THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015
STRIP FOR MURDER by Max Allan Collins
From Ben Boulden Gravetapping
Ben is New Improved's Co-Reviewer
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Strip for Murder is the second in Max Allan Collins’ comic book trilogy; subsequent to A Killing in Comics (2007), and prior to Seduction of the Innocent (2014). It was originally published in 2008, and Dover Mystery Classics has brought it back as a very nice trade paperback with all the trimmings—fully, and very nicely, illustrated by Terry Beatty.
It is 1953, and comic
strips are big business. Jack Starr, “vice president, chief troubleshooter and
occasional bottle washer” for Starr Newspaper Syndication Company is on the
job. Starr specializes in comic strips, and its biggest player is Sam Fizer’s Mugs
O’Malley, but Starr is in negotiations to pick up a new strip from another
big hitter named Hal Rapp, which could be a problem since Fizer and Rapp
despise each other.
Things heat up when Fizer
is found dead in his Waldorf-Astoria residential suite. It is staged as a
suicide, and poorly at that; Fizer is right handed, but the gun is in his left,
and the suicide note is a comics-style inked affair (making handwriting
analysis useless). The obvious suspect is Rapp, but Jack is skeptical and with
his “troubleshooter” fedora firmly in place, his private eye license in his
back pocket, he starts his own investigation.
Strip for Murder is cleverly plotted,
humorous—tongue firmly in cheek from beginning to end—whodunit with a twist
that needs reading for believing. It is heavy on dialogue, in a good way, and
the descriptions of 1950’s New York, Broadway in particular, and the
syndication business are great fun. The prose is spirited in a smooth and
whimsical manner—
“Maybe ten seconds later,
Maggie stuck her head in; more than her head, the uppermost, most exposed part
of her. Very distracting neckline, that red gown.”
Even more distracting,
Maggie is his widowed step-mother, and President of Starr Syndicates. His boss,
you could say. The characters—from Maggie to Hal Rapp to a Police Captain named
Chandler—are charmingly eccentric and make a compelling juxtaposition to Jack’s
hardboiled tendencies. A relationship that generates more humor than black
eyes.
Strip for Murder is the second in Max Allan Collins’ comic book trilogy; subsequent to A Killing in Comics (2007), and prior to Seduction of the Innocent (2014). It was originally published in 2008, and Dover Mystery Classics has brought it back as a very nice trade paperback with all the trimmings—fully, and very nicely, illustrated by Terry Beatty.
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