The Deadly Pay-Off

by William H. Duhart

He was the boss. The boss of the sharpies. The boss of the rats. And the boss of dope and prostitution and every gambling house and dice game in the city. If he gave the word, you could be dead, smashed, before morning.

Genres: Crime

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1958

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duhart apparently only published two novels in his lifetime, The Deadly Pay-Off (1958) and Ravishing Seductress (1963). According to the short biographical sketch in the Black Gat edition, Duhart began writing The Deadly Pay-Off while in Wisconsin State Prison where he served time for assault and armed robbery, which perhaps means he had a bit of first-hand knowledge of the crime world and a bit of authenticity. The Black Gat edition was published in December 2022 with cover art credited to Al Brule.

The Deadly Pay-Off is a tough midwestern organized crime story set in Milwaukee, a town run by a mobster, Arky Calahan, with his hands in every pot and determined to keep it that way. Tank Tabor is the lead character in this novel, who is one of those guys who straddles the line between being a good guy and being a bad guy. He has been a mob-connected guy, but now pressure is being put on his brother Bill, an honest private eye, to stay out of a case involving the death of a reporter, Ritchie Andrews.

Tabor has to try to head off his boss and the evil henchmen before his brother pays the ultimate price. On the journey, Tabor finds that, when you are dealing with organized crime, you can’t just tell them no and that they will use the system to make any charge stick no matter how flimsy. Ultimately, Tabor turns out to be a good guy, but it is not an easy ride to that side and he is riding all alone, practically, with the aid of one guy he meets in county jail, Jock, and two women he once had relationships with, one being Tess who thought him dead while he was in a Japanese prison camp and took up with someone else (just happens to have been Ritchie Andrews) and one Kate Lamain who is so well-connected that she thought herself invulnerable.

The writing is top-notch, starting with the first lines which describes Tabor waking up to sense trouble in his apartment, feeling it, “slithering around the lower part of his belly, up and down his spine; the prickle of danger.” Kate, in particular, is the Michele Pfeiffer type female lead, posied on the high dive in her “green bikini” that “would have made a snake dancer’s G-string look like a pair of Italian pantaloons.” Her thighs “glistened” as she dove into the water. “Kate climbed from the pool, all brown and curvy and glistening with suntan lotion and droplets of water. She was brown-eyed and honey-haired and her soft, golden body was rich with the right kind of curves.”

This is an expertly written tough, dark tale that shows how quickly friends and allies can turn on you and how quickly you can find yourself all alone facing evil with barely anyone willing to lend a hand (or even a finger) to you. The story is filled with hard action from stop to finish with Tabor almost constantly on the run, first trying to make a deal with his brother to please Calahan, and then being set up and with the whole city on alert for him and every cop having his description. With both the mob and the police looking for him, Tabor has little choice but to try to figure out how to turn the tables on Calahan and quickly.

[Piker7977 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem. If you appreciate hardboiled characters living in a noir world, this is for you.

The author is interesting as well. Please check out the link below or the introduction to the Stark House Press reprint of Duhart's classic.

Gold Medal Book Blog - The Deadly Pay-Off Post

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Kelly’s introduction reveals that William H. Duhart wrote only two novels and a handful of short stories during his brief, impressive career as a crime fiction writer. This is a reprint of the first, originally published as Gold Medal 805 in 1958.

Although Duhart was Black, his protagonist, Tank Tabor, is White; it’s likely he had to be to sell the novel back in the late 1950s. Nevertheless, he include a sidekick of sorts, Jock Adams, a former black inmate, who Tabor met in stir. Jock is savvy, honest, and somewhat of an unsung hero without whose help Tabor probably wouldn’t have had as much success as he finally manages to squeeze out of the constricting circumstances he funnels himself into.

Tabor works for kingpin Arky Calahan who runs just about every criminal enterprise in Milwaukee. Calahan gives Tabor a few hours to dissuade his PI brother, Bill Tabor, to drop his investigation into the murder of a reporter who purportedly has damning evidence against Calahan. If Tank doesn’t get the job done quick, Bill is headed for the morgue.

Duhart weaves an intricate tale of tension, high-stake gambles, and pounding action. His writing is crisp, delivered in a luscious, hardboiled rhythm that defines the time and place of the setting. Black Gat 41 is a prime opportunity to (re)discover a lost writer and a lost original crime classic. A perfect pay-off of the BG series charter.

Available for pre-order now. Due out in December 2022.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this short novel about a gambler and hood who gets on the bad side of the main boss in the area. This happens because his PI brother is hunting up details about a murder and Tabor is supposed to talk his brother out of it. When he can't he realizes that his brother will be killed and that pits him against the whole works. Luckily he has some friends and isn't a light weight himself. Making him mad was a mistake.

Highly recommended, evidently Duhart didn't write much which is too bad he has a nice hard style and sets up a good plot.