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Bill Crane #1
Murder in the Madhouse
In his first case, William Crane goes undercover in a private sanatorium to solve a theft, and makes no secret of the fact that he believes himself to be a great detective, even presenting himself as Edgar Allen Poe's C. Auguste Dupin.
Indeed, he manages to dazzle the picaresque staff with his feats of deductive reasoning while consuming alcohol, including martinis and absinthe, in such copious quantities the plot almost feels like filler for a cocktail menu. It comes as some surprise that he is able to stand upright, let alone perform feats of detection that would put more famous literary detectives to shame. But perform he does, and with the greatest aplomb!
Indeed, he manages to dazzle the picaresque staff with his feats of deductive reasoning while consuming alcohol, including martinis and absinthe, in such copious quantities the plot almost feels like filler for a cocktail menu. It comes as some surprise that he is able to stand upright, let alone perform feats of detection that would put more famous literary detectives to shame. But perform he does, and with the greatest aplomb!
312 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1935
13 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Latimer
58 books30 followersJonathan Latimer was born in Chicago on 23rd October 1906. His main series character was the private investigator Bill Crane. An important character in the development of the hard boiled genre. A notable title is Solomon's Vineyard, the controversy over the content saw the US publication delayed by nine years. The author later concentrated on screen plays and also worked for five years on the Perry Mason television series.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 1, 2019
This first novel in the Bill Crane series is the kind of '30's murder mystery Ben Hecht might have written: breezy style, snappy dialogue, the occasional outrageous metaphor, casual sexism and racism . . . and an extraordinary amount of hooch.
It is a lot of fun, and almost as trashy as its title promises.
April 11, 2014
Fast and Fun!
From 1935, the 1st entry in the breezy Jonathan Latimer series featuring his zany but brilliantly astute alkie detective William (Bill) Crane.
I recommend this one to fans of Frederick Nebel and Norbert Davis and ...yes -Chandler and Hammett -if only for the wisenheimer quips that this hardboiled dick drops every now and then -between drinks and getting knocked unconscious by the usual assortment of villains.
June 25, 2012
Latimer's first novel, and you can tell. Some good moments, but not half as good as his later works. From 1935.
December 29, 2020
I read this because Latimer wrote the screenplay for the 1942 version of The Glass Key, which I love, and I wanted to see what his books were like. I don't know what I expected, but it sure as hell wasn't a sort of shaggy dog murder mystery narrated by a self-effacing, alcoholic PI, and I sure didn't expect it to make me laugh out loud. I don't know if it's actually good -- it's a little all over the place, and the last 25% or so isn't as strong as the rest -- but I enjoyed the hell out of it (enjoyment level: 4.5 stars minimum), and can't wait to start the second one in the series.
July 23, 2012
Jonathan Latimer managed to do something unusual and wonderful: he made hard-boiled mysteries that were funny. Not dry and witty like John Dickson Carr and Hammet in the Thin Man series, but rather bawdy and loopy and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. "Murder In The Madhouse," "Solomon's Vineyard," and "The Dead Don't Care" are three of his best.
Latimer's characters occasionally refer to booze as "panther spit." If you think that's funny, you'll probably like Latimer.
Latimer's characters occasionally refer to booze as "panther spit." If you think that's funny, you'll probably like Latimer.
December 11, 2020
Sometimes the cure for reader's block is some good old-fashioned private detection. Latimer's Bill Crane novels followed up Hammett's "The Thin Man" in the hard-boiled screwball mystery sub-genre. Crane is a hard drinking, hard living private eye with a penchant for cracking jokes at inappropriate times. In this (which may or may not be his first outing) he finds himself assigned undercover in a private sanitarium. He's there to solve the theft of a box containing a whole passel of money and a key to a safe-deposit box containing a whole lot more. To this end he passes himself of as Poe's C. Auguste Dupin. And as is want to happen in situations like this, murders start happening at the "madhouse" that also are going to take some solving. What we end up with is a fun, breezy mystery that is one of the most fun reads I've had in quite some time.
I mention that this may or may not be Crane's first adventure because I've visited at least four different websites and none of them can agree on the order of the first three books (all of which appear to have been published in 1935, though maybe one was in 1936). Whether it is or isn't it's a fine place to start. I was also familiar with Latimer from reading his later and more famous novel, Solomon's Vineyard. Solomon's Vineyard is one of the darkest of the early hard-boiled detective novels and I was definitely not prepared for the breeziness of Bill Crane's adventures based on that dark noir classic.
Super fun book that has me looking forward to the rest of Crane's boozy adventures.
I mention that this may or may not be Crane's first adventure because I've visited at least four different websites and none of them can agree on the order of the first three books (all of which appear to have been published in 1935, though maybe one was in 1936). Whether it is or isn't it's a fine place to start. I was also familiar with Latimer from reading his later and more famous novel, Solomon's Vineyard. Solomon's Vineyard is one of the darkest of the early hard-boiled detective novels and I was definitely not prepared for the breeziness of Bill Crane's adventures based on that dark noir classic.
Super fun book that has me looking forward to the rest of Crane's boozy adventures.
February 25, 2017
My grandfather was a huge fan of Perry Mason. He saw every episode of the TV show, and read all the books by Erle Stanley Gardner. He must have noticed, at some point, that many of the TV show scripts were written by Jonathan Latimer, because when he died he left behind a box full of paperback thrillers, and one of them was Latimer's "The Lady in the Morgue." I inherited that 1930s book and reading it blew my young mind. It's what you might call "screwball noir." There's a terrific opening scene and a slam-bang denouement, both in the Chicago city morgue. In between are some indelible scenes at a taxi dance joint, a high society party, a jazz club where the musicians all smoke marijuana and, best of all, a cemetery where perpetually half-drunk detective Bill Crane leads a pair of his colleagues and a civilian in exhuming a body in the middle of the night. There's a laugh on nearly every page. It was, as the Saturday Evening Post called it when it was first published, "rough, rowdy and rum-soaked."
Needless to say, I wanted to read more of Crane's adventures, but finding them has been difficult before e-books came along. This book, "Murder in the Madhouse," is the first one in the series and while it has some points to recommend it, it's not nearly as much fun as "The Lady in the Morgue."
Crane is his usually hilarious self, constantly on the lookout for booze and a good place for a nap, frequently getting beaten up and accused of committing the very crime he's investigating. He passes out some good quips. But unlike in "The Lady in the Morgue," Crane has very few people to bounce off of. He's working solo, going undercover in a sanitarium to figure out who robbed one of the wealthy patients. Then people start dying violently, and he's right in the thick of it.
The other problem is that the whole book takes place in the sanitarium, so we get no succession of vivid scenes in diverse locales. The sanitarium is kind of a boring setting. The one exception comes when one of the women freaks out, strips off her clothes and refuses to come out of her room. The method used by a doctor to get her to come out stuns the local sheriff. And of course because the book was written in the '30s there's a spot of casual racism that's hard for a modern reader to swallow.
The one other thing this book has in common with "The Lady in the Morgue" is the solution. In both books, Crane's solution a pretty good one, and you realize in retrospect that Latimer has kept you so busy watching all the craziness going on that you missed the key clue. This was his first Bill Crane novel, so he was still warming up. I'll have to track down the others and see how well he did with those.
Needless to say, I wanted to read more of Crane's adventures, but finding them has been difficult before e-books came along. This book, "Murder in the Madhouse," is the first one in the series and while it has some points to recommend it, it's not nearly as much fun as "The Lady in the Morgue."
Crane is his usually hilarious self, constantly on the lookout for booze and a good place for a nap, frequently getting beaten up and accused of committing the very crime he's investigating. He passes out some good quips. But unlike in "The Lady in the Morgue," Crane has very few people to bounce off of. He's working solo, going undercover in a sanitarium to figure out who robbed one of the wealthy patients. Then people start dying violently, and he's right in the thick of it.
The other problem is that the whole book takes place in the sanitarium, so we get no succession of vivid scenes in diverse locales. The sanitarium is kind of a boring setting. The one exception comes when one of the women freaks out, strips off her clothes and refuses to come out of her room. The method used by a doctor to get her to come out stuns the local sheriff. And of course because the book was written in the '30s there's a spot of casual racism that's hard for a modern reader to swallow.
The one other thing this book has in common with "The Lady in the Morgue" is the solution. In both books, Crane's solution a pretty good one, and you realize in retrospect that Latimer has kept you so busy watching all the craziness going on that you missed the key clue. This was his first Bill Crane novel, so he was still warming up. I'll have to track down the others and see how well he did with those.
September 18, 2019
The Bill Crane series of screwball mysteries, has so far hit on all cylinders with me. These were written in the mid 1930's, so probably to some readers today, they will probably seem crude, maybe even a bit racist, most assuredly not politically correct, but they are a product of the times. In some spots they are laugh out loud funny, which is fine with me.
Bill Crane is sent incognito into a mental hospital in order to retrieve some missing bonds and monies totalling over a million dollars, however as soon as he gets in, the bodies start falling.
Bill Crane is sent incognito into a mental hospital in order to retrieve some missing bonds and monies totalling over a million dollars, however as soon as he gets in, the bodies start falling.
March 12, 2008
Not up to his better books, I just lost interest. Or maybe I finished it. Who knows.
December 29, 2024
Getting my hard-boiled fix.
Sometimes I want to read a down-and-dirty detective story. Since I know all the Hammett and Chandler books and stories by heart, I'm constantly looking for lesser-known writers in that genre. Latimer is one of the best I've found.
I fell in love with his "Solomon's Vineyard" several years ago. It was published in the UK in 1941, but didn't appear in the US until 1951. Even then, it was a censored version. Amazingly, it wasn't until 1981 that the original was published in the US. It's a corker.
Meanwhile, Latimer relocated from Chicago to the west coast and switched from journalism and hard-boiled detective novels to screenplays and television writing. This is the first of a five-book series featuring New York City-based detective William (Bill) Crane was published between 1935 and 1939. It ain't "Solomon's Vineyard" but you can see the potential.
Crane has been sent by his agency to infiltrate a high-end mental hospital in the countryside several hours from NYC. It's a loony bin where the well-heeled patients dress for dinner. Everyone seems to be fairly normal except for one guy, who's a werewolf.
Crane is having trouble finding his identity as a tough P.I. He says "Swell!" (sarcastically) in the approved manner, but when one of the inmates is strangled, he wants to show the cord around. "Maybe someone might know to whom it belongs." If the Continental Op ever talked like that, his agency would have sent him to a mental hospital and not to investigate it, either.
Crane also blushes when a good-looking dame comes onto him. But he glugs home brew like he doesn't know or care what it's doing to his liver. (Prohibition is over, but the Top-Doc at the hospital is down on all forms of potable alcohol.) In short, Crane sends mixed signals, but he's getting there.
The plot (such as it is) concerns an old gal who's brought a box full of bonds (half a million dollars worth) to the hospital. It's now disappeared and she and her brother want it returned. They also want the key to the safety deposit box where she's stashed another million in various assets. She's a tough old dame, but she talks too much.
Two of the three doctors are on the take, as are two of the three nurses. Plus two medics are fighting to the death over one seductive RN. The lucious Miss Evans wants the doctor who has the box and the key, but she isn't sure which one it is. The last person who ended up with the loot hid it and now everyone's running around in the dark with shovels trying to find it.
The first chapter is so boring I almost gave up. Crane is being transported to the hospital and the purpose seems to be to show that the staff are real stinkers. Skim it.
After that things pick up and you start to see glimpses of the sought-after writer who did screenplays for books by Hammett and Cornell Woolrich, for directors like Frank Capra and John Farrow. Not to mention thirty-nine episodes of "The Perry Mason Show."
Latimer created fascinating characters of all types and he wrote a nice mixture of dark danger and zany humor. I'm giving this one three stars because when the humor kicks in, it's very good indeed. After two murders, the local law gets wind of trouble and arrives in full force - Sheriff Walters, his son Cliff, and two deputies. It's funnier than "Andy of Mayberry" AND there's full frontal nudity.
After another murder and assorted strange events, the State Police (who investigate murders in New York State) show up. They're smarter, more competent, and much less entertaining than Sheriff Walters' posse.
Finally, Crane shows them where the box is hidden. There's one more murder (just because), the rich old lady recovers her goodies, the agency collects a fee, and Crane can go back to the City. I'm pretty sure the hospital is doomed, since it was struggling with so few patients. Now half of them are no longer paying customers, being dead. Wonder what happened to Wolfman?
Younger readers will laugh about the baths that are a major part of the "treatment" but that was standard mental health care for decades. It didn't cure anything, but at least the patients were nice and clean.
I'm stretching a point to give it three stars, but there ARE some interesting characters and some hilarious dialogue. I'm hoping the series will pick up as it goes along. If not, there are four stand-along mysteries (including "Solomon's Vineyard.") One of them is called "The Search for My Great-Uncle's Head." I that one isn't a winner, I'll pack it in.
Sometimes I want to read a down-and-dirty detective story. Since I know all the Hammett and Chandler books and stories by heart, I'm constantly looking for lesser-known writers in that genre. Latimer is one of the best I've found.
I fell in love with his "Solomon's Vineyard" several years ago. It was published in the UK in 1941, but didn't appear in the US until 1951. Even then, it was a censored version. Amazingly, it wasn't until 1981 that the original was published in the US. It's a corker.
Meanwhile, Latimer relocated from Chicago to the west coast and switched from journalism and hard-boiled detective novels to screenplays and television writing. This is the first of a five-book series featuring New York City-based detective William (Bill) Crane was published between 1935 and 1939. It ain't "Solomon's Vineyard" but you can see the potential.
Crane has been sent by his agency to infiltrate a high-end mental hospital in the countryside several hours from NYC. It's a loony bin where the well-heeled patients dress for dinner. Everyone seems to be fairly normal except for one guy, who's a werewolf.
Crane is having trouble finding his identity as a tough P.I. He says "Swell!" (sarcastically) in the approved manner, but when one of the inmates is strangled, he wants to show the cord around. "Maybe someone might know to whom it belongs." If the Continental Op ever talked like that, his agency would have sent him to a mental hospital and not to investigate it, either.
Crane also blushes when a good-looking dame comes onto him. But he glugs home brew like he doesn't know or care what it's doing to his liver. (Prohibition is over, but the Top-Doc at the hospital is down on all forms of potable alcohol.) In short, Crane sends mixed signals, but he's getting there.
The plot (such as it is) concerns an old gal who's brought a box full of bonds (half a million dollars worth) to the hospital. It's now disappeared and she and her brother want it returned. They also want the key to the safety deposit box where she's stashed another million in various assets. She's a tough old dame, but she talks too much.
Two of the three doctors are on the take, as are two of the three nurses. Plus two medics are fighting to the death over one seductive RN. The lucious Miss Evans wants the doctor who has the box and the key, but she isn't sure which one it is. The last person who ended up with the loot hid it and now everyone's running around in the dark with shovels trying to find it.
The first chapter is so boring I almost gave up. Crane is being transported to the hospital and the purpose seems to be to show that the staff are real stinkers. Skim it.
After that things pick up and you start to see glimpses of the sought-after writer who did screenplays for books by Hammett and Cornell Woolrich, for directors like Frank Capra and John Farrow. Not to mention thirty-nine episodes of "The Perry Mason Show."
Latimer created fascinating characters of all types and he wrote a nice mixture of dark danger and zany humor. I'm giving this one three stars because when the humor kicks in, it's very good indeed. After two murders, the local law gets wind of trouble and arrives in full force - Sheriff Walters, his son Cliff, and two deputies. It's funnier than "Andy of Mayberry" AND there's full frontal nudity.
After another murder and assorted strange events, the State Police (who investigate murders in New York State) show up. They're smarter, more competent, and much less entertaining than Sheriff Walters' posse.
Finally, Crane shows them where the box is hidden. There's one more murder (just because), the rich old lady recovers her goodies, the agency collects a fee, and Crane can go back to the City. I'm pretty sure the hospital is doomed, since it was struggling with so few patients. Now half of them are no longer paying customers, being dead. Wonder what happened to Wolfman?
Younger readers will laugh about the baths that are a major part of the "treatment" but that was standard mental health care for decades. It didn't cure anything, but at least the patients were nice and clean.
I'm stretching a point to give it three stars, but there ARE some interesting characters and some hilarious dialogue. I'm hoping the series will pick up as it goes along. If not, there are four stand-along mysteries (including "Solomon's Vineyard.") One of them is called "The Search for My Great-Uncle's Head." I that one isn't a winner, I'll pack it in.
May 30, 2022
Not that crazy about it; an OK mystery (touted as being in the "hard-boiled" category, but maybe "soft-boiled," really.) Set in an asylum, at least the author didn't pin the killings on insanity. It would have been nice to have a list of characters to refer to since there were so many involved. And of course being from that time, there were some cringe-worthy references to the way the "colored" kitchen help spoke, and the hero discounts them as suspects because "they are racially incapable of such purposeful crime."
December 23, 2022
Who would have thought being a detective would mean a stay in an asylum? Bill Crane does just then when he goes undercover to fin a rich, old woman's lock box with over $400,000 in bonds. Then bodies begin to fall around him.
September 4, 2018
Not a bad read. Dated, but that’s to be expected.
June 30, 2019
Dated.
June 14, 2021
Well, this was different, but interesting. It was a bit strangely written, not the type of writing I read often but it wasn't off-putting for me. Definitely one of my favourite era's in time and I feel the author got the lingo down and it didn't feel contrived as some stories in different eras do. He painted a great picture of and story had a couple of twists. I actually quite enjoyed the story and have put his other stories on my list to read.
April 17, 2023
This is a novel from the 1930s and it shows its age. The plot is fast-paced and muddled and the prose is purple.
April 3, 2025
Contrary to most of the reviews here, I thought this was the best Bill Crane book of the series.
April 13, 2025
Randomly picked this book up on holiday and didn’t put it back down. Maybe vintage crime is my genre after all x
November 27, 2017
A few years ago I read Jonathan Latimer’s Headed for a Hearse and wasn’t convinced by its mixing the hardboiled detective into a whodunit plot. I had no ambitions to read another Latimer until I recently noticed I had this one, the first of the P.I. Bill Crane series, sitting in a pile of books. I have no memory when I bought it and as it has three second-hand prices scrawled over it it seems to be well travelled and I hope I paid the cheapest amount. This one begins with Crane being committed to a sanatorium for the wealthy mentally ill...but we soon find out he is on a case: there has been a robbery...but then there is a murder...and another...and another. Crane is the tough talking, tough hitting detective: if he is not as witty as Philip Marlowe he gets the occasional good line...and he was around several years before Marlowe. But Crane is contained within a dreary whodunit plot. For a while the plot seems unsettlingly absurd: the sanatorium’s authorities are bizarrely nonchalant about their murdered patients, but there is a sort of rational explanation of this: the whodunit cannot abide the absurd. Again I wasn’t convinced by the tough private detective operating within the whodunit world. (And matter-of-fact racism is startling: Crane dismisses the two African-American staff as potential culprits because they would be incapable of the necessary thought or organization to carry out the murders.)
March 24, 2015
Not sure why I bothered finishing this one. I think I was hoping it would get better. But it never really did. The plot made no sense, the characters were collections of tics, and the casual sexism and racism were just icing on the thrown-together cake. This was perhaps my favourite (ahem) line: "I'm not considering either of the two coloured women because I am positive they are racially incapable of such purposeful crime."
May 10, 2016
A drunken narcissistic detective is assigned to solve a theft case.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews