Review: “Death and the Dancing Shadows” by James Reasoner

 

“Death and the  Dancing Shadows” by James Reasoner in The Black Lizard  Anthology of Crime Fiction, 1987   “Death and the Dancing Shadows”—which was originally published in the March 1980 issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine (MSMM)—is an atmospheric and clever novelette featuring West Hollywood private eye, Markham. Retired B-Western movie star, Eliot “Lucky” Tremaine, summons Markham to help him with a “delicate” matter. When Markham arrives at Lucky’s sprawling ranch house, he finds the old actor screening one of his own films. It feels like Norma Desmond drowning herself in her own past in Billy Wilder’s 1950 film, Sunset Boulevard, but (as Tremaine explains) it’s not about vanity but rather a desire to see Hollywood, and by extension the world, the way it once was: “Good, clean, excitin’ stories with a hero and without all this trashy stuff they put in today.” And for all that, Tremaine seems well adjusted, if perhaps too nostalgic for his glory days and maybe a little too keen about his sense of honor and morality, and so Markham readily agrees to help him. We’ll keep Tremaine’s problem on the QT so it will be a surprise when you read the story. What Markham’s investigation uncovers will test Tremaine’s sense of morality in a close and personal way. It will test Markham’s, too… “Death and the Dancing Shadows” is a nifty hardboiled tale with a Raymond Chandler vibe—sharp dialogue, twisty plotting, and heaps of irony—that is as easy to read as it is appealing. And the ending is pitch perfect with an almost noir reflection broken only by Markham’s stolid refusal to succumb to his baser instincts. Maybe not quite as good as Reasoner’s Cody stories, but still pretty damn good.

Go here for the Kindle version of “Death and the Dancing Shadows” at Amazon.

Five Markham stories were published between 1979 and 1982: “All the Way Home” [April 1979, MSMM) “Death and the Dancing Shadows” [March 1980, MSMM] “The Man in the Moon” [April 1980, MSMM] “The Double Edge” [Summer 1981, Skullduggery] “War Games” [April 1982, MSMM] Three, including “Death and the Dancing Shadows,” have been released in Kindle, which you can see here.

VIOLENT SATURDAY by W.L. Heath

It’s not often the old phrase, “They don’t write’em like they used to” is accurate, at least not as a positive notion, but W.L. Heath’s Violent Saturday is just such a novel. It is the type of novel you don’t see much of anymore, or more likely, the type of novel that has always been rare. It straddles the line between thriller and literature like a lighted tunnel between heaven and hell. It is a violent novel that has all of the assets of a well-crafted thriller, but it adds the deliberate pace, the characters, and the illumination of a well-rendered piece of art.

Violent Saturday is the story of the small southern town of Morgan, Alabama. It opens with the arrival of three strangers—three men who wouldn’t be noticed except there are three of them and they are obviously traveling together. The men arrive into town quietly, but they have sinister plans to execute before they make a hasty and very loud and violent exit. The plan: rob the local bank and retreat back to Memphis with the cash. The set-up is seemingly simple and very much within the parameters of a streamlined and linear hardboiled thriller, but Mr Heath does something unique and almost magical with the story. He takes the emphasis away from the criminals and instead focuses the story on the town and its inhabitants.

He examines, with a rough and steady hand, the lives of the men and women who populate Morgan. He pans across the socio-economic reality of the 1950s American South; from the country club set, to the working class, to the lower classes of both black and white. The images are vibrant and subtle with a subtext that is cached with hard and damned uncomfortable truths—his portrayal of the black is uncompromising and harsh in both their status as the underclass and their seeming invisibility within the culture. He also digs into the dogma of status and class with a quiet and grim portrayal of the fallen—the families that once where something, but are now no more than forgotten town litter. It feels a little like Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.

This isn’t to mean that Violent Saturday is without plot, but rather Mr Heath fused a heap of meaning into the premise of a hardboiled thriller. He muscled the story with a crisp and literate style. The dialogue is true and, at times, nearly beautiful in its simple and truthful sounds—

“With who?”
“With whom darling.”
“All right, with whom, then.”
“With myself. I needed some air.”
“Bill Clayton must have needed some too.”
“Really? I wouldn’t know about that.”
“He was with you.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
“That’s a lie.”

* * *

“Hey, you in there.”
“Come on in!” Shelley called.
Another silence.
“Throw the key out to us and we’ll leave you alone.”
I bet, Shelley thought.
“You hear us?”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
“We’re coming in after it, if you don’t throw it out!”
“Come ahead! I got it right here in my hand.”

Violent Saturday is a helluva a novel and it will appeal to both the reader of thrillers as well as a more literary set—it has the story to satisfy the first and the meaning and depth to satisfy the later. The best part is it does what literature should. It shines a light on the human condition while telling a terrifically entertaining and vibrant story.

A NOTE. Violent Saturday was originally published in 1955 and made into a feature film starring Victor Mature, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. It was directed by Richard Fleischer. The original Black Lizard books republished it in 1985 in mass market with a wonderfully insightful Introduction by Ed Gorman.