Dead Weight

Johnny Liddell #5

by Frank Kane

He stood in the doorway to the kitchen, his arms above his head, his long, bony fingers curled like claws. His teeth were bared in a horrible fixed grin, his eyes stared unblinkingly. Two thin wires suspended each of his thumbs to a corner of the door frame … mute evidence that his death had neither been quick or merciful.

Genres: Mystery

194 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Frank Kane, Brooklyn-born and a lifetime New Yorker, worked for many years in journalism and corporate public relations before shifting to fiction writing. At the time he was selling crime stories to the pulps he was also sustaining a career writing scripts for such radio shows as Gangbusters and The Shadow.

In addition to the Johnny Liddells, Kane wrote several suspense novels, some softcore erotica, and (under the pen name of Frank Boyd) "Johnny Staccato", a Gold Medal original paperback based on the short-lived noir television series, starring John Cassavetes, about a Greenwich Village bebop pianist turned private detective.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dead Weight is the fifth Johnny Liddell novel out of thirty. Published in 1951, it is one of the earlier Liddell novels and has Liddell working as a private eye out of a small office in NYC with Pinky operating the front desk and Muggsy Kiely, his reporter girlfriend, jealous of Pinky.
This is a fast-paced, action-packed story that features mysterious packages, Treasury Agents, hoods, gambling syndicates, treacherous Mata Hari characters, gunfire, corpses, frames, and secretive Chinatown Tong Gangs. It's as if Kane threw everything he could dream up into this one.
If you like fifties era action packed private eye stories with all kinds of twists and turns, this is your ticket. It holds up well even sixty plus years later although be forewarned that some of the terms used for the Chinese wouldn't be deemed acceptable now.