Death House Doll

by Day Keene

Printed with "Mourning After" By Thomas B. Dewey.

Genres: Noir, Mystery

Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Day Keene, whose real name was Gunnar Hjerstedt, was one of the leading paperback mystery writers of the 1950s. Along with writing over 50 novels, he also wrote for radio, television, movies, and pulp magazines. Often his stories were set in South Florida or swamp towns in Louisiana, and included a man wrongly accused and on the run, determined to clear his name.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Mike Duvall promised to look in on his dying brother's wife and son, he had no idea he'd find her on death row. Can he clear Mona's name and find out where the diamonds are she supposedly stole?

This is the tenth book in my Kindle Unlimited Experiment. For the 30 day trial, I'm only reading books that are part of the program and keeping track what the total cost of the books would have been.

Daye Keene put out one of my favorite early Hard Case Crime offerings, Home is the Sailor, so when I found this as part of my Kindle Unlimited Experiment, I had to try it. With the covers, Prologue Books looks like the Hard Case Crime of e-books, right?

Not if this book is any indication. This was one of those books where I didn't much care what happened by the halfway mark. The main character and his insta-love for his dead brother's wife didn't wash with me, making the rest of the book have to work hard to redeem that first impression. It didn't. It's like when you've made up your mind to dislike someone and they couldn't redeem themselves if they created a time machine and offered to let you test it out.

The writing itself was good and pulpy, though. Keene knows how to turn a phrase, even when his plot is a cliche-ridden yawnfest. By the end, though, I didn't care about what really happened with Mona and the jeweler.

I'm not giving up on Prologue Books but this was really average. It was about as good as one of the weaker books in the Hard Case Crime series. Two stars.

Current Kindle Unlimited Savings Total: $52.12.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know if I find an old paperback sporting a cute babe with a gat in her hand on the cover and some moke lying dead on the floor at her feet I'm gonna read it. Especially if it's got a title like Death House Doll. I wish I could come up with titles like Death House Doll at the drop of a nickle. I would have given all my letters to ex-girlfriends such titles. Ah well, I don't write letters to ex-girlfriends anymore and they don't write novels like this anymore. Such is life. This one was part of an Ace Double and is by the always dependable Day Keene. Keene wrote dozens of such novels in the 50's and 60's and any of of them you find will be worth a few hours of entertainment. The story moves along at a fast clip because it's short and because the action doesn't let up. It's completely preposterous as all of these type novels should be. It's loaded with tough guy dialog, sexy babes whose clothes slip off easy and lots of details of hotels and dives and diners as you might have experienced it had you been alive and on the run from the buttons in 1953. You can find it available in ebook, but you'll miss the smelly brown pages that way, which is half the fun of reading it.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like the classic hard-boiled detective novels, this one fits right in. Keene, as he often did, twists the genre a bit by not using a detective to do the detecting. Here it is an army sergeant on leave checking up on his dead brother's wife and child. As the book begins he's visiting her in prison because she's the death house doll. Plenty of action and twists and turns as the sergeant, a medal of honor winner, takes on hoods and cops as he tries to solve the crime and free his brother's wife from death row before she is executed in five days. Just a couple of things made this clunky. A lot of information is learned through too conveniently over-heard conversations. And then the big summary reveal at the end, although that is a convention of the mystery genre, I wish it could have had a more active ending.

[Lawrence FitzGerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good prose, simple characterization, simple world building, ok story, no theme.

A quick read and a product of its times (early 1950's), but fun with a clever twist.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Day Keene was the pseudonym of Gunard Hjerstedt. There's a story that he once flipped a coin to decide between acting and writing. He made the right choice. He was a prolific writer who wrote many dark
crime novels.

This one begins with the narrator (Technical Sergeant Michael Duval) on leave from his fourth tour of duty. His younger brother (Johnny) found a bullet with his name on it in Korea and, before dying, asked our narrator to take care of his wife and kid. Turns out Mona's on death row and there probably never was a kid. She was young looking "but there was nothing immature about the way she
filled out the bodice of her gray prison dress." She was a tramp, a scam artist, a heartbreaker. She's on the row because she took a jeweler up to her apartment and killed him for the diamonds, diamonds worth a quarter of a million dollars. Only Mike Duval doesnt believe this girl did it and a certain homicide detective has doubts too. the whole city, including both the mob and the law, is after Duval and
he has to try and stay one step ahead or fail his brother.

This is truly a flawless work. It runs like a freight train forward and there is nothing
but excitement and energy here. Keene couldn't have done a better job if he tried. Top recommendation.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

When men where men and women where quail,
when editors and censorship was strong,
when police brutality was ok,
when you could drink a pint of rye for breakfast and not be an alcoholic,

and my favorite line in the book was "I never paid for quail in my life."

[Victor Whitman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good one from Day Keene.