The Corpse That Never Was

Mike Shayne #46

by Brett Halliday

FIRST PAPERBACK EDITION, Dell Book #1498, published July 1964. Author’s 44th Private Investigator Mike Shayne mystery novel. Original 40 cover price. Paperback, 158 pages, 17 cm. Original hardcover first edition published by Dodd, Mead in 1964.

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

AKA 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.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brett Halliday was first used as a pseudonym by Davis Dressner and later used as a house name for the Mike Shayne series. Top notch writers followed Dressner's lead and put out nearly eighty Shayne detective novels. No matter who actually wrote them, when you pick up a Mike Shayne novel, you know you are getting a sharp, focused private eye mystery that is eminently readable.

The Corpse That Never Was is a locked room mystery with a mystery that is perplexing throughout. It begins with a domestic scene with Shayne and his sexy secretary Lucy Hamilton having dinner in her apartment in a scene guaranteed to satisfy female Shayne fans hoping
for Shayne to make his arrangements with Ms. Hamilton somewhat more permanent.

This novel is all about Shayne unlocking a baffling who done it and how puzzle. It lacks some of the action and gunfire and Fistfights of other Shayne novels although it features a few unsightly corpses.

[Rob Smith, Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entry into the Shayne series post-Dave Dresser as Halliday is typically taking it's own course and so inconsistent with the original Shayne series. This Shayne novel is much more tame than the bulk of the series. Shayne rarely muscles around and seems nearly lethargic. There are some indications in the writing that a woman may have donned the Halliday moniker.

Very much unlike the original Dresser Shayne, the solution to the mystery is pretty obvious from the start. Despite the weak plot, the writing is otherwise good. The descriptions of the Miami setting is very accurate, which always impresses me.

Bottom line: I recommend this book - Just pretend the main character isn't Shayne.