Reading California Fiction

KILLER IN SILK

    We come now to the end of the Vernor Dixon oeuvre, or at least of his works before 1960. After Killer in Silk he stopped writing books for six years. I don't know why. He then produced three paperback originals for downscale publisher Monarch: That Girl Marian (1962), The Pleasure Seekers (1963) and Guerrilla (1963). His last novel, The Rag Pickers (1966), was a hardcover about the fashion business. In all, Dixon wrote sixteen books, ten of which were published between 1950 and 1956 and set in California.

    Killer in Silk by H. Vernor Dixon. Fawcett Gold Medal (1956), 189 pp.
    Morgan O'Keefe, unsuccessful author of grim novels, has a serious drinking problem. After blowing a good-sized royalty check on a long binge in San Francisco, he's given a chance to dry out in the Pacific Heights home of a reclusive young widow, Irene Wilson. He soon learns that she shot her husband some years before. The death, which gave her control of the family business, had been ruled an accident, but Frank and Glenna Wilson, her brother-in-law and his wife, had suspected murder. O'Keefe doesn't want to remain in the house, especially if he's to be patronized by the Wilsons and their rich friends, but he is intrigued by the killing. Without quite realizing it, he becomes determined to find out what really happened.
    Vernor Dixon is at the top of his game here. His interest is not so much crime as character development. Morgan O'Keefe and Irene Wilson begin the story isolated -- he by his and anger and alcoholism, she by a fear (or perhaps a realization) that she really did kill her husband intentionally. As Dixon drops in clues about the shooting, he shows O'Keefe's investigation bringing them both out of seclusion. The portrait of O'Keefe is the sharper and more believable of the two. (He ruminates about writing novels and is genuinely nasty when dealing with the rich folks.) Modern readers may find an unfamiliarly large amount of psychologizing here: The book is, after all, a product of the 1950s. But the story moves easily and Dixon's prose is, as usual, lean and clean. Fans of crime fiction, both genteel and hard-boiled, are likely to enjoy the novel.

DON'T CRY FOR ME

    William Campbell Gault (1910-1995) had a long and prolific literary career. He wrote mostly crime stories and sports tales for boys. He published his first short stories in the mid-1930s, and he continued in that genre after settling in Los Angeles following World War II. Don't Cry for Me was the first of  his thirty crime novels, all but one of which were set in Southern California. He created two detective series, one featuring Brock Callahan and the other Joe Puma. He completed his final book in 1992.
    
    Don't Cry for Me by William Campbell Gault. Dutton (1952), 220 pp.
    Pete Worden, a former G. I. and USC quarterback, is having trouble finding a place for himself in 1950 Los Angeles. He’s bereft both spiritually and financially. His girlfriend would like him to take a job offered by a domesticated crime boss. But when another gangster and then his next door neighbor are killed, he decides to try to find the killer. Several other characters—a police officer, the protagonist’s brother, various low-lifes—show up during the search.
    This is a well written entry into the tough-guy genre of crime novels. The action never strays far from the protagonist and narrator, whose right-of-center ruminations about the decline of America are just as interesting as the scrapes he gets into. The novel has its problems, however. The story itself is a bit confusing, the characters are unconvincingly motivated, and the ending is something of a disappointment. Even so, readers of hard-boiled novels are likely to enjoy the book.

THIS GIRL FOR HIRE

    Honey West may have been the first of California's "ungenteel" women detectives. As Gary Warren Niebuhr details, she turned into quite a franchise. Ten other novels, all also paperback originals, followed This Girl for Hire. A short-lived TV series featured Honey in 1965 and 1966. She even inspired a doll, comic book and board game. As a literary creation, however, Honey was trapped in a fantasy version of the 1950s. Apparently, none of the later books was much of an improvement on this one. The author, incidentally, was a married couple, Doris and Forrest Fickling.

    This Girl for Hire by G. G. Fickling. Pyramid Books (1957), 160 pp.
    Detective Honey West is badly shaken when she sees the bludgeoned body of client Herb Nelson, once the host of a popular children's radio show and lately a bit player on a TV program. Soon afterward, she finds the program's producer, Sam Aces, in her office. He claims the show's star, Bob Swanson, is trying to kill him. He hires Honey, suggests she go undercover, and gets her a job on the program as a beauty contest winner. The investigation grows more complicated as Honey meets more prospective killers and victims.
    This book offers the possibility of a hard-boiled female detective with a sardonic first-person narrative. But Honey is more of a late-fifties sexpot than a serious investigator. She's quick to give out her measurements (38-22-36) and climb into bathing suits. She loses her clothes altogether on a couple occasions. And there's nothing Chandleresque about her narrative style, which lacks wit and incisiveness. The story is minimally engaging. Corpses pile up, but the action takes place off stage. Honey spends most of her time speculating about events with other characters in the story. Whatever titillation the novel may once have provided, by current standards the book is a dud. A modern readership would probably be limited to those interested in fictional images of women fifty years ago.