"Nothing Could Happen on a Morning Like This"

NOT MANY DETECTIVE TALES in the last century focused as carefully on forensic anthropology as today's story . . .

"A Dead Man Laughs."

By Donald Barr Chidsey (1902-81).

First appearance: Short Stories, March 10, 1941.

Reprinted in Short Stories (U.K.), December 1943.

Short story (14 pages; 5 illos).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

     "Because it happens to be a human sacrum."

The off-putting but nevertheless effective sleuth was pioneered by Poe and codified by his many imitators; no surprise, then, that the irritating detective makes a reappearance in today's story: "Nobody ever knew what to do about Fletcher. He was a hard guy to get along with. Yet to get along without him, as even the stupidest among them knew, might be even more difficult."

Principal characters:

~ Carse:

  "An um— An umb—"

~ Steele:

  "I'm a cop. I've got a nose that's used to poking into funny places."

~ Wyckoff:

  "You see, there's supposed to be a treasure hidden here."

~ Marrs:

  "You and your damn bones! Why didn't you tell us?"

~ Lindeman:

  "He's a liar! He always works alone!"

~ Andrews:

  "Hello, Sergeant. Interesting place you got here."

Typo: "46 millemeters".

References and resources:

- "the War drove him back": That would be the Second World War, which officially began in 1939, although it really started years before; if you were alive then you couldn't miss it. See Wikipedia (HERE).

- "bay windows, false towers, balconies and ginger-bread": The last architectural style enjoyed a vogue in the late 19th century; see Wikipedia (HERE).

- "the espadrilles": The name goes back to the 14th century, but the shoe style is far older than that; see Wikipedia (HERE).

- "by Pearson's formula": It's "a measure of linear correlation between two sets of data"; see Wikipedia (HERE).

- "gnathic index": You have one whether you want it or not; see Oxford Reference (HERE).

- "I came to talk about bones": In the wake of the premier of CSI, for a while there seemed to be a limitless supply of TV shows that focused, much like our detective, on forensic investigations into the victim's postmortem state; one of the longest running was Bones, which lasted twelve seasons and 246 episodes. See Wikipedia (HERE).

- "which were modern American brilliant cut": We're talking about a skill that "requires specialized knowledge, tools, equipment, and techniques because of its extreme difficulty"; see Wikipedia (HERE).

- Donald Barr Chidsey usually produced average to above average crime fiction; see FictionMags (HERE). Since his three stories featuring Sergeant Fletcher Steel (note the spelling; no "e" on the end) appeared in Double Detective (1938-39), we'll have to assume today's story "A Dead Man Laughs" (1941) is the fourth entry in the series.

- We last met with Chidsey in regard to his story "The Murderer's Left Hand" (HERE).

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