Six Deadly Dames

by Frederick Nebel

A collection of six classic tales featuring hard-boiled ex-cop Donny Donahue, who now works for the Interstate Detective Agency. These stories ran in Black Mask magazine between 1931 and 1932. This collection was originally published in 1950.

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Largely self-educated, Frederick Lewis Nebel was sent to live with his grandfather in northern Canada in order to escape the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic ravaging New York City. There he soaked up Canadian pioneer history, which he'd draw upon in the 1920s writing for the pulp, "Northwest Stories", which is where he'd score his initial success as an author. Nebel spent his early adulthood working his way across the Atlantic and Europe as a merchant seaman. In Paris, he'd met his future wife, Dorothy and together they wandered back stateside and the couple took up residence in St. Louis, Missouri where Nebel began his writing career in earnest. After his first successful sales to "Northwest Stories", he branched out to other burgeoning pulp publishers, writing effectively across several genres. Aside from "Northwest Stories", Nebel scored big with "Black Mask" in 1926. Its legendary publisher Joe 'Cap' Shaw promoted Nebel as its first star author, probably in an effort to upgrade the image of the 6-year old magazine, which he felt was hindered by the almost inexplicable popularity of the mindless writing of Caroll J. Daly. Nebel's characters were denizens of Richmond City; police captain Steve MacBride and a sometime acrimoniously-teamed local news reporter simply named Kennedy. Nebel burned through 37 actioned-packed stories that were among the most popular entries in the magazine. Nebel went on to create another memorable hard-nosed character, Donny Donahue that Shaw promoted as a replacement from the high-profile loss of Dashiell Hammett. Donny Donahue, a private dick from the Interstate Detective Agency debuted in 1930 and kept readers happy over the next 3 years. Although Nebel has several film credits, he maintained a very negative view of Hollywood. He would often cite examples of how the studios chewed up his colleagues. Nebel would license the film rights to his stories (most famously Torchy Blaine) to the highest bidder, steadfastly declining to write the screenplays. In later years he discontinued writing crime stories altogether, shifting to romance stories for the women's magazine market. Plagued with health problems in his 50s his writing ground to a premature stop. He died in 1967.

Reviews

[Steve Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

All stories involve tough ex-cop Donny Donahue, who works for a detective agency. It's all a bit thin with little characterisation, and each story is perhaps a touch too long. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it at times - my favourite stories being 'Spare The Rod'- in which Nebel clearly shows his admiration of Hammett by including a fat man character whose clearly a doppelganger of The Maltese Falcon's Casper Gutman; and then there's 'Save Your Tears,' in which Donny Donahue looks into a suspicious boxing bout. It's fun, but after recently reading The Maltese Falcon, not quite in the same league...

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of six short stories some of which are connected and all featuring Donny Donahue, the best private investigator the Interstate Detective Agency has to offer. The stories also bring us a half-dozen women tied up in larceny, burglary, blackmail, and murder. Tough-talking, hard-hitting Donny "runs into a pair of sultry, ebony-haired sisters, with a following of trigger-happy hoods, in a mad scramble for a hot diamond ("The Red-Hots" and "Get a Load of This"). He barely comes out alive only to latch on to the whip end of a blood-stained string of pearls in a deadly tug-of-war with a felonious blonde ("Pearls Are Tears")." In "Spare the Rod," he avoids the dames, but gets himself involved with a man who tries to pull a fast one on the mob and the cops and thinks Donny will help him do it. Donny isn't that wet behind the ears. He manages to see through the double-dealer's shenanigans. "Death's Not Enough" brings murder right to Donny's door and he'll have to shake the facts loose from a dame in a fur and her friend the fat man before he'll figure out why Larrimore had to die. And, finally, in "Save Your Tears," a boxer's babe nearly gets him sent to prison for a murder he didn't commit--and all because she didn't want him to know she was two-timing him with the victim. Donny's on the case and brings in the real murderer.

Typical pulp-era tough guy thrillers. Lots of action, lots of shooting and rough-housing. Of the lot, "Spare the Rod" and "Save Your Tears" are the best. These two contain the bare bones of real mystery while the others pretty much consist of yelling and threatening and shooting to get the culprits to come clean. Decent reading, but not the best hard-boiled I've ever read. ★★ and 1/2 (rounded up here)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nebel was one of the better of the BLACK MASK Boys, but the best were Hammett, Chandler, and Paul Cain, meaning that Nebel was good but second rate.

Subjectively, his stories are great when you are in your twenties and learning all you can about the better BLACK MASK writers. They are not so good 30 years later when you hope to recapture the old magic, for the stories in this collection are just magic tricks. There is no real magic involved.

Nebel is still one of the better BLACK MASK writers, but that just does not seem so important anymore. One of the stories in this collection lacks a dame, and the dames are too minor in a couple of others to warrant the title of this collection. Still, it is a great title.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was like reading comic books. That's not a negative. These 6 stories read quickly and it's really fun to read them aloud. Nebel was a friend of Dashiell Hammett. For some reason, Hammett received all the acclaim. Nebel should be read as well. There were a few movies made from his books. Nebel's books are long out of print, no doubt, but ordering them from libraries ensures they remain on shelves and aren't sent to dumpsters.