There's Something About Honey

Honey West was one of the first female private eyes to grace the small screen, and she was one of my first celebrity heartthrobs. Looking back, it's difficult to say which made a bigger impression on my young mind, Honey West or the imported Emma Peel of The Avengers. Fortunately, since one is domestic and the other foreign, I can say it's a toss-up, just like I don't have to choose which car was cooler, Honey's Shelby Cobra Convertible or Emma's Lotus Elan. Since they were both black belts in Karate, either one could have been my bodyguard. On the other hand, Honey did have a pet Ocelot, and how cool was that? Honey West did have an advantage with me that Emma Peel did not, in that she was initially a literary character, and for a book person that is always something to consider. Also, Anne Francis, who played Honey West, also had an advantage (with me) that Diana Rigg did not--I was already smitten with her from Forbidden Planet (she almost upstaged Robby), and we shared a birthday...always go with a Virgo.

The television version of Honey West started on a second season episode of Burke's Law (another of my favorite mid-Sixties TV shows) entitled "Who Killed the Jackpot." There we met not only Honey, but her man-Friday Sam Bolt (played by John Ericson) and her pet Ocelot, Bruce. Honey must have made an impression with viewers and producers alike because two writers from Burke's Law were told to develop a stand-alone show for Honey, which premiered on ABC in September 1965. It's funny how some things can make an impression far beyond the reality of the situation. Seen through the prism of memory, Honey West had a long run, was a reason to tune in every Friday night at 9 PM, right after The Addams Family (yet another of my favorite mid-Sixties shows). Alas, such was not the case. Honey West endured but a single season, a mere 30 episodes, killed off by two factors--the cold equations of the Nielsen Ratings put it behind Gomer Pyle, USMC (of all things!) and ABC's moguls decided it was cheaper to import The Avengers and run it in the time-slot. (Philistines!) Well, if I couldn't have Honey, at least I could watch Emma karate chop the villains.

Fortunately, Honey West the literary character had a longer run than her television avatar, beginning in 1957, ending in 1972, at least for novels written by the original authors. I came a bit late to the party, not reading my first Honey West novel until the Eighties, and I started with This Girl for Hire, which was the first novel in the 11-book series. Here's a list, for the collector:

This Girl for Hire (1957)

Girl on the Loose (1958)

A Gun for Honey (1958)

Honey in the Flesh (1959)

Girl on the Prowl (1959)

Kiss for a Killer (1960)

Dig a Dead Doll (1960)

Blood and Honey (1961)

Bombshell (1964)

Honey on her Tail (1971)

Stiff as a Broad (1972)

I discovered that Honey West of the books was not only tougher than her TV counterpart, but sexier too. Somehow, she always managed to lose her swimsuit top or her blouse or her dress, and yet she always managed to retain her honor and her virtue. She was very much the equivalent of the shining knight of detective fiction, the private eye able to walk the mean streets without becoming mean. In that respect, Honey West reminds me of Philip Marlowe, but she also calls to mind Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Princess, Dejah Thoris, who never wore anything but a battle harness and weapons (illustrators are not allowed to get it right) and yet always remained clothed in virtue and righteousness. Pity the poor fool who ever mistook Honey for either an easy frail or a damsel in distress.

The books were written by Gloria and Forrest (Skip) Fickling. Technically, the byline of GG Fickling is not a pseudonym for they were Gloria's initials and surname, yet it is because they both wrote the books, especially the first two or three. According to Gloria, Skip did most of the writing starting with Honey in the Flesh, with her contributing plots and characters. Those readers coming to the series and expecting to find the television show might be disappointed. No Bruce the Ocelot and no high-tech 007-like gadgetry. There was also no man-Friday Sam Bolt; instead, we have Lt Storm from the Sheriff's Office, who was more antagonist, rival and frustrated rescuer than helpmate. Still, you have Honey, and that is quite enough. The books are well worth the effort to track down, at least the original ones...there are some modern books with the Honey West character brought back, but since I haven't read any, I can't say anything about them. By the way, if you like the mix of murder and breezy humor that was a hallmark of the Honey West books, then you'd probably also enjoy Richard Prather's Shell Scott series of novels, which have a similar approach to crime solving.

Agent X and Operative 3 On The Job

The library at J. Calvin Lauderbach Elementary School in Chula Vista did not have, at first glance, much going for it. Contained in a single room, with shelves around the walls and two free-standing shelves in the middle, it was not much bigger than the library at my former school, Highland Elementary in National City, which I considered tiny, shoved, as it was, into a storage room behind the auditorium. But being a bibliophile even at that age, I had to look around, see what I could carry home...after checking it out, of course. I found the usual science books and children's classics, history books and a few art books, but I found something in abundance that had been lacking at Highland. Either Lauderbach's librarian was a kid at heart, was a kid's best friend, or knew the best donor in the world -- I found complete sets of Tom Swift Jr, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Rick Brant, the Power Boys, Ellery Queen Jr...and Brains Benton.

Brains Benton? Who? Well, if you don't know who that is and you grew up in the middle of the last century, I just don't know how to explain it. Barclay "Brains" Benton (X) and Jimmy Carson (Operative 3) were the young teen owners of the Benton & Carson International Detective Agency, headquartered in the seemingly quiet Midwestern town of Crestwood. Lest you think the "International" was just a piece of grandiose flummery by the young sleuths, they did manage to save a foreign kingdom in The Case of the Roving Rolls. In other tales they solve a mysterious message ("The kangaroos have escaped"), stop a gang of rare coin counterfeiters, and recover $5,000 ($85,000 in today's devalued cash) stolen from the town.

Although the series lasted only three years, the brainchild of Charles Spain Verral, the series was very influential, on me at least. It was with Brains and Jimmy in mind that I formed my first detective agency in 1961, and that was when I first discovered a dichotomy between fiction and real life...fiction is much more interesting. That also came to mind almost twenty years later when I did some work for attorneys and some private detectives after college...fiction was still better, and is why I now write mysteries rather than try to unravel real-life ones. The stories are a bit dated, but not as much as others, and there is still some interest in the series, enough to cause fans start writing new cases starting in 2008. If you want to collect them, they are still relatively easy to find and are not exorbitantly expensive. Also, if you limit yourself to the original books published by Golden Press it's not hard to collect the complete set.

1. The Case of the Missing Message (1959)
2. The Case of the Counterfeit Coin (1960)
3. The Case of the Stolen Dummy (1961)
4. The Case of the Roving Rolls (1961)
5. The Case of the Waltzing Mouse (1961)
6. The Case of the Painted Dragon (1961)

A half-century has passed has passed since I first stepped onto the campus of Lauderbach Elementary and made my way to the library. The school has changed profoundly. Places where I played ball and tag have been covered by "temporary" classrooms for decades. English is spoken by a minority of kids. The school is completely surrounded by iron fences and locked gateways that would do a Super-Max proud. Classes no longer start with the Pledge of Allegiance. And, of course, the school library is about five times larger and well stocked with every book adults consider fit reading for children...what a shame.

Sterling Silver

Patricia Wentworth
(1878 - 1961)

I first encountered Miss Maud Silver, retired governess turned private detective, at a book sale. I freely admit I had never before come across this literary sleuth, and as I read the back cover, the thought passed through my mind that she must have been patterned along the lines of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple or even Heron Carvic's comic parody Miss Seeton. But then I looked at the copyright date of Grey Mask (1928) and realized Miss Silver predated both -- Miss Marple's Murder at the Vicarage was published in 1930 and the parodical Miss Seeton did not appear on the literary scene until 1968.

The story of Grey Mask is melodramatic, very cozily English, and chocked with characters to the manor born, inheritances, star-crossed lovers, family secrets, scoundrels, stiff upper lips, mysterious masked masterminds, and, of course, Miss Maud Silver to straighten it all out, a motif for all the books that follow.

Miss Silver was the creation of Patricia Wentworth, born Dora Amy Elles, in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India in 1878, daughter of a British Army officer. After writing several competent but unremarkable romances, Miss Wentworth turned her hand to mysteries, just as other women (Josephine Tey, Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh, etc.) were doing in the Golden Age of Mysteries. Altogether, she wrote 75 novels (starting with A Marriage Under the Terror [1910], a romance set in the French Revolution), 32 of which involved Miss Silver, former governess living at 16 Montague Mansions, West Leaham Road, SW, London, who expected no better fate than a penurious existence dependent upon a tiny pension and a niece's charity...until she discovered her talent for hunting murderers.

There's something appealing, I suppose, about octogenarian women solving murder cases, plunging into dangerous situations all in a quest to bring order out of chaos and preserve society's morals. How else to explain the virtual army of old women with knitting in one hand, a magnifying glass in the other? Could it be a modern avatar of the Jungian archetype of the tribal wise woman? All I know is that the easiest way to create a sympathetic and popular character is to make her an old busybody who finds herself in the most perilous profession possible -- Miss Marple, Miss Seeton, Miss Silver, Jessica Fletcher, Agatha Raisin, the Snoop Sisters, Hidegard Withers, and even Gracie Allen (guesting in a Philo Vance novel).

Unlike Miss Marple and many of the others, Miss Silver is an actual private detective, or private enquiry agent as they are sometimes termed in England. She is paid for her work, but, of course, her real reward are the lives saved and the couples united, all memorialized in her modest flat by dozens of framed photos. 

Clients who come her way, steered toward her either by others she has helped or by Scotland Yard Inspectors Lamb and Abbott (who were, separately, two of her charges when she was an active governess), or by the Hand of Fate, often think they have made a mistake...

However she had done her hair, it would have appeared, as she herself appeared, to be out of date. She was very neatly dressed in an unbecoming shade of drab. Her indeterminate features gave no indication of talent or character. Her smooth sallow skin was innocent of powder. She was knitting a small white woolly sock, and at the moment of Henry's entrance she was engaged in counting stitches. After a minute she looked up, inclined her head, and said in a quiet toneless voice,

"Pray be seated."   --The Case is Closed (1937) 

Miss Silver knits all the time, usually for one or more of her niece's endless supply of children, but she has few other habits. She may not have the eccentricities of Sherlock Holmes, and certainly not the addiction to the 7% Solution, but he would definitely recognize and approve her methods. Whereas Miss Marple is continually extrapolating the vices and virtues of the inhabitants of St Mary Meade into the larger world, detecting by analogy, Miss Silver employs keen observation and unemotional deduction.

Aside for my predilection for the Victorian and Edwardian Eras, which I've mentioned elsewhere, I think one of the reasons I so much enjoy the Miss Silver series of novels is because justice is always served, and served well. Also, she is forceful and strong without being a bully, well spoken and refined without being snooty, and embodies all that is good and fair in the British Classic Mystery, an excellent representative of the the Empire. It also helps that she is always quoting Tennyson, one of my favorite poets. And like all the best detectives, she is a fixed point in time, as constant as the North Star, changeless in a tumultuous world, and ageless -- she is always the same person, from her first appearance in Grey Mask to her last bow in 1961's The Girl in the Cellar. Hopefully, this little taste has whetted your appetite for...

"...everyone's favorite spinster detective. In her black cloth coat and with her ever-present capacious knitting bag, she appears every bit the proper Victorian governess, which indeed she once was. Now she has taken on the much more lucrative occupation of private enquiry agent. Armed with the tenacious commonsense of the British and an uncanny ability to see into the very souls of murder suspects, Miss Silver is as memorable as the finest creations of Agatha Christie." (Cover blurb from the Bantam paperback editions)

If so, you might want to track down copies of Miss Silver's cases, which are quite easy to find. And unless you are into first editions (well, what book lover isn't, really?) the prices for the later editions are not too bad. To help you in your quest for completeness, I've adapted the listing from the Fantastic Fiction website, marking (*) my favorites, and including the alternate titles.

*Grey Mask (1928)
*The Case Is Closed (1937)
Lonesome Road (1939)
Danger Point (1941) aka In the Balance
The Chinese Shawl (1943)
*Miss Silver Intervenes (1943) aka Miss Silver Deals with Death
The Clock Strikes Twelve (1944)
The Key (1944)
*She Came Back (1945) aka The Traveller Returns
Pilgrim's Rest (1946) aka Dark Threat
*Latter End (1947)
Spotlight (1947) aka Wicked Uncle
The Case of William Smith (1948)
*Eternity Ring (1948)
*The Catherine Wheel (1949)
*Miss Silver Comes to Stay (1949)
The Brading Collection (1950) aka Mr Brading's Collection
The Ivory Dagger (1950)
*Through the Wall (1950)
Anna Where Are You? (1951) aka Death at Deep End
*The Watersplash (1951)
Ladies Bane (1952)
*Out of the Past (1953)
*The Silent Pool (1953)
The Vanishing Point (1953)
The Benevent Treasure (1954)
*The Gazebo (1955) aka The Summerhouse
*The Listening Eye (1955)
*Poison in the Pen (1955)
*The Fingerprint (1956)
The Alington Inheritance (1958)
The Girl in the Cellar (1961)

It's a crime!

If you're the kind of person who thrives on contention, argument and bare-knuckle conflict (you know, you think that firecrackers and ant hills were made for each other), there are all sorts of things you can do to amuse yourself -- throw a T-bone into a pack of junk yard dogs, toss chum and sharks into a municipal swimming pool, put $2 price tags on plasma TVs on Black Friday or shove a pork barrel into a Congressional meeting. Or you could just ask fiction fans to define genres. When I attended a World Fantasy Convention, a panel discussion on science fiction vs fantasy led to a battle royal, and I don't mean a war of words. The only agreement was in the need for ice afterwards. You might get a similar reaction if you asked fans to define "crime fiction."

I used to engage in those sorts of futile literary arguments all the time, but not so much anymore. Back in the day, however, I was usually the intransigent force standing firm against the voices of reason and compromise; in the case of crime fiction, I define it pretty much the same way as the National Rifle Association interprets the Second Amendment -- very strictly, and with a tommy gun (metaphorically) close at hand.

Lists of the best crime writing are easy to come by, especially in this age of electronic flummery, but I eschew them in favor of The Armchair Detective Book of Lists edited by Kate Stine. A quick perusal of the Haycraft-Queen list, the Julian Symons list compiled for The Sunday Times, H.R.F Keating's 100 Best list, and the complementary lists submitted by the Crime Writers Association (British) and the Mystery Writers Association (American) reveal one obvious fact -- people are ready to call just about anything a crime novel. I beg to differ. First of all, no spy novels allowed, which eliminates The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Riddle of the Sands and From Russia with Love. I'm also giving the old heave-ho to the thriller Day of the Jackal, the adventure story Rogue Male, and Conan Doyle's best, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Just for good measure, so long to The Big Sleep, Rebecca and Murder on the Orient Express.

Mystery fans usually had daggers in their eyes (or hands) by this time, and none were at all mollified by the fact that I allowed The High Window, Tiger in the Smoke, Strangers on a Train, The Glass Key, The Grifters, The Third Man and the entire Lovejoy series of books. The ire of the fans (short for fanatics, of course) is understandable, expected and probably even deserved. So, what makes for a crime novel?

Before we look at what aspects are integral to the crime novel (as opposed to mystery or spy novels) we should consider what traits are not necessary for this peculiar and particular sub-genre:

Good guys/Bad guys

Mysteries

An investigation

Justice

Okay, that cuts out a lot of books that masquerade as crime novels in the best-of lists and in publishers lists. So, what is required? Some obvious, and some not so much:

Crime

Criminal(s)

Victim(s)

Motivation

Philosophy

To quote a detective named Zero: "There are no good guys; there are no bad guys -- it's just a bunch of guys." Whereas the heart of the mystery is morality, the core of the crime novel is, if not amorality, then ambiguity.

Detectives and police, other than in supporting roles, generally get in the way in the crime novel, as does any sort of investigation. An obvious example of that is The Maltese Falcon where Sam Spade finds himself tossed back and forth between the antics of criminals and adventurers Kaspar Gutman, Bridget O'Shaughnessy, Joel Cairo and gunsel Wilmer Cook. Everybody thinks Spade is investigating the whereabouts of the Black Bird, but all he's really doing is watching the principals of the crime, and even at the end, when he pegs duplicitous Bridget for the murder of partner Miles Archer, it's neither the result of investigation nor deduction, just an observation of an obvious crime he can't ignore, no matter how much he's tempted. The Maltese Falcon -- no investigation, no police other than knuckleheads  Polhaus and Dundy, and no justice, just the moral ambiguity of Bridget heading off to prison, only because the gunsel is not around to take the fall, and Gutman and Cairo are heading back to Constantinople. Plot and motivation rule, with Spade as a passive nemesis. Not the greatest detective or mystery novel, as some bill it, but certainly the greatest crime novel.

For the crime novel, criminals are essential, but they need not be masterminds, or even competent.  In fact, it may help the plot for them to be small fries in thrall to an organization as ruthless as the Mafia or Wal-Mart. Such is the case in The Grifters by Jim Thompson, where Lilly Dillon works for bookie Bobo Justus. The plot is propelled by Lilly's conflict with Bobo, who thinks she's cheating him, and by Lilly's competition with her weak-willed son's moll for his affections. The novel is infused with crime, criminals, victims, criminals as victims, motivation and the moral ambiguity of the crime novel universe that guarantees there will be no justice, at least not a justice based in a lawful morality. The philosophy of the crime universe is not one of good vs evil, or even of evil vs eviler; the crime philosophy sets aside the concepts of good and evil more deftly than ever did Frederick Nietzsche, who might be considered the patron saint of the crime novel. The Nietzschean race of the television series Andromeda, based on an idea by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, perfectly embody the moral orientation of the crime novel -- "I'm on your side, as long as it's my side too; situations may change, but I don't -- I'm always on my side."

While spies might be considered just as morally ambiguous as the crime novel's protagonists, they really are not; they are agents of constituted authority, possessors of a rigid morality oriented to lawful order, even when they act in chaotic-unlawful ways. You can get an idea of the part played by moral philosophy in the crime novel from the graph to the right. Characters like James Bond, Quiller, Matt Helm and Harry Palmer are going to be either Lawful Good or Lawful Chaotic, for their goals, no matter their actions, always support society. Likewise, Sherlock Holmes is going to bounce between Lawful Good (Hound of the Baskervilles), Chaotic Good (The Adventure of the Devil's Foot) and Lawful Evil (The Final Problem). Contrast that with Sam Spade's nature as Lawful Neutral or Lilly Dillion's Neutral Evil. Killers like Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley (The Talented Mr Ripley) and Dexter Morgan (from Jeff Lindsay's popular crime novel series) fall into a neutral crack in the universe as well, this time Chaotic Neutral, because their actions neither advance nor retard the course of society; one of Tom Ripley's victims nails the dichotomy  between the mystery/detective/spy universe and the crime universe when he exclaims, "I cannot understand your total disconnection with the truth of things!" There lies the great divide, that which singles out the crime novel as a unique sub-genre to the mystery.

Crime novels are much more difficult to write than other kinds of mystery novels, not so much in the plotting, characterization, motivation or atmosphere, but in the conclusion. Even in a crime novel, where many of the rules go right out the window, the conclusion must still be satisfying to the reader. That's not always an easy task when main characters may be hoods, where everyone may die, where the innocent and the guilty are equally liable to end up in prison, or on a marble slab. When it's handled wrong, you just shake your head, drop the book in disgust and wonder why you wasted your time; when done right, even brilliantly, you have a novel that can be just as cathartic as any morality play by Christie, Chandler, Fleming, P.D. James or Conan Doyle. A toast, then, to crime...and the criminal in all of us.

A small Christmas gift to crime fiction and noir fans:

If the Guy's a Loser, It Must be Noir

Crime fiction is more popular than ever, and many people seem fascinated by that sub-genre called "noir," which is French for "dark". Film Noir came out of the depression and cynicism that followed WW2, portraying a world of stark contrasts, of desperate characters driven to desperate deeds, but fictional noir started before we even had a name for it, back in the hardboiled detective pulps that flourished after the conclusion of that other war to make the worlds safe for democracy. It rode alongside the standard detective story, but stayed away from the more traditional (English) mystery story. Sure there were detectives and policemen and bank managers and maybe even an heiress or two, but they were all seen from the other side, as through a glass darkly, by grifters and swindlers and peroxide blondes. Such stories were the red-headed step children of the mystery and suspense genres, but things have gotten a little better for them. Somewhat.

I admit to a certain fondness for the sub-genre despite its shady rep with critics. Mystery writer, critic and publisher Otto Penzler wrote of it: "Look, noir is about losers. The characters in these existential, nihilistic tales are doomed; they may not die, but they probably should." Be that as it may, and despite my tremendous admiration for Otto (his encyclopedia is still my go-to for everything mysterious), my attraction for noir fiction remains unabated. So it was a good day when I happened across Wall Street Noir issued by Akashic Books. Even before it became infested with dissidents, Wall Street was the perfect place for grifters and swindlers, for desperate capers and ill-gotten gains, with perhaps a peroxide blonde or an illicit affair with a trophy wife along the way. The stories were quite varied in style (one was even in the form of a comic strip), but editor Peter Spiegelman maintained a high level of quality. Being from the area, I was also interested in San Diego Noir, which contains the only story I've ever found set in National City, a hotbed of gangs and noir if there ever was one; I had hoped to find a story with a Chula Vista venue, but I guess the only thing dark about my town are the intellects in City Hall. The series started in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir, and exploded from there to include most major American cities and many foreign settings; the series is still going strong. I have to admit that Otto is correct about noir characters being losers in the end, but who doesn't like a good story of darkness, morality and justice now and then?