Notorious

by Day Keene

Notorious Day Keene

Genres: Noir

Paperback

First published February 1, 1954

About the author

Day Keene, whose real name was Gunnar Hjerstedt, was one of the leading paperback mystery writers of the 1950s. Along with writing over 50 novels, he also wrote for radio, television, movies, and pulp magazines. Often his stories were set in South Florida or swamp towns in Louisiana, and included a man wrongly accused and on the run, determined to clear his name.

Reviews

[Still · Rating 3 out of 5]

First novel by Day Keene I've read.
This is a Fawcett Gold Medal paperback original.
Nothing terribly original.
Carnival comes to a small river town in Louisiana.
The owner of the carnival has just finished three years on a prison road gang for murdering a man he caught having sex with his wife. He's free now and is trying to start over with a new carnival on money borrowed from a Baton Rogue bank.

First page has a glossary of carny terms used throughout the novel.

Slim mystery thread... not that it's easy to figure out who the villains are, I just wound up not caring.
The assorted characters -townsfolk and carnies are more interesting than any contrived mystery is.
Plenty of PBO style sleaze and violence throughout.

I had fun with it up to the last 50 pages then it only became repetitive.

[Cassio Queiros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me quote the late Bill Crider (1941-2018):
"...Keene is a natural storyteller; he keeps things moving right along, and no reader is likely to get bored before reaching the end of the book. In addition, the carnival background, while not really an integral part of the plot, is put to good use."
Deeply human and suspenseful tale by an unfairly forgotten author: Mr Day Keene (1904-1969).
Don't miss it!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised this was never made into a movie - or maybe it was under a different name to avoid clashing with the Hitchcock movie? - because it has a movie-friendly plot with great characters and settings. And it has a carnival. The setup: The carnival - run by Ed Ferron, a lifetime carny and an ex-con - is under threat of foreclosure when it rolls into Bay Bayou, a crooked small town. The carnival needs to make money during its week in Bay Bayou or it is done. The town is united against the carnival. Enter stage left: Marva Miller. A woman with a past returns to her hometown. Ferron helps her out of an altercation at the train station, which puts him on the police radar. He gives her a ride to her uncle’s house, where they find him dead. The police and the lynch mob descend quickly and Ferron is the prime suspect. Keene develops this first act by taking Ferron’s situation from bad to worse and it is packed with tension. What happens after that is a bit surprising as the novel turns into a quasi detective novel. Except it is the carny man doing the detecting. To save himself he needs to find the killer. Can he do that and save the carnival, too? That is the driver for the last two-thirds of the novel and it kept me pinned to the pages.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small town monopolized by a wealthy family, a carnival up against creditors, a "good" girl who knows the town's secrets, a "bad" girl returning home, a carny with a foolish heart, and the murder of of a once-wealthy recluse. Also included is a small glossary of carnival terms from 1954.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast moving suspense noir about a carnival owner hitting a just plain folks small town, met with the expected dirty looks. He meets the local girl made good returning to town getting the similar FU treatment. A lot of this is symbolic of racism - there's even lynch mobs to hammer in the point, okay.

Notorious is one of Keene's best, the action is hard and fast with tons of cheesecake T&A to keep men's pulses racing with loving details of women's curves and pendulous boobs jiggling to and fro. I can see excerpts of this being published in those old men's magazines, it's that lurid. Sexy and deadly stuff.

P.S. At the end of the novel is a swell glossary of carny terms. Just for you puddle jumpers at the mitt camp.