>----------
>From: Gary Warren Niebuhr
>Sent: Saturday, October 18, 1997 6:58 PM
>To: rara-avis@icomm.ca
>Subject: RARA-AVIS: What I have on Spicer so
far
>
>>Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 16:52:26 -0700
>>To: llehmann@club-internet.fr
>>From: Gary Warren Niebuhr
<piesbook@execpc.com>
>>Subject: What I have on Spicer so far
>>
>>> Who is Bart Spicer ?
>>
>>AUTHOR: Spicer, Bart
>>JOINT AUTHOR:
>>PSEUDONYM OF:
>>ALSO WRITES AS:
>>
>>P. I.: Wilde, Carney
>>ADDITIONAL P. I.:
>>LOCATION OF OFFICE: Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia
>>SUBJECTS:
>>BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Carney's father was a
carpenter who killed
>himself after losses in the stock market crash. Prior
to his service in
>the war, Carney was a store detective for his friend
Eli Lazarus Jonas.
>Carney spent five years in the Criminal Investigation
Department of the
>Army during WWII, and served in the South Pacific.
After the war, he opens
>his own P. I. business. His office has an old swivel
chair, a new veneered
>walnut desk, and a ground-glass door that reads
"Investigations" about
>half-way down on the right, with his name just above
it in gold leaf.
>Carney is licensed, and in #2 charges $50 a day. He
owns a .38. In #2, he
>talks about being on retainer to Eli's department
store to supervise the
>security (in #3, he admits this is the only business
he had when he started
>and kept his agency alive), and to getting regular
work from the Johnson
>Insurance firm. His police contact is Lt. Jack
Grodnik, but they are as
>much enemies as they are friends. Carney is 6' 2", and
weighs 180 lbs. (by
>#4, up to 190 lbs.), and he smokes. He has dark brown
hair and brown eyes.
> He lives in a third floor apartment. #1 begins on his
29th birthday and
>he has been a P. I. for three years. In #2, Carney has
just returned from
>a skiing weekend where a crash caused him a black eye.
#3 takes place in
>April and Carney is 30. Carney is thinking about
moving his agency to a
>three room suite in the Maritime National Building. He
wants to
>incorporate as Carney Wilde, Inc. He employees Maxwell
as his op. He
>kills a man in #3. By #4, the move has been made, and
the lettering on the
>door now reads, "Carney Wilde, Inc. Investigations.
Licensed. Bonded." It
>is summer, and Carney has been a P. I. for five years.
#5 finds Carney
>with two permanent men and four more on
retainer.
>>
>>TITLE: The dark light
>>NUMBER: 1
>>ADDITIONAL TITLES:
>>COPYRIGHT: 1949
>>LOCATIONS: New York, New York
>>Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
>>ANNOTATION: The Church of the Shining Light
operates a Mission to the
>black district of Philadelphia. When Reverend Matthew
Kimball fails to
>show up for Sunday night services after traveling to
New York City, his
>Deacon, Andrew Jackson, Turns to Carny for help. As
the P. I. penetrates
>into the financial arrangements between the church,
Kimball and the very
>rich widow Alice Prentice, he discovers that Kimball
probably never made
>the trip to New York that he was supposed to have and
he also discovers the
>corpse of Jackson in the Mission. Then very quickly
Kimball's wife is also
>a corpse, and an unwanted pregnancy becomes the
catalyst to a very well
>crafted conspiracy by a desperate murderer. Also well
crafted is this
>book, which contains an interesting P. I in a plot
with both well developed
>characters and plenty of clues to help the reader
solve the crimes.
>Recommended.
>>REVIEWS:
>>MISC:
>>CATALOG LISTINGS: Cardinal(94):$65(f)
>>Freck(94):$75(vg)
>>
>>TITLE: Blues for the Prince
>>NUMBER: 2
>>ADDITIONAL TITLES:
>>COPYRIGHT: 1950
>>LOCATIONS: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
>>ANNOTATION: Master jazzman, "The Prince," is dead
and the police want to
>accuse his arranger, "Stuff" Magee, with the murder as
Magee was claiming
>to have written all of The Prince's big hits. The
Prince's daughter,
>Martha, and her fiancee, Dr. Lawrence Owen, want
Carney to clear The
>Prince's name. Carney is willing, bring a fan of the
late musician.
>Having African-American clients is not easy in the
1950s for a white P. I.,
>but it is much harder when Randolph Greene, a prot駩 of
The Prince's
>father, hates Carney on sight. The elder Prince's
illness also hampers the
>investigation, so Carney seeks the truth from Magee's
side of the story.
>He gets to romance Nancy Lucas, a jazz singer, and
delve into
>Philadelphia's jazz scene. This book has a nice noir
feel, and has all the
>requirements of a P. I. novel with the clues needed to
create a nice
>mystery puzzle as well. Highly recommended.
>>REVIEWS:
>>MISC:
>>CATALOG LISTINGS: Dunn(96):$75(vg)
>>Freck(94):$45(f)
>>
>>TITLE: The golden door
>>NUMBER: 3
>>ADDITIONAL TITLES:
>>COPYRIGHT: 1951
>>LOCATIONS: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
>>ANNOTATION: Displaced persons need help adjusting
to the American way of
>life, and Future American is Jack Jonas's organization
designed to help
>them. He is concerned that some of his records are
missing, and he hire
>Carney to explain the mystery. Carny has been
investigating some inventory
>at Jack's father's store, and the loss of cosmetics
may be tied to an
>international smuggling operation that ties to some of
the new citizens.
>Carny is a rather cynical man, rather friendless and
unsympathetic. His
>investigation spares no one, and he is not moved by
the stories of the
>Holocaust survivors. Rather, he is driven to
accomplish his assignment.
>Spicer is an accomplished writer with a consistent
tone, and deserves to be
>better remembered in the canon. Recommended.
>>REVIEWS:
>>MISC:
>>CATALOG LISTINGS:
>>
>>TITLE: Black sheep, run
>>NUMBER: 4
>>ADDITIONAL TITLES:
>>COPYRIGHT: 1951
>>LOCATIONS: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
>>ANNOTATION: Carney would not call Jack Grodnik his
friend, but the
>recently promoted police captain of homicide has been
suspended. Carney is
>persuaded to investigate the charges by Connolly,
Grodnik's
>African-Amercian friend on the force. In trying to get
close to the
>gambler Bernie Sokol, Carney has an encounter with
another P. I. that
>leaves that man dead. This puts Carney on the run, and
that becomes the
>point of this novel. It is handled well, with all the
consequential
>problems logically laid out. Carney manages to hire
Grodnik's daughter,
>Jane, as his secretary, with a romance developing.
Meanwhile, Carney is
>dodging the cops, the F. B. I., and the hoods. Grodnik
and Carney make an
>odd couple, but their relationship propels the book to
its proper
>conclusion. Highly recommended.
>>REVIEWS:
>>MISC:
>>CATALOG LISTINGS: Dunn(95):$35(vg)
>>Mordida(95):$45(vg)
>>
>>TITLE: The long green
>>NUMBER: 5
>>ADDITIONAL TITLES: Shadow of fear
>>COPYRIGHT: 1952
>>LOCATIONS: Arizona, Tucson
>>ANNOTATION: Carney is definitely out of his
element when his biggest
>client, Eli Jonas, calls him to the Tucson desert to
find his kidnapped
>granddaughter, Bibi. His big city sensibilities
malfunction in the heat of
>this alien landscape, and the short time Carney has to
find the kidnappers
>prior to the payoff only adds more pressure. Oddly,
two men who could be
>involved in the crime are themselves murdered. This
may be the Wild West,
>but it is Carney who is the wild-child. He is driven
to save the young
>girl, and his usual abrupt personality is even more
coarse and forceful.
>The ransom money to be used to rescue Bibi was to have
been used to begin
>an economic venture to aide the Native Americans. The
startling contrast
>between the poverty and despair of the reservation and
Eli's millions is
>pointed and provocative. Highly recommended.
>>REVIEWS:
>>MISC:
>>CATALOG LISTINGS: Dunn(96):$25(vg)
>>
>>TITLE: The taming of Carney Wilde
>>NUMBER: 6
>>ADDITIONAL TITLES:
>>COPYRIGHT: 1954
>>LOCATIONS: Louisiana, New Orleans
>>Shipboard
>>ANNOTATION:
>>REVIEWS:
>>MISC:
>>CATALOG LISTINGS:
Freck(96):$75(f-signed)
>>UncleBucks(94):$20(vg)
>>
>>TITLE: Exit, running
>>NUMBER: 7
>>ADDITIONAL TITLES:
>>COPYRIGHT: 1959
>>LOCATIONS: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
>>ANNOTATION:
>>REVIEWS:
>>MISC:
>>CATALOG LISTINGS: Mordida(95):$45(f)
>>Freck(93):$60(f)
>>
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