Here's what my whole bibliography has for the New Orleans
life of Michael Shayne.
AUTHOR: Halliday, Brett JOINT AUTHOR: PSEUDONYM OF: Dresser,
Davis House name after #30 ALSO WRITES AS:
P. I.: Shayne, Michael ADDITIONAL P. I.: LOCATION OF OFFICE:
Florida, Miami SUBJECTS: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Little is
known about Mike's early life except in
#5 he remembers playing the cornet in his college band. Ten
years prior to
#6, he was a P. I. with Jim Lacy and Pat Casey in the
Countrywide Agency in New York (later referred to as
WorldWide). Mike is 35 in #1-3, with violent red hear and
gray eyes, and he drinks cognac and smokes. He tugs on his
left ear lob when he is thinking. He has no office or staff
at the beginning, but rather works out of his downtown hotel
apartment with a side entrance on Flagler Street. His
apartment building backs up on the north bank of the Miami
River and has a view of Biscaynne Bay. He is driving a
"middle-aged" roadster. His opponent, retained in most of the
books, is Peter Painter, chief of detectives in Miami Beach,
while his ally is Miami's chief of detectives Will Gentry.
His closest friend is Timothy Rourke, a newspaper reporter.
In #1, he takes a string of pearls as a retainer and gets
shot twice in the shoulder, once in the ribs, and is grazed
by a fourth bullet, leaving him in a cast and a sling. He
gets some help from another op named Tony in #1 and #2. He
meets Phyllis Brighton, age 20, in #1. #2 takes place one
month after #1, and he is carrying a .32. In #3, he has just
married Phyllis, and they have just returned from their
honeymoon in Cuba. They are living in a new apartment, one
floor above the old one which has now been converted into an
office for Mike. In #3, he mentions being on a yearly
retainer with an insurance company to investigate fraud. He
also mentions having been in Miami for ten years. In #4, he
is carrying a .45 which he uses to kill two men. He himself
receives a flesh wound in the stomach. In #5, it is one year
after his marriage, and it is August. Phyllis is in New York
without Mike. He totals his convertible coupe. In
#6, he uses FBI contact John Bascom. In #7, it is July and
Mike and Phyllis are on vacation. By #8, it is early spring,
Phyllis is dead (without an explanation) and Mike has moved
downstairs into his old quarters. It is referred to that Mike
cooperated with Military Intelligence on the Nicholson case.
At the beginning of #9, Mike wants to move to New York, but
before he can he takes a case in New Orleans where he meets
Lucille (Lucy) Hamilton. In #10, he has opened a New Orleans
office on the fourth floor of the International Building at
Poydras and Charles. It is a two room suite and Lucy is his
secretary. He admits to being 39. He is living in a three
room walk-up apartment in a two story building on Carondelet.
In #16, his apartment is at Poydras and Bourbon. #10 takes
place in the fall of 1944, and Mike remembers that he worked
a case involving Towne and Bayliss ten years prior to this
case when he was with Worldwide. He is carrying a .38. In
#16, he uses Ben Ames in Chicago, a former associate at
WorldWide, and a New Orleans P. I. named Ned Frazier. In #12,
he returns to Miami when his friend Tim is shot and once
there he has to borrow a gun and a car from Will. He mentions
that he has been in New Orleans two years. In #13, it is
finally revealed that Phyllis died in childbirth and so
evidently did their son. It is November, and Mike manages to
get his first apartment in Miami back. #16 takes place one
year after #9 and #11. In #19, Mike mentions having done
business out of his apartment for fifteen years. In order to
keep Lucy as his secretary, he rents a third floor office
space in a six story building downtown. Lettered in gold leaf
on the frosted glass of the office are the words, "Michael
Shayne--Private Investigator." In #20, Mike kills two men. He
destroys his sedan and then buys a dull-gray sedan to replace
it. In #21, Mike uses two P. I.s, Henry Black and Matthews.
In
#22, he kills another man. He uses Henry "Hank" Black's
agency to cover for him.
TITLE: Michael Shayne's long chance NUMBER: 9 ADDITIONAL
TITLES: COPYRIGHT: 1944 LOCATIONS: Louisiana, New Orleans
ANNOTATION: Mike wants to move back to New York but before he
can leave Miami he accepts a case that takes him to New
Orleans. A New York editor's daughter is hiding out trying to
become a writer and shake her drug habit. Mike gets a room
with adjoining balconies to the lovely Barbara Little but
very shortly she is a corpse and Mike is suspect number one,
framed by crooked cops and heavies who remember him from
years past. Working with one honest cop and one very
suspicious homicide detective, Mike is able to bail himself
out of every frame the bad guys build around him. At the end,
Mike reverts to his old style of manufacturing evidence to
hang the crime on a desperate crook with the worst of
motives. A credible mystery with plenty of action makes this
the best Shayne in a while. Highly recommended. REVIEWS:
MISC: CATALOG LISTINGS: Dunn(94):$65(f) Freck(94):$100(vg)
Mordida(94):$65(vg)
TITLE: Murder and the married virgin NUMBER: 10 ADDITIONAL
TITLES: COPYRIGHT: 1944 LOCATIONS: Louisiana, New Orleans
ANNOTATION: Mike believes the sad lieutenant whose
fiancé £ommitted suicide on the eve of their wedding. He agrees
to clear the dead woman of the charge of stealing the Ghorski
emerald from her employers, the Lomax family. The Lomaxes
area typically dysfunctional hard-boiled family and almost
each member could be a suspect in the theft and the now
apparent murder of the dead woman. Getting cooperation from
the New Orleans Police Department is easy, but it is New
Orleans's underworld that proves tougher to tame. Eventually,
the outside clues turn Shayne back to the Lomaxes until he is
able to puzzle out the case. Average. REVIEWS: MISC: CATALOG
LISTINGS:
TITLE: Murder is my business NUMBER: 11 ADDITIONAL TITLES:
COPYRIGHT: 1945 LOCATIONS: Mexico, Juarez Texas, El Paso
ANNOTATION: A young soldier tied to a spy ring is run over by
Jefferson Towne, candidate for the mayor of El Paso. Mike
flies into town and reveals that the solider was dead prior
to the car accident. Mike thinks he is working to help Towne,
but Towne wants nothing to do with Mike. Mike's former
association with Towne's daughter, Carmela, leads Mike to her
former lover, the pathetic poet Bayliss, now trying to
convince people he is being chased by Nazis. Towne's
association with some silver mines and the involvement of
hood Manny Holden in a smuggling operation confuses things
sufficiently until Mike gets some uncharacteristic help from
the cops and solves the case. Average. REVIEWS: MISC: CATALOG
LISTINGS: UncleBucks(96):$35(f)
TITLE: Marked for murder NUMBER: 12 ADDITIONAL TITLES:
COPYRIGHT: 1945 LOCATIONS: Florida, Miami ANNOTATION: Tim
Rourke is using the power of the press to put pressure on
Brenner, leader of the hoods opening gambling casinos all
over Miami Beach. When Tim is shot, Mike moves quickly from
New Orleans to Miami to once again torment arch rival Peter
Painter. What Mike finds waiting for him is a bevy of blondes
each equipped with her own gun murdering big winners from the
casinos. Mike knows there must be just one who really pulls
the trigger. Mike's realizations that Tim is his best friend
and Miami is his true turf make this the best novel as far as
characterization. Unfortunately, it does not go as far as
contemporary novels would in using character interpretation
to supplement plot. Yet the mystery is good and that gets
this one rated recommended. REVIEWS: MISC: CATALOG LISTINGS:
Dunn(96):$60(f) Freck(94):$75(f)
TITLE: Blood on Biscayne Bay NUMBER: 13 ADDITIONAL TITLES:
COPYRIGHT: 1946 LOCATIONS: Mike takes care of a marker on
Christine Hudson held by gambler Arnold Barbizon by force
rather than using the string of pearls she had provided. This
leads to the murder of the Hudson's maid Natalie. The marker
was a disguise for some love letters between Christine and
her former
boss. Mike tries to remove that threat to Christine
while Chief Painter tries to arrest Mike for the murder of
the maid. It is revealed that Christine's old boss from New
York is the author of the letters and he has now relocated to
Miami in order to divorce his current wife, Christine, who
now becomes suspect number one. Mike's stay in Miami is
temporary, yet he seems torn between his old life here and
his new one in New Orleans thus giving the mystery some
strength beyond the plot. The only real nonsense is seeing
Mike gather the suspects together at the end of the book as
if it were Agatha Christie. Recommended. ANNOTATION: REVIEWS:
MISC: CATALOG LISTINGS: Dunn(96):$45(f) Mordida(96):$65(f)
Freck(94):$10(f-Dell 268pb reprint)
TITLE: Counterfeit wife NUMBER: 14 ADDITIONAL TITLES:
COPYRIGHT: 1947 LOCATIONS: Florida, Miami ANNOTATION: When he
is jilted over the phone by his New Orleans secretary Lucy
Hamilton, Mike sells his plane ticket to that city to a man
for two hundred dollars. The big bills turn out to be part of
the ransom in a kidnapping, but even worse, Mike ends up with
the man's suitcase complete with the rest of the ransom, the
man's big blonde female accomplice, a dead body in his
apartment, and all of the hoods and cops hot on his tail. All
of the dough turns out to be counterfeit, and Mike has to
find a reasonable cause for the phony bills to be a part of
the payoff, especially after the kidnapped young girl ends up
dead. With Tim's help, Mike chases enough clues while
entertaining enough violence on himself and others to satisfy
the hard-boiled reader. A better than average Shayne.
Recommended. REVIEWS: MISC: CATALOG
LISTINGS:UncleBucks(96):$25(f) Freck(95):$65(vg)
Mordida(95):$35(vg)
TITLE: Blood on the stars NUMBER: 15 ADDITIONAL TITLES:
Murder is a habit COPYRIGHT: 1948 LOCATIONS: Florida, Miami
ANNOTATION: Peter Painter thinks Mike is the most likely
kingpin behind the theft of a rare ruby bracelet. Mark
Dustin, the owner, and Mark's insurance agent, thinks Mike is
the most likely person to get it back. When someone tries to
kill Lucy Hamilton and Mrs. Dustin takes a powder, Mike and
Painter trade ideas over some previous robberies as one
motive and a greedy Rajah as another. When Mrs. Dustin's body
washes up on the beach, Mike begins to suspect everyone and
by slowly eliminating each participant in this convoluted
tale of betrayal and greed he is led to the killer. Mike's
feelings for Lucy are beginning to replace his leftover
longings for Phyllis and it is little touches like this that
can maintain a reader's interest over the length of a series.
Recommended. REVIEWS: MISC: CATALOG LISTINGS:
Freck(95):$45(vg) UncleBucks(95):$30(f)
TITLE: Michael Shayne's triple mystery NUMBER: 16 ADDITIONAL
TITLES: Dead man's diary and Dinner at Dupre's Dead man's
diary and A taste for cognac A taste for cognac COPYRIGHT:
1945 LOCATIONS: Florida, Miami Louisiana, New Orleans
ANNOTATION: These stories cover the part of Mike's life when
he resided in New Orleans. In DEAD MAN'S DIARY, three
survivors of a torpedoed ship share a confession and a diary.
One of the men dies prior to being rescued. When the two left
scramble to recover the diary and keep the confession a
secret in order to gain the money left in an estate, Mike
gets involved with a multiple number of clients. In DINNER AT
DUPRE'S, the police try to tie Mike to a corpse that should
be a client of his except Mike is in the dark. So by working
backwards he is able to identify the unknown corpse, trace
the dead man back to his hometown, and begin to unravel the
clues needed to discover why the dead man would have needed a
P. I. In A TASTE FOR COGNAC, Mike has to follow the clues
some pre-war booze that shows up in Miami when a beautiful
reporter leads Mike to a corpse with a secret from the past.
Recommended. REVIEWS: MISC: All three novelettes appear in
TRIPLE; otherwise the Dell reprints both have DEAD and a
different companion story. TRIPLE was not published until
1948 and it is listed here first. TASTE appeared as Dell 10c
pb #15. CATALOG LISTINGS: Freck(95):$65(vg-TRIPLE)
UncleBucks(95):$35(f)
Best, GWN Gary Warren Niebuhr P. I. E. S. (Private
Investigator Entertainment Service) P. O. Box 341218
Milwaukee, WI 53234
piesbook@execpc.com http://www.execpc.com/~piesbook/piescatalog.html
----- Original Message ----- From: Dick Lochte <
dlock@ix.netcom.com> To: <
rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2000
12:07 PM Subject: RARA-AVIS: Michael Shayne locations
query
>
> Can anybody up on Michael Shayne fill me in on when
the series was set in
> New Orleans and when and why it moved on to Miami?
By the second part, I
> mean, why did Halliday decide to change the location
and how was it
> explained in the books.
>
> Dick Lochte
>
> --
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