Richard Starnes was a newspaper reporter/editor who wrote
three novels featuring reporter Barney Forge. AND WHEN SHE
WAS BAD SHE WAS MURDERED
(Lippincott 1950) and ANOTHER MUG FOR THE BIER (Lippincott
1950) were based in Washington and Alexandria, Virginia.
Starnes at the time worked for the Washington Daily News as
an editor. His character Forge was a reporter covered Capitol
Hill. When Starnes transferred to his chain's New York paper,
he moved Forge to New York for the final novel in the series
THE OTHER BODY IN GRANT'S TOMB.
The Forge novels are enjoyable reads mixing humor with sharp
observations on the Washington scene. Starnes was likely
influenced by the then popular Craig Rice as these novels
have that alcohol-fueled madcap feel. Starnes has more of a
hardboiled edge and some of the turns of phrase have a
Chandlerish feel.
Reporter Forge is the first person narrator but in the first
two books he serves as the Archie Goodwin to an Alexandria
pathologist Dr. St. George Peachy, who did the crime solving.
By the third book the doctor had a lesser role and the last
was billed as "The tough, new Barney Forge mystery."
One of the annoying aspects of the novels is Starnes'
compulsion toward cute names like Dr. Peachy. There is also a
pet goal named Ewe-All. Ross Thomas also did this with names
but he was better at it.
The novels went through several printings with Lippincott and
Pocket Books and are not hard to find. I would recommend
ANOTHER MUG FOR THE BIER as the murder takes place at the
Senate Office Building (now known as the Russell Building)
and has some acute observations on political and social life
in Washington.
Starnes stopped for many years after those three novels but
resurfaced in the late 1960s with a few spy novels beginning
with REQUIEM IN UTOPIA (1967).
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