Pardon My Body

by Dale Bogard

From the moment Dale's headlights hit the nyloned legs of lovely Julia Casson on that old Connecticut highway, trouble moved right in on him--and stayed there.Gunmen, straight coppers and crooked coppers, luscious bedtime lovelies and the fabulous mystery of the Task Force dagger deaths...Bogard cracks his way through it all to the most breathless showdown ever.

Genres: Mystery, Noir

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

A pseudonym used by Douglas Enefer

Reviews

[Glen]

Seems like a British author tried to knock off an American hard boiled mystery without any real idea of how to make one work. While the starting premise is interesting, it goes off the rails all too soon.

Added--Second verse, just like the first

[Maegan]

*This review is for the original 1952 edition, not the 2009 re-release*

Dale Bogard makes Harry Dresden look like a gentleman. On the other hand, this book was actually written in the 1950s, unlike The Dresden Files . Also, Bogard doesn't check out the women he calls whores.

I don't know how I felt about this book. It's certainly corny, but it was fun and delivered what I was expecting going in. Because this book was written in the 50s, I found Bogard's dislike of "amoral women nursing careers instead of babies" amusing rather then offensive, but that's definitely a thing in this book, so if that bothers you, maybe avoid it. If, however, you enjoy cheesy noir books, I think you should give this a try, though since I read the original version, I can't speak to the editing Harlequin did in the 2009 edition.

[Sean Hall]

Good, fun pulp.

[Nancy]

I shouldn't have read the Goodreads readers' reviews first, because most people did not like this book very much. It seemed like a fun 1950's noir mystery to me. I will agree that the main character, Dale, who is now an unemployed ex-newspaper man, is way too tough for that career. The other big criticism is that because the author is English he doesn't get the 1950s American crime scene and dialogue correct, which I disagree with. People are being killed and Dale gets involved, trying to figure out what is really going on. The cover alone made this worthwhile for me!

[Eric]

Believe me, journalists aren't very tough. They drink a lot, they smell funny, and they dress badly. But I've never met a reporter I would describe as tough. The protagonist of Pardon My Body is an ex-newspaperman who butts heads with crooked cops, murderous gold diggers, and nasty musclemen. Pure fantasy! Another odd little book from the vaults of Harlequin.

[Leticia Mooney]

This is a fun, trashy 1950s journalist-hunts-baddies romp. Filled with sensuous women, one - dimensional characters and a fairly convoluted story, don't expect much of this book. It's pretty bad even for total trash, but as far as junk food for the mind goes, it totally delivers.

[David]

This is not a faithful reprint of the original novel but a bowdlerization. You should boycott this book.

[Andy]

Fairly lousy mystery by British writer trying to write in an American style, and mostly failing. This one could have stayed out of print.

[John]

Gool old Hard Case Crime.

[Shin Machine]

do not bother reading this novel. There is not a single character anyone would like and the mystery is not very exciting.