Saturday, March 13, 2021

"You'll Never Laugh Like That Again"

A POPULAR DETECTIVE FICTION writers' trope is the sleuth who, while relaxing away from his day job, gets embroiled in a mysterious situation that demands his expertise. It's said that policemen are never really off duty, even when they're on a . . .

"Cop's Holiday."
By Wilbur S. Peacock (1911/15-1979).
Illustrator unknown.
First appearance: Short Stories, June 10, 1946.
Novelette (21 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Parental caution: Some mild profanity.)
     "He died horribly, dropping slackly . . ."

A mare's nest of violent emotions erupts in murder, forcing a recuperating cop to sort it all out . . . .

Principal characters:
~ Lieutenant Kip Marlowe:
  "With his leg almost healed from the wound punched there by a burglar's bullet, his leave of absence was almost up; and he would be glad to be back at work again."
~ Doctor Forbes:
  ". . . his white hair gleamed in the light as he shook his head. 'Dead,' he said succinctly."
~ Stuart Graber:
  ". . . knocked the small man down, standing over him."
~ Karen Morey:
  ". . . that tramp!"
~ Irene Bayliss:
  ". . . throw me over for her, and I'll tell a few stories which will upset your little plan."
~ Sam Bayliss:
  "There was no expression on his face, and he made no move to follow the detective."
~ Tom Morey:
  "Then it is true. I've guessed, but I've no proof of anything."
~ Benny:
  ". . . came running from where he had been springing the pigeons into the air."
~ Captain Oliver:
  ". . . people die from three causes, murder, accident or suicide. It's obvious this is an accident . . ."
~ Dinky:
  ". . . was packing the clothes, distaste on his wide mouth at handling the garments of a dead man."
Here's that "moment" again:
  ". . . the vagrant memory surged into life in his mind. 'Holy hell!' he finished."

Comment: It's noteworthy and very unusual when an author correctly uses the past participle of the verb "to lie": "it might have lain".

Typos: "Marlow"; "Marlow's".

References and resources:
- Many mystery plots are worked out against some real world background that serves as the scaffolding upon which the tale is set; in today's story the background is the world of skeet and trap shooting, the finer points of which are discussed at some length in Wikipedia (HERE) and (HERE).
- "a dozen shotgun shells, 20-, 16- and 12-gauge": Shotguns are very effective short-range weapons—when they don't blow up in your face; see Wikipedia (HERE).
- "quicksilver!": You can find it in a lot of thermometers; see Wikipedia (HERE).
- "squeezed the trigger for the second barrel": It's a good thing the gun didn't have a pump action.
- FictionMags has a list of Wilbur Scott Peacock's short work (HERE).
- Our only encounter with Wilbur Peacock is his SFFnal story "Destination—Death" (HERE).
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2 comments:

  1. I quite like those "detective goes on holiday" types of tales, where as soon as the detective arrives at a quiet little spot people start getting murdered all over the place.

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    1. It seems that the "detective goes on holiday [or for recuperation]" trope has been fairly standard for British authors since Sherlock Holmes. If I remember correctly, Inspector Appleby and Gervase Fen seem to have had a few of those situations, as well. It might be worthwhile to compile a list of them, if one has the time. I'm sure there would be a considerable overlap with the "country house"/Mayhem Parva motifs.

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