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Mike Shayne #18
Call for Michael Shayne
From title A young Miami insurance executive can't remember whether or not he's a killer. He remembers a red-headed man who once said, "Murder is my business." That's how Mike Shayne gets into the case of amnesia, alibis, and anguish in Miami Beach and the Florida Keys.
- GenresMysteryMystery Thriller
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
3 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Brett Halliday
508 books62 followersAKA David Dresser
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names
Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names
Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 28, 2019
I didn't enjoy this as much as other Michael Shayne novels. Plot was a little complicated, Shayne didn't even get into the story right away, the main characters weren't that interesting and the ending wasn't very exciting.
March 18, 2024
Another sensational read featuring PI Michael Shayne, although he doesn't appear until Page 60!
A man wakes up in a seedy room with a bruised and bloody temple, a roll of 100 one hundred dollar bills, and a dead body on the floor. He can't remember his name or how he came into his current situation. The phone rings and a woman asks if he got the money. Slowly he begins to piece together who he is, but there are still several confusing and forgotten moments.
When Shayne is contacted he takes the man's case, hiding him from the police and slowly beginning to feel the man is lying to him. Things naturally, don't go simply and the book races to a fantastic conclusion with several outstanding twists.
Halliday has become one of my favorite writers. He has never disappointed me and I have always found myself rapidly reading the pages to see what happens next. This is another winner of a mystery.
A man wakes up in a seedy room with a bruised and bloody temple, a roll of 100 one hundred dollar bills, and a dead body on the floor. He can't remember his name or how he came into his current situation. The phone rings and a woman asks if he got the money. Slowly he begins to piece together who he is, but there are still several confusing and forgotten moments.
When Shayne is contacted he takes the man's case, hiding him from the police and slowly beginning to feel the man is lying to him. Things naturally, don't go simply and the book races to a fantastic conclusion with several outstanding twists.
Halliday has become one of my favorite writers. He has never disappointed me and I have always found myself rapidly reading the pages to see what happens next. This is another winner of a mystery.
April 26, 2015
On the night of June 8, Arthur Devlin, a quiet and unassuming insurance man, went to a bon voyage party. His bon voyage party--as he prepared to leave on a two-week Caribbean cruise. A number of his friends got together to wish him well and to drink to his health and good travels. They all had a great many drinks. When Art wakes up on the morning of June 20th, he finds himself in a room he has never seen before, in a set of clothes that he would never have picked out for himself, and no memory whatsoever of the past twelve days. Further investigation reveals a beauty of a goose egg on his head.
As he tries to gather his thoughts and sort out his last memory (that would be of the party), he notices another man in the room. But he can't ask him any questions....because that man is quite dead. With blood on his unfamiliar clothes and a blackjack nearby, it looks like Art may have lost control as well as his memory. Then there's the strange woman named Marge who calls the room, addresses him as "Joey, Darling," and wants to know if he got the money off of "that louse, Skid." When Art hesitates over his answers, she asks, "Did you kill him?" Well, that's what he wants to know.
He gets out of the hotel as quick as he can and heads home. He calls up his friend and doctor to come help him--hoping that if he really did kill a man during his black-out period that he won't be held responsible for what he did during a bout of amnesia. Dr. Thompson, while he wants to believe his friend, can't quite make his knowledge of amnesia fit the story Art has to tell. He suggest that Art go away for a bit and let it all blow over--after all who would connect a mild-mannered insurance man with a murder in that dive of a hotel? But Art is determined to get to the bottom of it all. He remembers a red-headed private detective who once said, "Murder is my business" and asks Mike Shayne to find out what really happened during those twelve days. But will he like what Shayne discovers?
Call for Michael Shayne is another trip into the private eye world for me. I don't make these trips often, but the Shayne series by Brett Halliday is always enjoyable. This was another fun romp and it's always good to watch Shayne one-up that annoying Miami Beach Chief of Police, Peter Painter. You'd think that Painter would learn that Shayne generally delivers the goods--and it's never the solution that the Chief has selected. This is a fast-paced story that I easily finished in a couple of hours. Halliday's descriptions of the Miami area are deft and transport the reader direct from 2015 to the beach city of the late 1940s/early 50s. My one disappointment with the book was that I spotted the main villain right off--others with a fair amount of detective fiction under their belt will probably do so as well. But Halliday had a second surprise lined up that made the ride worthwhile. ★★★ for a solid afternoon's entertainment.
First published on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
As he tries to gather his thoughts and sort out his last memory (that would be of the party), he notices another man in the room. But he can't ask him any questions....because that man is quite dead. With blood on his unfamiliar clothes and a blackjack nearby, it looks like Art may have lost control as well as his memory. Then there's the strange woman named Marge who calls the room, addresses him as "Joey, Darling," and wants to know if he got the money off of "that louse, Skid." When Art hesitates over his answers, she asks, "Did you kill him?" Well, that's what he wants to know.
He gets out of the hotel as quick as he can and heads home. He calls up his friend and doctor to come help him--hoping that if he really did kill a man during his black-out period that he won't be held responsible for what he did during a bout of amnesia. Dr. Thompson, while he wants to believe his friend, can't quite make his knowledge of amnesia fit the story Art has to tell. He suggest that Art go away for a bit and let it all blow over--after all who would connect a mild-mannered insurance man with a murder in that dive of a hotel? But Art is determined to get to the bottom of it all. He remembers a red-headed private detective who once said, "Murder is my business" and asks Mike Shayne to find out what really happened during those twelve days. But will he like what Shayne discovers?
Call for Michael Shayne is another trip into the private eye world for me. I don't make these trips often, but the Shayne series by Brett Halliday is always enjoyable. This was another fun romp and it's always good to watch Shayne one-up that annoying Miami Beach Chief of Police, Peter Painter. You'd think that Painter would learn that Shayne generally delivers the goods--and it's never the solution that the Chief has selected. This is a fast-paced story that I easily finished in a couple of hours. Halliday's descriptions of the Miami area are deft and transport the reader direct from 2015 to the beach city of the late 1940s/early 50s. My one disappointment with the book was that I spotted the main villain right off--others with a fair amount of detective fiction under their belt will probably do so as well. But Halliday had a second surprise lined up that made the ride worthwhile. ★★★ for a solid afternoon's entertainment.
First published on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
July 13, 2016
Michael Shayne is on the case again. This time he isn't sure if his client is really innocent or guilty.
Arthur Devlin, an insurance investigator, wakes up in a room he has never been in before wearing someone else's clothes, garish and not the style Devlin dressed in. In the same room is a dead man, a man Devlin has no memory of or knowledge of who he is. The last Devlin remembers is being at a going away party prior to his leaving on a vacation cruise. Some how he has lost 12 days of his life and he has no memory of any of it.
Did Devlin kill the guy? Who is the woman on the phone who calls him Joey and says she is his wife? Devlin has never been married! And what about that fat wad of money with blood on it? What is going on?
Devlin calls in Shayne to get some answers. Is there a tie in with a previous case of suicide involving a prominent man's wife? Is there a cover up?
In Shayne's typical hard boiled style he goes about solving the mystery and tying up all the loose threads. Classic.
Arthur Devlin, an insurance investigator, wakes up in a room he has never been in before wearing someone else's clothes, garish and not the style Devlin dressed in. In the same room is a dead man, a man Devlin has no memory of or knowledge of who he is. The last Devlin remembers is being at a going away party prior to his leaving on a vacation cruise. Some how he has lost 12 days of his life and he has no memory of any of it.
Did Devlin kill the guy? Who is the woman on the phone who calls him Joey and says she is his wife? Devlin has never been married! And what about that fat wad of money with blood on it? What is going on?
Devlin calls in Shayne to get some answers. Is there a tie in with a previous case of suicide involving a prominent man's wife? Is there a cover up?
In Shayne's typical hard boiled style he goes about solving the mystery and tying up all the loose threads. Classic.
January 8, 2020
There were something like 77 Mike Shayne novels published between 1939 and 1976 under the house name, Brett Halliday.
Call For Michael Shayne revisits an often-used pulp theme of a guy waking up from a stupor and finding himself lying with a bloody corpse.
Here, Devlin is missing two weeks of his life when he was supposed to be on a Carribean cruise. Although this plot device has been used many times, it's used well here and feels fresh and mysterious.
Of course, it wouldn't be Mike Shayne if he wasn't tangling with Will Gentry and Peter Painter and his attempts to solve the case are almost thwarted by his dealings with Gentry and Painter who both know he's
hiding something.
Although this book starts out well, the plot ultimately becomes too convoluted and lost.
Call For Michael Shayne revisits an often-used pulp theme of a guy waking up from a stupor and finding himself lying with a bloody corpse.
Here, Devlin is missing two weeks of his life when he was supposed to be on a Carribean cruise. Although this plot device has been used many times, it's used well here and feels fresh and mysterious.
Of course, it wouldn't be Mike Shayne if he wasn't tangling with Will Gentry and Peter Painter and his attempts to solve the case are almost thwarted by his dealings with Gentry and Painter who both know he's
hiding something.
Although this book starts out well, the plot ultimately becomes too convoluted and lost.
December 17, 2023
One of the better Michael Shaynes since it doesn’t start with him drinking and getting grim and bleak right off the bat. Arthur Devlin wakes up, seemingly hung over, in a room with a dead man. But he’s not wearing his own clothes and he’s supposed to be on a cruise. How can he find out what happened and not get convicted for murder? Call Mike Shayne. A good puzzle with a great twist at the end.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews