How can a man go down those
mean streets if he can't even find them?George Broonzer
Created by Art
Montague
How can a man go down those
mean streets if he can't even find them?
In Art Montague's Donkey Serenade, which bills itself as a "Crime Comedy," we're introduced to GEORGE BROOZNER. All he wants is to be Mike Hammer. He's already got the fedora, now if only he had the brains, the guts and the ability to focus.
I mean, gee, what's it take? He already hangs out in a bar, he's working on his straight-shooting and tough-talking, and he's almost finished his correspondence course in private detecting. You'd think the world would be beating a path to his door.
But somehow, things just don't seem to work out for George. At least Hammer had all of New York as his turf -- plenty of bad doings going on there. Poor George has to play his trade in a dinky little town in the U.S. midwest that's "so small even its organized crime is disorganized."
And George isn't exactly the brightest Crayola in the box -- he's got no no contacts, no clues, no real ambition, not even much of an attention span -- he's easily distracted by beer and baseball and occasionally, Karen Elizabeth-Anne Gumley, his welfare case worker, who really really wants George to succeed, or at least get him into the sack.
So of course, George soon finds himself up to his middle-aged slacker butt in bawdy ballplayers, gonzo gangsters, crooked cops, dangerous dames, and powerful politicos, most of whom want George's head on a platter.
NOVELS
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
