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Al Wheeler #22
Hellcat
«Pour une belle tête, c'est une belle tête. Très virile. De longs cheveux noirs, ondulés. Un petit sourire légèrement méprisant. Qu'est-ce qui peut bien l'amuser, le gars, depuis cinq ans qu'il sourit ainsi? L'employé de la morgue replace l'énorme bocal sur son étagère et la tête se balance un moment dans le formol. Ça me fait penser à ma tante Clemmie. Pour les conserves en bocaux, elle était imbattable. Je me demande ce qu'elle aurait dit de celle-là.»
128 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1962
2 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Carter Brown
556 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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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 20, 2025
“The Hellcat” is the twenty-fifth novel in Carter Brown’s Al Wheeler series. Set in fictional Pine City, California, this novel has Lt. Wheeler face-to-face with a bodiless head, meaning a head without the rest of the corpse. The head found by a bunch of teenagers had been sitting around the morgue for five years unidentified. There is a link to the Sumners, the most powerful family in town, and Wheeler dutifully questions the exalted family who claims a lack of involvement, among them Charity Sumner who hides in plain sight from Wheeler. The mystery deepens when a mobster and his assassin, a blind man known as the “Creeping Terror,” identifies the head as one of their own, Tino Martinelli. Wheeler plays under throughput this novel, including with the ladies. For a Carter Brown novel, the sex and violence are extremely muted.
May 2, 2012
There is always one family somewhere that thinks they are above everyone else…including the law. That family in this book is the Sumner family. They are rich, have the biggest chunk of land in the area, have servants, and are about as stuck up as they can get. They also have a secret…a deep, dark, secret. Al Wheeler is a police officer who is a bit, well, insubordinate. He thinks rules are made for other officers and does what he wants to do, no matter how mad it makes his superior officer, Lavers. This is why Lavers hesitates to put Wheeler on one of the most important cases in his office, a five year old cold case that just got a new lead. Where does that lead go? Well, right to the prim, prissy, family on the hill of course. Will the Sumners actually help Wheeler in finding the killer of a man from five years ago? Why should they, when it matters none to them? Who cares if they knew the victim or were the last ones to see him alive? Poor Wheeler is driven to distraction on the case by the rudeness of the Sumner family and the attractiveness of the youngest woman in the Sumner family, Charity. He knows they all know more than they are letting on, but he can’t quite figure out how much more they know. Why won’t they admit to having had the deceased man in their home the week he died? Why are they against Wheeler investigating? Is it because they have something to hide or are they just showing that they are above having to cooperate with the law and just don‘t want to have their name involved? Wheeler learns the hard way that Charity is NOT just a stuck up and moody rich girl, she is a real Hellcat (someone who isn’t afraid to come out fighting). His only hope of solving this case before the deceased’s family takes matters into their own, mobster, hands is to get help from Charity. The family of the deceased is ready to “take out” anyone they think was involved in the killing of one of their own, and it won’t matter to them if they were wrong or not. Can Wheeler get Charity to help him find the real killer before it’s too late for all of them?
I thought this was a great mystery book! It may have been shorter, but it was just amazing. Right from page one, it had my complete and full attention and it never lost my attention. Books that keep right on moving along are by far my favorite and this one did NOT let me down at all. The characters were perfect for the book and the situations. My favorite one was Al Wheeler closely followed by Charity. I have to say the mob twist made it all the more interesting. I mean come on, any officer wants justice for a crime, but when you are being threatened by someone so powerful to solve it or pay, it kind of ups the antey if you ask me. It is an older book and definitely a goodie. For any mystery buff out there, this is the book for you. I highly recommend this book!
5/5 Stars!!
I thought this was a great mystery book! It may have been shorter, but it was just amazing. Right from page one, it had my complete and full attention and it never lost my attention. Books that keep right on moving along are by far my favorite and this one did NOT let me down at all. The characters were perfect for the book and the situations. My favorite one was Al Wheeler closely followed by Charity. I have to say the mob twist made it all the more interesting. I mean come on, any officer wants justice for a crime, but when you are being threatened by someone so powerful to solve it or pay, it kind of ups the antey if you ask me. It is an older book and definitely a goodie. For any mystery buff out there, this is the book for you. I highly recommend this book!
5/5 Stars!!
January 27, 2022
"He hardly seemed to have left the room before he was back with that axe in his hand! Oh, God! I saw him standing there, his eye gleaming like a maniac's, and then he swung the axe and I saw Tino's head roll!"
HELLCAT starts off like an 80's mass market paperback horror; a head floating in a jar of formaldehyde, a confused cop, and a medical examiner who's lost his senses, all clustered around the ice cold bodies of the dead in a eerily quiet mortuary. From there the story evens out to the traditional lone wolf police procedural akin to Spillane's Mike Hammer (the comparison and praise is well deserved) with Lieutenant Al Wheeler tasked with solving a 5 year old cold case, reopened thanks to a deathbed confession.
The Sumners own the Valley and everyone who lives there. Their old money influence has kept them out of the headlines and out of the hands of law - until, their former cook calls time on a dark family secret. Wheeler's first port of call is the Sumner residence, his first task; get past the beautiful Jessica Sumner (wife to Crispin, who was in residence at the time of the murder accusation), and then interview Crispin and Charity, the brother and sister linked to the murder, in order to debunk the deathbed confession, or confirm it.
HELLCAT is one of my favourite Al Wheeler books. Not only is the story gripping and dripping with that oh so cheesy pulp goodness, it manages to create a near perfect balance of humour and seriousness as Wheeler steadily paints a picture of murder.
On the surface, HELLCAT seems pretty standard, but as the story progresses, Carter Brown cleverly adds layer upon layer of complexity to the case which only strengthens the narrative; there's a couple of mob goons (including a pro executioner) claiming to know the person who the decapitated head belongs, a father who resides in the Valley with murder in his veins on a quest to avenge the wrong-doings subjected to his teenage daughter, and a side plot of pure pulp 'love' between Wheeler and Charity Sumner (of course, there had to be some sleaze!). I greedily ate this one up in a single sitting.
HELLCAT starts off like an 80's mass market paperback horror; a head floating in a jar of formaldehyde, a confused cop, and a medical examiner who's lost his senses, all clustered around the ice cold bodies of the dead in a eerily quiet mortuary. From there the story evens out to the traditional lone wolf police procedural akin to Spillane's Mike Hammer (the comparison and praise is well deserved) with Lieutenant Al Wheeler tasked with solving a 5 year old cold case, reopened thanks to a deathbed confession.
The Sumners own the Valley and everyone who lives there. Their old money influence has kept them out of the headlines and out of the hands of law - until, their former cook calls time on a dark family secret. Wheeler's first port of call is the Sumner residence, his first task; get past the beautiful Jessica Sumner (wife to Crispin, who was in residence at the time of the murder accusation), and then interview Crispin and Charity, the brother and sister linked to the murder, in order to debunk the deathbed confession, or confirm it.
HELLCAT is one of my favourite Al Wheeler books. Not only is the story gripping and dripping with that oh so cheesy pulp goodness, it manages to create a near perfect balance of humour and seriousness as Wheeler steadily paints a picture of murder.
On the surface, HELLCAT seems pretty standard, but as the story progresses, Carter Brown cleverly adds layer upon layer of complexity to the case which only strengthens the narrative; there's a couple of mob goons (including a pro executioner) claiming to know the person who the decapitated head belongs, a father who resides in the Valley with murder in his veins on a quest to avenge the wrong-doings subjected to his teenage daughter, and a side plot of pure pulp 'love' between Wheeler and Charity Sumner (of course, there had to be some sleaze!). I greedily ate this one up in a single sitting.
April 27, 2016
My first Carter Brown mystery and I'm hooked! Lt. Al Wheeler struck me as a cross between Columbo and Sam Spade (from the radio show, played by Howard Duff). In fact, it was Duff's voice I kept hearing as I read the stylish hardboiled detective dialogue Brown excelled at. At one point, Wheeler admits he must have lifted a line of dialogue from the late, late show!
SPOILERS AHEAD! The novel has a lighthearted, bounce that keeps it moving steadily through to the end. There is one scene where the mood darkens in which a character describes the tragedy that led to his shooting Tino. Brown doesn't dwell there, however, and it doesn't slacken the pace. In fact, it helps orient the reader for the conclusion. Any sympathy one felt for Tino is rightfully gone.
One character who was blithely dispatched and for whom I did feel sympathy was Crispin. He wasn't a nice guy, but did he deserve death? Wheeler was all but resigned to Crispin being killed by Gabriele or Ed, and did nothing to prevent it. Adding insult to injury, nobody sheds a tear for him afterwards (we're not made privy to his wife Jessica's reaction).
What made the book so enjoyable are the vivid characters and snappy dialogue. Gabriele, Georgie, and Ed were well developed and engaging. As was Charlie Katz, the mortician who flips out at the prospect of losing the jar containing the decapitated head he's dubbed John. Charity is there initially for sex appeal--and provides it in abundance!--but is by the end a three-dimensional character with a story that explains her erratic and erotic behavior.
I really suspect Levinson and/or Link drew consciously or unconsciously upon The Hellcat or other Lt. Al Wheeler mysteries when creating Lt. Frank Columbo. The cat-and-mouse dialogue and wordplay, the sordid secrets of the rich, and the eccentric detective who teases out the truth are all here. Crispin even complains of Wheeler becoming a nuisance with his frequent visits, foreshadowing the exasperated balking of every antagonist on Columbo.
A fun and fast read that has too much heft to be called breezy. It strikes just the right balance and is a mystery worth checking out.
SPOILERS AHEAD! The novel has a lighthearted, bounce that keeps it moving steadily through to the end. There is one scene where the mood darkens in which a character describes the tragedy that led to his shooting Tino. Brown doesn't dwell there, however, and it doesn't slacken the pace. In fact, it helps orient the reader for the conclusion. Any sympathy one felt for Tino is rightfully gone.
One character who was blithely dispatched and for whom I did feel sympathy was Crispin. He wasn't a nice guy, but did he deserve death? Wheeler was all but resigned to Crispin being killed by Gabriele or Ed, and did nothing to prevent it. Adding insult to injury, nobody sheds a tear for him afterwards (we're not made privy to his wife Jessica's reaction).
What made the book so enjoyable are the vivid characters and snappy dialogue. Gabriele, Georgie, and Ed were well developed and engaging. As was Charlie Katz, the mortician who flips out at the prospect of losing the jar containing the decapitated head he's dubbed John. Charity is there initially for sex appeal--and provides it in abundance!--but is by the end a three-dimensional character with a story that explains her erratic and erotic behavior.
I really suspect Levinson and/or Link drew consciously or unconsciously upon The Hellcat or other Lt. Al Wheeler mysteries when creating Lt. Frank Columbo. The cat-and-mouse dialogue and wordplay, the sordid secrets of the rich, and the eccentric detective who teases out the truth are all here. Crispin even complains of Wheeler becoming a nuisance with his frequent visits, foreshadowing the exasperated balking of every antagonist on Columbo.
A fun and fast read that has too much heft to be called breezy. It strikes just the right balance and is a mystery worth checking out.
May 14, 2018
Very good
Very enjoyable and thoroughly recommend reading this book and you will read more of Carter brown co
Vintage novels again
Very enjoyable and thoroughly recommend reading this book and you will read more of Carter brown co
Vintage novels again
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews