Sunday, March 24, 2013

100,000 and a Bit of Pulp

Watch your hand, buddy!
This blog was started on November 22, 2011 and now, sixteen months later, I've had 100,000 views, which I suppose is something of milestone!  So I thought I should mention it.

I think I have some interesting review items lined up for next week, plus a contest to commemorate the 100,000; but today I am merely noting a little artifact I discovered recently.

I had never realized until recently that a work by British mystery writer Cecil John Charles Street, one of the subjects of my Masters of the Humdrum Mystery, appeared in a classic pulp fiction format, but indeed one did.  

Not a Leg to Stand On, published under Street's Miles Burton pseudonym, appeared in the May 1946 issue of Two Complete Detective Books (the other "complete detective book" appearing in the issue is Manning Long's Bury the Hatchet).

interior illustration
Not a Leg to Stand On offers readers the teasing little problem of the disappearance of Edward Coulston, owner of a "ruby-eyed golden idol" and wearer of an artificial leg.  Eventually the leg turns up, but not Mr. Coulston with it. Quite a mystery for the gentleman amateur detective Desmond Merrion and his attendant policeman, Inspector Arnold!

When I read it some years ago I enjoyed Not a Leg to Stand On, but I must admit that Street's books typically lacked that quality of pep that one associates with pulp.

Nevertheless, the presence of a naked female statuette in Leg seems to have lent the novel an element sufficiently exotic and sexy to carry the day.  Though I must admit that eager readers who bought this item because of the cover illustration may have been a bit disappointed!

11 comments:

  1. Congrats! I admit I'm a bit of a lurker. I read the reviews but never read the books. :/

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    1. Lisa, thanks for coming out of lurkerdom to comment1

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  2. Good work Curt! That's a good series, and to the existence of TWO COMPLETE DETECTIVE BOOKS we owe the only appearance of Charlotte Armstrong's masterpiece FATAL LADY (March, 1950) issue which someday I will be reviewing. And strangely enough, copies are not that hard to come by or so it seems.

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    1. You remind me, Kevin, I need to review some more Armstrong too!

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  3. Congratulations Curt - it's a fantastic blog mate - long may it (and you) continue.

    Sergio

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    1. Thanks, Sergio, I'll just have to keep it going at least to 200,0000 now, won't I?

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  4. You hit 100,000 way before I did. Good job! I have a copy of TWO COMPLETE DETECTIVE BOOKS with Todd Downing's VULTURES IN THE SKY.

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    1. I've never seen that one, with Vultures, John. Of course you and Patrick and TomCat laid the groundwork for people like myself to follow.

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  5. Congratulations. I enjoy your posts very much.

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  6. Thanks everyone for commenting! Stick around and help me get to 200,000! I will keep at the posting.

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