With all the books and ebooks that have reprinted the Doan & Carstairs series (search "Norbert Davis" at Amazon and Lulu and you'll see what I mean) I'm amazed that none - so far - have included this novelette from 1944.
Seventy years is way too long for a Doan & Carstairs story to remain out of print, so we are deeply indebted to Mr. Paul Herman for scanning this tale from his own copy of Flynn's Detective Fiction for July 1944 and sharing it with us. Thanks Paul! This was my first look at the story, and I wasn't disappointed.
Thanks also to Vladimir, the guy behind that great website on the Hard-Boiled School (HERE). He, too, sent a scan (for which he in turn thanks Knucklelullaby) which I believe is from the September 1944 Canadian issue of Flynn's (at right). Oddly, the Canadian issue seems to have omitted the last four lines of the story.
Title spread from Flynn's July 1944
Title spread from the Canadian Flynn's Sept. 1944
Enough talk. It's been seventy years already. On with the story . . .
All this week, we've been looking at the better known adventures of Doan & Carstairs. Here, for your convenience, is a recap:
MONDAY: "Holocaust House" (1940). HERE.TUESDAY: The Mouse in the Mountain (1943) HERE
WEDNESDAY: Sally's in the Alley (1943) HERE
THURSDAY: Oh, Murderer Mine (1946) HERE
And all week, I've been posting links to Munseys.com, where all four works are available for free download. You'll find them (and other goodies) HERE.
A few weeks back I posted "One Man Died," a Norbert Davis novelette from Detective Fiction Weekly. That's HERE.
I have also updated two older posts of Davis stories, making them much easier to read. I devoted long hours of labor to these (well, long minutes, anyway), so please humor me and take a look.
They are:
"Never Say Die," a Detective Fiction Weekly short story. HERE.
and
"Their Guardian from Hell," a novelette from Star Western. That's HERE.
Thanks so much for your efforts to draw more attention to Norbert Davis and especially for resurrecting this great story "Cry Murder!"
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for making this story (and others) available, much appreciated, will print them the coming days and read them calmly...
ReplyDeleteVery cool to see this. I loved the black-and-white illustrations, too--and that Gillette ad's a classic!
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