“Pay Up or Die” is the seventh and last of the Manville Moon novellas to be reprinted in e-book format. It originally appeared in the May 1951 issue of BLACK MASK DETECTIVE. There are about a dozen more Moon short stories and novelettes that appeared in various pulps and digests, mostly MANHUNT, throughout the Fifties. Maybe a publisher will collect them one of these days.
This yarn finds our one-legged private eye protagonist being hired to protect
an actress who’s been getting death threats. Before Moon can even get started,
though, a murder takes place. His client is the intended victim, and there are
several suspects for the killer, including a dangerous mobster who used to be
married to her. Sure enough, Moon gets taken for a ride again (this seems to
happen a lot) and barely escapes with his life before he untangles the case and
discovers the murderer’s identity.
The plot in this one is a little more complicated than in the previous two
stories, but I still figured it out well before the end. No matter. Manville
Moon is as likable as ever and Richard Deming’s polished prose is a pleasure to
read. There are three full-length novels featuring Moon. I have all of them and
am looking forward to reading them.
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