Above the Line - Raoul Whitfield

Raoul Whitfield's short story "Above the Line" appeared in the November 1928 issue of AIR TRAILS, only the second issue of that aviation pulp. It features pilot Buck Kent and is probably the second of approximately 20 stories about Buck. There's a Whitfield story in the first issue of AIR TRAILS and I suspect it's the one that introduced the character. In this one, Buck is flying to meet a friend at an isolated cabin on the border between California and Mexico (or possibly Arizona and Mexico; Whitfield is a little vague about that). Instead, he runs into a dangerous mystery involving gangsters and stolen loot.

I read this story on a whim. I was kind of in the mood for an aviation yarn, and I've really enjoyed everything I've read by Whitfield, so I gave it a try and I'm glad I did. There's plenty of violent, well-written action both in the air and on the ground. I had a very good time reading it, and if you're a Whitfield fan, it's worth checking out. You can read it, and a bunch of other pulp aviation stories, on the Age of Aces website, which gets a high recommendation from me.

A Rough Edges Rerun: Green Ice - Raoul Whitfield

A number of Raoul Whitfield’s stories from BLACK MASK have been reprinted and anthologized over the years. I’ve read quite a few of them and enjoyed them all, going back to one of his Jo Gar stories that was reprinted in the anthology THE HARD-BOILED DICKS, which I bought at The Book Oasis in Seminary South Shopping Center in Fort Worth on a December evening in 1967. (Yes, I remember that. Just don’t ask me what I had for lunch yesterday.)

Anyway, I’d never read any of Whitfield’s novels until now. GREEN ICE was his first novel, published in 1930 and based on a series of five linked novelettes published in BLACK MASK from December 1929 through April 1930 that are put together pretty seamlessly. It’s the story of what happens when ex-con Mal Ourney gets out of Sing Sing after having served a two-year sentence for manslaughter. Mal wasn’t really guilty; he took the rap for his girlfriend at the time, who was really behind the wheel in a fatal car crash. She comes to meet Mal when he’s released, but he’s no longer interested in her and refuses to go with her. A good thing, too, because a short time later, she’s dead, the first of at least a dozen murder victims in this novel.

While in prison, Mal has made friends with several small-time crooks who were drawn into the rackets by the big bosses, the men Mal refers to as the crime breeders. He decides that when he gets out, he’ll go after these big bosses and try to bring them down. Before he can even get started on his crusade, though, he finds himself up to his neck in murder after murder, all of them tied together by some missing emeralds, the green ice of the title. This is one of those early hardboiled novels where the plot gets incredibly complicated, to the point that Whitfield has to stop the action every so often to have his characters explain to each other everything that’s happened so far. He even manages to save one last major twist for the very end.

Plots so complex that they get a little far-fetched are a hallmark of hardboiled fiction from that era, though, as is terse, staccato prose. Whitfield delivers on that score, too. There’s a little snappy patter and considerable tough guy slang, along with plenty of fistfights and tommy-gun massacres, before Mal finally untangles all the various interwoven strands of plot. As you can imagine, I thoroughly enjoyed it, too. These days, GREEN ICE would have to be considered a historical novel, but if you’re interested in the genesis of hardboiled crime novels or just looking for a good yarn, I recommend it.

(This post originally appeared in a somewhat different form on April 17, 2009.)

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Air Trails, July 1931

Frank Tinsley provides a dramatic cover on this issue of AIR TRAILS, Street & Smith's entry into the aviation pulp market. There are some top-notch writers in this issue, too: Raoul Whitfield, George Bruce, Arthur J. Burks, Robert J. Hogan, and the lesser-known Kirkland Stone, Warren Elliot Carleton, Kent Sagendorph, and Barry Thompson. I've read only sparingly in the aviation and air war pulps, but I've enjoyed what I've read.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, December 15, 1927

As we've discussed before, nothing says "adventure" quite like a pith helmet, and this cover by V.E. Pyles is proof of that. And, of course, the pulp's title is ADVENTURE, so that's a clue, too. As is the line-up of authors inside for a pulp-savvy reader: Arthur O. Friel, J.D. Newsom, Raoul Whitfield, Hugh Pendexter, Stephen Payne, F.R. Buckley, and Leonard H. Nason. The editor during this era was Anthony M. Rud, a well-known adventure pulpster himself. So the readers certainly knew what they would be getting for their quarter, and they probably were well-pleased with it, too.

Forgotten Books: Dead Horse - Walter Satterthwait

I first encountered the work of Raoul Whitfield in the great 1967 anthology THE HARDBOILED DICKS, which included one of his Jo Gar stories published in BLACK MASK under the pseudonym Ramon Decolta. I’ve read other stories by Whitfield over the years, as well as his novel GREEN ICE, and enjoyed all of them. I didn’t know about the mysterious suicide—or was it?—of Whitfield’s second wife, beautiful heiress Emily Vanderbilt, until Bill Crider reviewed Walter Satterthwait’s novel about the case, DEAD HORSE, several years ago. Did I say several years? Try a little more than twelve years! Man, time flies, doesn’t it?

But ever since reading Bill’s review, I’ve wanted to read Satterthwait’s novel, and as it turns out, Stark House is going to be reprinting it in the very near future, so you can read it, too. It’s a dandy, as you’d expect from Satterthwait, who’s a consistently fine writer.

Original edition (2006)

Whitfield was one of the most successful of the early hardboiled writers, publishing prolifically in the pulps and enjoying considerable success with his novels. When he married his second wife, Emily Vanderbilt, they moved to a ranch called Dead Horse outside Las Vegas, New Mexico, and lived the high life there as Whitfield’s ability to write, or at least his willingness to write, dried up. That, along with his wandering eye, caused trouble between the couple, and they separated. Then Emily died of what was ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

All that is factual, and presented with Satterthwait’s usual meticulous research. The fiction comes in as he uses flashbacks to fill in the details of the relationship between Whitfield and Emily, and then, following her death, he invents the character of the local sheriff who investigates the case, a man who has a tragedy of his own in the past.

Satterthwait’s prose is as smooth as can be, and his dialogue and characters are vivid and compelling, making DEAD HORSE a great pleasure to read. It flows right along, and if not everything is wrapped up in a neat, pretty bow, well, neither is life. This is a very good book, and the Stark House edition includes the usual fine introduction by Rick Ollerman, who writes about hardboiled fiction and authors as well as anybody around these days. I give DEAD HORSE a high recommendation, and I’m glad Stark House is bringing it back into print.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Battle Stories, February 1929

A mid-air shootout. I like this cover by Jerome Rozen. There are some good authors in this issue of BATTLE STORIES, too: Raoul Whitfield, Frederick C. Painton, J.R. Johnston, Harold F. Cruickshank, and Arthur Guy Empey, among others.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Black Mask, December 1933

Ho hum. Stories by Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, Raoul Whitfield, Eugene Cunningham, and Tom Curry. That's all.

Forgotten Books: Green Ice - Raoul Whitfield

A number of Raoul Whitfield’s stories from BLACK MASK have been reprinted and anthologized over the years. I’ve read quite a few of them and enjoyed them all, going back to one of his Jo Gar stories that was reprinted in the anthology THE HARD-BOILED DICKS, which I bought at The Book Oasis in Seminary South Shopping Center in Fort Worth on a December evening in 1967. (Yes, I remember that. Just don’t ask me what I had for lunch yesterday.)

Anyway, I’d never read any of Whitfield’s novels until now. GREEN ICE was his first novel, published in 1930 and based on a series of five linked novelettes published in BLACK MASK from December 1929 through April 1930 that are put together pretty seamlessly. It’s the story of what happens when ex-con Mal Ourney gets out of Sing Sing after having served a two-year sentence for manslaughter. Mal wasn’t really guilty; he took the rap for his girlfriend at the time, who was really behind the wheel in a fatal car crash. She comes to meet Mal when he’s released, but he’s no longer interested in her and refuses to go with her. A good thing, too, because a short time later, she’s dead, the first of at least a dozen murder victims in this novel.

While in prison, Mal has made friends with several small-time crooks who were drawn into the rackets by the big bosses, the men Mal refers to as the crime breeders. He decides that when he gets out, he’ll go after these big bosses and try to bring them down. Before he can even get started on his crusade, though, he finds himself up to his neck in murder after murder, all of them tied together by some missing emeralds, the green ice of the title. This is one of those early hardboiled novels where the plot gets incredibly complicated, to the point that Whitfield has to stop the action every so often to have his characters explain to each other everything that’s happened so far. He even manages to save one last major twist for the very end.

Plots so complex that they get a little far-fetched are a hallmark of hardboiled fiction from that era, though, as is terse, staccato prose. Whitfield delivers on that score, too. There’s a little snappy patter and considerable tough guy slang, along with plenty of fistfights and tommy-gun massacres, before Mal finally untangles all the various interwoven strands of plot. As you can imagine, I thoroughly enjoyed it, too. These days, GREEN ICE would have to be considered a historical novel, but if you’re interested in the genesis of hardboiled crime novels or just looking for a good yarn, I recommend it.