Poolroom, by William Jourdan Rapp. New York: Lee Furman, Inc., [1938.] 312p.

Horse racing at Arlington and the betting machinery of the entire nation housed in a Chicago wireroom form the backdrop for this post-Prohibition novel. Joe Dugan leaves his job as a wireman in Kansas City to work for an outfit in Chicago supplying betting information to thousands of poolrooms across the country. Honest and tough, he is more than a match for the agent sent by racketeer Doc Taylor to buy Joe's company, even though the agent uses such persuasive techniques as threatening notes, a vicious kidnapping, and a bomb explosion. Joe is also naive, and he is easily taken in by Doc and his glamorous mistress Diane, who is introduced as Doc's niece. It takes level-headed Jane, Joe's pretty co-worker to expose Diane's tricks and bring Joe to his senses. Except for the well-drawn betting scene, this would be little more than another mediocre gangster-romance.

Book Review Digest, 1938, p. 788.

The Honorable John Hale, A Comedy of American Politics, by Clifford Raymond. Indianapolis [and] New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, [1946.] 370p.

See No. 658.

The Men on the Dead Man's Chest, by Clifford Raymond. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, [1930.] 255p.

A killing in the Dutch Mill dance restaurant leads Chicago police lieutenant John Stanton into one of the strangest cases of his career. A unique will supplies a reasonable motive for the murder and five others which occur in Wisconsin, San Francisco, and France, but the end of the novel brings only perplexity since all of the prime suspects are murdered, and no logical explanation is offered for the unsolved puzzle.

Book Review Digest, 1930, p. 866.

Our Very Best People, by Clifford Raymond. Author of The Men on the Dead Man's Chest. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, [1931.] 313p.

Raymond delights in creating caricatures that expose the most ordinary of human foibles in this light-hearted collage of episodes and adventures concerning a supposedly respectable family from the cream of Chicago society. The charm and the chuckles that result more than offset the few weak spots that occur when Raymond tangles with international politics. Ernestine Howeling, the imperturbable grandmother, eats raw vegetables for breakfast and hopes for a family scandal so she will have some excitement to hear about; her son Hubert, a bachelor lawyer who is on the board of directors of a dozen or more corporations thinks of himself as Sir Hubert, and gets taken for a ride by a gangster who has just had Al Capone knocked off; and Hubert's ever-feuding sisters compete by plotting for introductions to British royalty. Frequent mention of Chicago landmarks and current events do little to make this delightfully improbable story more realistic.

Book Review Digest, 1931, p. 872.

Compare These Dead! by M. P. Rea. Garden City, New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1941. 271p.

Terry Cavender, comparison shopper for Chicago's Dunbarton MacGregor Department Store, finds herself applying professional judgment and skill in assisting the police with a murder case.

Book Review Digest, 1941, p. 743.

A Curtain for Crime, by M. P. Rea. New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1941. 269p.

The murder of an unpopular employee in a major Chicago department store is discovered by Linda Thorne, a clerk in draperies and curtains. Linda's involvement could have ended soon after the discovery, had her insatiable curiosity not dragged her deeper into the web of mystery.

Book Review Digest, 1941, p. 743.

Death of an Angel, [by] M. P. Rea. Garden City, New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1943. 266p.

The sudden death of Mimi Thackeray in the toy department of Dunbarton MacGregor's casts a pall over the bustle of Christmas festivities underway in one of Chicago's great downtown department stores. In a most considerate manner, Lieutenant Powledge of the Chicago police department works inconspicuously, searching for clues and checking out motives and alibis of innumerable suspects before baiting a trap for the murderer.

Book Review Digest, 1943, p. 677.

I Heard Them Sing, by Ferdinand Reyher. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1946. 226p.

See No. 668.

The Big Midget Murders, by Craig Rice. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942. 365p. (An Inner Sanctum Mystery)

After winning The Casino, one of Chicago's most popular and most profitable night clubs, on a bet, Jake Justus determines to become a legitimate businessman. When Jay Otto, an entertainer known as the Big Midget, is murdered in his dressing room at the Casino, Jake's confidence is shaken and he decides to move the body to avoid unfavorable publicity. But someone beats him to it, and his consternation grows steadily as other murders occur. John J. Malone comes through in grand style with an offbeat solution to an off-beat crime.

Book Review Digest, 1942, p. 640.

The Corpse Steps Out, [by] Craig Rice. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1940. 305p. (An Inner Sanctum Mystery)

John J. Malone experiences as much difficulty keeping up with the corpses as he does tracking down the culprit in this wacky triple murder. Nor do Jake Justus and Helene Brand offer any ready assistance, for Jake has his hands full with a scandalous radio celebrity, and spends his spare moments nurturing a blossoming love affair.

Book Review Digest, 1940, p. 762.

8 Faces at 3, [by] Craig Rice. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939. 308p. (An Inner Sanctum Mystery)

The murder of Alexandra Inglehart is accompanied by such peculiar circumstances that Chicago detectives have difficulty determining who the murderer might be, but select Holly Inglehart, the victim's niece, as the most likely suspect. When John J. Malone, unconventional Chicago attorney, is hired to defend her, the case takes on a still more bizarre aspect as Malone and his two friends, Jake Justus and Helene Brand, apply their own snoop and blunder technique of investigation to the affair.

Book Review Digest, 1939, p. 815.

The Right Murder, by Craig Rice. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1941. 311p. (An Inner Sanctum Mystery)

Feeling terribly alone and despondent as his friends, Jake and Helene Justus spend their honeymoon in Havana, attorney John J. Malone takes the only reasonable course of action for a gentleman of his temperament, and gets roaring drunk. Even murder arouses little interest until Jake and Helene return to Chicago--separately--and Malone discovers that he again has his hands full with three corpses and two feuding newlyweds.

Book Review Digest, 1941, p. 755.

The Wrong Murder, by Craig Rice. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1940. 311p. (An Inner Sanctum Mystery)

Newlyweds Jake and Helene Justus are forced to postpone their honeymoon, first because of Helene's penchant for hot cars and fast driving, then because of murder and a wager that Jake cannot refuse. To help his friends through a trying period in their lives, John J. Malone relinquishes valuable boozing time to help solve what ultimately proves to be the wrong murder--at least the wrong one for Jake to win the bet.

Book Review Digest, 1940, p. 762.

P. A. L., A novel of the American scene, by Felix Riesenberg. Author of "Under Sail." New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, MCMXXV. 340p.

P. A. L. Tangerman is an enterprising businessman with little to sell, but ingenious methods of selling it. Taking full advantage of the gullibility of the average American buyer, he spends money, advertises, organizes, and diversifies, with a definite theatrical flair which promotes his Blue Bird Cigarettes, his Mont Healy Institute, and his Cudahy Domes while making money for Tangerman. Then a scheme misfires, causing his paper empire to collapse. But Tangerman, employing the same tactics as before, rebuilds and restructures, coming back stronger than before. The humor of the novel is a bitter pill to swallow, for the reader soon recognizes himself as one of the impressionable herd, and realizes that he is the butt of the author's ridicule. The characters have flair, if not ethics, which sustains interest in spite of the subject and the novel's tendency to be too long.

Book Review Digest, 1925, p. 594.

Red Horses, by Felix Riesenberg. Author of "Under Sail," "East Side, West Side," Etc. New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, 1928. 336p.

An extravagant caricature of the proverbial charlatan entrepreneur is drawn in this novel of the 1920s. Told in the first person, the story follows the career of one P. A. L. "Pal" Tangerman as seen by his right-hand man, a Russian ex-naval officer who poses, at the request of his employer, as an Englishman representing mysterious and substantial eastern interests. Pal's business ventures excessively detailed, amount to little more than one fraud after another. He is no more ethical in his love life than in business, and a woman proves to be his ultimate undoing. This novel is based on an earlier work entitled P. A. L. by the same author. Seattle and Chicago settings support the theme.

Book Review Digest, 1928, p. 650-1.

Dear Ones All, [by] Jean Rikhoff. New York: The Viking Press, 1961. 558p.

Set in Springfield in 1936, Dear Ones All tells of a widow, Lydia Timble, whose five grown daughters come home for a Thanksgiving family reunion--the first time they have all been together for many years. This event and a birthday party for the widow a few months later comprise most of the book, but histories of each of the daughters, plus the widow and two other women in the home are revealed through flashbacks, providing an intimate view of the family through three generations. Basically, it is a revealing but unhappy story of a bickering household with an accompanying tangle of jealousy, spite, greed, illicit love, theft, and suicide to add to the agony, but through it all, vivid details of a changing society are carefully interwoven. The saga of the Timble family is continued in Rites of Passage and Voyage In, Voyage Out.

Book Review Digest, 1961, p. 1192.

Death of a Young Man, by W. L. River. New York: Simon and Schuster, MCMXXVII. 206p.

Death of a Young Man is the fictional memoir of David Bloch, who has been told by his doctor that he has only a year to live. Determined to record the phenomenon of death as objectively as possible, David studies it to the point of becoming obsessed. Dreams of murder, accidents, and suicide permeate his every thought until he can no longer distinguish between imagination and reality. The climax of the experiment is Bloch's own suicide. The novel lacks the impact that could have been achieved had the author only given his character a soul. Instead, Death of a Young Man is a dispassionate history as much in keeping with a clinical case study as a novel. The setting is the Hyde Park district of Chicago in the 1920s.

Book Review Digest, 1927, p. 625-6.

Little Hell--Big Heaven, by Edith Roberts. Indianapolis [and] New York. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, [1942.] 327p.

Philip and Andrea Meade, the pampered children of Chicago industrialist Spencer Meade, are first exposed to poverty with its many ramifications when Philip, in a drunken stupor, runs down and nearly kills Lucy Mareska with his automobile. Attempts to make amends lead Philip through a complete change of attitude toward life. Realizing that poverty and charity exist symbiotically each depending on the other for its existence, Philip determines to do more than the average rich philanthropist and involves himself personally with Chicago's ghetto youth, becoming an ardent supporter of programs for their improvement. In his association with Lucy Mareska during this period, Philip discovers the beauty hidden within the maimed body of his victim, and turns to her for love; while Andrea, also intrigued by the hoards of poor, discovers a passion for a local settlement worker. Little Hell-Big Heaven represents Chicago--the slums, the resorts, the fashionable avenues, the police courts, the night life, the crooked politicians, the influential businessmen, the playboys, and the victims of the ghetto. Unfortunately, the task set by the author for herself is overwhelming. While this novel represents many facets of life in Chicago, the effect is more that of a caricature than a serious portrait.

Book Review Digest, 1942, p. 650.

This Marriage, by Edith Roberts. Indianapolis [and] New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, [1941.] 306p.

As the political moguls of Europe prepare for war, Martin Rivers and Clare Ainslee of Chicago prepare for marriage. It is an unusual alliance that they plan, for prior to the marriage the two principals, both intelligent, progressive, and idealistic individuals, write and sign a pre-marriage contract promising personal freedom, free love, free action, and equal sharing of the responsibility of marriage. Considering the disdain with which they view the traditions of marriage, it is surprising that they consider the ceremony essential, but they do. In theory the agreement seems ideal for them, but in actuality it turns out to be a miserable failure for Martin, unwilling to compromise his ideals, clings tenaciously to his free life-style, while Clare, as a wife and mother, realizes that she cannot adhere to the same freedom which Martin enjoys, nor can she live up to the mutual responsibility clause, particularly in the economic arena. Ms. Roberts' theme is old, but her approach is fresh and entertaining. Never taking sides with either party, she presents the facts, analyzes, and draws conclusions. Yet, her characters are warm, dramatic and beautiful, and the reader will close the novel with the feeling that he knows them well.

Book Review Digest, 1941, p. 761.

Narcissus, by John Hawley Roberts. New York: Sears Publishing Company, Inc., [1930.] 301p.

In his first novel, John Hawley Roberts has retold the legend of Narcissus in modern style, set in 1920s Chicago. Millwater Crane, the wealthy but neglected son of a young Chicago widow, grows to manhood seeking friendship and wanting love, but always hesitating to give any but superficial attention to the cultivation of a personal relationship. The one friendship that he achieves turns out badly. At twenty-one--still a virgin, still a loner--Millwater determines to change his status. A party, congenial people, and a willing young lady lead him to the brink, but his Narcissism again comes to the fore, and Millwater maintains the status quo, accepting at last his individuality and giving himself over completely to self-love. Roberts' treatment of the Narcissus story is ingenious for he never tries to analyze his hero, but treats him seriously and sympathetically, making what might seem ridiculous if told by a less accomplished writer seem perfectly natural. The author's treatment of the city and the era are equally commendable.

Book Review Digest, 1930, p. 888.

Al Capone, [by] John Roeburt. New York: Pyramid Books, [1959.] 144p.

A fictionalized biography of Al Capone, the Prohibition era's best known gangster, this novel followed closely in the wake of the cinema offering by the same title on which the book is based. Starting with Capone's arrival in Chicago and employment as a bouncer at Johnny Torrio's Four Deuces Cafe in 1919, the story trips lightly over twenty-eight years, touching on major events in Capone's life and Chicago's history, but delving into nothing in depth. The advent of Prohibition, the murder of Big Jim Colosimo, the organization of the syndicate, the move to Cicero, the Valentine's Day massacre are all included, as is Capone's death in 1947. The novel is documentary in style, with occasional lapses into fiction which are easily identifiable for the unconvincing aura which pervades them. Yet, the novel is basically factual, and relays as much as most readers will want to know of Capone and his henchmen.

The Sidewalks Are Free, by Sam Ross. New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, [1950.] 308p.

Loveable, troublesome, sometimes confused, Hershel Melov peers cautiously into the future with the awestruck eyes of youth, then bolts headlong into the wonder that is adolescence. Chicago in 1918 is a fascinating place in which to make the transition to manhood, for the city's backyards, alleyways, streets, and vacant lots provide an education more meaningful than that attainable in any public institution, and young Hershel receives a liberal education from this school. But The Sidewalks Are Free is not just Hershel's story, but is rather the story of the entire Melov family--Ukrainian Jews--as they learn to cope with the customs of the strange city while struggling to maintain their own cultural identity. His father is the only family member with whom Hershel readily identifies, perhaps because only he is aware of the need for assimilation with individuality for which Hershel is trying so desperately. An unexpected inheritance and a doomed business venture provide a climax which borders on melodrama, but this minor fault is easily overshadowed by beautiful characterization, delicate mood, and a fine recreation of local color.

Book Review Digest, 1950, p. 778.

Someday, Boy, by Sam Ross. New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1948. 340p.

"This is your America," a phrase repeated again and again by his Russian immigrant father, becomes Benny Gordon's maxim as he dreams of his future while living the day to day existence of the average Jewish boy on Chicago's west side. This maxim gives him the confidence to compete in the River Swim in hopes of winning a college scholarship. When no scholarship is forthcoming, it gives him the confidence to approach the business world with the same enthusiasm that he put into the swim. The crash of 1929 leaves Benny penniless, but confident enough to borrow $200 to try again. Typical of many young men with grandiose dreams and minimal opportunity, Benny compensates for his deficiencies with confidence and drive. As the novel ends the reader is convinced that Benny will succeed, although he may resort to questionable methods to do it. Someday, Boy is a believable commentary on city life in the 1920s including some good views of Chicago's west side and its inhabitants.

Book Review Digest, 1948, p. 715.

The Case of the Topaz Flower, [by] Charlotte Murray Russell. New York: Published for The Crime Club, Inc., by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1939. 278p.

When old Harrison Sloane is murdered at a party celebrating his 50th year in business, Natalie, his niece, becomes the prime suspect. Meddlesome police, bickering family members, conflicting wills, and two additional murders complicate the case, but fortunately for Natalie, Wally Kent, Chicago's most competent amateur detective, works hard to prove her innocence.

Book Review Digest, 1939, p. 843.

Dreadful Reckoning, [by] Charlotte Murray Russell. New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1941. 276p.

Charlotte Murray Russell gives her favorite detective, Jane Amanda Edwards, a short holiday and creates a new character for this mystery concerning a drop of poison, a birthday party, and feuding among members of a wealthy Chicago clan.

Book Review Digest, 1941, p. 779.

The Message of the Mute Dog; A Jane Amanda Edwards Story, [by] Charlotte Murray Russell. Garden City, New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1942. 274p.

Jane Amanda Edwards, Rockport's busiest busybody, takes time out from domestic duties, defense work, and troubleshooting for brother Arthur to snoop into a messy bit of love, murder, and espionage in this World War II vintage mystery novel. Rockport, the fictionalized setting for this and other Jane Amanda Edwards mysteries, is patterned after Rock Island.

Book Review Digest, 1942, p. 667.

The Tiny Diamond; A Jane Amanda Edwards Story, [by] Charlotte Murray Russell. Garden City, N[ew] Y[ork:] Published for The Crime Club, Inc., by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1937. 277p.

Jane Amanda Edwards, Rockport's leading lady sleuth, chooses a challenging course in criminal psychology at the University of Chicago over a leisurely summer at home, so the month of June finds her with sister, brother, and cook, firmly ensconced in a Chicago apartment, prepared for the rigors of school and city. She is unprepared for the brutal attack which falls her lot, the murder of her landlord which she discovers, and the time spent in jail as the police department's prime suspect. But she rises to the occasion, and convincing herself of the ineptness of the Chicago police, tackles and solves the mystery with far more flair than any ordinary police sergeant can hope to muster.

Book Review Digest, 1937, p. 856.