The Blonde Cried Murder

Mike Shayne #27

by Brett Halliday

Mike Shayne has 2 hours to solve a murder—or else watch his lover die

It’s 2 hours before midnight when the woman in room 360 calls the front desk to report a murder. The house detective sprints upstairs, but finds room 360 totally no killer, no victim, and no woman begging for help. Across town, Mike Shayne is driving back to his office after a romantic evening with Lucy Hamilton. Despite the quiet and the moonlight, in his bones he knows that this is not a night for romance. There’s death in the air.

Later, a woman appears at Shayne’s office, claiming her brother was murdered at the Hibiscus Hotel. A man follows in her wake, insisting that he’s her brother, and the woman is insane. Then a killer corners Lucy in her apartment, giving Shayne until midnight to solve the mystery and save his lover’s life.

Genres: Mystery

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

AKA David Dresser
Excerpt from Wikipedia:

Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names

Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.

Reviews

[ناني ماكفي · Rating 4 out of 5]

أظنني محظوظة أني أمتلك النسخة الورقية وطبعتها من1956😌❤❤❤
الرواية 159صفحة لكنها الحقيقة مكتوبة بخط صغير و غير متباعد الأسطر .اي كانت لتكون أكثر صفحات في طبعة أخرى اليوم
الكاتب بريت هاليداي .brett halliday
وهاته اول مصافحة لي معه وأول مرة اتعرف على بطله مايك شاين
عن مؤسسة dell publishing company
نيو يورك the blonde cried murder
الشقراء صرخت جريمة قتل
تدور أحداث القصة حول بنت تلحق أخاها بعد ان اتصل بها وقال انه في مشكل
تلحق به للفندق فتجده ميتا . تتصل من اقرب غرفة اخرى مفتوحة لتخبر عن الجريمة . تعود ولا تجد جثة
هنا تنزل مسرعة بعد أن لحقها رجل غريب بوجه فيه ندبة
ترتمي امام تاكسي . لينصحها بمايك شاين
ويأخذها لهناك
مايك يعود لفندقه ليجد امرأة تنتظره والأخرى تنتظره بغرفته
لكنه يطرد الأولى التي حاولت ان تريه صورة رجل وتخبره انه زوجها وتعينه ليبحث عنه
يصعد غرفته ويلتقي بالبنت المسكينة الهاربة من الرجل والتي مات أخوها
هنا يطرق ذو الوجه المندوب الغرفة مدعيا انها اخته وانه عين مخبرا ليبحث عنها وانه عاد مؤخرا لديار وقطن بعيدا عنها وعلم انها بمشكل فجاء يبحث عنها وانها كانت بالفندق ولم يفهم لم هربت منه
يرسل مايك البنت لشقة سكرتيرته لتكون بأمان بعد ان خبأها في المطبخ
هنا تعترضها البنت الأخرى التي كانت في تاكسي وتصر ان تتحدث معها و تخبرها كل الحكاية
الاولى وثقت بها وبقيت معها و لكن الثانية والتي بدورها كانت عند مايك تحاول ان يساعدها للبحث عن زوجها قامت بقتل الأولى الهاربة
وذهبت بدلها لمنزل سكرتيرة لتختبئ ولتبحث عن شقيقها
الذي هو صاحب الندبة
حكاية معقدة لكن
القتيل الأول كان ضحية بادجر غايمز او ما يعرف بلعبة ابتزاز وقامت البنت في التاكسي بقتله والهرب
لحقته اخته فوجدته ميتا
اتصلت بالأمن وعادت ولم تجد جثة .فزعت وهربت
وهي خارجة التقت رجلا لحقها
هذا الرجل هو اخ القاتلة الذي بدوره يبحث عن اخته
وظن الأخرى اخته
نظرا لقصر نظره والضوء السيء و انكسار نظارته في حادث بسيط على الطريق
وهكذا تتشابك الأحداث ويحلها مايك شاين في ساعات
الرواية مسلية
لم افهم خيوطها جيدا الا في الأخير .كثرة الأسامي ونسقها السريع ومعه نزلة برد شديدة جعلت تركيزي ضعيف
لكن الرواية تندرج ضمن نوعية روايات الجرائم والغموض والألغاز البوليسية
اعجبتني
اولا لان الكاتب واقعي لم يضخم شخصيته الرئيسية لم يؤلهها ولم يعطها صفات البطل الخارق ككل ما تجده في الكتابات الأمريكية
بل كانت شخصية بسيطة ذكية مع هفوات
وكذلك احب انه كتب رواية كاملة أحداثها تدور بين الساعة 9,48 و 12,01
تخيل
ولم ينقص من تشويقها شيء او من أحداثها او من جمالها
الكاتب فعلا ذكي
فمن يتجرئ على رواية كاملة في ظرف زمني بسويعات خصوصا انها بوليسية?
اي يلزمها حركة كثيرة وأحداث
نجح الكاتب دون حشو او زيادة او بلا بلا
امر آخر إنها serie كاملة مثلا كروايات الجيب لرجل المستحيل
لا اظنها مصافحتي الأخيرة مع مايك
أحببته
ويستحق 4 نجمات
والآن أعود لأقرئ عن الأشباح

[Peter Lougee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun 1950s era almost-noir mystery set in Miami long before the age of cell phones, The Blonde Cried Murder is a fun ride best left alone to take you on a ride without a lot of thought.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A more condensed pulp detective mystery than some of its contemporaries, it takes place over the course of a couple of hours and some change (for Mike Shayne, he only has two exactly to solve the case).

It's a novel approach that accentuates the tight tangle of identities and motives at play here which moves quickly with little room to breath. Shayne's client (the titular murder crier) swears they saw their brother's murdered body in a hotel room, but by the time they call reception from a nearby room it had vanished without a trace. From there things spiral out of control as with another man hot on her trail, she goes on the run before Shayne can even get her name.

What follows is a swirl of identities, back stories, and blood under the Miami moon. All while Shayne's lover and secretary awaits him back at her home with a glass of brandy he promised to return to by midnight. But it'll soon prove to not be the sole reason to stay on the move. A later mystery in the Shayne canon, the detective is grappling with why he does his job, and what he's looking for out of life. Is it time to settle down? And does he still have it in him to be able to protect those he brings under his charge?

To be honest, he's maybe a little sloppy here - though with only two hours on the clock, perhaps that's the best we can hope for. The framing is a neat idea, and works for the mystery at play, though it can feel a bit haphazard at times. This isn't the kind of mystery you can really settle into due to the breakneck pace (pleasingly it takes about two and a half hours to read, so start at about 9pm or 9:30pm to mostly match the time in the book), though that's the intention. The Blonde Cried Murder isn't the best pulp mystery out there, but it's definitely not the worst either - and that goes for just the Shayne books as well. But it's a fun way to spend an evening.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before Miami Vice, there was Michael Shayne's Miami. Shayne was everything you could want in a private eye. Big, redheaded, and known all over town, Shayne was the original knight in shining armor, helping gorgeous damsels in distress. Davis Dresser wrote under the byline Brett Halliday that he wrote nearly fifty Mike Shayne novels before ghost writers wrote another 27 novels.

This particular novel has an incredibly fast-moving plot. All the action takes place on a single evening - before the stroke of midnight.

There's something here for everyone. Violence for the men readers and a romance with secretary Lucy Hamilton for the female readers. Mysterious clients show up on Shayne's doorstep, ruining their date. Murder, missing corpses, mistaken identity and more fill out this novel.

[Db69 · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, Brett Halliday provides a riveting noir mystery in this, one of his later novels. The whole book I could watch the scenes play out as if I were in them directly.

In this story, Lucy (Mike's secretary) is put in danger by Mike unknowingly when he takes a case from a blonde who gets his attention about being scared by a man she claims killed someone in her room and is chasing her. He shows up at Mike's motel room claiming to be her brother. Was it her brother? Was the brother the one he killed? Is she who she says she is? Every Mike Shayne novel I read, there are so many unknowns and it always comes out in the end for the big red-headed detective with a soft spot for the ladies.

[Hellblau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Halliday continues to experiment with the format here. This one takes place over the course of two hours and has Shayne hurrying to untangle the facts of the case while a psycho killer is on the loose. I was struck by how it was almost noir in its tone (another review mentioned this too).

[Kipp Poe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Mike Shayne Mystery book must read more. Plenty if twist a fun read