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Ben Shaley is tough enough, as far as private eyes go, working out of Los Angeles, tall and bony, a cocky smart-ass not afraid to use a little muscle to get what he needs. in Red Goose, he's hired by the curator of a museum to retrieve a valuable painting that was stolen . It's a solid P.I. tale, above average for its time, perhaps, and features some nice back-and-forth between Shaley and various characters he meets, but compared to Davis' later work, it's relatively dry, lacking the heady blend of hard-boiled action and screwball humour that would become the author's trademark. Still, it was a good enough story for then aspiring pulp writer Raymond Chandler who in later years cited "Red Goose" as one of his inspirations, studying it and attempting to and tried to replicate its tone. Years later, he re-read it and decided it wasn't quite as good as he'd thought, but it was still pretty damn good. A second Shaley story appeared a few months later, "The Price of a Dime," that features a shoot-out on a Hollywood film set and a few revelations about Shaley (he was a racetrack driver whose "nerves went haywire") to recommend it. Mystery critic Mike Grost credited it with "some pleasant comedy, especially with Shaley's tart secretary" Sadie and concluded that, although it didn't make much sense, "the characters, clothes and settings make this tale fun." Unfortunately, as far as I know, Davis never wrote another story featuring Shaley, although many of his future private eye characters bore more than a passing resemblance to the hapless gumshoe. And then, in 1952, three years after Davis passed away, Suspense, CBS' live mystery anthology series, broadcast an episode entitled "The Blue Panther" based on "a story by Norbert Davis." Although it also deals with a stolen painting and boasts a museum setting, it's not a rewrite of "Red Goose," although it may have been based on another story. The investigation continues... SHORT STORIES
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Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Picture is of Michael Strong as Shaley in "The Blue Panther." | Home | Detectives A-L M-Z | Film | Radio | Television | Web Comics | Comics | FAQs | Got a comment on this site? Drop me a line, and we'll talk.
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