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Burke, Richard

Page history last edited by J F Norris 2 years, 11 months ago

Richard Burke (1886-1962) was a typesetter who worked for more than 60 newspapers over the years. He was also a theatrical photographer, a Shakespearean actor and a world traveler. Five of his ten books featured a Broadway private detective named Quinny Hite.

 

Mike Grost on Richard Burke

 

Burke's hero is a former policeman, now working as a private eye. However, his sleuth is not very hard-boiled. Instead, Chinese Red seems to come out of the Van Dine school tradition. As in Van Dine writers, the sleuth is a brainy guy who works closely with friends on the police force, just as Burke's hero does with his old police inspector boss here. The detective work is also in the straightforward Van Dine tradition, with the police and hero making an in-depth investigation of all aspects of the crime, immediately after it takes place. Also Van Dine like: the New York City setting, the upper crust suspects, the exotic background, here a Chinese restaurant, the sympathetic treatment of racial minorities, the show business and entertainment background of some of the characters, the elaborate building in which the crime is set, and the emphasis on the movement of the characters around the crime scene at the time of the murder. As in many Van Dine school books, much of the detection involves reconstructing the movements of the characters. The book also has the cheery, sometimes comic tone of many Van Dine school books, and set pieces and tableaux that verge on the surrealistic. Surrealism is an important strategy in such Van Dine school writers as Ellery Queen and Craig Rice, and is a running theme throughout the Van Dine school.

 

On the other hand, Burke's sleuth is clearly not a social aristocrat, unlike Van Dine's sleuth Philo Vance. Instead, he is a somewhat raffish low life, whose home base is Times Square, and whose background is strictly working class. Quinny Hite is also a somewhat comic character. In addition to its upper class suspects, the book also includes some bums, as well as some colorful characters from Times Square. Such low lifes appeared in films of the period, such as Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels (1942), and mystery novels, such as Robert Reeves' Cellini Smith: Detective (1943).

 

"The Corpse in Grandpa's Bed" (1946) shows in miniature the same architectural imagination as Chinese Red. Once again, bodies are being carried through a complex, three-dimensional maze of urban architecture. This is a fun little tale, that shows Burke's gift for comic zanies. The story also shows Burke's fondness for show biz people who are fakes. These are innocent impersonations done for the sake of show biz illusion. "The Corpse in Grandpa's Bed" was Burke's first Quinny Hite short story.

 

Bibliography

 

Quinny Hite Detective Novels

The Dead Take No Bows (1941)

Here Lies the Body (1942)

Chinese Red (1942)

The Fourth Star (1946)

Sinister Street (1948)

 

Other Mystery Novels

Murder on High Heels (1940)

Barbary Freight (1943)

The Frightened Pigeon (1944)

Reluctant Hussy (1946)

The Red Gate (1947)

 

 

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