Corpus Delectable

Ed Rivers #5

by Talmage Powell

Give her five minutes more, I thought . . .

More than an hour had passed since Jean Putnam’s voice had promised on the phone that she would be there. As I started back to my office I gave a final look down the corridor, and suddenly she was there, framed in the stairwell. She was dressed in a very fetching pirate costume, the purposely ragged bottoms of her scarlet pants reaching to just below the hips. Her legs were bare from there on down to black oilcloth boots. She hadn’t moved, and a new sensation blew cold across the back of my neck. As I lunged for her she crumbled and fell backwards down the yawning stairwell. When I reached her on the next landing I saw that not all the redness was in her costume. A bullet had struck her in the back.

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Pen Names: Robert Hart Davis, Robert Henry, Milton T. Lamb, Milton T. Land, Jack McCready, Anne Talmage, and Dave Sands.

U.S. Author (1920 - 2000) Talmage Powell began his writing career in 1942. Mr. Powell created over 200 stories for the pulp fiction magazines writing in almost every genre and for all of the top magazines. After the demise of the pulps, Mr. Powell continued to write another 300 plus short stories for fiction magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Mike Shayne, Manhunt and Suspense.

Powell also had a number of successful novels published during the 1950s and 1960s. His Ed Rivers series is recognized as some of the best Private Investigator stories from that era. Mr. Powell also had written a number of novels under the Ellery Queen by line as well. He also contributed his creative talents to screenwriting and television work.

Talmage Powell has had a long and successful career by delivering suspensful, intelligent, action based stories that any reader would enjoy.

Pulp Magazines (Partial): Dime Detective, Dime Mystery, Detective Tales, Ten Detecive Aces, Doc Savage, The Shadow, G-Men Detective, Ranch Romances, Fifteen Western Tales, Hollywood Detective, Crack Detective, Black Mask, and many more.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hardboiled detective, Ed Rivers roams the streets of early 1960s Tampa in this fast-paced private eye tale. The story takes place during the pirate parade of Tampa's Gasparilla Week, a real festival that takes place annually throughout the city. It makes a nice backdrop for the mischief and hijinks going on. A short read that whips along like a firecracker with a wide range of characters and femme fatales.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corpus Delectable is the final volume of the five that comprise the Ed Rivers series, a fine example of a pulp -era detective series. This one, of course, takes place in Tampa, at that time the most Latin of American cities with a large Cuban and South American population. This story takes place during the Gasparilla festival, Tampa's annual pirate festival that sounds like their own version of Mardi Gras with endless parades and parties and costumes. Into this whirlwind of fiestas, walks a mysterious but beautiful client and a man with a gun. There's lots of action in this one and a clever scheme unfolds in deadly earnest before Rivers can unravel it and before he can prevent innocents from getting in the way. Also, big old Ed may have met his match with a killer as deadly as he is himself. This is a good, solid, action-packed, easy-to-read story just as we've come to expect from Talmage Powell.