The Talking Clock

by Frank Gruber

Frank Gruber's amateur sleuths - Johnny Fletcher, the amazing book salesman, and Sam Cram, his strong-man sidekick - have a genius for getting into trouble. This time they go broke in a small Minnesota town and are thrown into jail for vagrancy. The next morning they wake up to find that one of their cell-mates, who later turns out to be Tom Quisenberry, grandson of wealthy old Simon Quisenberry, has been murdered in the night. In the confusion that ensues after the murder has been discovered, Johnny and Sam and also the fourth occupant of the cell, a fleet-footed tramp, break jail. Johnny and Sam realize that they will be held for murder if they are caught, so to clear themselves they take on the job of solving the murder, Their search leads them back across the country to the Quisenberry estate outside New York City, home of Simon Quisenberry's fabulous collection clocks, where they tangle with an odd and avaricious assortment of people.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Frank Gruber was an enormously prolific author of pulp fiction. A stalwart contributor to Black Mask magazine, he also wrote novels, producing as many as four a year during the 1940s. His best-known character was Oliver Quade, “the Human Encyclopedia,” whose adventures were collected in Brass Knuckles (1966), and will soon be republished in ebook format as Oliver Quade, the Human Encyclopedia,featuring brand-new material, from MysteriousPress.com, Open Road Integrated Media, and Black Mask magazine.

Reviews

[Ptjerónimo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gruber foi um escritor prolixo de romances populares e de guiões cinematográficos. Não particularmente talentoso mas longe de ser medíocre. Este livro lê-se com facilidade (sem grande deleite diga-se em abono da verdade) e a intriga não é totalmente má. Parece um filme policial da série B (ou C?) com personagens jocosas e desenvoltas.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay book, not really my type of mystery. Sort or more hard-boiled than cozy. The heroes are tough-talking men who do some not-quite-legal things to survive the hard times they find themselves in. The writing is okay, although there are a few episodes that are more filler than useful points in moving the plot along (a full page about hands played in a card game could have been cut for instance.)

[Ana Rodrigues · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay mystery/crime book, with typical characters and a very witty main character/detective, Johnny Fletcher. The main duo, Johnny and Sam, is the best thing in this story, but the story itself has nothing special.

[Raquel Santos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Policial completamente inócuo, a roçar a perda de tempo.