Palmer, Stuart - Unhappy Hooligan (1956) aka Death in Greasepaint

When I read them years ago, I didn't like either of the Howie Rook novels, Unhappy Hooligan or Rook Takes Knight. Rook himself is likable enough character, but the novels are dull. The apparently authentic circus background of Unhappy Hooligan seems like an extension of the small time vaudeville of The Green Ace. Unhappy Hooligan is full of the fashionable Freudianism of the fifties, and contains some nasty Freudian homophobia. I did enjoy Rook's short story appearance in "The Stripteaser and the Private Eye" (1966), however. Rook's collection of newspaper clippings seems autobiographical: Palmer himself collected clippings on a wide variety of subjects, in hopes of finding story inspiration. Palmer's literary idol Conan Doyle also frequently based his Sherlock Holmes stories on news items. Hildegarde Withers also refers to news stories, for example in "The Riddle of the Brass Band" (1934).

Mike Grost

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Amateur criminologist Howie Rook is called in when James McFarley is found dead in his apartment behind a door locked on the inside, dressed in a dinner suit and full clown make-up. The clown part of the puzzle is soon explained -- McFarley was keen on the circus and had just spent several days as a volunteer clown at a travelling circus. Bemused and bankrolled by McFarley's glamorous widow Mavis, Rook follows suit.

Rook's introduction to circus life and its characters is interesting, and Palmer is clearly writing here from his own store of knowledge of and affection for the Big Top. Some humour derives from the way Rook is vamped, not only by Mavis but by the gorgeous aerialist Mary Kelly. But it all goes on a little too long without any progress being made in the investigation. Several clues are posted, some half-hearted attempts are made to scare Rook away, and a cipher is cracked -- though without the reader having any chance to participate -- but the prolonged denouement seemed to me to be more or less arbitrary, based on exposing the villain through shock rather than any real evidence. More engaging as a circus book than as an investigation.

Jon.