Re: RARA-AVIS: Dewey; Macdonald; Gatsby

From: James Reasoner ( james53@flash.net)
Date: 01 Dec 2004


----- Original Message ----- From: "Juri Nummelin" < juri.nummelin@postikaista.net> To: < rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 5:04 AM Subject: RARA-AVIS: Dewey; Macdonald; Gatsby

>
> On several issues:
>
> Hubin's crime bibliography says that Dewey's first novel "Draw the Curtain
Close" (1947) is a Singer Batts novel, not Mac. The other novel that was mentioned is a one-off ("Every Bet's a Sure Thing", 1953).

There's at least one Singer Batts novel earlier than that, HUE AND CRY from 1944. That one's on the shelf right beside me. I read it a couple of years ago, remember enjoying it, but that's all I recall about it. I don't have a copy of EVERY BET'S A SURE THING, but I have read it and I'm pretty sure it features Mac. I think DRAW THE CURTAIN CLOSE does, too, rather than Singer Batts. Singer, for those of you not familiar with him, is not a PI but rather a small-town hotel owner. The narrator of the books is Joe Spinder, the hotel manager. I'm remembering more about HUE AND CRY now. There's something of a Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin relationship between Singer and Joe. The plot of HUE AND CRY concerns a small-town girl who finds herself pregnant and unmarried, and I'd say there's definitely some empathy and compassion for her. I haven't read much by Dewey in recent years, but I think he was a fine writer with three worthwhile series to his name -- Singer Batts, Mac, and Pete Schofield in some Dell paperback originals, Schofield being one of the few married PIs.

James

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