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Al Wheeler #13
The Dame
Illustrated by Barye PhilipsThe flaxen-haired blonde was very beautiful and very naked, except for the knife she wore in her back. She made a honey of a corpse even though she was the wrong girl for the job...
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
23 people want to read
About the author
Carter Brown
575 books52 followersCarter Brown was the pseudonym of Alan Geoffrey Yates (1923-1985), who was born in London and educated in Essex.
He married Denise Mackellar and worked as a sound engineer for Gaumont-British films before moving to Australia and taking up work in public relations.
In 1953 he became a full-time writer and produced nearly 200 novels between then and his retirement in 1981.
He also wrote as Tex Conrad and Caroline Farr.
His series heroes were Larry Baker, Danny Boyd, Paul Donavan, Rick Holman, Andy Kane, Randy Roberts, Mavis Siedlitz and Al Wheeler.
He married Denise Mackellar and worked as a sound engineer for Gaumont-British films before moving to Australia and taking up work in public relations.
In 1953 he became a full-time writer and produced nearly 200 novels between then and his retirement in 1981.
He also wrote as Tex Conrad and Caroline Farr.
His series heroes were Larry Baker, Danny Boyd, Paul Donavan, Rick Holman, Andy Kane, Randy Roberts, Mavis Siedlitz and Al Wheeler.
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November 23, 2024The Dame is a pulp era detective story, but it’s told in a rather tongue-in-cheek manner and filled with barely clad women. It’s not meant to be taken too seriously and it’s a lot of fun to read.
This one is a story about a movie star with a beach home, death threats, and a cheating husband. Peeping toms, gunfire, desert towns, funeral caretakers, almost-gone bikinis, and more fill out the tale.
The Lieutenant Al Wheeler series is a light-hearted murder mystery series set in fictional Pine City, which is a stand-in for parts of Southern California, a part of the world at this point in his career Carter had only heard about, not visited.
Wheeler is at home with a strawberry blonde waiting for the inevitable phone call interrupting his date, which this time is a shocking call about the murder of movie star Judy Manners in the Paradise Beach beach house she borrowed for the month.
What follows when Wheeler arrives is a comedy of errors as the door to the beach house opens and “She stood there, framed in the doorway, looking at me with polite interest. A flaxen-haired goddess in a black silk shirt and shorts. The shorts were brief, the shirt inadequate, clinging hopelessly to her full, magnificent breasts, making her look more naked than naked can ever be.” You are Judy Manners, he says, the world’s most recognizable movie star, he says. Yes, she says, what do you want. But you are supposed to be dead, he exclaims. I am most certainly not dead, she replies.
The only people around are Judy, her husband, Rudi, and her secretary Barbara Arnold. There are no servants around as it’s a monthlong retreat.
To be thorough, Wheeler, when he is not ogling Judy in her scantily clad glory, searches all the rooms to make sure nothing has gone awry. But it has. Barbara is lying nude, bloody, and exceptionally dead by the pool. And Judy thinks that, since women look much alike in the dark, she was the intended target. This is particularly so since she’s received a series of poems – threatening rhymes and all. For example, “I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She looked at me as she did die, And made sweet moan.”
When Wheeler blames Rudi, also a movie star, Rudi admits he was with Camille Clovis in Daydream Court where he has put up the young lady who swoons over him as his kept mistress. Camille could be found sunbathing at Daydream Court and her landlord is practically hiding in the bushes with binoculars. When Wheeler tells her that Rudi’s secretary was murdered, Camille exclaims thank god, I thought it was something important. Wheeler explains in his narrative: “I wasn’t getting very far with my questions, but then you can’t have everything, as the Siamese twin told her sister’s husband.”
The case takes Wheeler on a cemetery tour through Judy’s small town past and inter- movie studio feuding before he finally racks his head and figures out who done it.
Carter keeps the readers attention throughout until the final denouement at the end.
This one is a story about a movie star with a beach home, death threats, and a cheating husband. Peeping toms, gunfire, desert towns, funeral caretakers, almost-gone bikinis, and more fill out the tale.
The Lieutenant Al Wheeler series is a light-hearted murder mystery series set in fictional Pine City, which is a stand-in for parts of Southern California, a part of the world at this point in his career Carter had only heard about, not visited.
Wheeler is at home with a strawberry blonde waiting for the inevitable phone call interrupting his date, which this time is a shocking call about the murder of movie star Judy Manners in the Paradise Beach beach house she borrowed for the month.
What follows when Wheeler arrives is a comedy of errors as the door to the beach house opens and “She stood there, framed in the doorway, looking at me with polite interest. A flaxen-haired goddess in a black silk shirt and shorts. The shorts were brief, the shirt inadequate, clinging hopelessly to her full, magnificent breasts, making her look more naked than naked can ever be.” You are Judy Manners, he says, the world’s most recognizable movie star, he says. Yes, she says, what do you want. But you are supposed to be dead, he exclaims. I am most certainly not dead, she replies.
The only people around are Judy, her husband, Rudi, and her secretary Barbara Arnold. There are no servants around as it’s a monthlong retreat.
To be thorough, Wheeler, when he is not ogling Judy in her scantily clad glory, searches all the rooms to make sure nothing has gone awry. But it has. Barbara is lying nude, bloody, and exceptionally dead by the pool. And Judy thinks that, since women look much alike in the dark, she was the intended target. This is particularly so since she’s received a series of poems – threatening rhymes and all. For example, “I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She looked at me as she did die, And made sweet moan.”
When Wheeler blames Rudi, also a movie star, Rudi admits he was with Camille Clovis in Daydream Court where he has put up the young lady who swoons over him as his kept mistress. Camille could be found sunbathing at Daydream Court and her landlord is practically hiding in the bushes with binoculars. When Wheeler tells her that Rudi’s secretary was murdered, Camille exclaims thank god, I thought it was something important. Wheeler explains in his narrative: “I wasn’t getting very far with my questions, but then you can’t have everything, as the Siamese twin told her sister’s husband.”
The case takes Wheeler on a cemetery tour through Judy’s small town past and inter- movie studio feuding before he finally racks his head and figures out who done it.
Carter keeps the readers attention throughout until the final denouement at the end.
October 27, 2020
Published in 1959 and apparently updated somewhere along the line, this is as pulpy as it gets.
The writing is very awkward, and might interest aspiring writers on the pitfalls of dialogue.
It is also full of jiggling dames, and the tacked-on "sexy bits" are cringe-worthy.
1.5 stars
The writing is very awkward, and might interest aspiring writers on the pitfalls of dialogue.
It is also full of jiggling dames, and the tacked-on "sexy bits" are cringe-worthy.
1.5 stars
July 14, 2023
I bought a set of pulp novels and this is the second one I read from that set and I really enjoyed this one. I found the plot entertaining as well as the writing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews