Friday, March 03, 2017

Forgotten Books: Ladies of Chance - Anthony Scott (Davis Dresser)


Davis Dresser was a busy author during the Thirties even before he created one of the iconic fictional private eyes in Mike Shayne in 1939, turning out a number of mysteries and romances under assorted names. LADIES OF CHANCE was written for the lending library publisher Godwin in 1936 under the pseudonym Anthony Scott, then reprinted in digest format in 1949 by Novel Library. The protagonist/narrator Ed Barlow is a hardboiled, two-fisted tabloid newspaper reporter who's come to Miami to bust wide open the story of a gambling ring that's using crooked games to force respectable women into prostitution by getting their IOUs for gambling losses and then blackmailing them. To get the scoop, Barlow has to get close to several of the women involved and insinuate himself into the gang, an effort that more than once finds him getting hot and bothered with some dame or in danger of losing his life to gangsters.

In some ways this novel is very much a dry run for the creation of Mike Shayne a few years later. There's the Miami setting, with a lot of mentions of Flagler Street and Biscayne Bay. Despite being a reporter, since he's undercover Ed Barlow functions very much like a hardboiled private eye, and like Shayne, he's usually two or three steps ahead of everyone else. He even has another reporter who helps him out, like Tim Rourke in the Shayne novels. There's no buddy on the police force like Will Gentry or an official nemesis like Peter Painter, but there is a beautiful young woman named Lucy.

There are certainly some differences, too, though. Barlow is much more of a heel than Shayne, who always followed a rough moral code. In some scenes, Barlow is almost as unsympathetic as the crooks he's after. LADIES OF CHANCE isn't as well plotted as the Shayne novels, either, and the big twist ending won't come as a surprise to anyone. Dresser's usual smooth, fast-paced prose is already on display, though. This book reads really fast and enjoyably. I liked it quite a bit, and if you're a Mike Shayne fan it's well worth reading to see an early prototype of the big redheaded shamus.

In fact, because of the Shayne connection, there's an ebook version of this novel available under the Brett Halliday pseudonym, although it was never published with that name on it until now. That doesn't change the fact that LADIES OF CHANCE is a nice piece of sleazy, hardboiled fun.

7 comments:

George said...

Although Davis Dresser didn't write most of them, I started reading MIKE SHAYNE paperbacks published by DELL back in the early 1960s when I was a 12-year-old kid. Of course the cover artwork (my favorites were by Bob McGinnis) might have had something to do with my attraction to these books.

Paul R. McNamee said...

Helluva cover! :)

Trevor Trillion said...

Just now discovered your blog here! I own and have read all 70 Shayne Mysteries, plus I own 71 issues of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. (sorry Mr Reasoner, only 1962-Feb 1970, am collecting Lynds' now) I will do my best to find the eBook of this "Shayne prequel" that you've described, Thank YOU! And others by Anthony Scott.

James Reasoner said...

Thanks, Trevor. Those Shayne stories by Dennis Lynds are consistently good. You won't go wrong there!

Trevor Trillion said...

I couldn't find an eBook... so I BOUGHT this paperback for $8.89 online. Wow, it was as high as $25 to $35.00. YES, Dennis Lynds incorporates the 1939 to 1949 personality of Mike Shayne. After 1970 we find Shayne chasing pot-smoking Hippies and Porno film criminals, using his dashboard telephone and poor Lucy, Tim, Gentry fall by the wayside. Give me the original MIKE!

James Reasoner said...

I agree, the first decade of the series is Shayne at his best. The books from the Fifties are still pretty good, for the most part. When I was writing the Shayne stories, I tried to keep him a throwback to that 40s/50s era as much as possible. The authors who followed me turned him into a Vietnam vet, a choice I didn't agree with, but it wasn't my choice to make, either, since I'd left the series to write other things.

Trevor Trillion said...

Mr. Reasoner! I bought, "Ladies of Chance" per your recommendation; it arrived; I read it in two days! Couldn't put it down! Your description as a 'prequel to Mike Shayne' was spot on. This 1936 pulp fiction is unlike anything from Halliday's 1939 to 1976. SHAYNE had a one-night stand in book #1, 1939, and not another until book #54, Armed.. Dangerous.. 1966. This 'Ed Barlow' protagonist is the real deal, detective, reporter, killer, lover, fist-fighter, cognac drinker, lover, liar, did I mention cognac, every 15 pages?
There MUST have been a different 1930's moral code in Pulp Fiction and films that allowed Ed Barlow to be a 1st-degree, murdering, woman-beater... and Barbara Stanwyck to be a bed-hopping tramp in "Baby Face," 1933 pre-code Hollywood? I will take your advice and read more Anthony Scott 1930s ebooks available through my local Public Library (not online in general).
AND... YOUR MSMM Shayne stories, 4/1980 and 9/1982, already on my living room shelf collection....... probably even more.