OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES. Gaumont, 2006. Music Box Films (US), 2008. Original title: OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d’espions. Subtitled. Jean Dujardin (Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath, alias OSS 117), Bérénice Bejo (Larmina), Aure Atika (Princess Al Tarouk). Scenario by Jean-François Halin, based on the novel OSS 117 by Jean Bruce. Adaptation & dialogue by Jean-François Halin & Michel Hazanavicius. Music by Ludovic Bource & Kamle Ech Cheikh. Director: Michel Hazanavicius.

   Cairo, 1955. The Cold War is hot here. The British struggle to keep control of the Suez Canal. There is a rising Arab nation seeking freedom from the West. Toss in some Muslim terrorists, some Nazis, a missing Russian ship full of weapons, and a missing French spy OSS 238 and the Middle East is ready to explode. The French government turn to OSS 117 to make the Middle East safe.

    “No problem,” responds the smug spy.

   Billed as a spy spoof featuring the French James Bond, the hilarious parody undersells itself. Cairo, Nest of Spies is also a wonderful comedy satirizing the insensitivity of the West to other cultures such as the Muslims.

   Hubert tells his beautiful Egyptian assistant that he always learns the language of the native people in every country he visits. For his trip to Egypt he learned hieroglyphics and ignored Arabic. OSS 117 stops a Muezzin from conducting the Muslim Morning prayer because the noise was keeping him awake, and he is clueless to why anyone is upset by his actions.

   Never too serious, the film does take its always successful shots at Bond, as well as the 60’s Eurospy genre that includes the original OSS 117 films. Those who find Sean Connery’s 007 too perfect, from his repeated escapes from sure death to his expert attitude about everything, will enjoy OSS 117 ‘s version of those qualities.

   Jean Dujardin is the perfect mimic of Connery’s Bond. From a raise of an eyebrow to the way he stands before he is attacked, Dujardin looks the part of Bond. The only difference between the two is Dujardin’s version makes you laugh.

   Hubert is a clueless colonialist who gives pictures of French President Rene Coty for tips to native workers. He is in denial about his sexuality, while he can verbally seduce any woman, he prefers fighting with men over sex with women. He is not stupid. OSS 117 can learn any language, dance, or musical instrument almost immediately. He is just blind to any culture or belief outside his own male Western world.

   While filmed in 2006, Cairo, Nest of Spies has the visual look of a 1950s-60s spy film such as Dr. No and Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much. As you view this clip from IMDb.com, notice how the look and music mimics early Bond films and John Barry’s music.

   Those who want to learn more about OSS 117’s past, how he pre-dates Fleming’s Bond, his 265 novels, his other films and attempts at television, I recommend a visit to the Double O Section website.

   The OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies official website offers some more trailers to view as well as more information about the makings of the film.

   YouTube has trailers and samples of the other OSS 117 films. Most are in French except for this trailer for the American release of OSS 117 Is Not Dead (1957).

KAREN KIJEWSKI – Kat’s Cradle. Doubleday, hardcover, March 1992. Bantam, paperback, December 1992.

   Throughout the decade she was active, the 1990s, Karen Kijewski was a prolific and well-regarded mystery writer. She won or was nominated for several awards, and she seemed to be doing well sales-wise. Living in northern California at the time, and perhaps still, she seems to slipped off the map since her final book (so far), Stray Kat Waltz (1998), the ninth adventure for her female PI character, Kat Colorado.

   I admit to being optimistic to adding the parenthetical phrase (so far) in that line above. It’s been 13 years since that last outing, though, so I’d have to agree that the chances are slim to none that we’ll ever see another entry in the series. Someone once suggested to me that when her contract ran out and wasn’t renewed, she decided to call it quits, but as I say, that’s only hearsay, if not an out and out and totally wild guess.

   In Cradle Kat is hired by a young heiress, Paige Morell, whose strong-willed (i.e., domineering) grandmother has just died. She never knew her parents, and she wants Kat to find out more about them. While she takes the job, Kat knows that digging around in the past may bring up more than her client might want to know, but convincing her of that is another story. (And not this one.)

   Her client also appears more than a tog unstable, with many emotional ups and downs as the story goes along. Under the circumstances, it’s nothing very surprising, but it also becomes clear that there’s several important things she’s not telling. Otherwise the case seems straightforward enough, but not so. It turns out to be a thoroughly exhausting affair for Kat, both physically and otherwise.

   That Kat is unable to establish on her part an emotional distance away from the case she’s on is part of the problem. This is Ross Macdonald territory, not Hammett, but Kat is no Lew Archer, who often observes but fails to get involved himself.

   Besides the investigation she finds herself an integral part of, in more ways than one, she allows her relationship with Hank, her close cop friend who lives in Las Vegas – which is more than a short hike from the Sacramento area, her base of operations – to wither away.

   Let’s change that last phrase to something more akin to “actively pushes away.” My feeling is that PI’s should not allow themselves to become romantically involved with clients, suspects, or suspects’ families and friends, nor can you always foresee what will happen on the rebound. There’s more than enough of a hint here to tell you what I found as a fatal flaw to this book’s telling, and you should immediately forget I said anything, if you ever intend to read this book.

   In any case, it was obviously Karen Kijewski’s intent to write a wrenching tale of dysfunctional family relationships, and that is exactly what she did. Kat is lucky to have escaped alive, in more ways than one.

      The Kat Colorado series:

1. Katwalk (1988)
2. Katapult (1990)

3. Kat’s Cradle (1991)
4. Copy Kat (1992)
5. Wild Kat (1994)
6. Alley Kat Blues (1995)

7. Honky Tonk Kat (1996)
8. Kat Scratch Fever (1997)
9. Stray Kat Waltz (1998)

   The first part of this article on pulp writer Victor Maxwell appeared earlier here on this blog. As Monte Herridge pointed out in the comments that followed, there was a quasi-autobiography of Maxwell in the January 5, 1929, issue of Detective Fiction Weekly. Monte, by the way, is indeed a DFW scholar. Now to be honest, I’ve never put a lot of stock in DFW’s authors’ writing about themselves because some were obviously pure fiction.

   Now what Max did was a blend. He had his Halloran character meet Victor Maxwell. Probably made perfect sense to him since both names were fiction. Halloran is telling young Willis of his encounter the next day. The germane part is very brief and the underlined words are my way of highlighting new information.

    “Well he says as how he began what he calls his ‘nefarious career,’ whatever that is, in New Yawk on the Sun, an’ went from there to the New Yawk City News Association, an’ then to Brooklyn an’ other bad luck burgs Includin’ Wilmington, Delaware and Boston, which went Democratic – yuh know the place — an’ then how his feet got to itchin’ and he come out West, infestin’ for some twenty years all the live burgs an’ them as was foredestined to become live burgs.

    “Most of the time, he says, he was a newspaperman, but once or twice he deteriorated into bein’ an editor, an’ once he was an advance man for a show. One time, he says, he ran for sheriff an’ got as far as gettin’ the Democratic nomination; an another time he says he was a special agent for the Governor of Oregon, doin’ high-class gumshoe work after Wobblies an’ such.

    “An it was then, he says, that he run across Don Thompson, who writes for DFW an’ he thought Thompson was a right smart guy. From what he says I got a hunch, too, that he done some Intelligence work durin’ the war; but yuh can’t tell about those guys.”

      BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.   Non-Crime Pulps.

* The Little Girl Who Got Lost.    The Popular Magazine, Jan 20 1916.
* Why Arabia Kissed Me.     The Popular Magazine, Aug #2 1916.
* No Show at All.     The Popular Magazine, Apr 5 1917.
* Opals Are Unlucky.     The Popular Magazine, Apr 20 1917.
* “Honest Jawn”.     The Popular Magazine, May 20 1917.
* Doubling the Double Cross.     The Popular Magazine June, 7 1917.
* A Personal Vengeance.     The Popular Magazine, June 20 1917.
* No Imagination.     The Popular Magazine, Sept 7 1917.
* Mushrooms and Airships.     The Popular Magazine, Sept 20 1917.
* Justified Piracy.     The Popular Magazine, Dec 20 1917.
* The Making of a Hero.     The Popular Magazine, July 20 1928.
* I Remember When.     Railroad Man’s Magazine, Feb 1930.
* Check and Double Check.     Railroad Man’s Magazine, Jan 1931.
* The Side-Rod Bender.     Railroad Man’s Magazine, Feb 1931.
* Rolling Sixty-Five or Better.     Short Stories, Oct 10 1931.
* Red Lantern Oil.     Railroad Stories, Aug 1932.
* The Deadhead Passenger.     Railroad Stories, Nov 1933.
* One Thing Leads to Another.     Street & Smith’s Complete Stories, May 20 1934.
* Crazy Like a Fox.     Street & Smith’s Complete Stories, Sept 3 1934.
* The Payoff Comes Last.     Street & Smith’s Complete Magazine, June 1935.
* A Good, Smart Girl.     Street & Smith’s Complete Magazine, July 1935.

B.   Detective Magazines.     DFW indicates variously Flynn’s, Flynn’s Weekly, Detective Fiction Weekly.

* The Plainly Marked Track.     DFW, Aug 8, 1925.
* The Work Of An Artist.     DFW, Sept 5, 1925.
* Threads Of Evidence.     DFW, Sept 19, 1925.
* What The Cipher Told.     DFW, Oct 24, 1925.
* The Honest Thief.     DFW, Nov 7, 1925.
* Another Use For Water.     DFW, Dec 5, 1925.
* Three Out On Christmas.     DFW, Dec 12, 1925.
* Mister Somebody Else.     DFW, Jan 9, 1926.
* The Ghost Burglar.     DFW, Feb 13, 1926.
* A Jeweler’s Reputation.     DFW, Feb 27, 1926.
* Two In The Dark.     DFW, Mar 27, 1926.
* The Hole In The Chimney.     DFW, May 8, 1926.
* The Haunted Street.     DFW, Aug 21, 1926.
* For A Point Of Honor.     DFW, Sept 4, 1926.
* Quick Work.     Sept 11, 1926.
* All Covered Up.     DFW, Sept 25, 1926.
* Something New in Vanities.     DFW, Oct 2, 1926.
* Riordan Seems Stupid.     DFW, Oct 23, 1926.
* A Darned Good Tailor.     DFW, Nov 20, 1926.
* An Open And Shut Case.     DFW, Dec 11, 1926.
* Died From Other Causes.     DFW, Dec 18, 1926.
* Politics.     DFW, Feb 26, 1927.
* The Staples Case.     DFW, Mar 5, 1927.
* The Bomb.     DFW, Mar 12, 1927.
* The Stolen Street Car.     DFW, Apr 9, 1927.
* Framed.     DFW, Apr 23, 1927.
* The Power Of The Press.     DFW, June 11, 1927.
* Applied Psychology.     DFW, July 16, 1927.
* All Crossed Up.     DFW, Oct 15, 1927.
* Riordan Uses Tact.     DFW, Oct 22, 1927.
* Straight Police Work.     DFW, Oct 29, 1927.
* One Thing After Another.     DFW, Feb 18, 1928.
* The Truth About The Prince (Pt.1).     DFW, Feb 25, 1928.
* The Truth About The Prince (Pt. 2).     DFW, Mar 3, 1928.
* The Truth About The Prince (Pt.3).     DFW, Mar 10, 1928.
* Tod Nevis Tells The Story.     DFW, Apr 21, 1928.
* A Young Man In Trouble.     DFW, May 5, 1928.
* The Other Side Of The Story.     DFW, Sept 1, 1928.
* He Learned To Use His Eyes.     DFW, Nov 10, 1928.
* The Dark Finger-Prints.     DFW, Dec 1, 1928.
* Mostly Head Work.     DFW, Dec 15, 1928.
* Too Good To Be Straight.     DFW, Jan 5, 1929.
* Riordan Foils A Press Agent.     DFW, Jan 26, 1929.
* The Murder Of Joe Parrish.     DFW, Feb 16, 1929.
* Marked Money.     DFW, Mar 16, 1929.
* Evidence Of Murder.     DFW, June 22, 1929.
* Protection Money.     DFW, Aug 17, 1929.
* The Bullet Holes In The Ceiling.     DFW, Oct 12, 1929.
* Suspicion Of Murder.     DFW, Jan 25, 1930.
* On Getting Out Of A Jam.     DFW, Feb 1, 1930.
* Hit-And-Run.     DFW, Apr 19, 1930.
* Brass Buttons.     DFW, Aug 2, 1930.
* The Invisible Death.     DFW, Sept 6, 1930.
* Two Confess Murder.     DFW, Sept 20, 1930.
* The Hazardous Path.     DFW, Oct 18, 1930.
* Fast Time On The Main Line.     DFW, Nov 1, 1930.
* A Fine Night For Murders.     DFW, Feb 28, 1930.
* One Of These Seven.     All Star Detective Stories, May 1931.
* The Man Who Left No Trace.     DFW, May 2, 1931.
* Handicapped By Facts.     DFW, May 16, 1931.
* Very Well Framed.     DFW, June 10, 1931.
* Missing Persons.     DFW, June 27, 1931.
* Accidental Death.     DFW, Aug 15, 1931.
* Halloran Makes A Case.     DFW, Sept 12, 1931.
* The Morning Alibi.     DFW, Sept 26, 1931.
* The Convicting Alibi.     DFW, Dec 19, 1931.
* Captain Brady Takes A Cue.     DFW, Jan 23, 1932.
* The Things They Saw.     DFW, Mar 5, 1932.
* More Than Satisfied.     DFW, Apr 9, 1932.
* The Corpus Delicti.     DFW, June 11, 1932.
* The Station House Murder.     DFW, July 2, 1932.
* Halloran Spots A Boner.     DFW, Dec 31, 1932.
* Pearls Before Swine.     DFW, Mar 4, 1933.
* The Serge At 2242.     DFW, May 20, 1933.
* Find The Woman In Red.     DFW, July 15, 1933.
* The Trail To The Treasure.     International Detective Magazine, Oct 1933.
* Way Up In The Air.     DFW, Nov 11, 1933.
* The Girl In The Hidden Cell.     DFW, Dec 9, 1933.
* The Old Lummox.     DFW, Dec 30, 1933.
* The Death In The Binoculars.     DFW, Mar 31, 1934.
* Straws Of Doom.     DFW, July 7, 1934.
* Cold Decked.     DFW, Sept 29, 1934.
* Murder On The Limited.     DFW, Dec 29, 1934.
* The High-Frequency Eliminator.     DFW, June 8, 1935.
* A Clever Job.     DFW, July 20, 1935.
* Shake And Shake Again.     DFW, Oct 2, 1935.
* Loose End.     DFW, Jan 11, 1936.
* Four Petrified Men.     DFW, Feb 15, 1936.
* Diamond Death Trail.     DFW, Mar 28, 1936.
* The Cart Before The Horse.     DFW, June 20, 1936.
* Dangerous Millions.     DFW, Aug 1, 1936.
* Dames Are Poison.     Detective Action Stories, Oct 1936.
* On The Mayor’s Doorstep.     Detective Action Stories, Dec 1936.
* Willis to Riordan to Halloran.     DFW, Dec 26, 1936.
* The Thunderbolt.     DFW, July 3, 1937.
* The Suicide Clues.     DFW, Aug 28, 1937.
* The Hundred Flyaway Skulls.     Detective Action Stories, Apr-May 1937.
* The Devil Wears Diamonds.     DFW, July 1, 1939.
* A Trick For Halloran.     New Detective Magazine, Nov 1943.
* Murder, Ahoy!     New Detective Magazine, Jan 1944.

   Corrections and additions are most definitely welcome.

      SOURCES:

Michael L. Cook & Steven T. Miller: Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U.S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974.
The FictionMags Index.
The personal files of Maxwell Vietor, aka Victor Maxwell.

EDNA BUCHANAN – Miami, It’s Murder. Britt Montero #2. Hyperion, hardcover, January 1994. Avon, paperback, 1995.

   Buchanan’s first Montero, Contents Under Pressure, got a lot of good press, though I liked it less than most because of a to me unbelievable plot.

   [In Miami, It’s Murder, the city] is plagued by a serial rapist. Britt is doing the story, and has annoyed the police by printing information they wanted withheld. At the same time, a friend of hers on the police department is being forced into retirement because of a bad heart, and he is agonizing over cases he never broke.

   One was the 20-year-ago sexual murder of a young girl. He was convinced of the guilt of a young man who is now a grown politician running for governor, but could find no evidence. Britt decides to dig into the old case and see what she can find.

   She continues to write about the rapist, and begins to get threatening letters from him. A series of deaths begin to occur, some seemingly accidental, some not, all involving people who were suspected of old murders but never convicted. Not surprisingly, all three situations — rapist, politician, murders — are eventually resolved.

   As with the first book, the narration is excellent, the writing fast-paced and effective. Again, too, there are plot elements that won’t wash. Britt’s acceptance of her cop friend’s assertion of the politician’s guilt without any real evidence makes either her or the author just plain foolish; as does her eagerness to personally offend the man without even her paper’s knowledge or concurrence.

   More so than in the first novel, she often acts foolishly. But the main problem I have with the book is that it (and Montero) ethically offended me. I can’t go into reasons without giving away the plot, so I’ll just say neither she nor the author seem to have the same ethical values that I do. No go, Montero.

Bibliographic Notes:   In spite of Barry’s clearly stated misgivings, Miami, It’s Murder was nominated for an Edgar in 1995.

   For more on the author, a visit to her Wikipedia page may suffice: “As one of the first female crime journalists in Miami, she wrote for the Miami Beach Daily Sun and the Miami Herald as a general assignment and police-beat reporter. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for general reporting.” She is also the author or co-author of 17 crime novels, including the nine Britt Montero novels listed below.

   For even more, check out the author’s own website. There’s much of interest there.

      The Britt Montero series —

1. Contents Under Pressure (1992)

2. Miami, It’s Murder (1994)
3. Suitable for Framing (1995)
4. Act of Betrayal (1996)

5. Margin of Error (1997)
6. Garden of Evil (1999)
7. You Only Die Twice (2001)
8. The Ice Maiden (2002)
9. Love Kills (2007)

HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL – Quinney’s Adventures. George H. Doran, US, hardcover, 1924. Originally published in the UK: John Murray, hardcover, 1924.

   Joe Quinney is an earlier, more subdued version of Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy. While Quinney has an eye for antiques, he hasn’t Lovejoy’s ability to identify them immediately. He also lacks Lovejoy’s ability not to make money. Well, for the most part. Occasionally Quinney has been fooled by some unscrupulous dealers.

   The 11 stories in this book deal with Quinney’s purchases of and investigations into antiques, including one locked room murder. They aren’t all mysteries, by any definition, and several deal with the genuine occult, if there is such a thing.

   Each story is interesting, but reading one after another probably would be too much of a reasonably good thing.

Bibliographic Notes:   It’s hard to imagine that many browsers on the Internet are going to be Googling the author’s name and end up here. I’m sure his is a name long forgotten.

   Even so, you (as I) may be surprised to learn that Vachell has some 18 titles in Hubin, including one marginally criminous entry, one play, one collaboration with another author, and several story collections. Nor was the book Bill reviewed the only appearance of Joe Quinney. He showed up in one novel and three collections, including this one.

   Inexpensive copies (under $30) can be found on the Internet, but don’t count on the condition being more than Good, and the overseas postage fees may match the price of the book. If you’d prefer a copy in Nice condition with a Dust Jacket, such as the one shown, be prepared to spend $250 or so.

TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN. United Artists, 1958. Sterling Hayden, Sebastian Cabot, Carol Kelly, Eugene Martin, Ned Young, Victor Millan, Frank Ferguson. Screenwriter: Ben Perry (as a front for Dalton Trumbo). Director: Joseph H. Lewis.

   Mention of Nedrick Young [in my previous review ] may have baffled some of you out there, so I should say he was a sometime-actor/sometime screen-writer who wrote Jailhouse Rock and won an Oscar for The Defiant Ones, which he had to accept under a pseudonym because he was black-listed.

   He also appears uncredited and disguised by a heavy beard in House of Wax (1953) but Young’s chief claim to fame is his portrayal of the sympathetically loathsome gunfighter in a little cheapie called Terror in a Texas Town (1958).

   This was the last feature film of director Joseph H. Lewis, and a fitting cap to a career that started out in B-westerns and veered through such films as Gun Crazy and So Dark the Night. Terror moves with that manic intensity sometimes seen within the febrile reaches of desperate cinema, parading its clichés like a magician doing card-tricks, flashing one at us where we expect to see another, till the whole thing speed-shuffles itself into one of the most bizarre shoot-outs in the movies.

   In all this delirium, there’s little time for serious acting, which is why it’s surprising to see some very nice turns here from thespians whose careers were mostly marginal. Sterling Hayden does a very creditable job as a Swedish sailor (a thematic echo of John Wayne in The Long Voyage Home) out west to join his father who has bitten the dust, courtesy of gluttonous Land Baron Sebastian Cabot.

   Someone named Carol Kelly plays a poignantly masochistic kept woman, whose keeper is the declining gunfighter Johnny Crale, played here by Nedrick Young.

   Young somehow brings real feeling to a stock character here. Black-clad, with six-guns at his hips, he strides about with a weary grace, his balletic movements always somehow tired and over-practiced, as he goes through the motions of pleading with his victims not to make him fulfill his destiny, or begs his opponent to get closer for a fair fight.

   That bit happens in the final confrontation in the middle of a dusty street, and it seems less a cliché than one would think, thanks to Young’s assured playing and Lewis’s vigorous direction.

   Perhaps the performances stand out because director Lewis puts them in such stark relief. Or it may be just a matter of budget that there are no extras in this Texas town till the last reel. Whatever the case, Terror lingers in the memory as an authentically strange film and even a rather good one.

THE MEANEST GAL IN TOWN. RKO, 1934. ZaSu Pitts. Pert Kelton, El Brendel, James Gleason, “Skeets” Gallagher. Director: Russell Mack. Shown at Cinevent 40, Columbus OH, May 2008.

   ZaSu Pitts hadn’t yet reduced her acting to the fluttering “dear me” mannerisms that most people associate with her, and she does a decent job of playing a small-town shop owner who’s getting tired of waiting for long-time beau Chris (El Brendel), the local barber who won’t ask Tillie to marry him until he’s successful enough to afford a second chair.

   Tired of waiting, Tillie buys the chair for him, but her plan is railroaded by the arrival of out-of-work actress Lulu White (Pert Kelton), who promotes herself into a job as manicurist at Chris’s shop. Other complications follow, just enough of them to stretch the film to a thin 62 minutes, with an improbable ending that keeps Pitts off-screen for much of the last section of the film.

   Comedian El Brendel was less irritating than in other films in which I’ve seen him, but the paring of Pitts and Brendel was not a match made in cinematic heaven. Jim Goodrich, who attended this showing with me, was not happy that ZaSu Pitts was wasted in an unpleasant role.

   Here’s something of a surprise, at least to me: the only novel by Len Zinberg (Ed Lacy) to be published under his other pseudonym turns out to be crime fiction. As per the attached from the dj. Very scarce book; the copy I just bought is the first I’ve seen in 40 years of collecting.

STEVE APRIL – Route 13. Funk & Wagnalls, hardcover, 1954. Setting: NYC

      STORY DESCRIPTION     [Taken from both inside jacket flaps.]

   There was a lot that Manson Cornwall wanted to do, but becoming a mailman wasn’t on his list. In spite of his uncle’s love for the postal service, he was sure it would be the dullest job in the world. What he meant to do first was graduate from high school, and then somehow he would become a doctor. But Uncle Harry was murdered, and Manny thought he had to make some money quickly to help his aunt and at the same time look for his uncle’s killer. Thelma, who lived with her family in the apartment upstairs, understood and sympathized with him, but even she lost patience when he tried to settle for quick and easy money in professional boxing.

   After his brief, bitter experience in the ring, Manny began job hunting, but his high school diploma wasn’t enough. Then the post office appointment for which he had applied to please his uncle came through, and Manny went to work as a mailman, determined to resign at the first possible opportunity. He was not surprised at the hard work, but what did surprise him was the pleasure he found in working with others, in the security of a steady job with a good salary, and in the fact that people depended on the mail and on him.

   Letter-carrying, night school, and crime detection didn’t mix very well, but Manny combined them for a while, and by the time the sleuthing was finished he had grown up enough to distinguish between dreams of what he would be and the real world in which he had to do. He had learned that for him the post office could provide a rewarding career; in his job he was important, not just as himself, but as part of an organization doing important work and doing it well.

      STEVE APRIL     [A Biography of the Author, taken from the back cover.]

   Born in upstate in New York, outside Syracuse, Steve April left there before he was ten and moved to New York City, and ever since has been wondering if that was a mistake, although he thinks New York City is “terrific.” Traveling being his only hobby, he nosed around Los Angeles, Dayton, Topeka, Montreal, Salt Lake City, Port-au-Prince, Athens, Paris, San Juan, Oran, and Nice, as well as Rome and various other Italian cities. Most of this was done under his own steam, but during the war Uncle Sam gave his hobby an assist by putting a uniform on Mr. April and shoving him around the USA and Europe for three years.

   Although this is Mr. April’s first book, he has had stories and articles in many magazines and newspapers, including Collier’s, This Week, Esquire, Family Circle, the Montreal Standard, and the Toronto Star.

   A substitute and regular mailman for several years, Mr. April gave up the job to devote full time to his typewriter, and because he hates getting up early in the morning. Sometimes, when sales are far between, he wonders if this wasn’t a mistake, but as he says, “Writing and being a mail carrier have at least one thing in common — both professions give one a very satisfying sense of doing things.”

DAVID BURNHAM – Last Act in Bermuda. Charles Scribner’s Son, hardcover, 1940.

   Even though there is a hint in the last paragraph that Inspector Steve Hamilton of the Bermuda Police Department may have had another case to solve, it didn’t happen. This is it, the only case he ever had — the only one recorded for posterity, that is — but nonetheless, it’s a good one. Better than good, as a matter of fact.

   A thought occurred to me while reading this book, though, and I’m not exactly sure why it’s never occurred to me so strongly before, since I’ve known it all along, but this is what it was. That the settings of the mysteries that are part of the period that’s commonly known as the Golden Age of Detection – and 1940 is almost exactly in the center of the time frame, or just afterwards – that the setting and people involved were almost always of the upper crust, the jet set (before there were jets) the rich or the artsy or both.

   The private eyes hung out in the gutters of society. The socialites had their world, and a certain segment of the reading population liked their detective fiction to take place in that world, not that they were part of that world, but that they enjoyed the opportunity to take a peek into that world and (perhaps) to see segments of that society broken down, just a little.

   As you must have gathered by now, that’s the kind of mystery this one is. And since the youngish Inspector Hamilton’s kid sister Joan is romantically involved with the owner of the estate on the island just off Bermuda, he’s also there johnny-on-the-spot before the crime of murder is committed.

   What this book is also about — and once again this is something that’s also very common in books taking place in the Golden Age of Detection — is a murder that takes place in a somehow isolated locale, in this case an island, and therefore resulting in only a limited number of suspects to be suspicious about. (Well, almost.)

   The list includes the following: an young actor and a young actress; a man-about-town and his wife; a famous director’s wife; and a famous artist, female. Not to mention the host and one mystery guest, whom everyone seems to know and seems to have seen on the island before the surprise is ever announced.

   Besides being involved with the host, Tony Bound –not to Inspector Hamilton’s pleasure — his sister Joan is also his “Watson,” as she amusingly discovers that a murder investigation is something very much to her liking: eavesdropping in on the questioning of the suspects, making timetables, and all of the other accouterments and other apparatus of solving a crime.

   Either you like timetables in your detective fiction, or you don’t, but I do, even though I also like a private eye novel taking place in the lower echelons of society as much as anyone else. The detective work in this book I thought was excellent.

   Worthy of a Queen? Yes, even so, and even with the cliched situations and settings that make themselves so noticeable that you cannot help but stumble over them, all I can say it that is it a shame that Joan never had the chance to help her big brother out like this again.

PostScript: This was the only work of crime fiction that David Burnham (1907-1974) produced, but Bill Pronzini, who provided the scan of the dust jacket above, suggests that perhaps he was also the author of Winter in the Sun (Scribner’s, 1937), a book about ranch life in the Arizona desert. The name’s the same, and the publisher’s the same, so the chances are better than good that it’s a match.

[UPDATE] 07-19-11. The following was sent to me by Victor Berch. I’ve decided to include it here with the review itself, rather than in the comments section:

      Comment on Last Act in Bermuda, 1940.

Steve:

   Bill Pronzini is certainly correct in his assumption that David Burnham, the author of Last Act in Bermuda (1940) was the author of the book Winter in the Sun (1937).

   David Burnham was born March 2, 1907 in Chicago, IL, the son of an English immigrant, Claude G(eorge), a railroad traffic manager, and Mary (Gillis) Burnham, a native of Minnesota.

   David was a graduate of Princeton University, where he was involved with its choral group: the Triangle Club. He and other members of the group wrote the words to a vocal score titled “Napoleon Passes.”

   According to Al Hubin’s Crime Fiction Bibliography, he died in 1974. For some reason or another, I could not locate his name in the SSDI. Perhaps he had opted out of the program, which was perfectly legal way back then.

   He is not to be confused with the David Burnham who was an investigative reporter for the New York Times.

   Here is a list of his book publications:

1) This Our Exile. (New York: C. Scribners, 1931. London: P. Davies, 1931)

2) Wedding Song. (New York: Viking Press, 1934. London: Peter Davies, 1934)

3) Winter in the Sun. (New York: C. Scribners, 1937)

4) Last Act in Bermuda. (New York: C. Scribners, 1940)

   He also has one entry in the Fictionmags Index for a short story titled “Turn the Page,” which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post Sept. 17, 1938

            Victor

CHARLIE GRACE. ABC-TV. September 14, 1995 through October 19, 1995. Created and Executive Produced by Robert Singer. CAST: Mark Harmon (Charlie Grace), Cindy Katz (Leslie Loeb), Leelee Sobieski (Jenny Grace), Robert Costanzo (Artie Crawford). Not available on DVD or for downloading. Six episodes are available on YouTube with badly out of synch copies. Total of nine episodes were reportedly made.

   There is a famous drinking game featuring the TV series Bob Newhart: Every time someone says “Bob”, you take a drink. Charlie Grace is perfect for a similar game. Every time you see or hear a PI cliche or TV PI gimmick, take a drink. You won’t remember a thing after the first commercial.

   Always likable Mark Harmon played Charlie Grace, a hard luck nice guy ex-cop turned PI. As a cop he turned in a group of corrupt fellow officers. Many on the force did not approve of his action. This has left Charlie less than popular with many of the LAPD.

   He has an ex-wife, Holly, and a twelve year-old daughter, Jenny. He feels guilty about his failed marriage and loves his kid. How Charlie ends up raising his daughter is the single surprising twist of the series. Those curious can check out the SPOILER PARAGRAPH below this review.

   Charlie has an ex-girlfriend, Cindy who is a rich powerful lawyer who keeps Charlie employed and out of jail.

   He has a car like Rockford’s for his car chases. He gets shot at and beat up on a regular basis. He breaks into places illegally. He has contacts, such as a computer hacker and finder of missing people, to do the visually boring legwork.

   Crawford, an ex-cop due to Charlie’s whistle blowing, is now a sleazy PI. Each week, usually straining logic and believability, Crawford helps Charlie with the case.

   Charlie’s office is in a pool hall.

   Beautiful women fall for Charlie quickly and weekly.

   Charlie is always broke, but has a beautiful two-story house in Los Angeles. The house is atop a hill, so he has to run up the stairs because there is an unseen dog that always chases him for no apparent reason.

   Charlie does a voice over narration that breaks the fourth wall.

   The series was never sure what it wanted to be, a 70s PI mystery or a family drama. Action scenes and cynical, sarcastic PI dialog did not mix well with the Hollywood pathos of a single Dad raising a young daughter. Charlie having to find a sitter for Jenny before he can search for the killer was not what Raymond Chandler meant when he compared a PI to a lone knight walking the mean streets.

   The series time period opposite Friends and Murder, She Wrote, was an additional reason this series lasted only six weeks on the air. Every TV reference book or website has errors regarding this series. IMDb claims the final three episodes were shown in May, but no other reference agrees. Crawford was not Charlie’s partner. And the big mistake involves the spoiler below this review.

   In the end, Charlie Grace was just one more short-lived TV detective series relatively few people even saw, let alone remember.

      *** SPOILER ALERT ***

   Charlie’s ex-wife, Holly (Harley Jane Kozak) was introduced with Jenny in the pilot. The Ex had remarried a rich man who neglected Jenny. The first episode after the pilot featured Step-Dad murdered and Mom arrested.

   The twist at the end revealed Mom did kill her second husband. The rest of the series dealt with the melodramatic trauma Jenny goes through with her Mom in prison for murder, and insecure parent Charlie trying to help her while solving crimes.