"Sleight-of-Hand."
First appearance: Blade and Ledger, August 1929.
Short short short story (2 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
"There are crooks, and other crooks."
Sometimes the biter bites but other times gets bit . . .
Principal characters:
~ "Duke" Harvey:
". . . looked at him with the dazed expression that plainly says, 'Lunatic!'"
~ Mrs. Donald Harvey:
"They were discussing your phenomenal luck at cards."
~ Huntingdon:
"I know quite a lot of tricks."
~ The customs inspector:
"I see you prefer a pipe to cigars or cigarettes."
References and resources:
- "Thurston could do it":
In the early 20th century Howard Thurston (1869-1936) was very popular:
"He eventually became the most famous magician of his time. Thurston's traveling magic show was the biggest one of all; it was so large that it needed eight train cars to transport his road show." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "Trewey, his name":
More than a magician; see Wikipedia (HERE).
- "Dale Clark" qualifies for uberpulpster status, producing loads of multi-genre pulp fiction from the early '30s to the early '60s. Clark had several series characters: Walter Judson in Double Detective, 1938-41; Highland Park (High Price) Price in Dime Detective, 1944-46; "Plates" O'Rion in Dime Detective, 1942-44; Skipper Bond in Detection Fiction Weekly (DFW), 1940; his longest lived character, Mike O'Hanna, in Black Mask, 1940-47; Socrates Bean in Dime Mystery, 1946-47; J. Edwin Bell in Argosy, 1938-39; and Munro in EQMM, 1948-49. (Data from FictionMags.)
- For more about Clark/Kayser see Michael Grost's megasite (HERE) and Tellers of Weird Tales (HERE).
- "Magic" as a background has always been popular with detective fiction writers; see for examples ONTOS (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).
Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment