A Sad Song Singing

Mac #9

by Thomas B. Dewey

Mac, a private detective, is hired to locate a missing singer who left a mysterious, locked suitcase for his girlfriend to safeguard

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Thomas Blanchard Dewey was an American author of hardboiled crime novels. He created two series of novels: the first one features Mac, a private investigator from Chicago, the second features Pete Schofield.

Reviews

[Karl]

This hardcover edition of “A Sad Song Singing" is volume 13 in the Garland Publishing, Inc. series of books printed as “50 Classics of Crime Fiction 1950 – 1975” chosen by Jacques Barzun & Wendell Hertig Taylor and is a re-print, originally published in 1965 as a paperback by Pocket Books , Inc.

Small print run. No dust wrapper.

The list of 50 Classics of Crime Fiction 1950–1975 can be found here although I just noticed that the order of the books in this list is not correct:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A Sad Song Singing” is Mac’s adventure with the folk-singing craze of the early Sixties when every nasal-singing guy thought they could be the next Dylan and every long-haired starry-eyed gal thought they would be the next Joan Baez. It also involves the familiar staple in crime fiction of that suitcase full of mysterious treasure that everyone wants and will do anything to get – even murder. Cress, a seventeen-year-old folk singer who had come to Chicago to sing in coffeehouses tells Mac a strange story that makes little sense, but the poor kid needs someone to watch out for her so he becomes involved.

Cress was, in fact, involved with another folk singer by the name of Richie Darden, who had headed out on the highway to sing and play the coffeehouse and festival circuit. She had no way of getting in touch with him, but he had given her strict instructions to safeguard his locked suitcase and not let anyone open it. She took the instructions seriously even when approached by three thugs who followed her home from the coffeehouse. Now she was frightened and wanted Mac’s help. She tells Mac that they would kill her to get the suitcase. Mac does not take Cress too seriously until they go back to her apartment to get her things and are accosted by the three thugs in a pitched battle in her apartment.

What follows is Mac and Cress on the run while Mac tries to make sense of the mess that Cress has brought to him. They follow the coffeehouse circuit south with the thugs in hot pursuit, all hoping to hang on to the mysterious suitcase and find Richie Darden, who seems as mysterious as the contents of the suitcase.

Dewey must have been fascinated by the folk music scene because he spends quite a bit of the book laying out the atmosphere of these coffeehouses and the lyrics of the songs being sung. Indeed, so much time is spend on the songs and Cress’ dreams of singing in the big time that you could be forgiven if somehow you forgot that it was a crime fiction story and several vicious men were after Cress.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Sad Song Singing by Thomas B. Dewey

Plot
Chicago-based Private Investigator Mac is hired by a runaway named Cress to find her boyfriend, folk singer, Richie Darden. He left Cress holding a suitcase and an oath not to open it, or let anyone else take a peek inside. Before long a trio of thugs turn up with a keen interest in the luggage. Mac takes Cress on a tour of Illinois seeking out hootenannies and coffee shops where they hope to find clues to the traveling musician's whereabouts and unlock the secret of the dubious suitcase.

Strengths
Thomas B. Dewey is a terrific writer. His prose is effective and concise. His descriptive passages are adequate to set the mood or tone, without venturing further. His focus is on the story and the two main characters. Over the course of their travels, readers get to know Mac and Cress through their actions and reactions. As in many detective stories of this era (1963), Mac acts as more of a narrator and guide—the real protagonist is Cress. She's the one with the life lessons to learn and ultimately the one who is changed by the story.

By the early 60's the beat generation had spread across the midwest and poetic folk singers roamed coffee houses searching for an audience and meaning. A Sad Song Singing captures some of the culture of the period, just as Bob Dylan was rising to national and international fame.

Flaws
Although there are a number of fist fights and shoot outs, A Sad Song Singing is not an action packed adventure. In fact, the thugs are so ineffective you have to wonder how they ever pulled off their previous record of crime in the first place. In spite of the somewhat slow progress Mac makes on the mystery, the story manages to hold your attention.

Backstory
Dewey was a prolific writer. He wrote 17 novels featuring Mac and another 9 with Peter Schoefield, in a more lighthearted series. He also penned eight novels outside of his series work. The most famous title of a Mac novel may be The Mean Streets (1954), but it's unrelated to the Martin Scorsese's 1973 film of the same name.

Carroll & Graf reprinted several of Dewey's novels in the 80s, including The Brave, Bad Girls, Deadline, A Sad Song Singing, and The Mean Streets.

Summary
This is the 10th novel in the Mac series. Dewey's character is a graduate of the altruistic tough guy school of detection but he manages to think in the present, brushing off prejudice and stereotypes. A Sad Song Singing is a fascinating look back at the world of struggling folk singers in early-60s Illinois. A four-star read.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, well-written mystery, particularly interesting because it was written in the early sixties and concerns the folk-music movement. Character of the young woman is particularly well drawn.

[Kelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 1963 book by American author Thomas Blanchard Dewey, a writer of hardboiled detective stories. This book is the 10th book in his series featuring compassionate Chicago private detective Mac. The setting of this relatively short book is in Chicago as well as various small towns in Illinois and Indiana in 1960s. The book has a quick tempo, in classic noir style. It uses the 1960s folk music revival movement as a backdrop and there are various references to folk music musicians, folk music coffeehouses, and hootenanny, all of which were very popular at the time. Overall, I feel the book reads more like a pulp fiction than a detective story even though in the end, the plot turns out to be quite interesting. Overall, a 3.5 Star book on a 5 Star scale.

Spoiler Alert. In this story, private detective Mac was hired by a 17-year old runaway blonde called Crescentia Fanio (called Cress) to help her find her folk music singer boyfriend Richie Darden, who has disappeared. Before Richie left, he gave her a locked suitcase that he wanted her to protect at all cost. What follows then is a non-stop series of cat-and-mouse chase scenes where a couple of thugs tried time after time to get their hands on the suitcase and how Mac and Cress tried to keep staying one step ahead. Cress has promised Richie not to open the suitcase so throughout the process the two have no idea what they are really protecting. In the meantime, Mac and Cress also have to go on a driving tour through Illinois and Indiana to try to find the disappeared Richie. As Mac and Cress go from town to town, they visit various folk music coffeehouses and have various adventures and skirmishes with the two thugs.

In the end, Mac finally figured out why the thugs came after them for the suitcase and he also solved the mystery of the missing Richie. The story ended with a final confrontation between Mac and the two thugs where Mac and Cress fought with them, handcuffed them and turned them over to the police. It turns out what happened was five months ago the two thugs (whose names we were never told), together with Richie, did a payroll robbery near Fairmont, Indiana and got away with $60000 in a suitcase. During the getaway, Richie betrayed his accomplices, took the suitcase with all the money and drove away with the getaway car, leaving the two thugs with nothing. The two then decided to track down Richie, starting with his Chicago apartment that he shared with Cress. Richie, in order to divert attention, used Cress as an unknowing decoy. Richie told everybody he left a valuable suitcase (which actually was empty) with Cress and then left town, hoping the two thugs would go after Cress and leave him alone. That allowed Richie to flee to a small farming town in Indiana called Fallon and lay low with all the loot. Mac was able to track Richie to Fallon where Richie hid the loot and recovered most of the money. When the two thugs followed Mac to the farm, Mac over powered them and have them arrested. In turns out just a few days ago, Richie was recognized by the cops in Indiana as the getaway driver in the robbery. When Richie resisted arrest, he was shot dead.

[Thrillaminute · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but well written detective story.

A relatively straightforward plot - the search for a missing boyfriend - is secondary to the developing father/daughter relationship between the sympathetic detective and his client, so much so that the bad guys remain nameless throughout.

The ending has a kick to it too…

[Moe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Highly rated, very disappointing

[Steve Carter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kind of a waste of time.
I won’t bother with this writer again.

[Andy Oerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Robert Sherriff · Rating 5 out of 5]

congratulation to Mr Thomas B. Dewey. I am a man of few words well written I hope to see your work on the big screen one day I repeat it is that good Kind Regards, Robert Sherriff
robtsherriff871954@gmail.com

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Mac is searching for a missing folk singer. At the same time, his client becomes the target of three thieves.