More fine ARGOSY LIBRARY titles from Altus Press

As you know, the Doan and Carstairs is one of my favorite series, and I was honored to provide an Intro for this first complete collection. I also provided the cover art, from a British pb of Sally's in the Alley.

Forgotten Stories: "Cry Murder!" The LOST Doan & Carstairs adventure by Norbert Davis - READ IT HERE!

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.

DOAN & CARSTAIRS WEEK - DAY 4: Oh, Murderer Mine (1946)

Norbert Davis went a little crazy with this one. His Doan & Carstairs adventures are known for madcap humor and wacky characters, but - until Oh, Murderer Mine - they had a least one foot in the real world. This time, particularly in the antics of the secondary characters, Davis takes that second foot off the ground and floats to new heights of wackiness. 

For some, this is a bit too far over the top. Personally, I found it a good read, but missed the hard edge lurking beneath Doan’s soft surface, as exhibited so well in the previous novel, Sally’s in the Alley (HERE). Was that over-the-top humor a factor in this being published as a Handi-Book original instead of a Morrow Mystery? I don't know. I also don't know whether this was written before or after tomorrow's novelette, "Cry Murder!"

Still, there’s a lot of fun to be had here, as Doan’s assignment takes him to college. Heloise of Hollywood, an old dame selling age-hiding cosmetics, hires him to prevent college girls from falling in love with her husband, a meteorologist who’s just taken a job at the school. It’s a rough assignment, because Heloise's ad campaign has made her hubby famous as “Handsome Lover Boy.” The idea was to prove that her cosmetics are so good they helped an old lady hook a young hottie.

Doan is working not-so-hard at this task when folks start dying, and he’s caught up in the mess. Among his many problems are a homicide dick hell-bent to prove him guilty of every crime in the book, an ultra-timid department head, a nosy spinster neighbor, a janitor who thinks he’s the world’s greatest detective, a pert young coed quizzing folks about their sex urges, and identical twin teachers who always speak in unison.

And of course there’s Carstairs, who sees more action here than ever before. 

This following scene is a fan favorite. (That fan is Mr. Joel Lyczak, whom I know to be a long-time admirer of the series.)  Anthropology instructor Melissa Gregory goes undercover in a spa operated by Heloise of Hollywood, taking Carstairs along for protection. Melissa is trying to luxuriate when all hell breaks loose. Guess who's breaking it?

Like the stories of the past three days, the complete text of Oh, Murderer Mine is offered as a free download at Munseys.com. Choose your favorite eFormat HERE. 

Here's what's happening during DOAN & CARSTAIRS Week::
MONDAY: "Holocaust House" (1940).  HERE.
TUESDAY: The Mouse in the Mountain (1943)  HERE
WEDNESDAY: Sally's in the Alley (1943)  HERE
TODAY: Oh, Murderer Mine (1946)
TOMORROW: "Cry Murder!" The novelette you've waited seventy years to read. (1944) Your wait is dang near over!

DOAN & CARSTAIRS WEEK - DAY 3: Sally's in the Alley (1943)

Sally’s in the Alley is where the Doan & Carstairs series shifts into high gear.

In our heroes’ two earlier adventures, “Holocaust House” (HERE) and The Mouse in the Mountain (HERE), the author and supporting characters kept telling us that the amiable, harmless-looking, almost cherubic detective Doan was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, thoroughly unscrupulous and lightning with a gun. We got a glimpse or two of Doan’s true nature, but he kept it pretty well masked.

Carstairs, meanwhile, had some great scenes, but took a back seat to some of the less interesting members of the supporting cast. As one of the most unique characters in mystery fiction, he deserved more time on stage.

Sally’s in the Alley is the book where both Doan and Carstairs reach their full potential - and it’s a great mystery to boot.

It’s wartime, and Doan is hiding from responsibility in a fleabag hotel under the name H. Pocus. Federal agents track him down, and recruit - or more properly coerce - him into carrying out a vital mission in the Mojave Desert. A crusty old prospector, it seems, knows the location of a hidden ore deposit, and the government thinks Doan (with the persuasive powers of Carstairs) is just the guy to con the guy into revealing it. He’s to impersonate a Japanese spy and offer the old coot a fabulous sum of money.

First stop is a town called Heliotrope, on the California-Nevada border. Which state the town’s in is under dispute, because the place is so dangerous that neither state will claim it. Doan fits right in, of course. He checks into the local hotel under the name I. Doanwashi, and tells everyone he meets he’s a Japanese spy.

That’s when bodies start piling up, and those Doan doesn’t make himself he manages to pin on someone else. As usual, there are plenty of quirky characters, including a movie star named Susan Sally, who, contrary to the title, does not end up in an alley.

The Norbert Davis brand of humor is on display throughout, and here are three prime examples:

The three screen captures above are from the Kindle version of this book available free at Munseys.com. You can get that HERE. 

Here's the lowdown on DOAN & CARSTAIRS Week:
MONDAY: "Holocaust House" (1940)  HERE.
TUESDAY: The Mouse in the Mountain (1943)  HERE
TODAY: Sally's in the Alley (1943)
THURSDAY: Oh, Murderer Mine (1946)
FRIDAY: The novelette most Doan & Carstairs fans have never seen: "Cry Murder!" (1944) Read the whole thing here.

"Never Say Die," a Norbert Davis story from Detective Fiction Weekly, appears HERE.
And you'll find "One Man Died," a Davis novelette from DFW, HERE.

DOAN & CARSTAIRS WEEK - Day 2: The Mouse in the Mountain (1943)

A little over two years after their debut in "Holocaust House" (HERE), our heroes hit the big time in in this Morrow Mystery.

Doan (no first name given) is an agency detective sent to the sleepy Mexican village of Los Altos to convince a refugee from the law to remain there – or so it seems. Doan is fat, soft-looking, mild-mannered and seemingly harmless. But he’s also quick as a snake, a deadly shot, a great liar and unconcerned with scruples.

With him is Carstairs, the Great Dane he won in a crap game. While Great Danes are normally big, Carstairs bigger, more on the lines of a horse, and described as “sort of a new species.”  He’s cranky, vain, and obstinate, but obeys commands such as  “Up-si-daisy”, “Boom”,  and “Hike” when he feels like it.  He and Doan make a great team.

And these two are only the beginning of this book’s wacky characters. Almost everyone in Davis's cockeyed world is either goofy or somewhat larcenous. The closest thing I know of in contemporary fiction is I.J. Parnham’s Fergus and Randolph western series, which I reviewed HERE.

The Mouse in the Mountain (1943) appeared as Rendezvous with Fear in Great Britain (or so I'm told, as I've never seen a copy. Can anyone send me a scan?), and was abridged for Handi-Books as Dead Little Rich Girl.

Doan's somewhat less-than-legal mission is to persuade a dirty cop not to return to the U.S. to face justice. He runs into trouble, of course, in the form of crooks, murderers, would-be revolutionaries, overzealous soldiers, a monster in kid-form, an earthquake and, certainly not least, a romantically-minded female.

Unlike "Holocaust House" (discussed yesterday), Carstairs is along for the whole story. Unfortunately, both Doan and the dog are offscreen a good portion of the time, making way for the romantically-minded American female and the conceited Mexican secret service officer. And while considerable mention is made of Doan's ruthless and deadly nature, but we actually see very little of it. Thankfully, we'll see plenty in the next book, Sally's in the Alley. 

Another factor that makes this less wonderful than Sally's in the Alley (the penultimate Doan & Carstairs novel) is the Mexican setting. Sure, it's exotic, but seeing Davis poke fun at Mexico is not as much fun as seeing him poke fun at the USofA, as he does to perfection in Sally's.

Like "Holocaust House," The Mouse in the Mountain has been reprinted in several print and ebook formats. You can download a free electronic copy from Munseys.com HERE.

The schedule for DOAN & CARSTAIRS Week goes like so:
MONDAY: "Holocaust House" (1940). That's HERE.
TODAY: The Mouse in the Mountain (1943)
WEDNESDAY: Sally's in the Alley (1943)
THURSDAY: Oh, Murderer Mine (1946)
FRIDAY: The lost (or at least forgotten) novelette "Cry Murder!" (1944) Read it here!

You'll find "Never Say Die," a Norbert Davis story from Detective Fiction Weekly, HERE.
And "One Man Died," a Davis novelette from DFW, is HERE.

DOAN & CARSTAIRS WEEK - Day 1: Holocaust House (1940)

This is the tale that introduced our intrepid duo to the world. Doan is a detective for the Severn Agency. He's chubby, mild-mannered and innocent-looking, but deadly as hell. Carstairs, the Great Dane he won in a crap game, is a snob. He's particular about what he eats, where he goes and who he associates with, and - because he's the size of a small Shetland pony - he does pretty much what he wants.

Davis introduces them thusly:

Argosy published the story in two parts, in the issues for November 16 and 23, 1940. As you'll see below, the mag was going through one of its ugly cover phases, but the contents were still good, and the first issue includes a great story about John Quincy Adams by Theodore Roscoe (the Foreign Legion guy).

Doan and Carstairs are cockeyed characters in a cockeyed world, and Norbert Davis proved himself a master at mixing comedy and murder. It's no wonder this series has developed a cult following that continues to grow.

"Holocaust House" begins when Doan finds a mysterious cigarette case in his pocket. Some instinct warns him it's dangerous, and the instinct is right. He soon discovers the thing is packed with explosives, and the explosives were meant for him. Then his boss assigns him a case: He's to head for the mountain country around Desolation Lake, where a young woman is about to come into fifty million dollars and needs protection. Reluctantly, Doan goes, but is forced to leave Carstairs behind. Why? Because Carstairs disapproves of mountains.

The real reason, of course, is that Davis chose to leave Carstairs behind, and I see no good explanation for it. Having established such great chemistry between this pair, it's a shame he didn't involve the dog in the rest of the case. Still, it's a good story, and Doan is still a great character, and - with hindsight - we know Carstairs will be much better employed in the novels (and novelette) to come.

For some reason, this story, like the three novels, seems to have fallen into the public domain, and is available in several different electronic and print editions. Cheapskates like me can download the whole thing free on Munseys.com, right HERE.

Here's the rest of the lineup for DOAN & CARSTAIRS Week:
TUESDAY: The Mouse in the Mountain (1943)
WEDNESDAY: Sally's in the Alley (1943)
THURSDAY: Oh, Murderer Mine (1946)
FRIDAY: The lost (or at least forgotten) novelette "Cry Murder!," presented in its entirety for the first time since 1944.

I posted "Never Say Die," a Norbert Davis story from Detective Fiction Weekly, HERE.