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Anything but Saintly
Prostitution, dope, gambling, and murder!
As a town, St. Cecilia was anything but saintly--prostitution, dope, gambling, the works. Matt Rudd of the Vice Squad had the lurid inside story. But he was helpless as long as crooked politicos like Nick Bartkowiak and his right-hand goon, Little Artie Nowack, kept the Police Commissioner under their thumb. Then the strangling of one of Little Artie's call girls raised a few eyebrows, especially Rudd's. And when his questions brought him face-to-face with a gun, a five-gallon bucket and a sack of plaster of Paris, even the cowering Commissioner had to face facts: shoot to kill! All-out war on the underworld!
As a town, St. Cecilia was anything but saintly--prostitution, dope, gambling, the works. Matt Rudd of the Vice Squad had the lurid inside story. But he was helpless as long as crooked politicos like Nick Bartkowiak and his right-hand goon, Little Artie Nowack, kept the Police Commissioner under their thumb. Then the strangling of one of Little Artie's call girls raised a few eyebrows, especially Rudd's. And when his questions brought him face-to-face with a gun, a five-gallon bucket and a sack of plaster of Paris, even the cowering Commissioner had to face facts: shoot to kill! All-out war on the underworld!
151 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
3 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Richard Deming
106 books3 followersRichard Deming (1915-1983) was a solid and reliable pro whose crime-writing career extended from late 1940s pulps to early 1980s digests. He also wrote several volumes of popular non-fiction late in his life.
He is most likely to be remembered as one of the most prolific contributors to Manhunt and the early days of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and as a paperback original writer, sometimes of novels based on TV shows (Dragnet, The Mod Squad, and under the pseudonym Max Franklin, Starsky and Hutch). He was also a frequent ghost for the Ellery Queen team on paperback originals and for Brett Halliday on lead novelettes for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.
He is most likely to be remembered as one of the most prolific contributors to Manhunt and the early days of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and as a paperback original writer, sometimes of novels based on TV shows (Dragnet, The Mod Squad, and under the pseudonym Max Franklin, Starsky and Hutch). He was also a frequent ghost for the Ellery Queen team on paperback originals and for Brett Halliday on lead novelettes for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 25, 2024
Anything But Saintly (1963) is the second of three books in Deming’s Matt Rudd police procedural series. The story is set in the fictional factory town of St. Cecilia, a smoggy mid-western city run by machine politics and graft. Matt Rudd (Mateusz Rudowski in the original Polish version of his name) and his partner Carl Lincoln are members of St. Cecilia’s Vice, Gambling, and Narcotics Division.
The story opens with a businessman, Harold Warner, in town from Houston for the Tile convention, who was procured a young lady for the evening by the bellhop of his hotel, but who woke up to allegedly find $500 stolen from his wallet and he wants it back without making a lot of embarrassment and publicity. Her name was Kitty and she had a figure like a coke bottle. In a corrupt city like St. Cecilia, Rudd and Lincoln are tasked with going to the crooked grifter who runs girls out of the hotel, the Leland, and getting the businessman’s money back. They do so and are quickly given the money, assuming that Kitty would get a few backhanded slaps and the matter would be concluded.
Only, as so often does in these types of stories, Kitty is never seen again alive and Rudd feels guilty that his angling had caused her death. Therefore, when he supposed to be making dates with prostitutes to arrest them and clear the streets, he decides he can use that time to investigate the death and relieve his conscience. This brings him in conflict with the city’s dirty power brokers and results in some action-packed sequences with Rudd all on his own, not believing how dirty, underhanded, and corrupt the operators are.
Deming, who is relatively unknown these days, wrote a substantial number of crime fiction novels in the Fifties and Sixties as well as loads of tv-series tie-in books with the Mod Squad, Charlie’s Angels, and Starsky and Hutch.
The story opens with a businessman, Harold Warner, in town from Houston for the Tile convention, who was procured a young lady for the evening by the bellhop of his hotel, but who woke up to allegedly find $500 stolen from his wallet and he wants it back without making a lot of embarrassment and publicity. Her name was Kitty and she had a figure like a coke bottle. In a corrupt city like St. Cecilia, Rudd and Lincoln are tasked with going to the crooked grifter who runs girls out of the hotel, the Leland, and getting the businessman’s money back. They do so and are quickly given the money, assuming that Kitty would get a few backhanded slaps and the matter would be concluded.
Only, as so often does in these types of stories, Kitty is never seen again alive and Rudd feels guilty that his angling had caused her death. Therefore, when he supposed to be making dates with prostitutes to arrest them and clear the streets, he decides he can use that time to investigate the death and relieve his conscience. This brings him in conflict with the city’s dirty power brokers and results in some action-packed sequences with Rudd all on his own, not believing how dirty, underhanded, and corrupt the operators are.
Deming, who is relatively unknown these days, wrote a substantial number of crime fiction novels in the Fifties and Sixties as well as loads of tv-series tie-in books with the Mod Squad, Charlie’s Angels, and Starsky and Hutch.
February 23, 2019
I’ll confess that the cover art by Robert Abbett sucked me into opening the 1963 stand-alone paperback “Anything But Saintly” by Richard Deming. But in my defense, I’ve enjoyed the hell out of the handful of Deming’s novels I’ve read thus far. Deming was an under-appreciated master of crime fiction, and it’s a crime that few people know his work today.
“Anything But Saintly” is narrated by a fundamentally honest vice cop named Matt Rudd (Americanized from his given name of Mateusz Rudowski) who is playing gin with his partner in the squad room one day when a citizen barges in asking, “Is this where you come to report whores?” The citizen is a visitor from Houston who was rolled by a prostitute after consummating the transaction in his hotel room and wants his $500 back.
The investigation of this seemingly simple crime gets materially more complex for Rudd and his partner when they learn the identity of the whore and her pimp. It turns out that the pimp has some pretty heavy political connections, and this is particularly inconvenient for Rudd who is jockeying for a promotion in a town where the police board is politically appointed. “There are certain rackets we overlook because of the political influence of the racketeers”, Rudd explains.
The story takes place in the fictitious city of St. Cecilia, but it’s obvious this is a euphemism for Chicago, and Deming does a nice job of taking the reader into the incestuous alliance between the urban racketeers and the local politicians, a symbiotic relationship that was the real deal in 20th century Chicago.
The cover of the paperback gives away a fairly significant plot point that occurs around the 20% mark, but I won’t spoil it here. Suffice it to say that the stakes in this minor investigation increase markedly as the plot evolves into a murder mystery and the political alliances of the characters shift. This is very smart novel - smarter than it had to be for a cheapo paperback original from this era. The writing is excellent and the characters - particularly the call girls - are vividly drawn. The plot is fast moving and dialogue heavy with a good bit of action and gunplay. The murder mystery also has a nice twist with a satisfying solution.
If you can’t find the 1963 paperback, it’s also available as an eBook in all formats. Whatever the medium, “Anything But Saintly” is another straight-up winner for Richard Deming. Recommended.
(This has been Paperback Warrior Blog review!)
“Anything But Saintly” is narrated by a fundamentally honest vice cop named Matt Rudd (Americanized from his given name of Mateusz Rudowski) who is playing gin with his partner in the squad room one day when a citizen barges in asking, “Is this where you come to report whores?” The citizen is a visitor from Houston who was rolled by a prostitute after consummating the transaction in his hotel room and wants his $500 back.
The investigation of this seemingly simple crime gets materially more complex for Rudd and his partner when they learn the identity of the whore and her pimp. It turns out that the pimp has some pretty heavy political connections, and this is particularly inconvenient for Rudd who is jockeying for a promotion in a town where the police board is politically appointed. “There are certain rackets we overlook because of the political influence of the racketeers”, Rudd explains.
The story takes place in the fictitious city of St. Cecilia, but it’s obvious this is a euphemism for Chicago, and Deming does a nice job of taking the reader into the incestuous alliance between the urban racketeers and the local politicians, a symbiotic relationship that was the real deal in 20th century Chicago.
The cover of the paperback gives away a fairly significant plot point that occurs around the 20% mark, but I won’t spoil it here. Suffice it to say that the stakes in this minor investigation increase markedly as the plot evolves into a murder mystery and the political alliances of the characters shift. This is very smart novel - smarter than it had to be for a cheapo paperback original from this era. The writing is excellent and the characters - particularly the call girls - are vividly drawn. The plot is fast moving and dialogue heavy with a good bit of action and gunplay. The murder mystery also has a nice twist with a satisfying solution.
If you can’t find the 1963 paperback, it’s also available as an eBook in all formats. Whatever the medium, “Anything But Saintly” is another straight-up winner for Richard Deming. Recommended.
(This has been Paperback Warrior Blog review!)
March 24, 2023
This was my 11th Richard Deming novel in a row! Slowly but surely, I'm working my way through his oeuvre, and that includes dozens of his short stories. This was Book 2 of his three Matt Rudd novels, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Matt is a vice cop, but can't help getting roped into murder investigations. This time, a call girl's death is at the center of the book, and I must say, I was completely surprised by the clever twist ending. I can't wait to dive into my 12th Deming, which of course will be the third and final Matt Rudd novel. Pure entertainment!
August 6, 2015
I love reading old pulp novels. Each reads like a different episode of Madmen. They are little time machines back to the days of Spam for dinner, cocktails at business lunches, men wearing suits as the common way to dress, smoking in office buildings...all the things that are virtually absent in today's version of American society. The writing is simple and flows well and the stories are enjoyable. Anything But Saintly is typical of these early pulp novels. I enjoyed reading it and being transported back to the 1960s era.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews