Stark House continues its reprinting of Al Wheeler mysteries by “carter brown” (pseudonym of Alan Geoffrey Yates). This new omnibus edition includes mysteries from 1956 (mysteries 4-6 in the series). I was fascinated by the way “carter brown” developed the unorthodox Homicide detective, Lieutenant Al Wheeler. Wheeler is not only a canny puzzle solver, he also has a eye for women. Yes, this is frothy story-telling, but for the men in the audience “carter brown” was writing for, these slim books were ideal entertainment (over 100 million copies of “carter brown” books were sold!).
No Harp for My Angel takes the reader on a vacation in Florida with Al Wheeler. But, of course, Wheeler finds trouble when he tries to pick up a gangster’s girlfriend. Wheeler finds himself framed and his only option is to go undercover for the local police to investigate the schemes behind the disappearance of several young women. Explosive conclusion!
Booty for a Babe is set at a Science Fiction convention. One of the featured speakers is killed in front of his audience. Al Wheeler races against the clock (the convention is about to end!) to figure out the motive and method behind this bizarre murder. The plotting in Booty for a Babe is superior to all the previous Al Wheeler mysteries. There’s plenty of humor in this book, too!
Eve, It’s Extortion (aka, The Victim) challenges Al Wheeler with a death that might or might not be a murder. A drunk is fatally struck down by a hit-and-run driver. His beautiful widow stands to collect a large insurance settlement. Wheeler suspects there might be more to this case and unravels a conspiracy. But evidence is in short supply so Wheeler decides to manufacture his own.
If you’re looking for fast-paced, clever, and enjoyable mysteries this Stark House omnibus triples your pleasure! GRADE: B+
Read a few of Carter Brown’s books when I was a teenager. Can’t really remember what I thought of them. His books were everywhere at one time, like Richard Prathers and Donald Hamilton.
Steve, you and I grew up reading some of the same books! The McGinnis covers drew me to the “carter brown” paperbacks. And, I read a ton of Richard Prathers and Donald Hamiltons, too!
Finally, something I can relate to! I have a lot of these in their original McGinnis covers and hope one day to revisit them!
Bob, Art Scott has ALL the “carter browns” with McGinnis covers.
I’ve read a few (all Wheelers) too. These sound more interesting than some – Florida, SF convention. They must have a market or they wouldn’t keep publishing them.
Jeff, I read THE VICTIM long ago in the Sixties. The other two Al Wheeler novels in this omnibus were never published in the U.S. before STARK HOUSE reprinted them in this wonderful omnibus edition.
I read a couple of Carter Browns back in the 60s/70s, and just wasn’t impressed. But I succumbed to all the hype surrounding the first Stark House collection last year and gave him another chance. I did manage to get through the first novel, but it was a struggle, and never read the other two. Guess that’s going to do it for me. For those who liked the series, did it get better as it went along?
Michael, the short answer to your question is: YES! You’ll see a dramatic improvement in writing style and plotting in these mysteries. “carter brown” really hit his stride about a dozen books into the series. The later books, published at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s had gratuitous sex scenes added.
George – Thanks for posting this review. And, Stark House deserves a big Thank You for all the work they are doing.
Elgin, I have a couple more new STARK HOUSE omnibus editions on my Read Real Soon stack. You’ll see those reviews in May. I agree: STARK HOUSE is doing a fabulous job reprinting books from the Fifties and Sixties!
Like Michael, I read a couple of Carter Brown books, attracted by the covers, but was not impressed, I just didn’t ike them. Whether they featured Wheeler or another character I don’t remember, but I’m not interested in trying another.
Rick, “carter brown” was writing a book a month for years. I admire his productivity.
That’s “didn’t like them”. Gah. It was in the late Fifties, perhaps very early Sixties.
Rick, these “carter brown” books are rooted in the Fifties and Sixties culture. Remember “swingers”?
This brings back memories of the early 60s when as a student I found some Carter Brown novels in my favourite bookstore, attracted by the lurid covers and titles …
That was for me one of the ways to learn “American English” – besides getting SF from the library of the America House which obviously didn’t have stuff from “cheap authors” like C B. 🙂
But I haven’t looked at the books since, they should be somewhere in my library still.
Signet was the publisher if I remember correctly-
Wolf, what makes me laugh is that “carter brown” was an Australian who never visited the United States that he wrote dozens of books about!
I read about that much later – probably on wiki and also was astonished.
Of course for us young Germans all this felt so strange anyway – my first real visit to the USA was in the middle 80s when I was already over 40 years old – and many things still surprised me!
I read a handful of the Carter Browns when in my teens because my father read loads of them. I read two or three as an adult. My favorites were the ones starring Mavis Seidlitz.
Barry, I’m a huge fan of Mavis Seidlitz. If you can find a copy of Deadly women : the woman mystery reader’s indispensable companion / edited by Jan Grape, Dean James, and Ellen Nehr you’ll find my article: “Carter Brown’s fabulous mystery Babe: Mavis Seidlitz” by George Kelley.