Devil May Care (Wade Miller, 1950)

Another one that gets ruined straight away by its far-fetched premise. A man is hired to deliver a letter from Cleveland to Mexico for a reward of $10k. I'm not familiar with the US P&P expenses from 1950, but this seems extravagant, doesn't it? And here's the best part: the recipient of this letter will reveal himself to our hero using a secret signal. Which is - and I quote - anything connected with peacocks.

Huh? However, at this point, I was still intrigued, rather than concerned. After all, sometimes such quirky plots come alive and evolve into something substantial and (more) digestible. Not this one, I'm afraid. By the end of the 12th chapter, I knew it was doomed:

He felt possessive. All of a sudden it rushed into his mind how vitally important she was to him and he sat up, wondering. He said aloud, "I'm in love, by God!"

So, yeah - our hero falls in love with a virginal queen of siesta (half his age btw). And then he snaps out of it, gets drunk and in frustration or denial or whatever the fuck tries to rape the other heroine. Jinny obviously isn't exactly thrilled by this savage act, although she overcomes the assault pretty quickly, and it doesn't take long for her to fall in love with Biggo. And so on. And on and on. Slowly and not exactly surely.

And still no sign of fucking peacocks...

When this feathery signal finally comes, we get some action. And are treated with a LOL moment. Biggo is armed with some ancient spear that he nicked at the bar, and he starts chasing the villain but is too stupid to notice that its point fell off during the pursuit. And did I mention that he is a hardened soldier of fortune? And did I say that his adversary is armed with a gun?

I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't get into it. Too melodramatic, dealing with the usual subjects (two lonesome outsiders finding each other, loyalty between friends, the ageing guy who wants to get "out",...) in a pretty dull and uninspiring way. Not much of a spark. It feels like it was penned out quickly to fulfil the contract with the publisher.  And definitely too long. It might have worked as a novella or short story, but 180 pages were simply too much.

2.5/5

Facts:

Hero:
Biggo Venn,  soldier of fortune for the last 10 years. And since this was published in 1950, it made me wonder where and when the mercenaries were deployed during World War II??

Anyway. The back cover describes him as "Fast-talking, heavy-fisted Biggo - fast with a small cannon, fast with a buck, fast with a girl." Understandably, they don't bother to mention that he's not particularly smart, resourceful, or polite.

His description on the front cover is not much more accurate, but it is definitely more cool-sounding:
"Biggo was a man to meet... if you left your girl home."

Location: 
Starts in Cleveland but then quickly moves (and stays) in a small Mexican town called Ensenada.

Body count: 
4 (although I was a bit reluctant to take the last one - heart attack - into account)

The object of desire: 
Confession letter that would incriminate one gangster, so another gangster tries to prevent Biggo from delivering it. Or something like that.

Dames: 
Jinny: Her face looked vaguely disappointed with the way things had gone. But there was nothing disappointing about her figure.

The queen of the fiesta, Señorita Pabla Ybarra y Calderon: 

She was the most beautiful Mexican girl Biggo had ever seen, an ethereal combination of Spanish nobility and Aztec royalty.

Blackouts: 
He gets doped and rolled by Jinny on their first night together:

Why was she watching him like that? But he was too tired even to think about it or to feel the floor as he toppled forward.

Title: 
I wasn't familiar with the devil-may-care idiom. I know what it means now, but I still cannot connect "a very casual attitude; a worry-free or carefree attitude" to anything in this book.

Edition: 
Gold Medal #108, fourth printing, October 1951 

Cover: 
"I feel sorry for us, too. You know how to fight but I don't. You know what we are? We're outcasts." She nuzzled tipsily against his collarbone. "I don't want to be one. I don't want to fight. Oh, Biggo, who wants us? Who'll settle for us?"

Cool lines: 

I've found this paragraph somewhat poignant:

He had been searched hastily and his wallet had been tossed aside. Biggo fumbled with it. The money was still in it. He didn't take it back because it was so bad dying, much less dying broke. Toevs wasn't a bum: no reason he should look like one to anybody.

Badge of Evil (Whit Masterson, 1956)

The book on which my favourite Orson Welles movie, Touch of Evil, is based. To be honest, I had no idea that the film was even based on a book until the back blurb on this one caught my attention in the bookstore. And since I'm obviously not Orson's die-hard fan, I must admit that he did one hell of a job on his screenplay. One of those rare occasions where the movie is much better than the original book.

It's simply not hard-boiled enough. A story about dirty cops, set in police stations and the DA's office, should be driven by strong characters and sharp dialogue, moving forward at a rapid pace. Smoking, drinking, cursing, fighting, etc. Or at least be a solid police procedural. Instead, we get a predictable "one against all, good against evil" tale of the white knight fighting for the ungrateful lady Justice against a flawed system orchestrated by weak politicians and compromised media.

And family shit, lots of it. Mitch's wife Connie is so pure, cool, beautiful, full of understanding and dedication to her hubby that she doesn't even bitch too much about their ever-postponed family vacation. I don't think that any of the authors had seen Fritz Lang's masterpiece The Big Heat, released a few years prior. Because if they did, Connie would be blown into pieces sometimes at the end of the first act, making Mitch go on a bloody revenge rampage. But nothing like that happens - our hero is confused and scared most of the time and gets a lucky break at the end.

Also didn't like the writing style much. Too technical and formulaic, so it never really takes off. Once the evidence fixing is established, the plot becomes almost nonexistent, and the whole thing shifts into boring drama/thriller mode. My speculation is that these kinds of narration problems may occur as a result of the collaboration between two writers working on the same book.

Decent enough material that, unfortunately, hasn't aged very well. But still immensely cool to read it if you like Touch of Evil. It's genuinely incredible how Wells managed to turn this unquestionably original, yet somehow mediocre, novel into a timeless masterpiece.

3/5

Facts:

Hero:
Mitch Holt, 35, assistant district attorney

He knew that soon he would be in a position to open his own private practice without unduly endangering the eating habits of his family.

Location: 
Some big town in southern California near the Mexican border. I assume that would be San Diego (it's definitely not LA), but probably the authors were vague about this intentionally to emphasise the metaphor about corruption and the weak legal system across America.

Body count: 

4 (2 suicides)

Dames: 
None really. His whining wife Connie hardly counts as a dame.

Blackouts: 

/

Title: 
Obviously, it alludes to McCoy, but I would hardly categorise a poor bastard as an evil one. He was merely an overworked asshole with a god complex. And since the title "Badge of an overworked asshole with a god complex" really does sound stupid, let's not bitch about it too much.

Cover: 
Good old-fashioned one, like all covers of Prologue Books are. It would be cool to put little figures of Holt, McCoy and Quinlan into the web.

Cool lines:  
To be a successful prosecutor was the same as being a successful salesman or a successful preacher. You had to believe in your product.

He settled for a stubby .32 pistol that had both convenience and authority.

The bullet tugged at the lapel of  Holt's coat in passing and then went on its way with a complaining whine of having missed.[The Coolest!]