Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Tales, September 1939

I think this is a Tom Lovell cover on this issue of DETECTIVE TALES, but I'm not absolutely certain. I am certain, though, that there's a great lineup of authors in these pages: Norbert Davis, Cleve F. Adams, Wyatt Blassingame, William B. Rainey (also Wyatt Blassingame), Emile C. Tepperman, Philip Ketchum, William R. Cox, Stewart Sterling, and Ray Cummings. Every one of those guys was a prolific, top-notch pulpster, and I'm sure this was a well-above average issue. 

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Dime Detective Magazine, July 1937

There's a lot going on in this great cover by Malvin Singer, all of it dramatic. And as usual with DIME DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, there are some great authors inside: Norbert Davis, Leslie T. White, John K. Butler, O.B. Myers, William E. Barrett, Maxwell Hawkins, and B.B. Fowler. The last couple of those I'm not familiar with, but I'm sure that if they were in DIME DETECTIVE, they had to be pretty good. I don't own this issue and it doesn't appear to be on-line anywhere, but there are a lot of issues on the Internet Archive and I need to get around to reading some of them.

Dead Man's Chest - Norbert Davis

Norbert Davis is one of the authors I was introduced to in the legendary, Ron Goulart-edited anthology THE HARDBOILED DICKS in the Sixties. I’ve been reading and enjoying Davis’s work off and on ever since. He’s best remembered for his hardboiled yet humorous mysteries, but he wrote other kinds of stories for the pulps, too, including straight adventure. One such example is the novelette “Dead Man’s Chest”, originally published in the November 1936 issue of THRILLING ADVENTURES.

The protagonist of this yarn is drifting adventurer Poco Kelly (a great name if I’ve ever seen one). A character in this story refers to him as a soldier of fortune, but Kelly immediately corrects that to “soldier, but no fortune”. He finds himself in a small town on Mexico, rescuing a beautiful American girl being pursued by sinister stalkers, getting mixed up in a torture killing, clashing with a vicious criminal, and getting captured by a gang of bandits, all while trying to locate a map (drawn on a piece of tanned human skin, no less) that’ll lead him and the beautiful girl to a fortune in gold.

There’s nothing in “Dead Man’s Chest” that we haven’t seen before, but the key to its appeal is in Davis’s handling of the material. And luckily, he does a great job of it. His prose is fast and vivid and action-packed, Poco Kelly is a very likable protagonist, and there are just enough touches of humor to remind you that you’re reading a story by Norbert Davis. And then, at the very end of the story, he throws in a nice twist that I wasn’t expecting. It put a grin on my face, too.

I really enjoyed “Dead Man’s Chest”. It’s a very solid pulp adventure tale that I found well worth reading. It’s available in a stand-alone e-book edition from Wildside Press with an informative and entertaining introduction by publisher John Betancourt. (I had no idea until I read the introduction that Davis was married to mystery author Frances Crane. I have most, if not all, of Crane’s novels about married sleuths Pat and Jean Abbott, but I’ve never read any of them. I can’t help but wonder if Davis had any influence on them. I’ve got to get around to trying those.)

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: New Detective Magazine, February 1951

Despite the name of this pulp, the February 1951 issue of NEW DETECTIVE MAGAZINE is almost all reprint. There are two new things about it: the logo (which must not have been popular, because three issues later they went back to the original logo) and a novella by "Daniel Winters", actually a house-name and the author of this one is unknown. The reprints are by Norbert Davis (a Doan and Carstairs story), Leigh Brackett, Joel Townsley Rogers, C. William Harrison, H.H. Matteson, and John D. Fitzgerald, all from various 1940s issues of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY and FLYNN'S DETECTIVE FICTION. Most issues of NEW DETECTIVE from this era included a reprint or two, but this one is top-heavy with them. On the other hand, if you haven't read a story, it's new to you and doesn't matter if it's a reprint, does it? And I'll bet these were all pretty good stories. I don't own a copy, but if you want to check it out, the whole issue is available on the Internet Archive. By the way, I don't know who did the cover on this issue, but the guy in the background looks a little like Humphrey Bogart, and the blonde definitely reminds me of Marlene Dietrich.

The Price of a Dime: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Ben Shaley - Norbert Davis

The first Norbert Davis story I ever read was “Don’t Give Your Right Name”, a Max Latin yarn included in the iconic anthology THE HARDBOILED DICKS. That was the first time I’d heard of Davis, but I loved the story and in the years since have read dozens of other pulp stories by him. They’ve never disappointed me.

Davis is best remembered for stories that were both humorous and hardboiled, but he could do straight tough guy tales, too, which he did early in his career. THE PRICE OF A DIME, a new Davis collection from Black Mask/Steeger Books, features five of those early hardboiled stories, two starring private detective Ben Shaley.

“Red Goose” is the first of the Shaley stories, from the February 1934 issue of BLACK MASK. It was reprinted in Joseph T. Shaw’s THE HARD-BOILED OMNIBUS, so I know I’ve read it before, but I didn’t have any recollection of it when I sat down to read this volume. Not surprisingly, it’s a very entertaining story in which Shaley is hired to recover a valuable painting stolen from a museum. There are a lot of twists and turns in a relatively short story, and it takes some explaining from Shaley at the end to straighten everything out, and even then, Davis has a final twist lined up.

Shaley’s second, and final recorded, case is “The Price of a Dime” (April 1934). This involves a hotel bellhop who receives a dime as a tip, an incident that leads to murder, blackmail, and a shootout on the Western lot at a movie studio. Shaley reminds me a little of Mike Shayne, because his thinking always seems to be two steps ahead of everybody else in the story and three steps ahead of the reader. With its movie studio background, this yarn also reminds me of Robert Leslie Bellem’s Dan Turner series, and it has something in common with one of Fred MacIsaac’s Rambler stories I read recently. A very entertaining tale, all around.

Davis’s first appearance in BLACK MASK was in the June 1932 issue, with a story called “Reform Racket”. This is a pretty straightforward story in which the protagonist returns to his hometown and finds himself in the middle of some dangerous political intrigue involving his sister, gangsters, and a candidate vowing to clean up the town. With its very terse prose, ultra-hardboiled protagonist, and understated but brutal violence, this made me think of some of Paul Cain’s stories. It’s an auspicious beginning for Davis.

“Kansas City Flash” was published in the March 1933 issue of BLACK MASK, and despite the title, it’s another Bellem-like yarn about a Hollywood troubleshooter, a former stuntman named Mark Hull. Given that, it’s also reminiscent of W.T. Ballard’s Bill Lennox stories, which also ran in BLACK MASK. I enjoyed this one, and it would have been fine with me if Davis had written more stories about Mark Hull, but this is the only one.

This volume wraps up with “Hit and Run”, from the April 1935 issue of BLACK MASK. It’s a tale of another one-shot private eye, Jake Tait, who goes in search of a hit-and-run victim and finds himself neck deep in a case involving bank robbery and murder. It’s surprising just how much plot Davis could work into these novelettes. Tait’s another tough but likable protagonist, able to absorb a lot of punishment but dish it out, too.

All these stories are very good and well worth reading if you’re a fan of hardboiled detective fiction. My Norbert Davis streak continues: he’s never disappointed me. I give this collection a high recommendation.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, March 1943

This is the final issue of ARGOSY published by the Frank A. Munsey Company before Popular Publications took over the magazine the next month. I used to own a copy of this issue--I remember that fine cover by Peter Stevens--but I don't think I ever got around to reading it. That's a shame, because inside are stories by H. Bedford-Jones, Norbert Davis, E. Hoffmann Price, Georges Surdez, Robert Carse, Tom W. Blackburn, William R. Cox, and Stewart Sterling. That's a great bunch of authors, but just par for the course where ARGOSY is concerned. 

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Tales, November 1937

That looks like a Tom Lovell cover to me, although I could certainly be wrong about that. I'm sure there are some good authors inside, including Norbert Davis, Paul Ernst, and Dale Clark. Also on hard are authors I'm less familiar with: John Hawkins, Walter C. Brown, John Kobler, Charles Boswell, Robert W. Thompson, Thomas A. Hoge, and H.T. Sperry. If they sold to Popular Publications, I'll bet they're pretty good, too.

Forgotten Books: Holocaust House - Norbert Davis

I’ve been meaning to read Norbert Davis’s Doan and Carstairs series for, oh, fifty years now. One of the libraries I frequented as a teenager had a copy of the novel SALLY’S IN THE ALLEY, which I thought was an intriguing title. I never got around to checking it out and reading it, though. Then as the years passed, I read all sorts of good things about the series, but again, never got around to it. Until now.

For those of you who don’t know, Norbert Davis was a top-notch author of pulp stories, mostly in the detective genre. He wrote extensively for such iconic pulps as BLACK MASK, DIME DETECTIVE, and ARGOSY and also cracked the slicks, like THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. His mystery yarns included series about private eye Max Latin and bail bondsman Bail Bond Dodd.

In the Doan and Carstairs series, Doan is also a private eye, a pudgy, deceptively mild-looking little man who works for the Severn Detective Agency. Carstairs is a Great Dane, a huge, fawn-colored beast Doan won in a poker game. I just read the first story in the series, a short novel called HOLOCAUST HOUSE that was serialized in ARGOSY in 1940. Carstairs doesn’t appear much in this one, but I have a feeling he’s more of a sidekick in future books.

Instead, Doan is given the job of going to an isolated mountain lodge to protect a young heiress who believes she’s in danger. When he gets there, there’s a snowstorm going on, so the lodge is even more isolated than usual. Several other characters are on hand, all of them suspicious, of course, and it’s not long before a murder occurs and it’s up to Doan to untangle a very complicated plot and not get himself killed in the process . . . which he does with great efficiency and more than a little violence.

HOLOCAUST HOUSE is a wonderfully entertaining story with a fast-paced, tricky plot and lots of great dialogue. Davis’s prose is just as smooth as can be, often very funny and plenty tough when it needs to be. You can buy the whole series in a great collection from Altus Press. Really, you can grab just about anything by Norbert Davis and not go wrong. I’m glad I didn’t start this series until now, because I’m very much looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Tales, November 1936

This issue of DETECTIVE TALES sports a good cover by Tom Lovell and a great line-up of authors: Norbert Davis, Norvell Page, Steve Fisher, Arthur Leo Zagat, Wayne Rogers, and Fred MacIsaac. Those are some fine yarn-spinners!

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Lariat Story Magazine, March 1943

You could always count on LARIAT STORY covers for an eye-catching mix of powder-burning action, stalwart heroes, and beautiful gals. This issue is no exception. I don't know who did the art, but I like it. Inside this issue are stories by some fine writers, as well: Walt Coburn, Norbert Davis, W.F. Bragg, Eli Colter, J.E. Grinstead, and house-name Bart Cassiday, who was sometimes Harry F. Olmsted and might be here, I don't know. But I know LARIAT STORY covers usually make me want to write a story to fit the scenes on them. I'll bet I could work this into a book somewhere . . .

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Tales, September 1939

Nice cover on this issue of DETECTIVE TALES. I think it might be by Tom Lovell, but that's just a guess on my part. No guess about the great group of authors inside, though: Norbert Davis, Cleve F. Adams, Philip Ketchum, Stewart Sterling, William R. Cox, Emile C. Tepperman, Ray Cummings, and Wyatt Blassingame. That's a bunch of top-notch talent.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Dime Detective, April 1940

I love this cover. Don't know if it's based on one of the stories inside--or if one of the stories might be based on it--or if it's just goofy brilliance. But I think it's a dandy, no matter what. And speaking of the stories, they're by Frederick C. Davis, Norbert Davis (a Bail Bond Dodd yarn), Hugh B. Cave, Leslie T. White, Dale Clark, and William Edward Hayes. That's a mighty strong line-up. DIME DETECTIVE was a great pulp.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Argosy, March 1943

By 1943, ARGOSY was owned by Popular Publications and was no longer a weekly, but it was still publishing plenty of good fiction. Consider the authors in this issue: H. Bedford-Jones, E. Hoffmann Price, Norbert Davis. William R. Cox, Georges Surdez, Tom W. Blackburn, Robert Carse, and Stewart Sterling. That's a really powerful line-up. Nice cover, too. I used to have this issue, but I don't believe I ever got around to reading it.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Ace-High Detective Magazine, August 1936

This cover by Malvin Singer reminds me a little of a Weird Menace cover, and the presence of Wyatt Blassingame among the authors is also reminiscent of the Shudder Pulp genre, since he was one of its leading practitioners. ACE-HIGH DETECTIVE MAGAZINE appears to have been a straight-up detective pulp, though, with stories in this issue by Fred MacIsaac, Norbert Davis, Thomas Walsh, Lawrence Treat, and William E. Barrett, who went on to write the novel LILIES OF THE FIELD many years later. Looks like a good issue.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Dime Detective, December 1943

(Here's a post that originally appeared on January 10, 2006, long before I started the Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp series. But it certainly fits right in.)

I finished reading this pulp tonight and thought that it was a very good issue. The lead story is a long novelette by Merle Constiner about private detective Wardlaw Rock, also known as the Dean. I've read several stories from this series and liked them all. Constiner takes several wildly different plot elements, obscure historical trivia, bizarre scientific facts, and mixes them all into coherent, highly entertaining mystery yarns. If I had to compare the Dean stories to something current, it would be the TV series MONK, although personality-wise the Dean and Adrian Monk are completely different. The small press publisher Battered Silicon Dispatch Box has done a pricey volume reprinting all the Dean stories. I haven't sprung for it yet, but I may one of these days.

This issue of DIME DETECTIVE also features novelettes by Norbert Davis (a Bail-Bond Dodd story) and Day Keene. Davis's stories are always well-written and funny, and Keene is a long-time favorite of mine. And it has a striking cover to boot. Good stuff.

Dead Man's Brand - Norbert Davis

I first encountered the work of Norbert Davis in Ron Goulart's anthology THE HARDBOILED DICKS (one of the most important and influential anthologies of the past fifty years, if you ask me), which included a story featuring Davis's private eye character Max Latin, "Don't Give Your Right Name". Great stuff, and since then I've read many other pulp mystery stories by Davis. He's probably best known for his trio of novels featuring a PI named Doan and a Great Dane known as Carstairs. I have these but haven't gotten around to reading them yet.

I knew Davis had written other things besides mysteries, but I wasn't really aware he had done Westerns until Tom Roberts of Black Dog Books published DEAD MAN'S BRAND, a collection of eight of Davis's stories from various Western pulps. (And that's Tom's artwork on the cover, by the way.) As you might expect if you're familiar with Davis's work, they're all top-notch yarns.

"A Gunsmoke Case for Major Cain" (DIME WESTERN, October 1940) is a frontier legal thriller with an exciting courtroom scene and a neat twist. It was also Davis's lone film sale, serving as the basis for the Wild Bill Elliott vehicle HANDS ACROSS THE ROCKIES, as detailed by Bill Pronzini in his introduction and Ed Hulse in his afterword. "Their Guardian From Hell" (STAR WESTERN, March 1937) is a hardboiled tale featuring a self-loathing gunman who protects a family of settlers from the villains out to steal their land. In "Leetown's One-Man Army" (STAR WESTERN, October 1941), a drifter named California Tracy with a score of his own to settle finds himself in the middle of a war between a cattle baron and some sodbusters, a traditional plot that Davis enlivens with some fine writing and a nice twist. The title story, "Dead Man's Brand", is from the November 1942 issue of STAR WESTERN. In it, drifting cowboy Dave Tully tries to claim an inheritance and finds himself framed for a murder: his own. "The Gunsmoke Banker Rides In" (STAR WESTERN, July 1942) is another well-plotted Western mystery about a banker who's surprisingly fast with a pair of .41 caliber derringers.

This volume also includes three stories from earlier in Davis's career. "Death Creeps" (ACTION STORIES, December 1935) finds troubleshooter Dave Silver being hired to find the Creeper, a mysterious murderer who kills from the darkness. In "Sign of the Sidewinder" (WESTERN ACES, June 1935), Tom Band, an American cowboy framed for a murder he didn't commit, is broken out of a Mexican prison to carry out a mission of vengeance for his benefactor. This is my favorite story in the collection, a great noir adventure yarn. Tom Band returns in the almost as good "Boot-Hill Bait" (WESTERN ACES, November 1935), which finds him on the trail of a fortune in outlaw loot. If there are any more Tom Band stories, I'd love to read them.

In all of these stories, Davis's smooth prose is a joy to read, and he handles humor, emotional torment, and lightning-paced action all with equal ease and effectiveness. These are simply some of the best-written Western tales you'll ever read, and DEAD MAN'S BRAND is a great collection. It gets my highest recommendation.