PETER WHALLEY – Robbers. Harry Sommers #1. Macmillan, UK, hardcover, 1986. Walker, US, hardcover, 1987. Avon, US, paperback; January 1989.

   Harry Sommers’ background includes a short career as a boxer, then as a nightclub bouncer and few other other jobs, including a short stay in prison. Hired as a muscle man when needed for a small detective agency, he surprisingly becomes a co-owner of the firm when the man who hired him dies suddenly of a heart attack.

   His first real case on his own, other than usual process servings and straying husbands, is a strange one. Someone is blackmailing the members of a gang that made off with 500,000 pounds in a well-planned robbery some eight years ago, and one of those involved needs Harry to investigate. One man is dead already. Harry’s friend from the old days does not want to be the next.

   Although Harry has a strong distaste for guns, it’s a good thing that Harry is handy withe his fists, since some of the other gang members he tracks down are nasty customers indeed. But one by one he discards each of them as the blackmailer/killer, and he’s equally convinced that none of them talked.

   As mysteries go, this is a decent one, and Peter Whalley tells it well. As an extra bonus, we also get to see Harry struggle on his first few dates with a woman definitely a step above him in social standing, a teacher at a school where he drives the daughter of a gangster friend and back home again.

   It’s also a big reward when a detective thinks a case is over, and it really isn’t. Whalley ties up all the loose ends, though, and most satisfactorily.

       The Harry Sommers series —

Robbers. Macmillan 1986; Walker, 1987.
Bandits. Macmillan 1986; Walker, 1988, as Rogues.
Villains. Macmillan 1987; Walker, 1988, as Crooks.

Bio-Bibliograhic Notes: From his online obituary from 2017: “Peter Whalley, who has died aged 71 of cancer, was Coronation Street’s longest-serving and most prolific scriptwriter, penning 601 episodes over 35 years. Between 1979 and 2014 he bridged several eras and a multitude of characters, and brought to life some of the soap’s biggest storylines.”

   Besides the three books in his Harry Sommers trilogy, Peter Whalley has nearly a dozen other crime novels listed in Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV> .

HOPSCOTCH. AVCO Embassy Pictures, 1980. Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston, Ned Beatty, Herbert Lom, David Matthau, Lucy Saroyan. Screenplay by Brian Garfield and Bryan Forbes, based on the novel by the former. Director: Ronald Neame.

   It wasn’t intentional, but I saw this right after after watching Spy Game (reviewed here ), another film based on what happens after men in the spy business are about to retire, or in this case, unwillingly bounced out of the job. This is what happens to Miles Kendig (Walter Matthau) when he lets his counterpart for the Soviet Union (Herbert Lom) go free when caught red-handed just doing his job.

   Matthau’s rationale is that it’s better to know who’s who on the other side rather the wait to learn who the new guy might be. But furious, Ned Beatty as Matthau’s new inexperienced boss, boots him out, permanently.

   What is there for Matthau to do but a little revenge, which comes in the form of writing his memoirs, which he starts sending out to publishers one chapter at a time, and staying ahead of Beatty and his former co-workers one jump at a time.

   It is but a game to him, and it is a lot of fun for the viewer too, but the viewer (this one, anyway) begins to realize that the game is all too easy for Miles Kendig. The game is far too one-sided. Ned Beatty, for all his profanity and foot-stomping, doesn’t stand a chance.

   The remaining pleasure therefore lies in watching Walter Matthau, he of the lugubrious, lived-in face, as an old pro at work. Glenda Jackson as his long-time lady friend, doesn’t have all that much else to do, but whenever the two of them are on the screen together, the chemistry between them makes sparks fly.

   All in all, though, when compared to Spy Game, the only category for which I would rate Hopscotch more than second best is light comedy, at which there was none better than Walter Matthau, that and the additional presence of Glenda Jackson.

   As a movie, it’s a lot of fun to watch, I grant you, but when what’s happening on the screen starts repeating itself, you know the movie’s over, and way too soon. And worse, there’s never a sense of urgency or tension in the story that’s told. Even if played as a comedy, which this one is, stories of a master spy at work should never be as relaxing as this one.

THE LADY IN THE MORGUE. Universal Pictures: A Crime Club Production, 1938. Preston Foster (Bill Crane), Patricia Ellis, Frank Jenks, Thomas Jackson, Gordon (Bill) Elliott), Roland Drew, Barbara Pepper. Based on the book by Jonathan Latimer. Director: Otis Garrett.

   I’ve never read the Crime Club novel by Jonathan Latimer on which this is based, but — according to the program notes — the film is less true to the novel than was the film version of Latimer’s The Westland Case.

   This sips along with zany ease [beginning with the disappearance of a girl’s body from the city morgue], and is notable for some inventive camera work by Stanley Cortez, who also filmed The Magnificent Ambersons and Night of the Hunter. It’s the kind of camera work that calls attention to itself (some of the visual scene transitions are as wild as the plot), but it seems perfectly matched to the narrative.

   Foster and Jenks are first-rate, and maybe the organizers will turn up the third Crime Club Bill Crane film (The Last Warning) for next year’s program. If The Last Warning is everywhere near as good as the first two, this would make a sensational laser disc set.

KAREN KIJEWSKI – Katwalk. Kat Colorado #1. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover 1989. Avon, paperback, 1990.

   Sacramento PI Kat Colorado does a favor for a friend, a newspaper advice columnist named Charity, and tries to find out where the woman’s soon-to-be-ex-husband has stashed away a missing $200,000. The trail leads to Las Vegas, and lots of violence.

   Very little of this is a detective story, per se, as most of the guilty parties are identified early on. Kat makes a few mistakes along the way — going it alone, not thinking of consequences — otherwise she’s the perfect epitome of feminine toughness.

       The Kat Colorado series —

Katwalk. St. Martin’s 1989. Shamus winner (PWA) for Best First PI Novel; Anthony winner for Best First Mystery.
Katapult. St. Martin’s 1990
“Katfall” Sisters in Crime 3, 1990.
Copy Kat. Doubleday 1992
Kat’s Cradle. Doubleday 1992
Wild Kat. Doubleday 1994
Alley Kat Blues. Doubleday 1995
Honky Tonk Kat. Putnam 1996
Kat Scratch Fever. Putnam 1997
Stray Kat Waltz. Putnam 1998

MURDER MYSTERY. Netflix, 2019. Running time: 97 minutes. Cast: Adam Sandler (Nick Spitz), Jennifer Aniston (Audrey Spitz), Luke Evans (Charles Cavendish), Terence Stamp (Malcolm Quince), Gemma Arterton (Grace Ballard), David Walliams (Tobey Quince), Dany Boon (Inspector de la Croix). Producers: 19 of them. Writer: James Vanderbilt. Director: Kyle Newacheck.

   It probably looked good on paper, but this production is a misfire from the get-go. You know that right away when the most capable actor on screen (Terence Stamp) gets “murdered” five minutes after he shows up.

   We can appreciate the fact that it’s an attempt to recapture the screen chemistry of Nick and Nora or Mr. and Mrs. North, but it just doesn’t work with these two leads. We found ourselves sitting there urging potty-mouthed “comedian” Adam Sandler to do something worthwhile (“If you can’t be coherent, at least make us laugh.”), but the moment never came. We found Jennifer Aniston’s character far more engaging, but it’s nowhere near enough to save this mess.

   If you’ve got an hour and a half to kill and you don’t give a rat’s navel how you do it, then this may be the movie for you. To be frank, we think Murder Mystery could possibly be the nail in the coffin for romantic comedy mysteries for some time to come. If there are plans for a follow-up to this one, our advice is “Don’t even try it!”

NGAIO MARSH – Vintage Murder. Inspector Roderick Alleyn #4. Geoffrey Bles, UK, hardcover, 1937. Sheridan House, US, hardcover, 1940. Bestseller Mystery #B68, digest-sized paperback, abridged, circa 1945. Berkley #665, paperback, 1962. Reprinted many times since.

   In this only his fourth recorded case, Scotland Yard’s Inspector Alleyn is well enough known that the police force in a small town in New Zealand are familiar with both his investigative expertise and technique. When a death in a theatre occurs, a very suspicious one, the local force is more than willing to have Alleyn take a hand.

   As it so happens, Alleyn is on a solo vacation when the death happened, and since he had met the various members of the repertoire company on the train the day before, he is also on the spot when a bottle of champagne comes falling down, killing the co-manager of the company, a pudgy man who was also the husband of the leading lady, whose birthday celebration it was.

   Vintage in terms of wine, you see, not vintage in terms of paperbacks, say.

   The questioning of all the players and crew takes all night and into the morning, with Alleyn lending an ear, and it makes for rather dull reading, there’s no getting around it. The alibis that are offered, however, serve to suggest that it would have been very difficult for any of them to have rigged the ropes and pulleys to cause the bottle to come crashing down when it did. Not only that, but someone was responsible afterward to put everything back in place — but who?

   The first few chapters take place on the train into Middleton, and mysteries that take place on trains are always fun to read, but the best scenes come after the overnight questioning of all the suspects, at which point Alleyn is given a free hand to do some investigating on his own. Best is the scene in which he does a most unorthodox questioning of the troupe’s leading lady. He knows she is lying, but since he also believes her to be innocent, he thinks he knows why.

   Just before the ending, there is also one giant red herring laid by Alleyn himself, to lull the killer into a sense of false security, perhaps, which serves to wrap a finely written detective novel — one not quite as cleverly plotted as one of Agatha Christie’s, but one with just a little bit more literary skill.

   And, oh. One last thing. Ngaio Marsh loved the theatre, there’s no doubt about it. The ins and outs of production, the building itself, from top to bottom (in essence, they’re always the same), and the people in it. Definitely the people in it.

SPY GAME. Universal Pictures, 2001. Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane, Larry Bryggman, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, David Hemmings. Director: Tony Scott.

   One of my favorite subgenres of the spy film or novel is that of the grizzled old field agent (figuratively speaking) who’s approaching his last day on the job is approaching quickly, whether voluntarily or (in some cases) being shoved out the door in a quiet but efficient bum’s rush. This one’s the former, but it makes no difference. When a small crisis comes up, Matthew Muir (Robert Redford) gets quite a bit of satisfaction in knowing that he’s really still at the top of his game.

   On his last day at the CIA, it helps that he still on contacts around the world who can give him a full warning that something has happened in China that he needs to know about, well before he’s called into a meeting with his superiors, men in suits all, with no particular expertise in the field.

   What has happened is that one of Muir’s former proteges, a fellow named Bishop (Brad Pitt), has gotten himself captured trying to free another prisoner, and unless the US makes some concessions on an trade agreement still being negotiated, Bishop will be executed. Muir has only 24 hours to clean things up.

   Much of the film is taken up by flashbacks to show how Muir developed Bishop as an agent, starting back in the Vietnam War. The relationship, while generally friendly, was also very often a prickly one, and of course it was a girl Bishop is attracted to that causes a serious rupture in their relationship. But in the present, Bishop has to somehow be rescued, and it is the wiles of Muir that are needed, while at the same time keeping the brass at the top off his back.

   It’s a neat trick if he can do it, and it is Robert Redford who is perfect in the part of the visibly aging Muir, who shows us all that you should never count out older guys when it comes down to getting things done, and that experience matters too.

   So as I say, this movie was a lot of fun to watch. Adding to the verisimilitude of a story taking place in wartorn Middle Eastern locale, much of the movie was filmed in Lebanon, with lots of well photographed action to go along with the tricks and chits that Muir is able to call in. I enjoyed this one.

DEADWOOD ’76. Fairway International, 1965. Arch Hall Jr, Jack Lester, LaDonna Cottier, Arch Hall Sr, Liz Renay and Robert Dix. Written by Arch Hall Sr and James Landis. Directed by James Landis.

EL TOPO. Producciones Panicas, 1970. Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, and Mara Lorenzio. Written & directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

   A few years ago, driven by some irrational but irresistible impulse, I sought out two hard-to-find (then) westerns and viewed them almost simultaneously; I’d watch 10-20 minutes of one, then switch to the other, then back again: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo (1970) is a respected cult film, laden with symbolism; Arch Hall’s Deadwood ’76 (1965) is a much-maligned B-movie, rife with clichés — but somehow they seemed spiritual twins to me.

   El Topo used to play on college campuses at Midnight, where crowds of young people in various stages of awareness tried to figure out the plot. It has something to do with (SPOILER ALERT!) a mythic gunfighter (played by the director) who rescues a damsel who then sets him three tasks.

   He completes the tasks but loses his self-respect, the damsel and his life, whereupon his body is picked up by trolls and taken to their underground dwelling where, years later, he resurrects himself and frees the trolls from their oppressors after confronting the son he abandoned way back when the movie started.

   Along the way there are references to Christ, Buddha, Zen, Catholicism, Socialism and Fellini, resulting in a film that’s very easy to get lost in.

   Deadwood ’76 played a few dates in drive-ins in the south and grindhouses elsewhere, where kids and drunks threw popcorn and passed out while generally ignoring it. It has something to do with a young drifter (played by the director’s son) mistaken for Billy the Kid, who wanders into Deadwood and is pressured into a gunfight with Wild Bill Hickok.

   Along the way, we get wild Indians, desperadoes, fancy women, silk-shirt gamblers, and beautiful young Indian maidens, all parading around in obvious stage make-up, reading meaningless lines with varying degrees of ineptitude — except for Robert (son of Richard) Dix, who’s really rather good as Hickok.

   Drawing parallels would probably insult both filmmakers, but for some reason these disparate efforts struck me as brothers-under-the-celluloid, as if their creators had picked up whatever symbolism was handy and used it to make a movie. Jodorowsky was influenced by Dali, and Arch Hall by Buntline, but the effect is strangely similar: obvious actors patently playing out a disjointed story using memes and symbols that meant something to somebody once.

   The true difference is that El Topo strives to be obscure where Deadwood ’76 begs to be forgotten. And I kind of liked them both.

JANA DeLEON – Louisiana Longshot. (Miss) Fortune Redding #1. CreateSpace, paperback, June 2012. Also available in other formats.

First Sentence: I stepped off the Learjet at the private airfield just before dawn.

   When CIA agent Fortune Redding, assassinates the brother of a Middle Eastern arms distributor, ruining a perfectly good pair of Prada stiletto heels in the process, the result is a price on her head. To protect her, she is sent into hiding at the small-town Louisiana home of her Director’s niece, one Sandy Sue Morrow, a former beauty-pageant winner. What could go wrong when one is trying to fit in, solve a local murder, and stay undercover?

   Now and then, one hits a reading slump and needs something light and fun to get moving again. This was it. It was a delightful surprise and a lesson that one is never too old to listen to one’s mother when they recommend a book to read.

   DeLeon has a voice full of sass and sarcasm— “I stared down Main Street and grimaced. It was a cross between a Thomas Kinkade painting and a horror movie.” —and defines the protagonist. But beware, the neighbors, particularly Gertie and Ida Belle, who is president of the Sinful Ladies Society— “I looked outside and saw a crowd of gray-haired women bearing down on the restaurant. Sixteen of them, probably from the Jurassic period…” –aren’t what one expects either, which is so refreshing. In fact, none of the characters are, including Bones, the very old hound who is true to his name and finds the human bone initiating the murder investigation.

   The author captures a small town perfectly. one in ehich everyone knows your business almost before you do. Her pragmatism about religion is delightful— “Religion was by and large constructed by men, and I had yet to find a man who was logical. Deconstructing religious rules would definitely be a journey into madness.” But it is also the south where food plays an important part— “‘Give me the Seven Deadly Sins.”‘ Eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, gravy, pan-fried potatoes, and pancakes. I could practically hear my arteries hardening.”

   There are wonderful, laugh-out-loud moments, which is such a treat, especially when the scene isn’t silly, but clever and relatable. But there is also a wonderful moment of self-realization— “Good Lord. I was actually pretty. Like Mom.”

   It’s not all light and fun, however. There is a murder to solve, and a handsome cop with questions to evade. There are good insightful observations and truisms— “Clearly, people were the biggest complication life threw at you.” –well-done information on Fortune’s past, and surprises and twists right through to the end.

   Louisiana Longshot is a delightful book. DeLeon cleverly avoids a number of stereotypes. The characters are wonderful, the humor is perfect, not slapstick, and the twists are plentiful and well executed. It really is a well-done introduction to a series which should be fun to continue.

Rating: Very Good.

       The Fortune Redding series —

Louisiana Longshot (2012)
Lethal Bayou Beauty (2013)
Swamp Sniper (2013)
Swamp Team 3 (2014)
Gator Bait (2015)
Soliders of Fortune (2015)
Hurricane Force (2015)
Fortune Hunter (2016)
Later Gator (2016)
Hook, Line and Blinker (2017)
Change of Fortune (2018) e
Reel of Fortune (2018)

DANIEL STASHOWER – Elephants in the Distance. Morrow, hardcover, 1989. Felony & Mayhem, trade paperback, 2007.

   As far as fun, enjoyable reading goes, this one is the real McCoy (whoever McCoy was). Mysteries and magicians always go together, no matter what. And in this case, like good science fiction, “what” means that there’s one implausibility that must be believed, with the rest following like a foregone conclusion.

   Paul Galliard’s father was also a magician, and he died on live television attempting bullet-catching trick. Now, 30 years later, Paul is going to re-create the feat, again on live TV. (Well, in the age of Geraldo, that’s may not be too hard to swallow after all.)

   And, yes, there is a mystery involved. All of Paul’s father’s old friend’s have recently received warnings of some sort, and some of them have died, under mysterious circumstances. Clearly Paul does not know as uch as he should about his father’s death, and his attempts to learn more serve only to show him how much danger he is in.

   The climax comes at page-turning intensity, even after you learn how the trick is done — and it’s disappointingly easy, just as anti-climactic in its way as the solution to a ripsnorting detective story often is — and sorry to say, this book’s no exception. Nevertheless, if you like magic in your mysteries, this book has a hatful to the brim.

   (I’m not sure if Paul Galliard will become a continuing character. I’d like to read another of his adventures, but as you can imagine, as it usually works out, this first appearance is very personal; any ordinary case that might follow would be hard pressed to match the emotional level of this one.)

UPDATE:   As it turned out, this was the only incident in Paul Galliard’s life that Stashower has decided to tell us about. See below:

   BIBLIOGRAPHY    (fiction only, as taken from Wikipedia’s page for Stashower) —

Stashower, Daniel (1985). The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man. William Morrow and Company.
Stashower, Daniel (1989). Elephants in the Distance. William Morrow.
Stashower, Daniel (1998). “A Deliberate Form of Frenzy”. In Foxwell, Elizabeth (ed.). Malice Domestic 7. Avon Books.
Stashower, Daniel (1999). The Dime Museum Murders: A Harry Houdini Mystery. Avon Books.
Stashower, Daniel (2000). The Floating Lady Murder: A Harry Houdini Mystery. Avon Books.
Stashower, Daniel (2001). The Houdini Specter: A Harry Houdini Mystery. Avon Books.
Greenberg, Martin H.; Lellenberg, Jon; Stashower, Daniel, eds. (2002). Murder in Baker Street: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes. Carroll & Graf.
Greenberg, Martin H.; Lellenberg, Jon; Stashower, Daniel, eds. (2002). Murder, My Dear Watson: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes. Carroll & Graf.
Greenberg, Martin H.; Lellenberg, Jon; Stashower, Daniel, eds. (2006). Ghosts in Baker Street: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes. Carroll & Graf.
Greenberg, Martin H.; Lellenberg, Jon; Stashower, Daniel, eds. (2009). Sherlock Holmes in America. Skyhorse Publishing.
Doyle, Arthur Conan (2011). Lellenberg, Jon; Stashower, Daniel; Foss, Rachel (eds.). The Narrative of John Smith. British Library.