A Fire Marshal Pedley mystery. I love a good crime mystery and was completely intrigued by a fire marshal protagonist. What’s interesting about the author is he wrote other fringe investigation centered plots including the New York Harbor Police and a department store detective. I’m a sucker for off the beaten path ideas and would love to get my hands on some of these.
Someone has been starting fires in Manhattan with a body count. There is a mad arsonist on the loose. Is it one of the usual local firebugs or something more nefarious?
Luckily tough-as-nails Fire Marshal Ben Pedley is on the case, and he takes his job very seriously. Very. Seriously. Pedley has to be one of the hardest characters I’ve ever come across in all genres of fiction. This is some tough talking, no-nonsense, hard-boiled crime right here folks. The firemen speak in this slang that’s like trying to decipher another language. Teeth grinding grit turned up to ten.
Last week a bowling alley went up in flames and a woman died. Last night a nightclub burnt down, a young boy was locked inside but survived. A fireman wasn’t so lucky. AND NOW IT’S PERSONAL. Pedley is sickened by these fire murders, and nothing is going to stop him from catching the killer, not even those bureaucrats at City Hall.
Pedley checks the “about to be shut down because of fire hazard” buildings list. Both buildings are on it but so are a lot of other buildings. Pedley feels it in his smoky bones that they are connected.
He starts his interviews. We get all kinds of scummy and questionable individuals including pro football player who calls in the fire (who they always mention as playing for the Knicks? That really confused me). His dame on the side. His wife. Ex-gangster nightclub owner and his son. Sleazy building owner. His fortune telling wife. Local convicted arsonist. Other gangsters and oodles of cheap hoods and ex-cons.
As it unfolds strange connections between these people start to unravel. It’s old school crime where, yeah it’s a mystery but it’s all so very conspiratorial. One of those novels where the main character has to lay it all out how and why it went down at the end.
Once you get used to the vernacular of 1940’s New York ramped up to over-the-top hard boiled tough talk this was a breeze and a lot of fun almost to the point of parody. He is constantly straight faced. I think he smiles once but they make it a point to tell you he didn’t feel like it. Brass fucking balls on this guy. He walks into burning blazes, handles guns pointed at him and is threatened by gangsters and the city without a drop of sweat on his forehead. He doesn’t even have time nor the inclination for a little hanky panky. If you’re looking for a rugged old crime novel this is it.
Dell 1949 (Map Back)
Review by Nick Anderson
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