Green Ice

by Raoul Whitfield

Whitfield's first novel, and the one critics like best (Hammett loved it, but, then, Whitfield and Hammett were drinking buddies.) The story begins with Mal Ourney's release from a two-year prison sentence. While in prison Ourney apparently develops sympathy for the small-time crooks he meets, and hatches a plan to get the big guys when he gets out. Rumors of this spread outside the prison walls and he is a target for a frame-up within hours of his release.

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Noir

219 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Although born in New York, Raoul Fauconnier Whitfield's early life was shaped by his father's transfer to the Philippines where he led the privilege life as the dependent of a Territorial Government bureaucrat. Young Whitfield would later travel through China and Japan where his memory of Asia would prove to serve him well. Back in the States, the teenager aspired to motion pictures, where his rugged good looks graced the silent cinema. If it weren't for America's entry into the Great War in 1917 we might know him as an actor, but Whitfield enlisted in the Army and was initially assigned to the ambulance corps. Desiring action, he sought and won a commission as a pilot and saw duty on the German Front as a combat pilot. After the Armistice, Whitfield spurned his steel business-based family's desires, married his first wife Prudence and landed a job with the Pittsburgh Post as a reporter. Prudence encouraged his long held desires to write pulp fiction stories. His writing drew upon his childhood travels in the Far East (his 'Jo Gar, Island Detective' character was based in Manila) along with his more recent wartime exploits. He succeeded in selling stories for Boy's Life, War Stories and Battle Stories (under the pseudonym 'Temple Field') - but he's especially notable for his contributions to Black Mask, the creme of the pulps. His 'Crime Buster' Black Mask stories were so popular they were amalgamated into his first novel, Green Ice (published in 1930) earning the praise of none other than the genre master, Dashiell Hammett, with its hard-as-nails emphasis on action. Whitfield had a total of 9 books published during the depths of the Great Depression. The speed in which he ground out work was amazing but it also drew criticism; his lesser stories were spurned as hack work. Whitfield often wrote under the pseudonym, Ramon Dacolta, who ironically proved a heady rival in readership popularity. Many of his 1927-33 stories easily ranks with the best authors of pulp fiction. Whitfield's screen writing career began in earnest after his divorce from Prudence and relocated from Florida to Los Angeles in 1933. He landed a job as a writer for Paramount and on a whirlwind trip to New York City, met and married the wealthy and unstable Emily Davies Vanderbilt Thayer, with emphasis on the Vanderbilt. Life was good for a short period; the couple purchased a large ranch outside Las Vegas, Nevada and Whitfield's writing productivity slowed to a trickle. The Whitfield's marriage was wobbly, masked by partying. Emily experienced bouts of manic depression and the couple separated in early 1935. Her mental state was far more fragile than anyone had imagined, she committed suicide at the Nevada ranch that May. Whitfield was inconsolable over his wife's death and he was utterly destroyed. Contracting TB in his 40s he died at a military hospital in California in 1945.

Reviews

[Karl]

New introduction to this edition by Pete Hamill.

New Gregg Press series is edited by Otto Penzler.

"Green Ice" opens with the release of Mal Ourney from Sing Sing, where he has served a short term. In this Whitfield's first novel, and the one critics like best (Hammett loved it, but, then, Whitfield and Hammett were drinking buddies.) The story begins with Mal Ourney's release from a two-year prison sentence. While in prison Ourney apparently develops sympathy for the small-time crooks he meets, and hatches a plan to get the big guys when he gets out. Rumors of this spread outside the prison walls and he is a target for a frame-up within hours of his release.

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

From 1930
This was serialized in Black Mask in 1929-1930.
A lively crime caper, starting at Sing Sing.
Whitfield calls cigarettes PILLS. Funny, I thought, since Jacqueline Susann called pills DOLLS. But that was 40 years later.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raoul Whitfield was one of the pioneering figures of hardboiled fiction and wrote as many as ninety stories in the famed Black Mask magazine. He was a contemporary of Hammett, Chandler, and Carroll John Daly, and a drinking buddy of Hammett’s. Green Ice was Whitefield’s first published novel and is in actuality a set of five shorter stories that were originally published in Black Mask. If you are looking for real, hardboiled stories without pretense and just plain action, action, action, this is it. Mal Ourney served two years in Sing Sing, taking a manslaughter rap for a gal he had been dating and, while there, word gets out he is has it out for the big guys, the crime breeders, who control all the action on the streets. Violence is everywhere as he steps out of the Big House and it all looks like it is going to come back down on Ourney just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hammett himself described Green Ice as 280 pages of naked action and tough, staccato prose. It may not be as cleverly plotted as some other hardboiled novels – these were originally short stories- but it literally breathes that tough, dark, hardboiled atmosphere.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can’t believe this was written in the 30s, it has to be one of the hardest boiled books ever. You can see why Chandler loved this guy- this is the toughest language from anything of its time. Just wish the story didn’t meander, and the lead guy didn’t keep getting knocked unconscious by like, everybody. We’re to believe he’s just a nice guy who took a fall once for a girl and never deserved a day in jail. Cool, but as narrator, he plays the always observer. Very little action- everything happens to him. Reading and observing a gritty novel through the eyes of an observer removes one from the story, and when he’d get bonked on the head, I ended up not caring what happened to this dude. Still, the language and vibes is a real time travel back to a more realistic snapshot of the dirty 30s. Makes you feel kind of the way You Can’t Win by Jack Black really opened your eyes to junkies and the underground of the 20s- although that is a 10x better book that everyone MUST read.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gritty noir piece ca. 1930’s. The writing gives Hammett and Chandler a run for their money. While the protagonist is not as complex as Spade or Marlowe, this remains top-notch slice of noir fiction.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Green Ice' (a reference to stolen emeralds) was Raoul Whitfield's first novel. Although carried off well, it shows its origin in five linked novella published from December 1929 to April 1930 in 'Black Mask' which was to hardboiled noir what 'Weird Tales' was to horror and fantasy.

At the time Whitfield was rated more highly than his good friend Dashiell Hammett but Hammett has perhaps lasted better because his stories are a bit more literary and less deeply embedded in the atmosphere of the time. However, Whitfield is not to be sniffed at as a genre author.

The story is very fast-moving and brutal with a death rate more typical today of recent Hollywood pulp thrillers. Hardboiled was to became noir and provide the basis for many classic films but Whitfield lost out on that opportunity, perhaps because he was so unremittingly violent.

The pace is fast and the plotting complex (a derivation of the mystery just as noir was a derivation of hardboiled) but Whitfield has the good grace periodically to summarise the plot and the running theory of the 'hero' as to what precisely is going on (as he would have to do each month).

Why was this sort of story so popular? Well, there is a very American Wild West moral tale of gunfighter integrity, cleaning up the bad hats, but in an urban setting, and the picture of tough ruthless women on the wrong side of the game would be both erotic and a gender wars warning.

But something else is going on where the lived experience of the writer acts as link to the reader's edginess about an unstable ruthless world in which high morality - detached from its puritan roots - faces the reality of dog-eat-dog criminality and desperation in society.

The hero Mal Ourney is released from Sing Sing but it is quickly established that he is a good guy who hates gangsters. He took a drunk driving manslaughter rap for a girl who was not worth it but he did it anyway. It is also established that he is a well-heeled 'gentleman'.

This could position him as a transitional figure between the gentleman-criminal Raffles (though Ourney is only a criminal by default) and Sam Spade (though Ourney is an amateur investigator and not a paid professional) except that 'The Maltese Falcon' came out in the same year as 'Green Ice'

Hammett's Nick Charles in the 'Thin Man' (1934) represents another variation - a well-heeled socialite (though it is clear he married into money) who was once a professional investigator and takes on a case only because he is intrigued and does not like being pushed around.

These are all variations on a theme and what binds them is a male ideal - the tough but decent guy (a 'mensch') who wants a quiet life on a steady income but finds himself getting into scrapes that, because he is fundamentally decent, he will see through to the end.

It is an interesting ideal because it is a gender ideal presumed to be attractive to women - men capable of protection but also willing to protect - which makes the deviousness and ruthlessness of the women a fundamental existential problem for male heroes and, presumably, their readers.

As the corpses pile up (probably reflecting the five novella origin of the novel requiring constant action for the young 'Black Mask' reader), Whitfield does not have just one 'femme fatale' but a sequence of them.

This is what the world looked like to an urban male in 1929 trapped in a competitive world of strict gender differences where the stakes of the unknowability of other minds were that much higher in the anomic world that was (and perhaps is) America.

Three experiences mark this tone of voice - the shock of front line service in the First World War (1917-1918), the enormous viciousness of street gang wars in New York in the age of Dutch Schulz (very much a live issue since 1928) and the desperation of the Great Crash in the year of writing.

If you add to this mix a corrupted law enforcement system and the impunity of criminal gangs as well as the notorious 'condition of the working class' (the evocation of industrial Pittsburgh is excellent) you have the soup ready-made for a hardboiled story.

All in all, this is not a great work of literature and it is no surprise that Whitfield could not gain the immortality of Hammett and later Chandler but the novel may capture the atmosphere of urban America in 1929/1930 better than either precisely because it is less polished and more raw.

It has rough edges but it works as a mystery (up to a point) and it certainly works as hardboiled on its way to noir with moments of extremely good writing. The laconic terse fast-moving character of the book, riddled with repressed rage and despair, is testament to a time's particular psychology.

Even today, most men are going to like this book despite their better nature while most women are going to find it tiresome. There is also an excellent introduction to Whitfield's life and work in this edition.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Legend has it that Dashiell Hammett was very fond of this first novel (actually a reworking of five short stories) by Whitfield. On the other hand, Hammett and Whitfield were drinking buddies...so there's that.

Actually this is pretty decent early noir. Mal Ourney gets out of prison after doing two years for a crime committed by a woman for which he took the rap. He is almost immediately thrust in to a byzantine plot that involves nearly a dozen murders.

Ourney isn't actually a detective, but acts the part in the story. Of course everyone else thinks he's a criminal. And they insist on thinking that even when it doesn't make a bit of sense for them to do so. And that's one of the definite problems with the work. Everyone here is pretty profoundly stupid, including our protagonist, who waltzes in to set-up after set-up.

Still the dialogue is pretty good. The plot is properly far-fetched. It's kind of cool to hear some archaic slang that I haven't run across before (continued reference to cigarettes as "pills").

Worth a read as a very early example of literary noir.

[JoeK · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped at 60%. It was becoming easier to put this down, and harder to pick it back up.

First off — murders, murders, murders. It was hard to keep track, especially because there isn't much reason for them.

Secondly — Our hero keeps running into people and telling them about all the murders, like reciting some Biblical begat list. "Harry killed John and was subsequently killed by George who was then murdered by..." It felt like the author padding the page count rather than imparting knowledge to the reader.

There are "big" people behind it all but we don't learn who they are, or what their motives might be (200 grand, 100 grand, 50 grand in green ice). At this stage I didn't really care. I also found the use of slang distracting. I'm familiar with 1930s jargon, but calling cigarettes "pills" and people "other humans" was annoying after a few times. He also referred to a part of newspaper articles as "sticks" as in, "The widow's murder rated only a stick or so" Obviously not a column, but I wouldn't know if a stick was a line, a paragraph or something in between.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic crime novel I got for cheap.

It's of decent historical interest--if you, like me, enjoy noir novels, it's cool to read one of the originals. And there's great tough guy dialogue and turns of phrase throughout.

And the plot is so ridiculously convoluted that I really couldn't follow it all that closely. Something about emeralds that somebody had, or possibly nobody had, and that lots of people get killed over. Never quite sure who did the killing or why, but it's a decent enough ride, and the climactic scene is brilliantly cinematic--so much so that I'm pretty sure it was ripped off in a movie. Maybe Godfather II?

About as much misogyny as you'd expect in this kind of book from this era, and somewhat less racism. (Which isn't to say none--just less than I was bracing myself for.)

Of mostly historical interest, and definitely not worth picking up if you're not already a fan of noir novels.

[Joshster142 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mal Ourney was sentenced to prison for a crime his girlfriend at the time committed. The story starts with him being released from prison and meeting the woman he took the rap for. This throws Mal into a deadly treasure hunt which involves gangster, dirty police, murder and betrayal.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s the first time I’ve read a novel which isn’t well known at all (with only 45 ratings on goodreads) and I didn’t know what I was going to get, but I am very glad I did pick this one and can’t believe it isn’t more widely recognised.

The action is extremely fast paced, with a murder happening in the first few pages setting the tone. Almost every scene involves either a murder, a standoff, a betrayal or a discussion of the action which allows you to catch your breath. I see a lot of similarities between this noel and Hammett’s work especially The Glass Key. Whereas Chandler is the master of the descriptive prose and each setting and character which Marlowe encounters is brought to life in great detail, I found Hammett got straight to the point, sacrificing detailed description with gritty non stop action. This is certainly what you get with Whitfield’s Green Ice, no messing about with how the building looks and what type of ceiling the foyer has, there’s a body in one room and a gangster in the other so your hurried along to encounter them! It is a refreshing change and one that I did enjoy, although the novelty may wear off if all books were like that!

The only negative I have and the reason why this is 4 stars and not 5 is there are a lot of recaps of what happened previously. This is achieved through either Mal discussing the story with himself or with other characters. It just happens too much for my liking, especially as a lot of the times the theories discussed are obviously wrong which leads to confusion which isn’t ideal in a book which I found wasn’t the easiest to follow anyway due to there being multiple key characters and events to remember. That being said, I do wonder if the multiple recaps are because many of the crime novels at that time were published in separate installments in magazines such as Black Mask so the discussion segments would be used to reintroduce readers to the story similar to how’recap clips are used at the start of television programmes. I believe Green Ice was published initially in the New York Evening Post so this is likely to be the case. Interestingly I searched the New York Evening post and was greeted with a headline of “Jeff Bezos exposes Pecker” so I don’t think their focus is hardboiled crime stories anymore!

To conclude this is a great story from an author who seems to have been overlooked in favor of the all time greats that emerged from his era. I would highly recommend this and am excited to read Whitfield’s other 2 novels.

4 out of 5 stars.

[Joaquim Alvarado · Rating 2 out of 5]

No puc deixar d'indicar l'excel·lent iniciativa que fou la col·lecció de novel·la negra "la cua de palla", traducció a la nostra llengua de diversos clàssics de novel·la negra, dirigida per Manuel de Pedrolo. En tot cas, entenc que aquesta no és la millor obra de la col·lecció. Trama enrevessada, lectura carregosa i ganes que s'acabi.

[Moe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard boiled, a bit complicated being five short stories tied together.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this novel is like treading water, fun at first, but mostly exhausting and futile. This is the first novel to my knowledge that I've given one star.

The story follows Mal Ourney, after a two year stretch in prison Mal is released and plans on cleaning up the "big guys" in town who exploit the small-time crooks. But word of his plans have gotten out, and his friends start dropping dead, all connected with some South American emeralds.

My problem with this novel is that it's a terribly over-complicated story that’s too hard to follow, while the characters themselves just aren't interesting enough to care about in the first place. Where's my motivation? The course of events is never entirely clear, and they get told and re-told in truths and half-truths by everyone Ourney encounters.

It became humorous that every time we introduce (or re-introduce) a character, they start re-interpreting the whole plot-line over again, and you know none of it can be trusted, because it will get contradicted in a few pages anyway, so who cares? It's like the author was thinking, "Maybe so-and-so is the murderer, nah, let’s try the puzzle piece sideways and see if it fits, nah, but it filled a few pages, success!"

Characters are cookie cutter one-dimensional, types and there's hard-boiled pulp cliche's all over the place. The THIRD time Ourney got knocked out I literally laughed out loud.

When I say reading this novel is like treading water, I mean it's a constant surging wave of names and slang, and inferences about who knocked off who. Slang like “yegg,” “white,” "up the river” and "pill." No one is going to remember this story much a day or two after they’ve read it, but I think the experience of trying to keep up with the fast pace is actually entertaining at times, but I tired of it and just wanted it to end.

I like my hard-boiled pulp stories to have a bit more atmosphere. This novel is so focused on dialogue and it's plotline that we don't establish a real sense of place except in a few instances. I like more feeling, not a puzzle. I want vivid descriptions of a seedy bar or a flea-bag motel, this book has very little patience for mood or tone.

Here's a good example of the dialogue you'll get here:

Win Donner struck me as being white,” I said. “I trusted him, up the river. He told me a lot—and it went pretty deep. I got the idea that just a few humans were using a lot of other humans as they wanted, then framing them, smashing them—rubbing them out. It looked pretty rotten to me. I'm not sentimental—I'm curious. I'd like to smash some of the ones who use the others up."

Yeah.

[Kirk Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does anyone out there see the similarity between this fantastic cover from a 1930 noire novel and the cover for Girl Waits With Gun??

[Isidore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This enjoyable novel from 1931 embodies many of the strengths and limitations of the Black Mask school. Characterization is stripped to the bone; the plot is extremely complicated and, on consideration, equally improbable; the mystery is developed through the tough-guy hero making intuitive guesses about what's going on, rather than the accumulation of evidence; pacing is episodic; there is little or no sense of setting; all dialogue is elliptical, all characters untrustworthy; the narrative voice is laconic and frequently witty.

Personally, I find all this works better in a short story than at novel length, since there really isn't anything except stylistic niftiness to sustain one's interest over a long stretch of time. In any case, Whitfield's novel was written for serialization, and little effort has gone into disguising the fact: one notes the frequent recapitulation of key plot points which would have been forgotten as the original audience waited for the next installment. It was not written to be read in one fell swoop.

That said, it's entertaining enough, thanks mainly to outrageously understated wit and staccato hardboiled verbiage which just falls short of Robert Leslie Bellem's hallucinatory exaggerations.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Mal's got something against the mob; when he's released from prison, they come after him.