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Mac #1
Dame in Danger
Thomas B. Dewey. Draw the Curtain Close. New York: Jefferson House, 1947. First edition. Octavo. 212 pages. Publisher's binding and dust jacket.
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
About the author
Thomas B. Dewey
86 books9 followersThomas Blanchard Dewey was an American author of hardboiled crime novels. He created two series of novels: the first one features Mac, a private investigator from Chicago, the second features Pete Schofield.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 27, 2025
I enjoyed reading this hardboiled private investigator novel. Mr. Dewey has a compelling prose style I find a cut above most of his writing peers, like Spillane. He employs the expected tropes like the ripe femme fatale, overwritten action sequences, and hokey dialogue, which isn't a bad thing if you're a fan of the crime noir subgenre as I am. He authored at least two series. However, this title is the first one that I have read. I don't know if I'll ever get to any of his other books, but I'm glad I finally got to read this one.
June 16, 2017
If you like classic hardboiled detective fiction with mobsters, beautiful dames, nightclubs, murder, and Fistfights, you will find no better detective series than Dewey's Mac series. Between 1947 and 1970, Dewey published sixteen books in this series and every single one of them is top-notch. Draw the Curtain Close is the first book in the series and it took Dewey six years to return to the series and give us a second one.
Draw The Curtain is tough and hardboiled. It features a world where there's little sunlight and there's all kinds of nefarious double crossing characters and crooked entanglements. Like mid classic Private eyes, Mac works by himself and has one pal on the police force, Donovan. The story is a typical tangle of double crossing crooks and, in typical classic PI fashion, leaves the reader in the dark as to what everyone's after till nearly the end.
What really works about this book is the nonstop pace that never lets up. If you've read lots of PI fiction, you've read other stories with the mobster asking the PI to work for him, the mobster's dazzling dame who has to be hidden from both the mob and the law, the frame up, and the chases through the town, but few can tell this story better than Dewey. This is simply the good stuff.
Draw The Curtain is tough and hardboiled. It features a world where there's little sunlight and there's all kinds of nefarious double crossing characters and crooked entanglements. Like mid classic Private eyes, Mac works by himself and has one pal on the police force, Donovan. The story is a typical tangle of double crossing crooks and, in typical classic PI fashion, leaves the reader in the dark as to what everyone's after till nearly the end.
What really works about this book is the nonstop pace that never lets up. If you've read lots of PI fiction, you've read other stories with the mobster asking the PI to work for him, the mobster's dazzling dame who has to be hidden from both the mob and the law, the frame up, and the chases through the town, but few can tell this story better than Dewey. This is simply the good stuff.
August 25, 2015
Hard boiled detective "Mac" gets himself involved in a murder mystery. This is a very encouraging start to Dewey's "Mac" Detective Series of books. I intend to read more of them.
September 17, 2026
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This is the series debut of Mac, a calm and conscientious Chicago private eye who isn't afraid of fisticuffs or firearms when it comes down to it.
A butler shows Mac into the fine library of Warfield's mansion, the large man looking to Mac like someone who owns half the city and the people in it, and has done the things you have to do to get to own them. For a generous retainer, Warfield hires Mac to watch his wife, who left him after an argument a few weeks ago. Now living in an apartment, she may be in danger. Waiting in his car outside is Marilyn Maxwell, a beautiful redhead asking for a ride. Let's say she's a friend of the family, who sings a little and dances at Warfield's Mobile Club - and one of the reasons his wife left. Back at his office, he finds three hoodlums of loan shark Burnett demanding a mysterious package they think Warfield gave him. He also finds Warfield's butler delivering this package before the men shoot him down in the street. Mac's good friend Donovan arrives to investigate the shooting; the best cop in town, he has known Warfield since he was a hood named Scarpone. Mac meets Mrs. Cynthia Warfield in her apartment, who knows the package contains a family heirloom, one volume of a 1455 Gutenburg Bible worth $50,000. They return to the mansion together to find Warfield bludgeoned to death - the bloody fireplace poker later found in Cynthia's closet. Someone wants her framed out of the way. There are a lot of people after the book - Burnett, Miss Mayfair, and a mob kingpin named Callahan, trying to outbid each other to possess it - strange, as it seems worthless now that someone has hollowed out the pages inside.
Mac does the legwork of following people or trailing them in cabs through the darker shadows of Chicago. Mac and Donovan have a familial relationship (calling each other Shamus and Copper), but Mac is a diligent loner. He doesn't incite action, but is not afraid of fisticuffs or firearms as the finale whips up into a frenzy of violence, littering the floor with bodies. "Nice work, Mac," she said. "They had it coming. All of them."
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for over 1000 book reviews in all genres
This is the series debut of Mac, a calm and conscientious Chicago private eye who isn't afraid of fisticuffs or firearms when it comes down to it.
A butler shows Mac into the fine library of Warfield's mansion, the large man looking to Mac like someone who owns half the city and the people in it, and has done the things you have to do to get to own them. For a generous retainer, Warfield hires Mac to watch his wife, who left him after an argument a few weeks ago. Now living in an apartment, she may be in danger. Waiting in his car outside is Marilyn Maxwell, a beautiful redhead asking for a ride. Let's say she's a friend of the family, who sings a little and dances at Warfield's Mobile Club - and one of the reasons his wife left. Back at his office, he finds three hoodlums of loan shark Burnett demanding a mysterious package they think Warfield gave him. He also finds Warfield's butler delivering this package before the men shoot him down in the street. Mac's good friend Donovan arrives to investigate the shooting; the best cop in town, he has known Warfield since he was a hood named Scarpone. Mac meets Mrs. Cynthia Warfield in her apartment, who knows the package contains a family heirloom, one volume of a 1455 Gutenburg Bible worth $50,000. They return to the mansion together to find Warfield bludgeoned to death - the bloody fireplace poker later found in Cynthia's closet. Someone wants her framed out of the way. There are a lot of people after the book - Burnett, Miss Mayfair, and a mob kingpin named Callahan, trying to outbid each other to possess it - strange, as it seems worthless now that someone has hollowed out the pages inside.
Mac does the legwork of following people or trailing them in cabs through the darker shadows of Chicago. Mac and Donovan have a familial relationship (calling each other Shamus and Copper), but Mac is a diligent loner. He doesn't incite action, but is not afraid of fisticuffs or firearms as the finale whips up into a frenzy of violence, littering the floor with bodies. "Nice work, Mac," she said. "They had it coming. All of them."
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May 6, 2021
I do not usually enjoy American PI novels of the hard-boiled type but this was an exception.
The writiting is crisp and clear and the dialogue has an endearingly wry edge to it.
There is not much to the plot but it rollocks along pacily. There is a lot of violence, as one would expect, but since the book does not take itself too seriously, it all fits nicely.
3.5 stars
I will read more if this underrated author
The writiting is crisp and clear and the dialogue has an endearingly wry edge to it.
There is not much to the plot but it rollocks along pacily. There is a lot of violence, as one would expect, but since the book does not take itself too seriously, it all fits nicely.
3.5 stars
I will read more if this underrated author
Want to Read
October 13, 2018Synopsis: Mac is one of those hard-boiled PIs who gets involved with petty crooks, mobsters, women and the Chicago police.
March 22, 2024
One of the most underrated detective series and hard boiled writers of the 50s-60s era!
August 19, 2026
Actually, quite good! I can visualize it as a movie — film noir, hard boiled detective, 1940s setting.
March 16, 2018
Terrific little book. Gets the job done with a minimum of fuss. It's missing that little extra something for me.
It's the first in a long series, and I noticed that this one was written 6 years before the 2nd entry. So it might be interesting to check in on this series again to see if it has a little more zip
It's the first in a long series, and I noticed that this one was written 6 years before the 2nd entry. So it might be interesting to check in on this series again to see if it has a little more zip
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews