Though this book was published under Adams' pseudonym of John Spain, "author of Dig Me a Grave and Death is Like That," it has no connection to the other Spain books. Those two feature political fixit man Bill Rye, a character inspired by Ned Beaumont of The Glass Key.
This book is also unusual in that the first character we meet, a funny, likeable cop (and friend of McCord's) gets himself murdered in Chapter 3. Adams books always have a murder or three, but the victims are rarely likeable, and often dead before we know the story begins.
I'm pleased to report that Mr. Chad Calkins, through some astute detective work of his own, has discovered that The Evil Star was based on the story "Triple Threat," published under Adams own name in the April 1940 issue of Detective Story Magazine. Though much shorter, that tale follows the same basic plot. The main difference is that the story triplets are named Constance, Hope and Valour, while in the novel they're rechristened Faith, Hope and Charity.
This week's FFB links are at IN REFERENCE TO MURDER.
Next week, they'll be right here on the Almanack.
2 comments:
With the word Star in the title, in spite of the cover illustration I mis-read the blurb as Those Martian Girls Were... and sort of expected this was going to be a mystery-SF mix. Ha!
Looks good, though.
Sounds like a good mix of fun and murder, if that's possible.
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