Draw the Curtain Close

Mac #1

by Thomas B. Dewey

Thomas B. Dewey. Draw the Curtain Close. New York: Jefferson House, 1947. First edition. Octavo. 212 pages. Publisher's binding and dust jacket.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

212 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Thomas Blanchard Dewey was an American author of hardboiled crime novels. He created two series of novels: the first one features Mac, a private investigator from Chicago, the second features Pete Schofield.

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this hardboiled private investigator novel. Mr. Dewey has a compelling prose style I find a cut above most of his writing peers, like Spillane. He employs the expected tropes like the ripe femme fatale, overwritten action sequences, and hokey dialogue, which isn't a bad thing if you're a fan of the crime noir subgenre as I am. He authored at least two series. However, this title is the first one that I have read. I don't know if I'll ever get to any of his other books, but I'm glad I finally got to read this one.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like classic hardboiled detective fiction with mobsters, beautiful dames, nightclubs, murder, and Fistfights, you will find no better detective series than Dewey's Mac series. Between 1947 and 1970, Dewey published sixteen books in this series and every single one of them is top-notch. Draw the Curtain Close is the first book in the series and it took Dewey six years to return to the series and give us a second one.

Draw The Curtain is tough and hardboiled. It features a world where there's little sunlight and there's all kinds of nefarious double crossing characters and crooked entanglements. Like mid classic Private eyes, Mac works by himself and has one pal on the police force, Donovan. The story is a typical tangle of double crossing crooks and, in typical classic PI fashion, leaves the reader in the dark as to what everyone's after till nearly the end.

What really works about this book is the nonstop pace that never lets up. If you've read lots of PI fiction, you've read other stories with the mobster asking the PI to work for him, the mobster's dazzling dame who has to be hidden from both the mob and the law, the frame up, and the chases through the town, but few can tell this story better than Dewey. This is simply the good stuff.

[Edwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard boiled detective "Mac" gets himself involved in a murder mystery. This is a very encouraging start to Dewey's "Mac" Detective Series of books. I intend to read more of them.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not usually enjoy American PI novels of the hard-boiled type but this was an exception.
The writiting is crisp and clear and the dialogue has an endearingly wry edge to it.
There is not much to the plot but it rollocks along pacily. There is a lot of violence, as one would expect, but since the book does not take itself too seriously, it all fits nicely.

3.5 stars

I will read more if this underrated author

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Mac is one of those hard-boiled PIs who gets involved with petty crooks, mobsters, women and the Chicago police.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most underrated detective series and hard boiled writers of the 50s-60s era!

[Viktor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrific little book. Gets the job done with a minimum of fuss. It's missing that little extra something for me.
It's the first in a long series, and I noticed that this one was written 6 years before the 2nd entry. So it might be interesting to check in on this series again to see if it has a little more zip