EMILE GABORIAU – Monsieur Lecoq. E. Dentu, France, 1868. Edited version published in the US by Dover, softcover, 1975. Many other editions published in the US.

   Monsieur Lecoq, Gaboriau’s twelfth book and his fifth novel in which the French detective of the title appears, is today often considered his best and most readable book. Changing reading habits, plus indifferent translations, have left the pioneer French mystery writer all but unread today, but he deserves a place in any survey of classic detective fiction.

   Lecoq, introduced in his first book as a secondary character, was a minor Surete detective with a shady past somewhat like that of the real-life Vidocq. But he soon takes center stage in the Gaboriau novels, and in Monsieur Lecoq he investigates a triple murder in a poor section of Paris. The killer, apprehended at the scene, appears to be a petty criminal who cans himself May, but Lecoq suspects he might really have another identity.

   The duel of wits between the two men extends through the first volume of the novel. The second volume, sometimes published separately as The Honor of the Name, is really a separate and inferior historical novel set around the year 1815, with Lecoq and the evasive villain only reappearing in the final twenty-two pages.

   Though there have been numerous British and American editions of the novel, the recent Dover edition cited above (skillfully edited and introduced by E.F. Bleiler) is the first to eliminate the extraneous historical novel and jump at once from the end of volume one to the important final pages of volume two.

   Gaboriau’s books are not without their weaknesses, and they often suffer from cardboard characterizations and inconsistencies. Their strengths lie in plotting and background. They arc not exactly the books we think of as detective novels today, but enough elements are present to argue effectively that Gaboriau deserves his title as the father of the detective novel.

   Lecoq first appears as a secondary character in The Widow Lerouge (1866), but stars in his next two cases, The Mystery of Orcival (1867) and File No.113 ( 1867). He also makes a brief appearance in The Slaves of Paris (1868), but this is more a crime novel than a detective story.

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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.

ANALOG SF – November 1967. Editor: John W. Campbell Cover art: Kelly Freas. Overall rating: **

GUY McCORD “Coup.” Novelette. [Guy McCord is a pen name of Mack Reynolds.] A planet originally settled by colonists from Scotland is rediscovered by the crew of an explorer ship. Their ignorance of local customs, developed by necessity, enables the natives to count coup on them A coup is a telling blow inflicted by an unarmed warrior upon one who is armed. Standard but interesting, yet unsatisfying. (3)

PIERS ANTHONY “Prostho Plus.” Dr. Dillingham #2. Dr. Dillingham’s dentist’s office is taken over by two aliens, one of whom has a problem with his teeth. The story ends just as it’s beginning. (1)

MARTIN LORAN “The Case of the Perjured Planet.” The Librarian #2. Novelette. [Martin Loran is a joint pen name of John Baxter and Ron Smith.] Librarian Stephen Quist uses hard-boiled private eye techniques to discover the secret of planet Napoleon 6. An unlikely premise that fails miserably, though the story is barely tolerable. (1)

JACK WODHAMS“The Cure-All Merchant.” To the consternation of an inspector representing the drug industry, Dr. Malmy practices medicine without the use of drugs, relying on human resources for his cures. Too long. (2)

JOE POYER “Mission: Red Plague.” A super-high-altitude reconnaissance pilot observing warfare in Asia is exposed to a Chinese bacteriological attack and comes down with … the flu. A story hidden in technical junk. (2)

THE FALLEN SPARROW. RKO Radio Pictures, 1943. John Garfield, Maureen O’Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison. Based on the novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. Director: Richard Wallace.

   John Garfield stars as a former prisoner in the Spanish Civil War, now investigating the murder of a friend on the police force – the same one who helped arrange his escape from Spain (about which he finds he still has more to learn).

   This was the age of Nazis and war-torn Europe, and the tone of the movie follows suit. Slezak is immediately suspicious as a refugee well-versed in matters of torture, but Maureen O’Hara’s role as the granddaughter of a deposed prince in a bit more puzzling.

ROBERT L. FISH – Always Kill a Stranger. Captain Jose Da Silva #6. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 1967. Berkley X1511, paperback, February 1968. Foul Play Press, paperback, 1998.

   Captain Jose Da Silva of the Brazilian police and his friend Wilson, US assignee to Interpol in Brazil, combine to thwart the planned assassination of a diplomat attending a conference of the OAS.

   The relationship between the two men, friendly, humorous, and occasionally antagonistic, is the most satisfying part of the book. Most pertinent, perhaps, is their agreement to disagree on the merits of the CIA, and American efforts on foreign policy in general. As a member of the US Embassy in Brazil, however, Wilson has the opportunity of meeting and recognizing various types of ugly American. Indeed, what Brazil needs from the US is more Wilson.

   The surprise ending is dependent on the previously unknown [WARNING; Plot Alert.] of a brother who looks very much like the intended victim. Deducible, I suppose. [End Plot Alert.] The incompetence of several members of the Brazilian police, though probably realistic, on at least two occasions allows the assassination plot to head on to a climax undisturbed.

Rating: ***½

MARCIA MULLER – The Legend of the Slain Soldiers. Elena Oliverez #2. Walker & Company, hardcover, 1985. Signet, paperback, November, 1987. Mysterious Press, paperback, 1996.

   Elena Oliverez is director of Santa Barbara’s Museum of Mexican Arts, but when a friend of her mother is found dead, murder is suspected, and she becomes an amateur detective again. (Her first mystery was The Tree of Death, which I haven’t read, and I should.)

   The man was a historian, writing a book about the area’s labor struggles in the 1930s. Elena, as a Chicana, in a primarily white world, is also trying to come to grips with her cultural heritage, making the background an essential part of the story, nicely told.

NOTE: There were only the two books in the series.

QUEENS LOGIC. 7Arts, 1991. Kevin Bacon, Linda Fiorentino, John Malkovich, Joe Mantegna, Ken Olin, Tony Spiridakis, Tom Waits, Chloe Webb and Jamie Lee Curtis. Written by Tony Spiridakis and Joseph W. Savino. Directed by Steve Rash.

   A perfectly ordinary film, but done with such sheer panache that I found myself charmed by the players and involved with the characters.

   “Panache” is perhaps a charitable way of describing the overall attitude here. The Italianate natives are uniformly portrayed as volatile, immature, and borderline violent. Their language is crude, civility sporadic, and faithfulness a matter of convenience. And that’s just the nuns.

   Sorry, just kidding. But I really have to warn prospective viewers about the ethnic stereotyping here. I found the characters sympathetic and amusing, but those closer to the milieu may justifiably see the broad brushstrokes as ethnic denigration. Viewer beware.

   The main threads of the plot involve a self-described Fishmonger whose wife literally throws him out of the house on their anniversary. He remembered the date, he remembered the gift, but he stopped off for a drink with the boys on his way home to take her out for Dinner and lost track of time — for several hours! This thread gets counterwoven (Hey, I invented a word there!) with another about an artist who gets the proverbial cooling tootsies as the day approaches for him to marry the Fishmonger’s sister.

   They’ve made plenty of movies with one or the other of these elements, but this one does the weaving so adroitly, I was barely aware of any plot structure at all; everything just seemed to be happening. Happening to a likeable and genuinely funny ensemble that includes Malkovich as a gay man who can’t relate to gay men, Waits as a spaced-out jewel hustler, and Curtis as a sincerely daft dowager with a dangerously innovative approach to problem-solving.

   I could go on: Bacon as a local boy returning after a stint in Hollywood, Fiorentino as a Wife and Mother that don’t take nothin’ from nobody….

   And it occurs to me now that when you talk about the characters here, you’re talking about the plot. Because in this instance, the plot is all about these people bouncing off each other, much as we do in what is sometimes called Day to Day Living. The artistry here is in making something so cohesive and consistently funny out of anything as messy as Real Life.

KENNETH ROBESON – The Other World. Doc Savage #83. Bantam F3877, paperback, October 1968. Previously published in the January 1940 issue of Doc Savage Magaine.

   The struggle between two fur dealers over strange and beautiful furs leads Doc Savage and his crew to an underground world, the entrance to which is hidden somewhere in the Arctic wilderness. This world still lives in prehistoric times, with the usual assortment of dinosaurs and other menacing creatures.

   The villains are vicious – to stop a letter from getting to Doc Savage, they simply smash the mailbox open with a sledgehammer – and in spite of being short on science, scenes in the other world (especially the one illustrated on the [paperback] cover) are exciting, But the idea is not new, rather third – or fourth-rate by this time

Rating: **

BLUE STEEL. MGM, 1990. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, Clancy Brown, Elizabeth Pena), Louise Fletcher. Director: Kathryn Bigelow.

   Sleek and stylish, Kathryn Bigelow’s Blue Steel features Jamie Lee Curtis as Megan Turner, a rookie New York City cop who is being stalked by Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), a psychologically disturbed commodities trader.

   After witnessing Turner shoot a suspect in a supermarket holdup, Hunt absconds with the suspect’s weapon and begins using it on unsuspecting New Yorkers, leaving Megan’s name on bullet casings. There’s no rationale given for his actions, really, other than that he is a “thrill killer” and is obsessed with Turner. Simply put, he’s doing it because he can – which is often the scariest thing of all.

   Much of the movie focuses on Hunt’s romantic pursuit of Turner which eventually turns sour once he reveals himself to be a complete psychopath and implies he is the man behind the killings. Problem is: there’s no real concrete and compelling evidence that he’s the thrill killer stalking New York. So Turner and her newfound partner Detective Nick Mann (Clancy Brown) have to find a way to stop Hunt  before he kills again.

   Filmed on location in gritty New York City, the movie works very well in delivering all the goods you would expect in a police procedural. Silver, in particular, is great in this. His portrayal of an everyman on the brink of complete psychological collapse is something to behold.

   While his character’s antics may seem implausible, they are nevertheless grounded in reality, something that couldn’t be said for Halloween (1978), another movie in which Curtis finds herself stalked and forced to take desperate measures to fight back. Final assessment: Blue Steel is a suspenseful, compelling, and over the top thrill ride.

NAT EASTON – A Book for Banning. Bill Banning #7 (?), Boardman / British Bloodhound series, UK, hardcover, 1959. No US publication.

   Bill Banning is so successful as a writer of crime fiction that he can be taken for a doctor by the Bentley he drives. He also, on the side, owns and operates a private detective agency, complete with a small staff of amateur, but dedicated, operatives.

   In this, his fifth adventure, he’s hired by a worried aristocrat to find a book that’s mysteriously disappeared, claimed to contain forbidden official secrets. The man, as Banning quickly discovers, also has a nymphomaniac for a wife, and a pair of spoiled, but married, daughters.

   Banning is not the brightest detective in the world. His secretary-assistant, Josie, seems to have the sharpest mind in the firm. Banning is also — how should I put this? — woman hungry. Sex starved.

   This is all pretty much tolerable, but the last couple of chapters are mucked up something awful. The killer is fairly obvious, but the “book” is impossibly found in the wrong apartment, and the interview leading into the final summing up is badly set up.

   Or was I just asleep already?

Rating: C minus.

NOTE: There were in all eleven Bill Banning books. The Goodreads list of the books is here. Nat Easton is assumed to be a pen name, but who actually wrote the books does not seem to be known.

RAY BRADBURY “Gotcha!” First published in Redbook, August 1978. Collected in The Stories of Ray Bradbury (Knopf, 1980). Reprinted in The Year’s Finest Fantasy Volume 2, edited by Terry Carr (Berkley, 1979) and A Century of Horror 1970-1979, edited by David Drake & Martin H. Greenberg (MJF Books, 1996). TV Adaptation: Ray Bradbury Theater, February 20, 1988 (Season 2, Number 4). [See comment #15.]

   There are authors whose work you can easily recognize – or even more easily, make a pretty good guess – by reading only the first paragraph or two, even if it’s a game you’re playing and it’s hidden from you. Case in point:

   
   Well, what do you think?

   On the particular night that this story takes place, the lady suggests they play a game. In bed. One called Gotcha, she says. He hesitates but then he agrees, That’s when things get scary. Very very scary.

   It gets scarier. You may want to leave the light on tonight when you go to bed, whether alone or with someone else. The ending is not quite as effective as what has come before, but it’s good enough: