----- Original Message ----- From: "JIM DOHERTY" <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> To: <
rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002
4:48 PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Brett Halliday
recommendations
> Miker,
>
> Re your question below:
>
> > Can
> > you recommend a few good [novels by Brett
Halliday]?
>
> Others have noted that Hallidays' Mike
Shayne
> character seems to shine most brightly when taken
out
> of his usual stomping grounds (Miami, FL)
and
> investigates in "foreign" settings.
>
> My favorite Shayne novel, A TASTE FOR VIOLENCE,
fits
> right into that formua. It's a town-taming novel,
set
> in a Kentucky mining community, very much in the
vein
> of RED HARVEST.
One of my favorites is MURDER IS MY BUSINESS, which is set in
El Paso. I like nearly all the novels from the Forties a lot.
Some titles that come to mind: MARKED FOR MURDER, THE
UNCOMPLAINING CORPSES, TICKET FOR DEATH, BLOOD ON THE BLACK
MARKET (the first novel after Phyllis Shayne's death), and
MICHAEL SHAYNE'S LONG CHANCE (set in New Orleans, also the
introduction of Lucy Hamilton).
> It's been said that all the Shayne novels
written
> after 1956 or thereabouts were ghost-written. It's
a
> fact that virtually all the short stories about
Shayne
> in MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE were
ghost-written.
> In fact, our own James Reasoner was one of
Halliday's
> ghosts on a couple of Shayne shorts.
And it was one of the most enjoyable writing jobs I've had. I
was young, getting paid for my writing on a fairly regular
basis for the first time in my career, and working with a
character I'd been reading for years. I was in high cotton,
let me tell you.
> However, I've also heard, from people in the
know,
> that the novels were not so much ghost-written as
they
> were ghost-collaborated. Whether or not this is
true,
> and if so, to what degree Halliday
actually
> participated in the writing, I can't say.
However,
> the novels (which were assumed to be actually
by
> Halliday until the names of some of his "ghosts"
were
> revelaled) stopped appearing shortly after
Halliday's
> death in 1977, while the MSMM short stories
(which
> everyone knew were ghosted) continued for
several
> years. That's not conclusive evidence, but it
is
> indicative.
I suspect that Davis Dresser may have had a hand in plotting
some of the ghosted books, such as the ones written by
Ryerson Johnson, but the novels by Dennis Lynds were
expansions of stories Lynds had written originally for MSMM,
so it's doubtful Dresser had any input on those. As for the
ones written by Robert Terrall (the most prolific Halliday
ghost at novel length), I've never heard that Dresser had
anything to do with those. Just because I haven't heard it,
though, doesn't mean that it isn't so.
Speaking of Ryerson Johnson, before Gold Medal month is over,
I plan to read the two novels he wrote with Dresser as
Matthew Blood, THE AVENGER and DEATH IS A LOVELY DAME.
Best, James
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