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The Bleeding Scissors / The Evil Days by Bruno Fischer
A search for a missing wife and her sister turns up a much bigger mystery that leads back to the New York burlesque; and a found cache of jewels sparkles with murder when an ordinary couple decide not to turn them in.
- GenresCrime
Paperback
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About the author
Bruno Fischer
108 books12 followersBruno Fischer was the author of 25 novels and more than 300 short stories, a contributor to "Black Mask" and "Manhunt" magazines, and the uncrowned king of the notorious 'weird menace' pulps. He wrote also as Russell Gray and Harrison Storm.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 10, 2021
Stark House Press offers us two Fischer novels, one from early in his career and one the very last novel he ever published. Both novels offer us a dark look at what's behind the curtains in suburbia. Be sure to read the informative introduction which gives so much background on Fisher's writing career.
Bruno Fischer’s 1948 novel, the Bleeding Scissors, is a story about a small-town guy who, through no fault of his own, becomes an investigator ferreting out clues to his own wife’s kidnapping. Fischer starts this one in everytown U.S.A. and our sorta-hero is a chemist by profession, but he is in debt up to his eyeballs. So with a weekly poker game at his boss’s house, he ends up signing yet another IOU that he can never repay. And, he is married to one of the Runyon sisters, but lives with both of them. Judith and her sister, Paula, are the belles of the town and are spending this poor sap out of house and home. Leo Aikin is a good guy, but what happens when he braves the ice storm to return home at 1 a.m. would put a shock into anyone. Indeed, both Judith and Paula are missing. There is no sign of struggle and the car is gone. On a night when no rational person would set foot outside where could they have gone?
Leo wakes his neighbor and together they skid around the hills of the small town looking for the two women who appear to have left home at 11 p.m., rather late for a social call, and who had been visited that afternoon by a handsome gentleman. Neither his boss nor the police seem to think foul play was involved. The women simply up and left and Leo wouldn’t, in their minds, be the first jilted husband left for a suave handsome man. But, it doesn’t sit right with Leo. Judith would never leave him without a word, without a note, even if it was forever.
Throughout the novel, Fischer keeps the disappearance mysterious and no one thinks Leo has a clue where to look. The police seem to always think he is in the way. And, when he travels to New York City to trace down the women’s past on Broadway, he stumbles upon things no one wanted to reveal, although it is still hard to see how their past led to their disappearance.
What really works about this novel is how Fischer keeps the tension drawn tight and shows how worried and lost Leo is despite the fact he never loses faith in Judith. Leo might be an amateur investigator and working on hunches, but he is not a bumbling fool.
Bruno Fischer’s 1974 novel, “The Evil Days,” written after a 14-year hiatus from writing novels (although still working in the publishing industry), is a masterpiece of understatement. Fischer opens up the story with a dead-on view of suburban life right down to the one-car family with the dented station wagon and two kids with the next door neighbor borrowing the lawnmower. He shows us the work-life of the suburban wage slave in an office cubicle with everyone in the office hearing everyone’s business. He shows us how our lead character is an editor in a publishing house, but has trouble paying his bills and bounced around from job to job with long stretches of unemployment. He shows our lead character, Caleb Dawson, planning his day around the train schedule.
Then, Fischer ever so slowly and deliberately rips the skin off the suburban life and leaves its skeleton rotting in the hot afternoon sun. On the way, he treats us to several of our favorite deadly sins, including particularly greed, lust, jealousy, and murder. What makes this book so great and what some term Fischer’s masterpiece is that Fischer slowly peels the layers of the onion open, leaving no doubt what’s rotting at core once we reach the bitter end.
There are several plot lines simmering in this suburban maelstrom. One is greed and it is, of course, an all-consuming greed that this dear couple, Caleb and Sally Dawson, has. Sally seemingly finds a bag of jewels in the parking lot when finishing her ritual at the beauty salon. Rather than walking into the bank where it obviously had come from being as how the bank had many safe deposit boxes, Sally takes it home and plots how the Dawsons can become rich off the proceeds. She continually knocks Caleb for even suggesting that they return the jewels to the rightful owners, dollar signs clicking away in her eyes. And then, the plot just gets so thick when Caleb discovers who the rightful owners are.
Meanwhile, Caleb is forced by his uber-bosses to agree to publish a book of poetry by a third-rate poet after already mailing a rejection letter. We are treated to an insider’s view of life in the industry, a life Fischer knew quite well.
Again, Fischer is quietly leading us, the readers, along because we know this is pulp and that once this dear sweet couple descends down the ladder just a little bit, they will fall quite easily into the very depths of hell.
Bruno Fischer’s 1948 novel, the Bleeding Scissors, is a story about a small-town guy who, through no fault of his own, becomes an investigator ferreting out clues to his own wife’s kidnapping. Fischer starts this one in everytown U.S.A. and our sorta-hero is a chemist by profession, but he is in debt up to his eyeballs. So with a weekly poker game at his boss’s house, he ends up signing yet another IOU that he can never repay. And, he is married to one of the Runyon sisters, but lives with both of them. Judith and her sister, Paula, are the belles of the town and are spending this poor sap out of house and home. Leo Aikin is a good guy, but what happens when he braves the ice storm to return home at 1 a.m. would put a shock into anyone. Indeed, both Judith and Paula are missing. There is no sign of struggle and the car is gone. On a night when no rational person would set foot outside where could they have gone?
Leo wakes his neighbor and together they skid around the hills of the small town looking for the two women who appear to have left home at 11 p.m., rather late for a social call, and who had been visited that afternoon by a handsome gentleman. Neither his boss nor the police seem to think foul play was involved. The women simply up and left and Leo wouldn’t, in their minds, be the first jilted husband left for a suave handsome man. But, it doesn’t sit right with Leo. Judith would never leave him without a word, without a note, even if it was forever.
Throughout the novel, Fischer keeps the disappearance mysterious and no one thinks Leo has a clue where to look. The police seem to always think he is in the way. And, when he travels to New York City to trace down the women’s past on Broadway, he stumbles upon things no one wanted to reveal, although it is still hard to see how their past led to their disappearance.
What really works about this novel is how Fischer keeps the tension drawn tight and shows how worried and lost Leo is despite the fact he never loses faith in Judith. Leo might be an amateur investigator and working on hunches, but he is not a bumbling fool.
Bruno Fischer’s 1974 novel, “The Evil Days,” written after a 14-year hiatus from writing novels (although still working in the publishing industry), is a masterpiece of understatement. Fischer opens up the story with a dead-on view of suburban life right down to the one-car family with the dented station wagon and two kids with the next door neighbor borrowing the lawnmower. He shows us the work-life of the suburban wage slave in an office cubicle with everyone in the office hearing everyone’s business. He shows us how our lead character is an editor in a publishing house, but has trouble paying his bills and bounced around from job to job with long stretches of unemployment. He shows our lead character, Caleb Dawson, planning his day around the train schedule.
Then, Fischer ever so slowly and deliberately rips the skin off the suburban life and leaves its skeleton rotting in the hot afternoon sun. On the way, he treats us to several of our favorite deadly sins, including particularly greed, lust, jealousy, and murder. What makes this book so great and what some term Fischer’s masterpiece is that Fischer slowly peels the layers of the onion open, leaving no doubt what’s rotting at core once we reach the bitter end.
There are several plot lines simmering in this suburban maelstrom. One is greed and it is, of course, an all-consuming greed that this dear couple, Caleb and Sally Dawson, has. Sally seemingly finds a bag of jewels in the parking lot when finishing her ritual at the beauty salon. Rather than walking into the bank where it obviously had come from being as how the bank had many safe deposit boxes, Sally takes it home and plots how the Dawsons can become rich off the proceeds. She continually knocks Caleb for even suggesting that they return the jewels to the rightful owners, dollar signs clicking away in her eyes. And then, the plot just gets so thick when Caleb discovers who the rightful owners are.
Meanwhile, Caleb is forced by his uber-bosses to agree to publish a book of poetry by a third-rate poet after already mailing a rejection letter. We are treated to an insider’s view of life in the industry, a life Fischer knew quite well.
Again, Fischer is quietly leading us, the readers, along because we know this is pulp and that once this dear sweet couple descends down the ladder just a little bit, they will fall quite easily into the very depths of hell.
March 31, 2018
The Evil Days by Bruno Fischer
During the 1950s, Bruno Fischer was one of the mainstays of crime fiction. His bestselling novel, “House of Flesh,” sold 1.8 million copies following its 1950 release. After 21 years of writing, followed by a 14-year hiatus from new releases, Fischer’s “The Evil Days” (1974) was his last published book at the age of 62. Stark House Mystery Classics has repackaged the novel for modern audiences as a double along with Fischer’s “The Bleeding Scissors” (1948).
“The Evil Days” was marketed as a “novel of crime and suspense in the suburbs.” The plot setup is one we’ve seen before: Caleb Dawson’s wife finds a bag of jewels that she wants to keep to supplement the family’s meager income. Caleb thinks it’s a bad idea, but acquiesces to his money-hungry wife’s ill-conceived scheme. As you may have guessed, there are unsavory people who aren’t excited to just walk away from a lost fortune and want the jewels recovered. Meanwhile, there’s a violent murder in the same suburb that serves as the basis for a satisfying mystery. Could the two events be connected?
Fischer spent much of the 1960s working as an editor for two large publishing houses, and he puts his industry knowledge to good use in “The Evil Days.” Caleb works for a respected publisher that has been acquired by a large corporation. The inside baseball treatment of the publishing world is an interesting aspect to this novel for avid readers with an interest in the way a book is brought to market, and the way that editors speak about writers when they’re not around. The snappy dialogue feels authentic because Fischer has been there.
Another interesting way to read this novel is with the knowledge that Fischer was an honest-to-goodness Socialist. His early career was spent editing leftist publications, and he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1938 as the Socialist Party Candidate (spoiler: he lost). The ideas that workers are exploited by their bosses and that lust for money invites unhappiness are recurring ideas in his books and stories. “The Evil Days” has elements of both themes.
But even if you don’t read this paperback as a Marxist allegory, it remains a helluva mystery filled with moral dilemmas, poetic intrigue, sex, and murder. His politics aside, Fischer was an outstanding writer who honed his craft writing short-stories for the pulps, and that fat-free approach to storytelling carried forward for decades to this fine tale. It’s not filled with action or violence, but the Hitchcock-style mystery is plenty tense. Fischer was a pro at this game, and this final novel was a fitting close to a remarkable body of work. Highly recommended.
Bonus Tip:
The best work by Bruno Fischer that I’ve ever read was a 40-page novella called “We Are All Dead.” It’s about a fouled-up getaway after a heist. It’s only $1.49 on your Kindle, and it’s a damn masterpiece. Thank me later.
During the 1950s, Bruno Fischer was one of the mainstays of crime fiction. His bestselling novel, “House of Flesh,” sold 1.8 million copies following its 1950 release. After 21 years of writing, followed by a 14-year hiatus from new releases, Fischer’s “The Evil Days” (1974) was his last published book at the age of 62. Stark House Mystery Classics has repackaged the novel for modern audiences as a double along with Fischer’s “The Bleeding Scissors” (1948).
“The Evil Days” was marketed as a “novel of crime and suspense in the suburbs.” The plot setup is one we’ve seen before: Caleb Dawson’s wife finds a bag of jewels that she wants to keep to supplement the family’s meager income. Caleb thinks it’s a bad idea, but acquiesces to his money-hungry wife’s ill-conceived scheme. As you may have guessed, there are unsavory people who aren’t excited to just walk away from a lost fortune and want the jewels recovered. Meanwhile, there’s a violent murder in the same suburb that serves as the basis for a satisfying mystery. Could the two events be connected?
Fischer spent much of the 1960s working as an editor for two large publishing houses, and he puts his industry knowledge to good use in “The Evil Days.” Caleb works for a respected publisher that has been acquired by a large corporation. The inside baseball treatment of the publishing world is an interesting aspect to this novel for avid readers with an interest in the way a book is brought to market, and the way that editors speak about writers when they’re not around. The snappy dialogue feels authentic because Fischer has been there.
Another interesting way to read this novel is with the knowledge that Fischer was an honest-to-goodness Socialist. His early career was spent editing leftist publications, and he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1938 as the Socialist Party Candidate (spoiler: he lost). The ideas that workers are exploited by their bosses and that lust for money invites unhappiness are recurring ideas in his books and stories. “The Evil Days” has elements of both themes.
But even if you don’t read this paperback as a Marxist allegory, it remains a helluva mystery filled with moral dilemmas, poetic intrigue, sex, and murder. His politics aside, Fischer was an outstanding writer who honed his craft writing short-stories for the pulps, and that fat-free approach to storytelling carried forward for decades to this fine tale. It’s not filled with action or violence, but the Hitchcock-style mystery is plenty tense. Fischer was a pro at this game, and this final novel was a fitting close to a remarkable body of work. Highly recommended.
Bonus Tip:
The best work by Bruno Fischer that I’ve ever read was a 40-page novella called “We Are All Dead.” It’s about a fouled-up getaway after a heist. It’s only $1.49 on your Kindle, and it’s a damn masterpiece. Thank me later.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews