Poisons Unknown

Johnny Liddell #7

by Frank Kane

The woman’s body undulated. Her motions became frantic. Wildly, she tore off her clothes … The others followed. Nude, danced to the frenzied drum …

This was New Orleans.

Johnny Liddell was no tourist.

He had come here to investigate a disappearance. The beating he got by a goon squad, the double-cross from a gorgeous blonde, and the session as target for someone’s shooting practice—weren’t exactly like being handed the keys to the city. But before he was through, Johnny’s tour of the town led him through a ring of blackmail, murder, and the forced prostitution of some of the most beautiful society women in the city.

Genres: Mystery, Pulp

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Frank Kane, Brooklyn-born and a lifetime New Yorker, worked for many years in journalism and corporate public relations before shifting to fiction writing. At the time he was selling crime stories to the pulps he was also sustaining a career writing scripts for such radio shows as Gangbusters and The Shadow.

In addition to the Johnny Liddells, Kane wrote several suspense novels, some softcore erotica, and (under the pen name of Frank Boyd) "Johnny Staccato", a Gold Medal original paperback based on the short-lived noir television series, starring John Cassavetes, about a Greenwich Village bebop pianist turned private detective.

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another hard-boiled PI series I came upon a few years back, I found this little gem (first Dell printing from 1960) , I don't remember how long ago. I found a quote from author Bill Crider - "if it's a Frank Kane book, chances are "it'll be a competent, straightforward P.I. story."... with a hard-boiled edge.
I bought the first three Liddell books online **paid a little too much for 'em** :) but "had to have them!" So, I'll start from the beginning, one of these days. If yer into this type of '40's-'50's PI tales, you'll enjoy this.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top notch vintage PI material.
Guns, Dames and enough concussions to scramble an NFL team.

Wish I had the time to go through this series and count the concussions that Liddell suffers, and how many people he kills in 28 books.

[Moe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good straight forward

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lidell is a typical hardboiled PI in the traditional sense. Kane's tales are easy reading and lots of fun if you like this genre.

Frank Kane's Johnny Lidell is a tough-talking, tough-acting PI in the old-style hardboiled tradition. In this particular tale, Lidell, who works out of NYC, is hired by a Lousiana mobster to go down to New Orleans and find a missing cult leader. The mobster promises Lidell that Lidell will not merely be fingering the missing cult leader for a kill. Lidell has some misgivings about working for the mobster, but he figures that the mobster did not want the cult leader dead since the blame would fall directly back on him. Once in New Orleans, it turns out that Lidell used to spend a bit of time there five years earlier and left behind a striking blonde who also works as a private investigator and she was a long-term steamy romance for him at one time. After they get reacquainted, they secretly enter the cult temple and witness a drug- induced orgy led by a tall brunette. Lidell later hypothesizes that the cult temple was a setup for a blackmail scheme and for getting society folks hooked on junk.

This Lidell story has everything from the setting in New Orleans to the blonde detective who seems to have spent five long years longing for Lidell's return. There are fistfights and gangsters here as well as mysterious preachers in the bayou and corrupt back-country sheriffs. It's a Lidell story and that means that there are shootouts and bodies appearing left and right and Lidell can never be sure who he can rely on and who is after him.