Roger Torrey (1901–1946)

There were two schools of hard-boiled detective fiction: the rough-and-tumble variety pioneered by writers like Carroll John Daly and Dashiell Hammett, which held sway in the pages of Black Mask for over a decade, and the more psychologically reflective output of Raymond Chandler, whose career was getting started just as Hammett's was winding down. And, while Chandler unquestionably wrote some first-rate novels, the "deep" PI stuff could get as silly, in its own way, as the exaggerated violence of standard pulp fare. (As another Black Mask author, the vastly underrated W.T. Ballard, observed: "Most crime fiction is phony. Hammett made it believable because he wrote about people he knew from his experience with the Pinkertons in Baltimore and San Francisco. He avoided the mistake Chandler and his imitators made and make in going psychological, with Little Sisters sucking their thumbs.")

The bottom line is that there were good action-oriented detective novels, and it took as much skill to write them as it took for Raymond Chandler to write classics like Farewell, My Lovely and The Long Goodbye. One of the best books in the two-fisted style is Roger Torrey's 42 Days for Murder, which features wisecracking San Francisco PI Shean Connell handling a violent divorce case in Reno. A more detailed summary is unnecessary since the book's entertainment value lies not in the particulars of the plot but in Torrey's ability to tell an engaging, fast-moving tale. Sadly, it's the only novel he ever wrote (though he authored many terrific short stories), but you'll love it if you're a fan of George Harmon Coxe or Paul Cain.

A public domain reprint, so expect quite a few typos. This book is worth the trouble.… (mehr)

A very good hard boiled pulp mystery from 1938. Private Eye Shean Connell is hired by a rich client to go to Reno and try and help him get back together with his wife who has moved there to get a divorce (it takes 6 weeks--42 days to get the divorce). Of course, things are not what they seem and Shean (and his very junior partner) must try and make sense of it all while trying not to get killed. The characters are interesting--Shean is a not so ex-piano player--and even the side line players are well developed. There is a lot of snappy dialogue with Shean providing the narration. I understand this is the author’s only novel and it is a shame. He deserves to be better known.… (mehr)