Tue 2 May 2023
A 1001 Midnights Review: ROBERT C. DENNIS – Conversations with a Corpse.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[3] Comments
by Bill Pronzini
ROBERT C. DENNIS – Conversations with a Corpse. Paul Reeder #2. Bobbs-Merrill, hardcover, 1974. Ballantine, paperback, 1976.
Robert C. Dennis wrote dozens of short stories for the pulps in the 1940s and hundreds of teleplays for such popular TV
series as Dragnet, Cannon, and Perry Mason from the 1950s to the early 1980s. But his output of novels, regrettably, was limited to just two — both published in the early Seventies; both narrated by architect Paul Reeder, “a psychic, a man with a freak brain capable of recovering mind pictures of past events”; and both literate and expertly constructed whodunits that even ESP skeptics can enjoy.
On a business trip to the small California wine-country town of Orofino, the “Wine Capital of the West,” Reeder rents a car at the local airport and, as soon as he touches the steering wheel, has a psychometric vision telling him the man who last drove the car is now dead. Directed by his “inner mind,” he embarks on a search that leads him into conflict with Sergeant Dryden of the Orofino police and with members of the Chicano community; into an abandoned winery filled with bloated rats and an equally bloated corpse; and finally to a confrontation with a homicidal madman at the Mission Santa Teresa Dolorosa.
Library Journal called the novel “a suspenseful and menacing puzzle”; the Los Angeles Times praised it as “tough and furiously fast-paced … [with] bone-chilling situations.” Both assessments are on target. The scene in which Reeder is trapped in the bankrupt winery is a minor masterpiece of its kind, guaranteed to give the most jaded reader a case of the shudders.
The first Reeder novel, The Sweat of Fear (1973), is also a fine piece of criminous storytelling and highly recommended.
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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.
May 3rd, 2023 at 1:18 pm
Dennis has 96 screenwriter credits on IMDb, mostly for network TV:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0219551/
And as far as writing for the pulps is concerned, take a look:
Dennis, Robert C. (1915-1983) (chron.)
* Another Man’s Poison, (ss) Detective Tales March 1946
* “—As the Strength of Tenâ€, (nv) Doc Savage July 1945
Street & Smith’s Detective Monthly (UK) July 1956
* Background for Sally, (ss) Doc Savage January 1947
Street & Smith’s Detective Monthly (UK) August 1957
* Beyond Reasonable Doubt, (ss) Detective Tales April 1947
* Blood Quest, (ss) New Detective Magazine January 1947
* The Body on the Highway, (ss) Doc Savage February 1947
Street & Smith’s Mystery Detective (UK) August 1955
* Burned in Boston, (nv) New Detective Magazine February 1946
Detective Tales (UK) May 1958
* Busy Signal, (ss) The Shadow June 1946
Street & Smith’s Mystery Detective (UK) August 1957
* The Constable and the Widow, (ss) Doc Savage December 1945
Street & Smith’s Detective Monthly (UK) May 1956
* Corpse About Town, (nv) New Detective Magazine March 1949
Detective Tales (UK) July 1957
* The Corpse in the Cabana, (ss) Mystery Book Magazine Fall 1948
* Crabtree’s Favorite Corpse, (ss) Detective Tales July 1945
* Crimson Runs the Tide, (ss) F.B.I. Detective Stories June 1950
F.B.I. Detective Stories (Canada) June 1950
Invincible Detective Magazine September 1950
F.B.I. Detective Stories (UK) October 1950
* A Dame from Fort Wayne, (ss) Crack Detective Stories July 1946
* Dangerous Crossing, (ss) Detective Tales May 1947
* Death in the Bag, (ss) Detective Tales August 1945
* Degree of Murder, (ss) Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine March 1948
Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine (UK) July 1950
* Dial Your Own Murder, (ss) Dime Detective Magazine May 1946
* Don’t Come Back Alive!, (ss) Detective Tales November 1945
* Elementary, My Dear Roscoe!, (ss) Dime Detective Magazine April 1945
* The Expert, (ss) Dime Detective Magazine May 1945
* Flight’s End, (ss) New Detective Magazine September 1945
* Freight Trains Whistle at Night, (ss) Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine March 1946
* Fugitive on Hades Island, (ss) Ten Detective Aces October 1946
New All-Action Stories #16, 1952
* Glitter Street Nightmare, (nv) Black Mask Detective May 1950
Black Mask Detective (Canada) May 1950
Black Mask (UK) October 1950
* Hell Has No Back Door, (ss) Detective Tales January 1945
Detective Tales (Canada) July 1945
* Hell on a Hot-Shot, (ss) Detective Tales September 1945
* “Highball†to Hades, (nv) 10-Story Detective Magazine May 1947
10-Story Detective Magazine (Canada) September 1947
* Hot in Hollywood, (ss) Detective Tales February 1944
* I Thee Kill, (ss) Black Mask Detective January 1951
Black Mask Detective (UK) August 1952
* It Isn’t the Money, (nv) Mammoth Detective December 1946
* Johnny on the Hot Spot, (ss) Ten Detective Aces July 1945
* Kill ’Em with Kindness, (ss) Detective Tales October 1946
* The Killer Came Home, (ss) Detective Tales December 1943
* A Kiss—for a Coffin!, (ss) Dime Mystery Magazine September 1945
10 Story Mystery Magazine (Canada) November 1945
* Last Appeal, (ss) Popular Detective March 1951
Popular Detective (UK) #5, 195?
* Lilies Are for the Dead, (na) Dime Detective Magazine October 1945
* The Lovers’ Lane Murders, (nv) Best Detective December 1947
* The Man in the Guilt Frame, (ss) Thrilling Detective January 1939
* Murder in the Mails [Willie Carmody; Margaret O’Leary], (ss) Black Mask November 1946
Black Mask (UK) October 1947
* Murder Sea—Murder Do!, (ss) Detective Tales September 1946
* Murder’s Little Helper [Willie Carmody], (nv) Black Mask Detective September 1950
Black Mask Detective (UK) February 1951
* Murder Tops the Cast [Willie Carmody; Margaret O’Leary], (nv) Black Mask January 1948
Black Mask (UK) February 1949
* Next Stop—Murder, (ss) New Detective Magazine July 1950
* An Oscar for O’Leary [Willie Carmody; Margaret O’Leary], (nv) Black Mask May 1947
* Out of This World [Willie Carmody; Margaret O’Leary], (nv) Black Mask March 1947
Black Mask (UK) August 1947
* Philadelphia Fix, (na) New Detective Magazine November 1946
Crime and Justice Detective Story Magazine #1, September 1956
Detective Tales (UK) March 1958
* Place of Shadows, (ss) Crack Detective Stories January 1947
* Rear View of Hell, (ss) Dime Detective Magazine December 1945
* Ride a Green Hearse, (ss) Black Mask Detective Magazine July 1951
* Rubber Proof, (ss) Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine February 1938
* The 7th Pallbearer [Willie Carmody], (na) Black Mask November 1949
Black Mask (Canada) November 1949
Black Mask (UK) June 1950
* The Shadow Falls Both Ways, (ss) Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine October 1946
Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine (UK) November 1950
* Slaves of Murder’s Queen, (ss) 15 Mystery Stories April 1950
15 Mystery Stories (Canada) April 1950
Detective Tales (UK) March 1959
* The Slay Must Go On, (ss) Ten Detective Aces March 1946
* Slow Slay, (ss) New Detective Magazine July 1946
Terror Detective Story Magazine #2, December 1956
* Somebody Dies When It Rains, (ss) Detective Tales June 1946
Detective Tales (UK) December 1946
* Spell of the Storm Witch, (ss) Ten Detective Aces August 1946
* Stop, You’re Killing Me!, (ss) Black Mask January 1950
* Ten Grand Tornado, (ss) Ten Detective Aces January 1946
Detective Aces (UK) v1 #3, 195?
* There Ain’t No Use in Dying, (ss) New Detective Magazine March 1946
Detective Tales (UK) June 1956
* They’re Coming Through the Door!, (ss) Dime Detective Magazine January 1946
* Too Cold to Live, (ss) Dime Detective Magazine February 1945
Black Mask Detective (UK) October 1953
* The Too Perfect Alibi, (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine December 1947
* The Wadell System, (vi) The Shadow February 1946
Street & Smith’s Mystery Detective (UK) September 1956
* Waiting Game, (ss) Detective Tales October 1951
Detective Tales (UK) April 1952
May 3rd, 2023 at 6:46 pm
Have to look these up.
May 3rd, 2023 at 9:48 pm
I have the Ballantine paperback of this one, but of course I’ve never read it. Wish I knew where it is.