Review: South of the Border - Edwin Truett Long (Red Star Detective, August 1940)

“South of the Border”, which appeared in the August 1940 issue of RED STAR DETECTIVE, is the third and final novel in Edwin Truett Long’s unfortunately short-lived series of mysteries featuring Dr. Thaddeus C. Harker. Doc Harker, as you may remember, travels around the Southwest with his medicine show, driving a big red car and pulling a trailer from which he peddles the world-famous Chickasha Remedies, but this is actually just a cover for his activities as one of the world’s top criminologists and detectives. His two assistants, beautiful Brenda Sloan and burly, bald-headed former circus strongman Hercules Jones, help out with both the medicine show and battling the various criminal schemes Doc Harker uncovers.

As this yarn opens, the three of them are enjoying a well-earned vacation in Nuevo Laredo and taking in a bullfight at the local bullring. But of course, Doc’s curiosity and nose for trouble gets them involved with a private detective and a couple of beautiful blondes who apparently are mixed up in something shady. Then a bullfighter falls in love with Brenda, a sleazy reporter working for a crusading newspaper publisher sticks his nose in, the blondes and the private detective disappear, a Mexican gangster and his henchmen show up, a murdered bellhop is found in Doc’s hotel room, and off we go at a gallop that never really slows down.

As you can tell, Long was definitely of the “Throw stuff at the wall and see if enough of it sticks” school of plotting. In this one, we get all of the above, plus a gang war over a white slavery ring and a beautiful, mysterious brunette who keeps trying to kill the Mexican gangster. Does it all work? Well, let’s not ask inconvenient questions. Is the story a lot of fun to read with its breakneck pace, snappy banter, and colorful characters? It sure is. “South of the Border” is the best of the three Doc Harker novels, the first half being especially strong before getting a little muddled as Long tries to fit everything together.

It’s a real shame that Long passed away only a few years later after contracting an illness while serving as a codebreaker in Burma during World War II. If he had lived and written longer, I think there’s a good chance he would have developed into a better plotter, and we might have gotten dozens of screwball, action-packed mystery novels from him. As it is, we have a handful of novels and scores of short stories, and I’ve never read one that I didn’t enjoy. “South of the Border” is well worth reading. It was reprinted, along with the other two Doc Harker novels, by Altus Press in DR. THADDEUS C. HARKER: THE COMPLETE TALES, which is available from Amazon in e-book and trade paperback editions.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Fiction Weekly, February 17, 1934

This is the first appearance of the Park Avenue Hunt Club on the cover of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, with only the second story in the long-running series. And to be honest, in this cover by Lejaren Hiller, an artist I hadn't heard of, the guys look more like villains than the heroes they actually were. Judson Philips, the author of that series and many others, and Edward Parrish Ware are the only authors I recognize in this issue. The others who contributed stories are Herbert O. Yardley, Augustus Muir, and Milo Ray Phelps. The Park Avenue Hunt Club stories have been reprinted in a couple of expensive hardcovers that are no longer available. I'm hoping we'll get some affordable trade paperback and/or e-book editions at some point. The ones I've read are really good.

The Green Lama: The Case of the Crimson Hand - Richard Foster (Kendall Foster Crossen)

The subject of the Green Lama came up in the comments of last weekend’s post about a science fiction pulp containing a story by Kendall Foster Crossen, who wrote the Green Lama series under the pseudonym Richard Foster. That reminded me that several years ago, I started reading the first Green Lama story but set it aside pretty quickly since it just wasn’t connecting with me. I’ve been meaning to give it another try because I know that often in those cases, the fault lies more with the mood I’m in, rather than the story itself. Since the subject came up, and since I own all three Altus Press volumes reprinting the entire series, I figured now was as good a time as any.

The first volume kicks off with the usual informative and entertaining introduction by Will Murray, which in this case explains how Crossen, who was editing DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY at the time, was asked by his bosses at Munsey to create a new series character for DOUBLE DETECTIVE, a pulp that wasn’t doing particularly well. Crossen came up with the Green Lama, inspired partially by The Shadow and partially by a couple of recent books about Eastern mysticism.

The Green Lama is actually wealthy Jethro Dumont, who isn’t the usual bored socialite or playboy who turns to fighting crime. He’s kind of an egghead, actually, who has made extensive studies of medicine, science, and Eastern philosophies and religions. On a trip to Tibet, he converts to Buddhism and becomes a monk, but no sooner has he returned to the United States than he witnesses a gangland killing in which several innocents are slain. Realizing that the police aren’t going to do anything about this, he decides to fight crime himself, using his own natural skills and the tricks he’s learned in the Far East. He doesn’t kill, but he electrifies himself by drinking radioactive salts dissolved in water, so that he can shock crooks with a mere touch, paralyzing them or knocking them out, making them blind or mute, all depending on where he presses his finger.

Yep, you read that right, he turns himself temporarily radioactive, lurks around in the shadows, and chants his catchphrase, “Om! Ma-ni pad-me hum!” Crossen, who footnotes the stories extensively, translates that at one point, but I don’t remember what it really means and I’m too lazy to look it up. It sounds cool and probably strikes fear into the hearts of criminals, that’s all I know.

The first Green Lama novella (pretty close to actual novel length, in fact) appears in the April 1940 issue of DOUBLE DETECTIVE. Crossen entitled it ”The Case of the Crimson Hand”, but it was retitled “The Green Lama” when it appeared in the pulp. The Altus Press reprint restores the original title. The Crimson Hand is a gang leader who wears a mask and a crimson glove on one hand. He steals a new weapon from the doctor who invented it, a radioactive gas that produces a knock-out ray powerful enough to put an entire city to sleep when enough of the gas capsules are spread around. The Crimson Hand and his gang set off on a crime spree, looting Cleveland and announcing that they’re going to take over the entire country, or maybe even . . . the whole world!

Not if the Green Lama has anything to say about it, bub. Aided by reformed gangster Gary Brown, the Lama gets on the trail of the gang, fails to prevent them from looting Cleveland and kidnapping the inventor of the gas/ray, along with a beautiful blonde, but eventually tracks them to their hideout. The Green Lama may not kill anybody, but that doesn’t mean this story is lacking in action. In fact, it’s a veritable slaughter as the bad guys wipe out everybody who gets in their way. A couple of times, it looks like the Green Lama himself has met his doom, but we know better, don’t we?

Eventually, the Green Lama breaks up the gang and captures the Crimson Hand, who turns out to be exactly who you figured he was all along. He has one other helper along the way, a mysterious woman known only as Magga, who feeds him information and turns up in disguise to take an active hand in the adventure when needed.

This first story and the character of the Green Lama himself are so goofy, so over the top, even by pulp standards, that I have to believe Crossen had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he wrote it. I wonder if he expected the series to become as popular as it did, continuing for three years and fourteen novellas that spawned a comic book version, a radio show, and even talk about a TV series in the early days of television that never came about. I had no trouble reading “The Case of the Crimson Hand” this time and enjoyed it quite a bit. The action scenes are good, the pace really rockets along, and the Green Lama may be a little silly, but he’s an interesting character. I intend to read more about him. Whether I’ll ever get all the way through the series, who knows, but if you’re a pulp fan, the Green Lama is worth checking out. The first collection is available in paperback and e-book editions on Amazon.