believable.

   The plot, unfortunately, didn’t hang together too well, and was particularly lacking in verisimilitude when it came to police work. Other than the author’s obvious familiarity with parts of Chicago, there was little about the story that rang true.

   The book was more about the lives and troubles of the two leads than it was a mystery or a detective story. Like so very many first novels in “our” field, it was reasonably good prose-wise, but engendered the feeling in me that it was a mystery only because the author thought it would be easier to sell as such. I can’t recommend it.

Editorial Comments:   For an interview with the author in 2007 (but one that does not reveal why she chose the pen name she did), go here on the Internet.

   A complete list of books by the author can be found here on her website. She also posts occasionally on The Outfit, a blog shared with a group of other writers based in Chicago.

ANN CARDWELL – Crazy to Kill. Mystery House, hardcover, 1941. Black Cat Detective #10, digest paperback, 1944. Harlequin #22, Canada, pb, 1949. Macfadden 35-119, paperback, 1962. Nightwood Editions, softcover, Canada, 1990. The book was also converted to an opera with this title by James Reaney, Sr., and John Beckwith; it was performed in Canada in 1989.

   After spending ten years in Resthome, a private hospital for “nervous” cases, Agatha Lawson, a spinster in her early sixties, is due to be released. Unfortunately, just at this time a grisly series of attacks and murders involving the staff starts taking place at the hospital.

   Since Lawson is around at the time of each episode, she feels that she is more than capable to solve the case, particularly in view of the incompetence of Lieutenant Hogan of the local police.

   Also aware that Hogan is beyond his depth, the authorities bring in another detective, this one willing to consult with Lawson. Between them, the murderer is apprehended.

   One of the rare mysteries with a mental institution setting and one of the rare… But that mustn’t be revealed.

   Forget that this novel was published by Mystery House, a publisher of third- and fourth-rate novels. While not in the first rank, this is nonetheless quite readable.

Bibliography: Adapted from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin —

    ANN CARDWELL. Pseudonym of Jean Makins Powley, 1902-1966. Daughter of a judge in Stratford, Ontario.

   Crazy to Kill. Mystery House, 1941.

   Murder at Calamity House. Arcadia House, 1947.

THE BIG CIRCUS. Allied Artists/Warner Brothers, 1959. Victor Mature, Rhonda Fleming, Red Buttons, Gilbert Roland, Vincent Price, Kathryn Grant, Peter Lorre, Adele Mara, David Nelson, Howard McNear, Steve Allen. Screenplay by Irwin Allen, Irving Wallace, Charles Bennett, based on a story by Irwin Allen. Director: Joseph M. Newman.

   Hokum is usually a detrimental comment on anything, but in this case it is a compliment to this bright entertaining circus movie from producer Irwin Allen.

   Victor Mature is ideally cast as Hank Whirling, a man with sawdust in his blood, who has just split with his partners, the ruthless Borman brothers, and needs to float a loan to keep the Whirling Circus in business. To that end he ends up saddled with banker Randolph Sherman (Red Buttons) and publicity agent Helen Harrison (Rhonda Fleming), neither of whom he wants.

   The Whirling Circus is a family affair; the prime players being ringmaster Hans Hagenfeld (Vincent Price), sardonic clown Skeeter (Peter Lorre), high wire and trapeze stars The Great Calinos, Zach and Mary (Gilbert Roland and Adele Mara), their catcher Tommy Gordon (David Nelson), and Hank’s sister Jeanie (Kathryn Grant) who dreams of working the trapeze one time before she settles down (her mother fell to her death from the trapeze).

   Money problems and his unwanted partners aren’t all that plague Hank — sabotage paid for by the Bormans is making his life doubly difficult: a lion escapes and threatens a press party, a fire breaks out and threatens the animals, a train wreck kills two people, one of them Mary Calino, and strands the show. Add to that bad weather and the bank threatening to sell the show to the Bormans and only a miracle can save them.

   Said miracle being Zach Calino walking the high wire across Niagara Falls But just before he is to make the walk his wife (Adele Mara) is killed in the train wreck and Zach loses his nerve. Hank makes him mad enough to go through with it, but at the risk of losing his oldest friend.

   And now the saboteur within the circus plans to strike while the circus plays in New York on the Steve Allen Show while Mature has to keep a low profile to avoid the man sent from the bank to foreclose (Howard McNear — Floyd from the Andy Griffith Show).

   It all builds to a suspenseful finale as the killer is trapped in the center ring as the cameras roll, after trying to kill Jeanie when she makes her debut with Zach Calino on the trapeze.

   The mystery element is done fairly well, with suspicion falling on almost everyone — particularly Vincent Price — mostly because he is Vincent Price, and in 1959 when this was released almost no one would have guessed who the real culprit would turn out to be.

   Less a least likely suspect than an almost unthinkable one — at least then. Granted, we perverse minded mystery fans probably would have guessed, but then we’re a suspicious and mistrustful lot given to cynicism and thinking the worst of suspects.

   A good many circus films have been made, and most of them are usually quite good; the setting seems to bring out the best in everyone involved. This one holds its own despite the cliches like the lovers who start out hating each other, or Buttons repressed banker, or even Grant as the girl who just wants a home that doesn’t have wheels on it.

   The movie is certainly worth seeing, and a fine cast is in fine fettle along with a well written script and more than competent direction along with good camera work and a catchy score add up to a film that is probably better than it deserves to be.

   All the performers are at their best with Buttons more subdued than usual, and Kathryn Grayson in a non-singing role is fresh and attractive. Rhonda Fleming is as gorgeous as usual, and no movie was ever worse for the presence of Gilbert Roland. Price and Lorre both have their moments, and Victor Mature has a nice presence in the kind of part he often played as a fast talking faster thinking promoter with a heart well hidden behind the million dollar smile.

   On a note of irony, at one point after the train wreck the circus is stranded and Mature has the idea to use the elephants, “like Hannibal,” to get to their next play date. The next year Mature played Hannibal in Edgar Ulmer’s film of that name. Whether the reference is an in joke or a coincidence I don’t know.

   For those interested, you can even download the Dell comic book version of the movie for free. The movie itself is available on DVD from Warner Archives.

   The Big Circus may not be as gaudy as de Mille’s wide screen Greatest Show on Earth or Samuel Bronston’s Circus World (with John Wayne), but it is entertaining and smart, hits all the marks, and delivers exactly the thrills, smiles, and laughs it intends, and does so with a more than usually attractive and capable cast. It’s pretty big entertainment, even on the small screen.