The Meandering Corpse

Shell Scott #31

by Richard S. Prather

I could see the beach robe Zazu had been wearing, but couldn't see her. Then the pool's surface rippled and tossed darts of sunlight at my eyes, and I could see Zazu quite well. She was wearing either the latest thing in jazzy bathing suits or nothing at all. She reached the ladder and started to climb up it, nonchalant as a bird - a jaybird. "Hi," I said brightly, "you can see I'm working." She started down the ladder until the water was almost up to her waist. "Do you always swim in the nude, dear?" I said. "It feels good. Probably I won't do it when I'm older. "I thought that was when girls did it."

Genres: Noir

164 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1965

About the author

Richard Scott Prather was an American mystery novelist, best known for creating the "Shell Scott" series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms David Knight and Douglas Ring.

Prather was born in Santa Ana, California. He served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. In 1945 year he married Tina Hager and began working as a civilian chief clerk of surplus property at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. He left that job to become a full-time writer in 1949. The first Shell Scott mystery, 'Case of the Vanishing Beauty' was published in 1950. It would be the start of a long series that numbered more than three dozen titles featuring the Shell Scott character.

Prather had a disagreement with his publisher in the 1970s and sued them in 1975. He gave up writing for several years and grew avocados. However in 1986 he returned with 'The Amber Effect'. Prather's final book, 'Shellshock', was published in hardcover in 1987 by Tor Books.

At the time of his death in 2007, he had completed his final Shell Scott Mystery novel, 'The Death Gods'. It was published October 2011 by Pendleton Artists.

Prather served twice on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America. Additionally Prather received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1986.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have read enough Shell Scott mysteries, you know that, almost without fail, Prather has a chief hoodlum and a bunch of hoodlum followers show up as the bad guys. And, you know also that he seems to find another group of hoodlums who are about to rise up and take over the Los Angeles’ underworld in each novel. That’s part of his magic formula and he sticks to it. The Meandering Corpse (Orig. Pub. 1965) is basically a riff on this formula and it is all about two warring hoodlum gangs and how Scott was somehow caught in the middle between the two.

The opening sequence is rather odd. It involves the young-looking daughter of one hoodlum chief paying a night time visit to Scott’s apartment. She was a “sweet-faced, lush-bodied, warped-minded little teen-aged tomato named Zazu.” Her improbable story is that she wants him to help “her daddy.” who is a “businessman.” She explains that businessmen were trying to muscle daddy out of business and that they would just as soon shoot him as not.

Eventually, she gets around to explaining that she is Zazu Alexander and daddy is Cyril Alexander, who is “the titular and actual head of the ‘Alexander Gang.'” When Scott says he does not work for crooks, dear sweet Zazu explains that she has thought all of this out, opens her coat and shows her blouse and underthings ripped to shreds, and states she is only seventeen is going to yell “rape” if Scott does not help her. Then, she explains, he will be in hot water with law enforcement as well as her daddy. It is a crazy start to a caper, but somehow she convinces Scott it is in his best interest to cooperate and get the goods on the Domino gang. Scott agrees, perhaps because he believes he cam get the goods on both these gangs and that there is a shooting war beginning between them that may threaten the safety of regular citizens. Indeed, later, when he realizes Zazu’s real age -apparently he checked her driver’s license while she was skinny-dipping behind daddy’s mansion.

The Alexander Gang is run by Alexander and includes “a grossly fat, dark-skinned and black-mustached trigger-man named Geezer.” Others included Omar, Luddy, Dope, Stacey, Stiff, Tamale Willie, Big Horse, and Sad Mick McGannon. You can tell Prather had lots of fun coming up with these fearsome names.

The other one of these grouplings of hoodlums is run by one Nickie Domano, “known to the boy on the turf as Domino.” He was a “tall handsome lady-killer, and man-killer, with the kind of healthy black wavy hair women love to run their hands or feet through.” His crew includes Charles Haver, Jay Werme, and thirteen to fifteen others.

Scott runs into Domino at the Jazz Pad, where Lilli Lorraine is singing. Lilli (with two Ls) “was a tall, hot-looking tomato with ‘Grrr’ in her eyes and lips that helped explain the heat in her jazzy harmonies.” Later, Lilli claimed she shot an Alexander gang member, but that makes little sense to Scott. He has to run around (sometimes in a helicopter) and try to get answers to what is going on before it all literally blows everyone to kingdom come – like when everyone is gathered together at an event. Indeed, foreshadowing a scene from the Godfather, Prather even has a scene with a sawed-off in a flower box.

For kicks, Prather has scenes where Scott literally runs out of bullets in the middle of a shoot-out and doesn’t realize it for a few seconds. There are also an actually lion and bear and zebra involved. And, he gets beat near to death more than once.

Not a bad read, but Scott never really has a purpose in this novel – like saving someone in distress. And, the whole explanation for some of the killings and the feuding is not that interesting.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pulp, and if you like raw detective bravado, unreasonable coincidence, and calling women "tomatoes", this is for you. I personally find Prather's work hilarious, a welcome break to more serious fiction.

[Jackson Burnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip Marlowe would have been outdated in the Mad Men era. Private Eye Shell Scott is his mid-century Southern California successor. Prather's prose doesn't compare to Chandler's but his sense of humor and timing do. The Meandering Corpse takes you to a past age and provides a mystery as well.

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shell Scott vzal trochu atypickou zakázku… no, vlastně byl k jejímu přijetí dovydírán. Musí ochraňovat gangsterského šéfa před útokem konkurenčního gangu. Což ho samozřejmě dostane do situace, kdy po něm půjdou všichni grázlové z okolí, na jeho hlavu bude vypsaná odměna a bude pobíhat s tikající mrtvolou po hřbitově.

Ale to už trochu předbíhám.

Celý příběh je dost jednoduchý a funguje spíš jen jako šuplík, do kterého autor hází zábavné nápady, který mu bleskly hlavou. Včetně scén, kdy se snaží padouchům, co na něj míří zbraní, vysvětlit, že jim za zády stojí lev… ne, vlastně dva lvi, medvěd a nemocná zebra jménem Ethel. (Což je překvapivě pravda.) Nebo když pobíhá po hřbitově s tikající mrtvolou přes rameno a za ním se řítí gauneři, rozepínají si poklopce a z nich tahají pistole (protože byli nuceni schovat si zbraně právě na inkriminovaná místa).

Prather si to prostě užívá a každou scénu se snaží pořádně vymačkat a vymyslet k ní nějaký bizarní nápad. To se i týká obvyklého finále, kdy hrdina, obklopený gangem na hřbitově, provádí klasické detektivní odhalení pachatele - což mu ovšem kazí sám pachatel, který se ustavičně přiznává a tím hrdinovi kazí jeho velký moment, takže se to zvrhne v souboj, kdo to řekne dřív.

A přitom to pořád má šmrnc drsné školy a hrdinu, který chrlí hlášky a ironické popis všeho kolem sebe.