I've been working my way through Herbert Ruhm's
HARDBOILED DETECTIVE, a collection of Black Mask stories.
Chandler's "Goldfish" (1936) was excellent. The only other
things I've read by him are THE BIG SLEEP and THE LONG
GOODBYE and I thought this story was as good as the novels.
One thing that surprised me was that, although the two novels
seem to revel in bumping elbows with the upper crust, the
short story's setting was decidedly low-rent, with a matching
cast of sleazy characters. I liked it. Chandler wasn't shy
about laying on the sleaze, either. The protagonist is
Carmady, who I understand is the prototype for Marlowe. The
story involves the recovery of some pearls stolen many years
earlier.
Lester Dent's "Angelfish" (1936) was good, too. It's set in
the Florida Keys. A woman asks Sail to help her protect some
pictures from being stolen. A hurricane gets closer and
closer as the story progresses. The change of scenery from
the typical mean streets to dangerous waters was welcome.
This is the first thing I've read by Dent. I understand he
wrote a bunch of the Doc Savage series.
Erle Stanley Gardner's "Legman" (1938) was good, but I think
Gardner is something of an acquired taste which I'm just not
warming up to. He's obviously a skilled writer. From this
story and his first Perry Mason novel THE CASE OF THE VELVET
CLAWS I gather that he pretty much had his own style and
resisted some of the corny excesses that characterizes some
pulp writers, like Carroll John Daly. I've got a late 30s
Perry Mason novel THE CASE OF THE PERJURED PARROT sitting on
the shelf waiting on me. I think this might be one that Jim
Doherty said had a good courtroom scene. I'll have to read it
in full sunlight. The pages are a nasty yellow-brown
color.
I also liked Norbert Davis's "Kansas City Flash" (1933). The
story is told in third person and involves professional
troubleshooter Mark Hull searching for a kidnapped actress.
This is back when Hollywood was still Hollywoodland. I think
this is the earliest hardboiled I've read that has a
Hollywood slant to it. It precedes McCoy's THEY SHOOT HORSES,
DON'T THEY? by a couple years.
I could take Nebel's "Take It And Like It" (1934), but I
didn't like it. The humor in the dialogue has not aged
gracefully. The story is told third person and alternates
between the cops and a newspaper reporter suspected of
murder. Every time I read older hardboiled with supposedly
witty repartee in it, I wonder about how it relates to
Hammett's THIN MAN, which I haven't read but obviously need
to.
miker
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