"But the Crime Wasn't Perfect"

UNTIL just the other day, we had never heard of Duane Yarnell; his FictionMags listing, containing as it does almost nothing but sports fiction, isn't anything that would normally attract our notice here. Yarnell, though, did commit a few crime fiction stories to print. The two tales we've selected were published twenty years apart, allowing us to see how much, or how little, his style and subject matter changed over time. The first one involves one of our favorite backgrounds, stage magic, as an unintentional amateur detective must solve a murder while contending with the . . .

(1) "Claws for the Tiger Girl."

By Duane Yarnell (1914-96).

First appearance: Dime Mystery Magazine, July 1944.

Short story (8 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "I wouldn't have killed him, Kerrigan said sardonically, if I'd known you could read."

IF IT WEREN'T for sloppy policemen, most amateur detectives wouldn't have much to do. When a murder happens in the middle of a magic act, the head cop is certain he knows who did it. He's wrong, of course, but the prime suspect is left with proving that he didn't convert a rival into a human pincushion. The trouble is, there's a number of people, all of the female persuasion, who also had a motive to skewer the louse. Finding the real killer will be a process of elimination for our reluctant sleuth—a process that just might result in his elimination . . .

Main characters:

~ The Great Kerrigan ("was lying and he knew it"), Sam West ("had three of them thinking that each was the one he loved"), Laura Evans ("Her shoulders were shaking and the sound of soft sobs came from her bloodless lips"), John Rogan, Chief of Police ("You're gonna fry on the hot seat, my slick and slimy friend"), June and Betty Anson ("had been fighting between themselves all day"), Carole Bestor ("looked as if she'd been drawn through the eye in a needle"), and Raven ("had an empty beer bottle lifted above her head").

Typos: "A girl come from the wings"; "The lights went ont".

Resource:

- Easily the most famous mystery-solving magician was created by Clayton Rawson; see "Merlini and the Photographic Clues" (HERE). Go to the last of "References and resources" for links to other magic-related stories.

(2) "The Bent Frame."

By Duane Yarnell (1914-96).

First appearance: AHMM, February 1964.

Short story (12 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 2.)

   "Joe's respect for the law was still undiminished, but he'd definitely lost his awe of cops."

A LOST KITTEN, a bent car frame, and a dead child. The strength of a man's love for his wife is put to the test when she's accused of a hit-and-run homicide . . .

Main characters:

~ Joe Kerrigan ("felt revulsion as he weighed the plan"), Toni Kerrigan ("Why don't you leave me, Joe?"), Sergeant Farha ("don't start acting like a cop"), Sam Gruber ("His mouth was working silently, as if he were already planning the speech he'd make to the press"), Frieda ("You've got the wrong person"), and Marty Duncan ("there was a wariness about him that Joe found hard to explain").

Comment: It's interesting that the surname of the protagonist in "Claws for the Tiger Girl" is, two decades later, the same as the one in "The Bent Frame."

Reference:

- "a cat-skinner": "an operator of a Caterpillar tractor." (Merriam-Webster HERE.)

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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