Manville Moon #7: Pay Up or Die - Richard Deming

“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.

Manville Moon #6: Five O'Clock Shroud - Richard Deming

“Five O’Clock Shroud” is the sixth novella about Richard Deming’s one-legged private detective Manville Moon. It appeared originally in the November 1950 issue of BLACK MASK DETECTIVE and was featured on the usual fine cover by Norman Saunders.

This one has a bit more complicated plot than the previous story in the series. Moon is hired by a wealthy supporter of a politician who is running for mayor as a reform candidate. Unfortunately, it appears that the so-called reformer is actually the big boss of the ring controlling the city’s gambling. Moon even turns up proof of that. And then the murders start, and Moon finds himself targeted for death, as well as being the target of some advances from a beautiful married woman.

Deming does a good job with the political intrigue even though it’s not that difficult to figure out what’s really going on. I’ve become quite fond of Manville Moon as a character. There’s a superb scene in which he’s taken for a ride by three killers, and even though the reader knows he’s going to survive, Deming’s writing generates some genuine suspense. Moon’s escape is pretty clever, too.

If you’re a fan of hardboiled private eye tales, this is a very entertaining series. “Five O’Clock Shroud” is available on Amazon as an inexpensive e-book. I had a fine time reading it and it gets a solid recommendation from me.

Big Shots Die Young (Manville Moon #5) - Richard Deming

“Big Shots Die Young” is the fifth novella featuring Richard Deming’s one-legged private eye Manville Moon. It was published originally in the July 1949 issue of BLACK MASK and featured on the cover by Norman Saunders, although that cover has nothing to do with Deming’s story.

This novella is a direct sequel to the previous entry in the series, “No Pockets in a Shroud” (BLACK MASK, January 1949). And fair warning, it spoils the mystery of that earlier story, too. But since I’d read that one, I had no problem going right along with this yarn, which finds Moon the target of an old enemy who comes back into the unidentified city where these stories take place intending to take over the local gambling setup. Before you know it, Moon has been framed for murder, arrested by the cops, and has to escape and uncover the real killer to clear his name. All while romancing a beautiful woman at the same time, of course.

Manville Moon is a flat-out great protagonist. He’s tough, funny, just vulnerable enough not to be superhuman, and has become one of my favorite first-person narrators over the course of the five stories about him I’ve read so far. Deming’s prose, as always, is so smooth and polished that it glitters.

Where “Big Shots Die Young” doesn’t quite reach the level of the earlier stories is in the plot, which is rather thin and predictable. Anybody who’s read many private eye yarns will know what’s going on right away. The other stories so far in the series had pretty complex plots, but that’s not the case here.

Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. I had a really good time reading “Big Shots Die Young”, and I think anybody who has enjoyed the previous stories will like this one, too. Like the others, it’s available as an inexpensive e-book if you don’t happen to own that particular issue of BLACK MASK. And if you haven’t made the acquaintance of Manville Moon yet, I highly recommend that you do.

Classic Private Detective Pulp: A Shot in the Arm (Manville Moon #3) - Richard Deming

It's taken me a while, but I've read the third novella in Richard Deming's series about private detective Manville Moon, who lost his right leg from the knee down fighting in World War II but doesn't let that slow him down when it comes to solving murders and fighting with mobsters and killers. In "A Shot in the Arm", published originally in the July 1948 issue of BLACK MASK, Moon is hired to help a rich, beautiful young woman kick her morphine habit. (Didn't something similar to this happen to the Continental Op in THE DAIN CURSE? It's been a long time since I read that book.)

Unfortunately, there's been a murder before the story even opens, and there's another one soon after, and Moon is left trying to sort out the killings as Deming fills in the background with a lengthy flashback. Sometimes I'm not a fan of that technique, but it works pretty well here and Deming is such a good writer that he keeps things racing along in a swift, smooth manner. The dialogue is good, Moon is a great character, and the mystery is fairly clued and seems to hold together pretty well. I enjoyed this yarn quite a bit. It's available as an inexpensive e-book, if you don't have that issue of BLACK MASK in your collection. 

Forgotten Novellas: The Man Who Chose the Devil (Manville Moon #2) - Richard Deming

Richard Deming’s private eye character Manville Moon makes his second appearance in “The Man Who Chose the Devil”, a novella originally published in the May 1948 issue of the pulp BLACK MASK (far past its glory days of the Twenties and Thirties but still publishing a lot of pretty good stories). This yarn opens with Moon getting in a brawl in a bar with a businessman who seems to be going out of his way to get thrown in jail. The reason for that becomes apparent when one of the guy’s business partners is murdered and all the evidence points to him, but that doesn’t seem possible since he was behind bars at the time. Of course, he hires Moon to find the real killer and solve another impossible crime, as in the series’ debut, “The Juarez Knife”.

When I read and reviewed that story a while back, I commented that it was more of a puzzle mystery than a hardboiled crime yarn. Deming certainly ramps up the hardboiled elements more in “The Man Who Chose the Devil”, but the story still revolves around how somebody could commit a murder and so successfully frame someone whose alibi is that he was in jail at the time. As in “The Juarez Knife”, the ultimate solution is maybe not as clever or convincing as it might have been, but getting to it is a lot of fun and Manville Moon (who has an artificial right leg because of injuries suffered in World War II) is a fine protagonist/narrator. I liked the two stories I’ve read so far well enough that I’ve bought all the other pulp yarns that are currently available as e-books, as well as the three novels that feature Moon. I’m looking forward to reading all of them.