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RARA-AVIS: NOSTALGIA REVIEW: The Adventures of Cardigan by Frederick Nebel 

NOSTALGIA REVIEW: The Adventures of Cardigan by Frederick Nebel, 
Mysterious Press, 1988, trade paperback, ISBN 0-89296-950-4, Introduction
by Robert Weinberg. [Possibly out of print]

Contents:

    *Murder a la Carte

    *Spades are Spades

    *Hot Spot

    *Kick Back

    *Hell Couldn't Stop Him

    *The Dead Die Twice
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    The introduction to "Murder a la Carte" reads:

"Hardesty was as dumb an egg as they come-but boy how that baby could 
pitch ball. So when he tangled himself all up in a murder net it was up to that 
big dick from Cosmos to pick the knots. Or else - But there just wasn't any 
"or else". Cardigan had laid too much hard-earned dough on the Series to 
permit his favorite hurler to fumble himself into the hot seat."

The big dick is Jack Cardigan and the author, Frederick Nebel 
(1904-1967), one of the mainstays of the golden years of the pulp era and
a frequent and well-received contributor to Black Mask and other leading 
pulps, notably Dime Detective. While his work has appeared in many anthologies 
(including, significantly, "The Black Mask Boys", edited in 1946 by legendary
editor Joseph T. Shaw), Nebel is hardly a household name among mystery
fans - a thin excuse for this nostalgia review that the Gentle Reader will,
one hopes, accept without too much Noisy Grumbling. The six novelettes 
reprinted in this very welcome Mysterious Press collection all appeared
in Dime Detective between 1933 and 1935; they serve as a reminder that there
are accomplished hardboiled writers worth remembering besides the canonical
Hammett and Chandler (the Experienced Pulp Fan knows this already).

The protagonist of these stories is Jack Cardigan, a quintessentially 
hardboiled private dick of Irish extraction who works for the Cosmos Agency.
Our hero is no intellectual - in fact, he is something of a brute, fast and 
deadly with his fists and gun. Nebel painted with a palette of vivid colors
and drew on a gallery of characters from all walks of life, including heinous
and unusual villains, gorgeous dames in ambiguous situations, two-bit
grifters, bought politicians and functionaries, and corrupt or dumb-as-bells
cops. His dialogue is full of vitality and garnished with copious amounts
of slang, much of it delightfully dated. Cardigan's code is simple: a) He 
badly wants to get the bad guys; b) He will not touch the gorgeous babes
who cross his path, including his frequent sidekick Pat Seaward, an
intelligent, cute girl who all too often gets him out of jams; c) He is quick
to take justice in his own hands, to the point of killing on suspicion.

In "Murder a la Carte", Cardigan gets tangled up in the troubles of Sam 
Hardesty, a ball-player friend who, drunk to the gills, may have signed 
blank checks to unknown parties while in his hotel room in the company of a 
jane he picked up at a night club. Hardesty, recently married to the sweet
woman of his dreams, is mortally afraid that the cancelled check will give
away his drunken escapade. Further, his participation in the World Series
is in jeopardy. Cardigan, out of more than friendship given the bets he has
placed, charges ahead to find out who, when, how, and why - and soon is
faced with the dead body of the jane in question; fearing that his pal 
Hardesty has been framed and is the likely victim of an extortion ring,
Cardigan rounds up two shady gamblers who have been seen with the dead girl.
The explosive, memorable resolution with thundering roscoes is too good
to be given away.

The remaining stories are just as hard-boiled, including the superb "Hell 
Couldn't Stop Him", a case of disappearance that turns into a nightmarish 
adventure in an amusement park.

This is the sort of book that Edmund Wilson would have hated (in fact, 
had he condescended to read it, I am certain that he would have considered 
Cardigan's exploits a perfect example of pure trash and related to literature
only by virtue of being in book form). I cannot think of higher praise for
Nebel, a truly hardboiled writer whom, if the truth be told, I find more 
interesting than most American writers of the thirties. His work exudes 
genuine vitality and conveys a sense of sheer excitement often bordering on
explosiveness. His depiction of life in the streets and the psychology of
the era aim to be realistic; his plots are not as outlandish or comedic as
Bellem's or Latimer's, two authors of the same era with whom he bears
comparison. In developing somewhat theatrical yet plausible plots, Nebel
follows a middle way not unlike that of Norbert Davis, albeit without Davis's
prodigious gifts as a writer and humorist. Nebel's use of social criticism
is neither as constant and cynical as Chandler's or Howard Browne's nor as
elegantly understated as Hammett's. Criticism aimed at the author's rather
crude characterization would be perhaps misguided, for Nebel entertains by
building up successive climaxes culminating in big shootouts, with all 
elements subordinated to maintaining the pace of the action. It is a recipe
that served and fed him well (as it did many other pulp writers of the same
era) and which, over six decades later, makes these tales strangely modern 
and gripping. The Frederick Nebel of the Cardigan stories reads like the
Mickey Spillane of literature.

If you have a sweet tooth for good trash in the pulp style, are not put 
off by violence, and read mainly for enjoyment, this book may be of interest
to you. If you are a fan of pulp mysteries and don't have it already, "The 
Adventures of Cardigan" is probably one to get and cherish.

Reviewed by Mario Taboada

Copyright (C) Mario Taboada 5/97
taboada@math.odu.edu 

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