DAVID FROME – Mr. Pinkerton Has the Clue.   Farrar & Rinehart, hardcover, 1936. Popular Library #26, paperback, 1944; Popular Library 60-2234,  paperback, date?

   David Frome is a pseudonym of Zenith Brown, who also wrote under the name Leslie Ford. As with her Ford novels, the Frome books deal with polite middle-class people to whom bloodless murder is an unwelcome but speedily dealt-with intrusion. Unlike the Ford novels, which are distinctly American, the Frome stories are distinctly British; many readers have no inkling that the author was not English but an American living in Great Britain who had great ability at adopting the English idiom.

   Mr. Evan Pinkerton would be a pathetic character were it not for his deductive abilities. He is described mainly as “little” and “grey” — “little grey forehead,” “little grey man,” even “grey little spine.” His life has been “mostly drab and often miserable,” and now that he has inherited a substantial sum from his wife, he has trouble believing he really has money and continues to live parsimoniously.

   As this novel opens, Mr. Pinkerton is going on a holiday to Bath, England. Before very long he has violated his parsimony by engaging a room in an expensive hotel, led there by his curiosity about Dame Ellen Crosby, a famed actress.

   Mr. Pinkerton observes quarrels and tensions developing among Dame Crosby’s crippled brother, Major Peyton; the major’s beautiful daughter, Cecily; Cecily’s plain and envious sister, Gillian; Cecily’s fianc6, the arrogant Vardon Crosby; Mrs. Fullaway, landlady at the hotel; and the mysterious Miss Rosa Margolious, a guest who seems always to materialize at the wrong moment.

   When Dame Ellen is found murdered in her bed. it is no surprise — largely due to the author’s unfortunate “had-I-but-known” approach. Pinkerton, who has often assisted Scotland Yard, is called in on the case by Chief Constable Thicknesse (who investigates along with his spaniel, the macabrely named Dr. Crippen). And detect Pinkerton does, in his mild-mannered and affable way, with the usual satisfactory results.

   This novel and the others in the Pinkerton series — The Hammersmith Murders (1930), Mr. Pinkerton Goes to Scotland Yard ( 1934), and Mr. Pinkerton at the Old Angel (1939), among others — will probably not suit the reader who likes his heroes larger than life. It is possible, however, to identify with Evan Pinkerton’s frequent embarrassment and bumbling ways; and the plots and settings are vintage British mystery.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/greenwichtime/name/robert-mcginnis-obituary?id=58019815.

   Thanks to Tony Baer for leaving a message with the link above on Yahoo’s Rara-Avis group.

DINNER RUSH. Access Motion Picture Group, US, 2001. Danny Aiello, John Rothman, Frank Bongiorno, Lexie Sperduto, Zainab Jah, Alex Corrado. Director: Bob Giraldi.

   Dinner Rush isn’t your typical Hollywood fare; in fact, this independent feature is fairly unorthodox in its style and presentation. Set almost exclusively over the course of one night at a trendy downtown Italian restaurant in Manhattan, the movie follows a coterie of employees and customers as they navigate a series of challenges.

   Central to the story is the chef’s father and restaurant owner, bookmaker Louis Cropa (Danny Aiello). Cropa, after years of taking bets, wants out of the illicit trade. But it’s not going to be so easy. Not only does he have to look after Duncan (Kirk Acevedo), restaurant’s sous-chef and a compulsive gambler who’s up to his neck in debt. He also has to face down a squeeze play by two Queens mobsters who have shown up at his restaurant for the evening.

   Bookmarking the film are two killings, one at the very beginning when Cropa’s partner is murdered and a second one at the end, when the entire point of the evening is finally revealed. In between, the viewer is treated to both the petty dramas that unfold in a high-stakes kitchen and to an almost anthropological study of the types of patrons who frequent expensive, well-reviewed eateries. As I said, unorthodox.

   The film benefits tremendously from a very talented cast, including Mark Margolis (Breaking Bad) as an art critic; Walt MacPherson (Homicide: Life on the Street) as a detective; and Summer Phoenix as a waitress whose art adorns the wall of the restaurant.

   Even though there were times when I questioned what exactly it was I was watching, overall I enjoyed this one a lot. It’s different, to be sure and reminded me to some extent of David Mamet’s work.

FRANK GRUBER – Brothers of Silence. E.P.Dutton, hardcover, 1962. Detective Book Club, hardcover, 3-in-1 edition. Bantam F2903, paperback,1965. Belmont, paperback, 1973.

   After a confusing opening, Gruber settles down with a tale about Attila’s hidden treasure, buried somewhere in eastern Europe. Author Charles Tancred, an expert on Caesar and the Roman Empire, knows the approximate location, but there are others who know he knows, and do it goes.

   What makes the beginning confusing is a tendency to fill in background so very gradually, which is not only disconcerting to the reader, but makes the motives of the characters even more unclear. In spite of a strong suspicion that all this mysteriousness was needed only for any mystery at all, once the story finally gets going, it manages to keep a fairly even level.

   The love interest comes on suddenly and strong, however, and it generally manages to foul up the story’s credibility. Every foreigner is quickly characterized with difficulty and English idioms. Carry-overs from Gruber’s pulp days?

Rating: ***

DEATH DRUMS ALONG THE RIVER. 1963. Richard Todd, Marianne Koch, Albert Lieven, Walter Rilla. Screenplay suggested by the story of African adventure Sanders of the River by Edgar Wallace. Directed by Lawrence Huntington.

   This international production is set in 1960s sub-Saharan Africa, in an unnamed British colony on the cusp of independence. The protagonist and hero, Commissioner Harry Sanders (Richard Todd), a fictional creation of the prolific Edgar Wallace, is an upstanding civil servant devoted to his work in keeping the peace. Not an easy task, to be sure.

   The plot is fairly basic. After one of his policemen is stabbed to death by the port, Sanders sets out to not only find the killer, but to undercover an illegal diamond smuggling operation that he believes runs from neighboring Senegal. Sanders’s investigation eventually takes him to an upriver hospital settlement run by Dr. Schneider (Walter Rilla) and staffed by the beautiful Dr. Inge Jung (Marianne Koch) and Dr. Weiss (Albert Lieven).

   Filmed on location in South Africa, Death Drums Along the River features beautiful scenery and provides a great backdrop to the story. Unfortunately, the movie never reaches the level of excitement one would hope for in such a tale. At times, the movie can feel scripted and stale, rather than fresh and alive. That said, I’m a sucker for these types of films – murder mysteries in exotic locales where no one can be trusted. I liked it well enough, but I can’t say that it’s going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
   

JOAN HESS – Strangled Prose. Claire Malloy #1 (of 20). St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1986; Ballantine, paperback, February 1987; St. Martin’s, paperback, 1998.

   A reception for an author of romantic novels at Claire Malloy’s bookstore is disrupted when it is discovered that several characters in the lady’s latest epic have very close counterparts in real life. When she’s later found murdered, Lt. Rosen helps investigate.

   The book is a lot of fun, perhaps too much so. The witty repartee is all but but endless.Everyone is a master of it, and it (eventually) is too much. In spite of the barbs, Claire and Rose are attracted to each other. (No surprise.)

MICKEY FRIEDMAN – Hurricane Season. Dutton, hardcover, 1983. Ballantine, paperback, 1984.

   Set in the Fifties in the small northwest Florida town of Palmetto, Hurricane Season is a period piece. From the very beginning — the night the Men’s Lodge puts on its Womanless Wedding (a wedding play in which an the characters are played by men) — we are reminded of when the story is taking place by little touches, such as the Communist Threat, Nugrape soda, and off-the-shoulder peasant blouses.

   These touches are used sparingly — not once do we have the sense that the author is being heavy-handed with her research. But what really makes Hurricane Season work is the characters, who become embroiled in murder during the sultry days of August 1952.

   Events begin with the night of The Womanless Wedding when the swamp catches fire. Seen mainly through the eyes of Lily Trulock, a middle-aged woman who, with her husband, runs the grocery and marine supply, other unusual happenings follow: A mysterious stranger, Joshua Bums, comes to town; the daughter of the town’s leading politician seduces a young religious fanatic and shortly afterward is / found murdered; a book of poetry that the dead woman wrote comes into Lily’s hands. And finally Lily, convinced that her son-in-law, the sheriff, is mishandling the , investigation, sets out to get to the bottom of things — with  surprising results.

   A promising first novel that shows great sensitivity to the way small towns and the interrelationships of their residents work — be it in the Fifties or today. Friedman’s second novel, The Grail Tree, which is set in India and California, was published in 1984.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

STEPHEN GREENLEAF – Grave Error. John Marshall Tanner #1. Dial Press, hardcover, 1979. Ballantine, paperback, 1982. Bantam, paperback, 1991.

   This book seems to have been published in a vacuum. I don’t really recall any fanfare or critical attention being paid to it back when it was first published. Or if there was, I missed it. And it’s a shame, for it’s certainly a book worth the reading, especially if you’re a private eye fan and don’t yet mind another tale of tangled Californian bloodlines.

   The jacket says Greenleaf is a Chandler fan. It’s easy to believe. He must also be a devoted reader of Ross Macdonald. The similes and other metaphorical flights of fancy are off and soaring from the start. Or take it from page seven: “She filled her blue knit dress the way a miser fills his coffers. … The tiny gold turtle pinned over her left breast was as smug as Governor Brown.”

   Greenleaf’s detective is John Marshall Tanner, once a lawyer and now a private investigator. In this case it seems that San Francisco has its own consumer-advocate version of Ralph Nader, but Tanner is hired by the man’s wife to investigate his strange recent behavior.

   The pair also have an adopted daughter, and she has a problem as well. This one results in the death of one of Tanner’s closest friends, also a private eye.

   I mentioned bloodlines. The trail of too many people leads back to the small town of Oxtail, where too many secrets have never been buried. I had half the answers right away, and the half I didn’t have explained why I didn’t believe the half I knew.

   (It’s not mathematically possible, I know, at least not in the strictest sense, but there is at least another twist and a half before Tanner uncovers the full answer and a half.)

   Keep an eye on Greenleaf. I believe he has a future.

Rating:  B

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH. Cannon Group, 1986. Peter Ustinov (Hercule Poirot), Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gielgud, Piper Laurie, Hayley Mills, Jenny Seagrove, David Soul. Based on the novel by Agatha Christie. Director: Michael Winner.

   Appointment with Death begins with chicanery. Wealthy widow and domineering stepmother Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie) uses the threat of blackmail to persuade attorney Jefferson Cope (David Soul) to tear up the latest version of her late husband’s will; instead, he presents an earlier copy of the document which leaves the Boyton adult children largely out of the will. This infuriates the Boyntons, some of whom even ponder the notion of killing their stepmother.

   Despite these new family dynamics, Emily Boynton takes her brood on a cruise vacation to first England, then Italy, and then the Holy Land. While romance blooms between one of the Boyntons and Dr. Sally King (Jenny Seagrove), Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), one of the fellow cruise members and an American-born Member of Parliament, uses her time to work with the British authorities on a partition plan for Mandatory Palestine.

   When Emily Boyton is found murdered, there are innumerable suspects. She was not very well liked, even by her own family. Enter Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov), who is on hand in Jerusalem and ready to help the British authorities solve this crime.

   While I overall enjoyed watching Appointment with Death, I can’t really say that it’s a very good film. The pacing is off and, more significantly, the characters aren’t introduced properly. At times, it’s difficult to ascertain who is doing what with whom. That said, the on location setting works well, as does the score by Pino Donaggio. A mixed bag with a solid cast.

MARY ANN TAYLOR – Red Is for Shrouds. Raven House, paperback original, 1980.

   This second Raven House mystery is, if nothing else, a good sight better than the first, Crimes Past, by Mary Challis. (It was Jeff Meyerson, by the way, who was the first to suggest to me that “Mary Challis” is actually Sara Woods. The evidence is strongly convincing.)

   I haven’t heard of Mary Ann Taylor before now either — much of the Raven House line seems to consist of unknowns and/or writers hiding with obvious embarrassment under phony bylines.  In this particular case the author has a follow-up  out already (Return to Murder, Raven House #23). It also takes place in the small town of Bolton, exact location  unknown, but apparently somewhere in the western plains

   Police Chief Emil Martin puts his career on the line in this one. A series of murders has nearly wiped out the town’s population of red-haired women, and murder is a crime that Martin has hardly had much experience with. After a while the townspeople start getting antsy, and in a very real sense it is he who finds himself on trial.

   By category you’d have to call this a police procedural, but it’s a down-home folksy sort of one that big-city inhabitants aren’t going to enjoy and appreciate half as much as those with small-town roots. By nature, it’s also a puzzle story, and as such the surprise comes a bit at the expense of the characters as they’ve been constructed up to then — but only a bit.

   Good, wholesome mystery entertainment.

Rating: C plus.