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Mike Shayne
Dead man's diary and a Taste for cognac
A double shot of iconic Miami PI Mike Shayne--"one of the best of the tough sleuths" (The New York Times).Dead Man's Florida private investigator Mike Shayne's in New Orleans at the behest of a distraught wife whose war-hero husband, Jasper Groat, has gone missing--along with his diary, a harrowing soon-to-be-published daily account of being set adrift in a lifeboat with two shipmates. Rumor has it it's also an incriminating confessional. With two corpses--and counting--it looks to Shayne like someone would prefer if Jasper and his damning revelations had been buried at sea.A Taste for One minute, PI Mike Shayne's having a quick afternoon cocktail in a Miami dive. The next, he's been solicited to investigate an intoxicating conspiracy involving the parole of an aging bootlegger, a secretive old sea captain tortured to death, a missing female reporter, and two dozen bottles of prewar cognac--vintage, valuable, and apparently worth killing for. If anybody can pop the cork on this case, it's Shayne.Brett Halliday's "fast‐paced world of violence, intrigues, complex twists and voluptuous women" inspired film, radio, and television adaptations, as well as the long-running Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine (The New York Times).
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
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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 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 17, 2024
Dead Man’s Diary and A Taste for Cognac have been paired together since 1959. Yet, that was not always so. Dead Man’s Diary first appeared in Black Mask in September 1945 and A Taste for Cognac in Black Mask November 1944. Dell later published both as independent rather short books in 1951 (Cognac) as one of the brief 36-book 10-cent series and as Dell #427 (Dead Man’s Diary and Dinner at Dupree’s- both set in New Orleans). Other than the fact that both are novelletes rather than full-length novels, there is little reason the two are paired other than attachment in each to the sea.
Dead Man’s Diary is set in New Orleans with Mike Shayne having an office there run by his ever-present secretary Lucy Hamilton. This story does not include any explanation about how the pair ended up relocating to New Orleans from Shayne’s usual haunts of Miami. It is set in March 1945 and includes a rather complicated tale that involves a crew of three surviving on a lifeboat near the Panama Canal, the disappearance of a gardener two years earlier, a wealthy estate where the third member of the lifeboat had lived with his family before being drafted, a strange and unlikely will that is being fought tooth and nail, and an odd collection of murders and floozies, none of which makes much sense until you get to the end and Shayne lays it all out.
Lucy plays a rather significant role in this novelette which makes sense because she is the only regular character (other than Mike himself) in New Orleans. The initial client Shayne gets is Lucy’s neighbor, “a plump middle-aged woman” sagging against the couch and gazing up at Shayne with washed blue eyes and tears streaking her rouged cheeks as she dragged her body to a straight position. Her husband (Groat) and Cunningham were shipmates on a merchant marine ship torpedoed near the Panama Canal. Three made it to a life raft and only two survived. But what is it that makes murder take precedence over everyone associated with these two men?
The other client Shayne gets is Mrs. Wallace from Littleboro who tells a strange tale about her husband disappearing two years earlier and sending her $1,000 checks each month from New Orleans, Her concern is that Groat was coming to tell her something about her husband but never made it out to her place.
The odd wealthy family featured here is the Hawleys. Of them, Beatrice Meany is the most interesting, whose husband refers to her as a drunken hussy and invites Shayne into her bedroom for secret drinks. She tells him that Gerald is precious, but he bores the hell out of her.
This is a well-written novelette, but it is complex with lots of names being thrown in the hat so pay close attention.
A Taste for Cognac has Shayne back in Miami and, here, and Shayne appears to have a fan following him around in the case of a reporter from New York (Myrna Hastings). But the issues here have to do with Shayne realizing that two bottles of cognac are different and seizing upon the idea that a huge cache of prohibition-era cognac is hidden nearby. The thing is it is a race against time since someone else has also figured it out. This one is a more typical Shayne mystery with hoodlums who need to be roughed up and Shayne in a bit of a pickle with the local gendarmes.
Dead Man’s Diary is set in New Orleans with Mike Shayne having an office there run by his ever-present secretary Lucy Hamilton. This story does not include any explanation about how the pair ended up relocating to New Orleans from Shayne’s usual haunts of Miami. It is set in March 1945 and includes a rather complicated tale that involves a crew of three surviving on a lifeboat near the Panama Canal, the disappearance of a gardener two years earlier, a wealthy estate where the third member of the lifeboat had lived with his family before being drafted, a strange and unlikely will that is being fought tooth and nail, and an odd collection of murders and floozies, none of which makes much sense until you get to the end and Shayne lays it all out.
Lucy plays a rather significant role in this novelette which makes sense because she is the only regular character (other than Mike himself) in New Orleans. The initial client Shayne gets is Lucy’s neighbor, “a plump middle-aged woman” sagging against the couch and gazing up at Shayne with washed blue eyes and tears streaking her rouged cheeks as she dragged her body to a straight position. Her husband (Groat) and Cunningham were shipmates on a merchant marine ship torpedoed near the Panama Canal. Three made it to a life raft and only two survived. But what is it that makes murder take precedence over everyone associated with these two men?
The other client Shayne gets is Mrs. Wallace from Littleboro who tells a strange tale about her husband disappearing two years earlier and sending her $1,000 checks each month from New Orleans, Her concern is that Groat was coming to tell her something about her husband but never made it out to her place.
The odd wealthy family featured here is the Hawleys. Of them, Beatrice Meany is the most interesting, whose husband refers to her as a drunken hussy and invites Shayne into her bedroom for secret drinks. She tells him that Gerald is precious, but he bores the hell out of her.
This is a well-written novelette, but it is complex with lots of names being thrown in the hat so pay close attention.
A Taste for Cognac has Shayne back in Miami and, here, and Shayne appears to have a fan following him around in the case of a reporter from New York (Myrna Hastings). But the issues here have to do with Shayne realizing that two bottles of cognac are different and seizing upon the idea that a huge cache of prohibition-era cognac is hidden nearby. The thing is it is a race against time since someone else has also figured it out. This one is a more typical Shayne mystery with hoodlums who need to be roughed up and Shayne in a bit of a pickle with the local gendarmes.
May 7, 2022
Pulp fiction with a nifty WWII feel — as both plots tie cleverly to conditions on the home front during the war. These are written quickly and probably under deadline, so don’t expect elegant prose or much attention paid to characterization or setting.
The liquor — on the other hand — that’s important. If you have some patience, a perfectly good cocktail can be produced from a description of a drink in Dead Man’s Diary. And the story in a well named tale — A Taste for Cognac, turns on Mike Shayne’s appreciation of good liquor. If you think Shayne should have figured out these cases a little quicker — cut the man a break. Given the amount of drinking the man does, he was probably a little groggy.
The liquor — on the other hand — that’s important. If you have some patience, a perfectly good cocktail can be produced from a description of a drink in Dead Man’s Diary. And the story in a well named tale — A Taste for Cognac, turns on Mike Shayne’s appreciation of good liquor. If you think Shayne should have figured out these cases a little quicker — cut the man a break. Given the amount of drinking the man does, he was probably a little groggy.
March 24, 2015
Michael Shane mysteries are very hard boiled and it's amazing that Shayne is able to do anything at all since he spends so much time being beaten up or drinking cognac. The two mysteries in this volume are connected with WWII a. Dead Man's Diary is a good mystery with some excellent twists as Shayne tries to find the diary of a sailor murdered after he has spent many days at sea on a raft. A Taste for Cognac has more fighting and less detecting, although the reason why men were killed over old cognac is clever.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews