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Dragnet: The Case of the Courteous Killer
The first two bodies were found in Lovers' Lane. The man was dead. His girlfriend, still alive, described the stick-up artist as of medium build, wearing glasses, mild-mannered, and courteous. If was a description that fit half the male population of Los Angeles. It was almost the only clue Joe Friday and Frank Smith had to catch the murderer. Then the courteous killer struck again -- and again! The last time Joe Friday was waiting for him with a gun. When the criminal escaped with only a bullet wound, he vowed revenge -- and mailed an unsigned, misspelled note that read: YOU THINK YOUR A SMART BADGE. NOBODY BURNS ME AND LIVES, COP. START SWEATING.
- GenresMystery
148 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1958
12 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Richard Deming
106 books3 followersRichard Deming (1915-1983) was a solid and reliable pro whose crime-writing career extended from late 1940s pulps to early 1980s digests. He also wrote several volumes of popular non-fiction late in his life.
He is most likely to be remembered as one of the most prolific contributors to Manhunt and the early days of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and as a paperback original writer, sometimes of novels based on TV shows (Dragnet, The Mod Squad, and under the pseudonym Max Franklin, Starsky and Hutch). He was also a frequent ghost for the Ellery Queen team on paperback originals and for Brett Halliday on lead novelettes for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.
He is most likely to be remembered as one of the most prolific contributors to Manhunt and the early days of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and as a paperback original writer, sometimes of novels based on TV shows (Dragnet, The Mod Squad, and under the pseudonym Max Franklin, Starsky and Hutch). He was also a frequent ghost for the Ellery Queen team on paperback originals and for Brett Halliday on lead novelettes for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 11, 2017
Read this at work as part of my job as we've just bought Richard Deming's estate. Obviously, it's a tie-in to the radio/television series of the time. Such artifacts can often prove interesting, especially if the source material being adapted did not originate from a book or short story, because it begs the question (that too few fan-fiction authors ask themselves) "what style would a written version of this property be best presented in". In the case of DRAGNET, of course, this isn't too hard to figure out. Obviously, it's going to be told in a dry, non-melodramatic, straight-ahead police procedural style - just the way Jack Webb envisioned the radio show and television series, to make them stand-out against the sea of over-dramatic cop and detective shows of the time. No noir here, in other words.
Now, I quite like DRAGNET. And, I should add, I like it non-ironically. Yes, Webb's dedication to forthright, authoritarian law-and-order was doomed to date badly once it rubbed up against the counter-culture (as presented in the second TV series) and we can all chuckle at the over-the-top hippies and sneering weirdos being endlessly hassled by the carved-out-of-granite "Man" that is Joe Friday in the second television iteration of the franchise (heck, Dan Ackroyd got a movie out of it!). But the originating radio show, and the first television series (1951-1959) are quite enjoyable slices of naturalistic police fiction, marked by their laudable intent to "underplay" everything in the name of presenting stories for adults that were not needlessly melodramatic or manipulative, and thus succeeded in capturing (to the extent that any fiction can) what life and police work and crime were really like at the time they were being produced. In other words, they may be square, but at least to me they remain both enjoyable and fascinating. I can remember at least one of the radio shows where the sfx highlight was of a pencil breaking - and chuckling to myself when I realized that would be all I was going to get. Oh, Jack Webb, you poor, underrated, working-man's auteur, you....
Now, you may think that a novel, even a slim one like this, presented in the DRAGNET style might be boring. And I imagine that readers who are not fans of the show might quickly tire of the endless, clipped dialogue scenes (many ending in the patented "dry punchline" that featured heavily in the show) and lack of atmosphere or stylistic writing. But the book *does* have a style, just a very dry, methodical one - somewhat vaguely informed by hard-boiled fiction but drained of any of the cynicism and almost all of the violence. There is violence, of course, but it's never dramatized or luridly presented. Just the facts, as you'd expect.
And, not surprisingly, there is action that moves slightly outside of the usual DRAGNET formula (but not too far) because Deming realized the book had to have some dramatic plotting. Joe Friday gets kidnapped at one point (he tells the gunman to "shove it" in the only atypical character dialogue), and makes a daring escape by plunging into an ice-cold river. There's a shootout with a hidden sniper and, at the climax, a dangerous cliff climbing scene. So it isn't all jargon, slice-of-life interviews, clipped exchanges ("I looked at him" and "I grunted in response" appear more than once), cigarette smoking and prosaic, domestic comedy banter between Joe and Frank. But there is lots of that. So if you don't like DRAGNET there's probably no reason to read this book.
The plot follows the investigation and pursuit of a lover's lane stick-up man who eventually escalates to murder, is apprehended and then escapes to commit more crimes. It has odd resonances with the still-to-come Zodiac case (the nondescript but very quick gunman, his later use of a rifle, a taunting letter to Friday and his possible insanity) without actually being about a serial killer (in the way we think of them now). We also get lots of little space-filling details about Friday (he drives a new Ford, lives in an apartment in Westlake - the killer actually comes there!, wears lounging slippers at home) and Frank Smith (he can predict the ambient temperature by how much his feet ache, and predict fog from a feeling in his bones, he suffers from a lazy, sponger brother-in-law named Armand), the occasional light-comedy moment (half the police force is deployed in women's coats and hats as decoys in lover's lane cars) and even an above-and-beyond moment of potential heroism by Joe (he weighs allowing the gunman to kill him in his own apartment instead of being driven to an execution ground because it will make it easier for the police to catch the guy - he rejects the idea.)
Worth searching out for Dragnet fans and coming soon in e-book form!
Now, I quite like DRAGNET. And, I should add, I like it non-ironically. Yes, Webb's dedication to forthright, authoritarian law-and-order was doomed to date badly once it rubbed up against the counter-culture (as presented in the second TV series) and we can all chuckle at the over-the-top hippies and sneering weirdos being endlessly hassled by the carved-out-of-granite "Man" that is Joe Friday in the second television iteration of the franchise (heck, Dan Ackroyd got a movie out of it!). But the originating radio show, and the first television series (1951-1959) are quite enjoyable slices of naturalistic police fiction, marked by their laudable intent to "underplay" everything in the name of presenting stories for adults that were not needlessly melodramatic or manipulative, and thus succeeded in capturing (to the extent that any fiction can) what life and police work and crime were really like at the time they were being produced. In other words, they may be square, but at least to me they remain both enjoyable and fascinating. I can remember at least one of the radio shows where the sfx highlight was of a pencil breaking - and chuckling to myself when I realized that would be all I was going to get. Oh, Jack Webb, you poor, underrated, working-man's auteur, you....
Now, you may think that a novel, even a slim one like this, presented in the DRAGNET style might be boring. And I imagine that readers who are not fans of the show might quickly tire of the endless, clipped dialogue scenes (many ending in the patented "dry punchline" that featured heavily in the show) and lack of atmosphere or stylistic writing. But the book *does* have a style, just a very dry, methodical one - somewhat vaguely informed by hard-boiled fiction but drained of any of the cynicism and almost all of the violence. There is violence, of course, but it's never dramatized or luridly presented. Just the facts, as you'd expect.
And, not surprisingly, there is action that moves slightly outside of the usual DRAGNET formula (but not too far) because Deming realized the book had to have some dramatic plotting. Joe Friday gets kidnapped at one point (he tells the gunman to "shove it" in the only atypical character dialogue), and makes a daring escape by plunging into an ice-cold river. There's a shootout with a hidden sniper and, at the climax, a dangerous cliff climbing scene. So it isn't all jargon, slice-of-life interviews, clipped exchanges ("I looked at him" and "I grunted in response" appear more than once), cigarette smoking and prosaic, domestic comedy banter between Joe and Frank. But there is lots of that. So if you don't like DRAGNET there's probably no reason to read this book.
The plot follows the investigation and pursuit of a lover's lane stick-up man who eventually escalates to murder, is apprehended and then escapes to commit more crimes. It has odd resonances with the still-to-come Zodiac case (the nondescript but very quick gunman, his later use of a rifle, a taunting letter to Friday and his possible insanity) without actually being about a serial killer (in the way we think of them now). We also get lots of little space-filling details about Friday (he drives a new Ford, lives in an apartment in Westlake - the killer actually comes there!, wears lounging slippers at home) and Frank Smith (he can predict the ambient temperature by how much his feet ache, and predict fog from a feeling in his bones, he suffers from a lazy, sponger brother-in-law named Armand), the occasional light-comedy moment (half the police force is deployed in women's coats and hats as decoys in lover's lane cars) and even an above-and-beyond moment of potential heroism by Joe (he weighs allowing the gunman to kill him in his own apartment instead of being driven to an execution ground because it will make it easier for the police to catch the guy - he rejects the idea.)
Worth searching out for Dragnet fans and coming soon in e-book form!
August 13, 2015
I have always enjoyed the Dragnet television program and the radio show and I enjoyed the book just as much. One or two portions dragged just a little bit, but on the whole the story was intriguing, the characters well formed, and setting described wonderfully. I just wish there were more Dragnet novels available.
August 1, 2024
great read. plenty of action.
June 6, 2015
In 1958, Dragnet had been with America for nearly a decade, with 318 Radio performances coupled with more than 200 TV episodes, and a movie. It’s in this atmosphere that Richard Deming wrote his tie-in Dragnet novel, the Case of the Courteous Killer.
It begins with an unassuming man holding up couples in lover’s lane, eventually killing a man who thought the unassuming robber would be easy to handle in the first of a series of murders. Joe Friday and Frank Smith are called in to locate and apprehend the suspect.
Adapting television shows to novels is tricky business, but the late Mr. Deming does a superb job capturing the spirit of the 1950s TV show while producing a story that was more gripping and involved than half hour television would allow.
Deming nails the voices of Joe Friday and Frank Smith. Friday was particularly important as the story is told in typical Dragnet first person. There were a couple moments I didn't quite buy, though. For example, I found the idea Joe Friday watched the Boston Blackie TV show to be a little unbelievable. There are also funny moments with Frank Smith providing comic relief as he talks about his brother-in-law and various goings on. Truly, I could imagine this on TV as I read it.
The mystery was far beyond typical Dragnet cases, which were resolved in half an hour, but it was in that same matter of fact style. There are many twists as this criminal changes methods, the police stumble upon an almost unbelievable coincidence that's too strange for Dragnet's genre, and the courteous killer twice attempts to exact some not-so-courteous revenge on Joe Friday.
The story lost a bit of momentum and dragged in the last little bit with some repetitive moments before finishing up strong at the end.
Still, if you love 1950s Dragnet, or are a fan of clean early police procedural, this is a really good and engaging read.
It begins with an unassuming man holding up couples in lover’s lane, eventually killing a man who thought the unassuming robber would be easy to handle in the first of a series of murders. Joe Friday and Frank Smith are called in to locate and apprehend the suspect.
Adapting television shows to novels is tricky business, but the late Mr. Deming does a superb job capturing the spirit of the 1950s TV show while producing a story that was more gripping and involved than half hour television would allow.
Deming nails the voices of Joe Friday and Frank Smith. Friday was particularly important as the story is told in typical Dragnet first person. There were a couple moments I didn't quite buy, though. For example, I found the idea Joe Friday watched the Boston Blackie TV show to be a little unbelievable. There are also funny moments with Frank Smith providing comic relief as he talks about his brother-in-law and various goings on. Truly, I could imagine this on TV as I read it.
The mystery was far beyond typical Dragnet cases, which were resolved in half an hour, but it was in that same matter of fact style. There are many twists as this criminal changes methods, the police stumble upon an almost unbelievable coincidence that's too strange for Dragnet's genre, and the courteous killer twice attempts to exact some not-so-courteous revenge on Joe Friday.
The story lost a bit of momentum and dragged in the last little bit with some repetitive moments before finishing up strong at the end.
Still, if you love 1950s Dragnet, or are a fan of clean early police procedural, this is a really good and engaging read.
December 30, 2023
Very impressed. Hadn't realised the cases in these novels are true accounts. Loved the two central characters, the various other personnel and story arc. Looking forward to the other couple of books in the series I've got (one also by Deming).
November 29, 2024
just the facts. I found some Dragnet books at thrift shop.
February 12, 2015
Just like the tv show
Richard Deming is one of my favorite Pulp writers I have many of his books in my library and this one here certainly belongs there.
Just like the tv show you can see it all play out in your head he captures it perfectly
Richard Deming is one of my favorite Pulp writers I have many of his books in my library and this one here certainly belongs there.
Just like the tv show you can see it all play out in your head he captures it perfectly
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews