Knights of the Open Palm

by Carroll John Daly

The first hard-boiled detective Race Williams, runs up against the Klan in his premiere adventure, which leads him to fast and tragic action. Plus two other early Daly hard-boiled classics: "The False Burton Combs" and "Dolly." Story #1 in the Race Williams series.

Carroll John Daly (1889–1958) was the creator of the first hard-boiled private eye story, predating Dashiell Hammett's first Continental Op story by several months. Daly's classic character, Race Williams, was one of the most popular fiction characters of the pulps, and the direct inspiration for Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.

Genres: Mystery

67 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 13, 2017

About the author

With a single screen writing credit to his name, Carroll John Daly is an unlikely mention as being the originator of the private eye... but he just might be. And he was, by contemporary accounts, a strange guy; born in Yonkers, New York in 1889, he most certainly was neurotic, agoraphobic and had a severe fear of dentists. These considerable obstacles to a conventional career were fortuitously offset by the genetic good fortune of having a sympathetic wealthy uncle who encouraged his writing efforts. Daly began to make a name for himself in the nickel and dime pulps in the early 1920s. He was 33 when he managed to get published in the fledgling Black Mask. His character Terry Mack is significant as the first tough-talking private eye (debuting in May, 1923) ever to appear in the pulp genre. Daly's characterization was pretty crudely drawn and he quickly created another character in the same vein, the twin-toting .45 gumshoe Race Williams. Black Mask hired a visionary editor, Joe "Cap" Shaw in 1926, who almost immediately took an intense dislike to Daly's one-dimensional writing style. Shaw conceded to his popularity for the time being, while methodically building up a stable of far greater writing talent. Criticism aside, Daly's 'The Snarl of the Beast' (1927) has the distinction as being acknowledged as the first private eye novel ever published. As Joe Shaw groomed other writers, contemporary critics began to condemn Daly, accusing him of subverting the morals of society and bemoaning the quality of his writing. The mind-numbing void the Race Williams character filled in Black Mask became less important in the early 1930s as the magazine featured vastly superior stories written by the likes of Raoul Fauconnier Whitfield and John K. Butler. Daly and Shaw argued continually over the quality of Daly's writing, and to a lesser extent money and to the delight of Joe Shaw, Daly walked off the magazine in late 1934. Daly would sporadically reappear in Black Mask after Shaw left the publication in 1936, but would fade into obscurity, ending his writing career ignobly by writing comic book dialog. He died in 1958, unappreciated and virtually forgotten by those working in the genre he largely helped create.

* Complete list of his short stories.

Reviews

[Ayz · Rating 4 out of 5]

race williams takes on the KKK.

short and fun as hell.

am I wrong or did this come even before dashiel hammett and hemingway’s hard-boiled stuff? the language is so cologuial in this pulp from the ‘20s it makes you wonder if the literary market was just hella behind what people actually wanted to read.

race was the original inspiration for spillane’s mike hammer, and it’s fairly obvious in a great way.

a short pulp gem.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stories by Carroll John Daly (1889-1958), who's credited with creating the first hard-boiled detective, Race Williams. Daly wrote extensively for the pulp magazines without ever threatening Micky Spillane's chances for the Pulitzer. The stories are:

"The False Burton Combs" (1922) - This has been called the first hard-boiled detective story. The protagonist is an unnamed prototype for Race Williams and narrates in a similar tough, barely literate, first-person patois. Born of the pulps, literacy is not a necessity.

"Knights of the Open Palm" (1923) - The first Race Williams story has him taking on the KKK, which was pretty cool in 1923. For context, the KKK controlled the government in Colorado (Western, not Southern, USA) as late as 1925, including the mayor of the capital and the state governor. The KKK, which openly promoted white supremacy and fought to limit foreign immigration is painted in a deservedly dismal light here. The story "races" along but (spoiler!) whenever our hero gets in a jam someone is going to get shot (much as when Raymond Chandler ran out of ideas, someone came through the door with a gun).

"Dolly" (1922) - not hard-boiled but interesting as another side to Daly's writing.

Interesting historically as a precursor to the genre, but ultimately average compared to what came later. Not much competition for Marlowe, Spade, the Continental Op, Archer, McGee, or even Mike Hammer.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of three short stories by a writer recognized as the earliest hard-boiled writer. The first of these is the last one published. It features Daly's primary character, Race Williams, Private Investigator, in his first story, in which he takes on the local Ku Klux Klan. The story is pretty cool as an insider's view of what the KKK was about then, the secret handshakes, the salute, etc. Daly portrays them as a bunch of losers trying to add mystique into their otherwise drab lives. Those looking for morally righteous indignation and modern grounds to oppose the KKK will be disappointed. The racism barely gets a mention, certainly not any outright condemnation. It's the excuse KKK members have to not be subject to the law Daly finds offensive. The story is sufficiently entertaining, but its tone never quite matches the seriousness of its content.

The next story, "Dolly," is Daly's first published story. It is not written in a hard-boiled manner. I am glad this story is included because it shows Daly has strong classical writing chops. My only objection to the story is that it crossed over into melodrama a bit too much. It felt at some points like we were reading a vaudevillian story of a young woman being tied to train tracks at one point. Still, the story held my interest all the way through.

The final story was for my money the best of the three. Titled, "The False Burton Combs," it is considered to be the first published story written in the hard-boiled genre. The protagonist, never named, is hired to take on Burton Combs' identity because someone is trying to kill Mr. Combs and the protagonist figures to have a better chance of thwarting the would be killer than does Mr. Combs. It's an exciting early take of this "Human Target" theme Daly writes.

My main problem with both of Daly's hard-boiled entries in this collection is that the protagonist explains himself in a tone that's all braggadocio. It gets wearing quick. Someone this full of themselves is someone we the reader secretly want to see fail just to take him down a notch. This is surely not the effect Daly is striving for. I'd like to see some of Daly's later work to see if he ever corrected this writing defect, or if he continued it throughout his career. It would explain his second-tier hardboiled status if he did maintain.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of three stories from Carroll John Daly, the man who originated the hard-boiled detective story in Black Mask magazine in the 1920s.

The title story is a hard-boiled detective story featuring Race Williams, Daly’s most popular private eye character. It was published in Black Mask in 1923, predating Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op stories. The hard-boiled style is apparent, but Race Williams is an unlikable blowhard. I didn’t care for the character or the story, which involves Williams infiltrating the Klu Klux Klan to rescue a kidnapped boy who witnessed a murder. Strangely, Daly’s depiction of the Klan has nothing to do with racism or bigotry; Klan members are portrayed as pathetic wannabe criminals.

The second story, “Dolly,” from 1922, is a twisted psychological thriller. It was Daly’s first published story, and it’s OK. The last story, “The False Burton Combs,” also from 1922, is the best of the three, a hard-boiled action story featuring an unnamed narrator who is hired to impersonate young Burton Combs on Nantucket while the real Combs hides from mob killers.

[Francesca Tripiedi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was 1923 when Knights of the Open Palm was first published in the June edition of Black Mask.
It was the 1923 when Carroll John Daly, speaking through the mouth of Race Williams, wrote this little pearl of a description of the Ku Klux Klan.

And that night the Klan honored me with a visit. Three of them there were and they must have put on their getup in the hall. Yep, all dolled up like the heavy chorus in a burlesque show they walked in on me.

And more.

[...] and they take an oath which would knock you cock-eyed for length, bad English and rotten principles.

Carroll John Day was a guy with steel in his balls.

[Elena Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned of author Carroll John Daly from an acquaintance. I’ve since read that Daly was the first to write in the hard-boiled noir style in serialized fiction published in Black Mask magazine in the 1920s. Although compared by some to Chandler and Hammet, his stories read more like Mickey Spillane. Daly bitterly claimed that the character of Mike Hammer was copied from his work. Knights of the Open Palm is a fast-paced first-person yarn that pits private dick Race Williams against the Ku Klux Klan. Williams tells his story in uneducated street vernacular, possibly to appeal to a lower middle class audience, but don’t let the misuse of grammar fool you - this story’s non-stop action will hold your interest. Daly showed a good familiarity with his subject matter, the KKK of the 1920s, either from tangential experience or on-the-street research… or, maybe he made some of it up? Anyway, it read well! It was mostly action with sparse description, but it made me feel like I was sitting on an orange crate by an ashcan fire listening to my favorite raconteur.
Though the e-book I bought showed only this title, there was a bonus – two more short stories by Daly, and I liked them even better than “Knights.” “Dolly” (which reminded me a little of a Dorothy L. Sayers’ favorite, “The Cyprian Cat”) and “The False Burton Combs” (really could not fathom how the caper would end until the last few pages). For anyone who likes noir, I would recommend reading this author.

[Dan McCollum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun collection of stories. There is always something interesting in reading the 'firsts' of any genre - oft times you can see the traits of the works that will come later, albeit in a raw and unformed way. And thst is definitely the case here.

Daly's Race Williams is a loud mouthed, tough guy, who certainly doesn't have time for such niceties as humility in his tale. He spends most of the story grabbing about his skills and exploits - one could almost imagine him sitting in a bar, regailing others with the story, and making damned sure he ain't paying for his own drinks tonight.

He's a long way away from the more professional Continental Op or the self-defacing schlub routine of Marlowe. But, having said that, you can see the hardboiled detective here in an earlier state.

The "Knights of the Open Palm" is an overall good story. I also enjoyed the third entry in the collection (oddly enough, it's out of order - "The False Burton Combs," was actually the first of Daly's detective stories to be published) perhaps more, despite Ol Race Williams not being in it.

All in all, I'd suggest these to anyone interested in 20s crime fiction and early hardboiled stories. Are there better examples out there? Sure. But Daly was first and he walked so they could run.

[Ronald Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this little volume of three stories by Carroll John Daly because I had never read one of his stories and wanted to find out if his fledgling hard boiled work was worth perusing. "Knights of the Open Palm" was the first of the Race Williams series, which spans more than 50 short stories and 8 novels. "Knights" is primitive and almost laughable; it's easy to see the inspiration of Mike Hammer in Race Williams. But I'll give old Race a chance; I have a few more stories and a couple of novels on my Kindle.

Actually the other two stories in this book, "Dolly" and "The False Burton Combs," are much more entertaining works. While "Dolly" holds no real surprises it does make one wonder how stupid some people can be. "The False Burton Combs" has a more restrained, no-nonsense protagonist, even though the courtroom reveal does stretch believability just a tad.

[Greg Hansen]

A classic noir detective story by one of the inventors of the genre. These are the original tough, fearless, wisecracking detectives that succeeded the more gentlemanly adventures of a Sherlock Holmes or an Ethel King.

[Tomasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mercilessly dated, mostly, and not really worthy of recalling to modern audiences, mostly due to the dramatically banal plotting. The language, on the other hand, is often fine, some of these stories could be an inspiration to Damon Runyon in that regard.

[Jack Burnham]

Favourite story was 'The False Burton Combs', 'Open Palm' was scrappy and 'Dolly' was predictable

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elightened view of the evolution from frontier gun singer to Jack Reacher, by way of Mike Hammer and Race.

[Levin Low · Rating 3 out of 5]

race williams quite swag but i still am not a fan of hardboiled detective fiction

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century American Crime
BOOK/Novella #53 (of 250)
Otto Penzler, editor of 'The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories' tells us: "Daly is remembered today as the writer who essentially invented the quintessential genre of American literature: the hard-boiled private-eye story." But for me, this isn't Daly's best: that comes later in my countdown.
HOOK=5 stars: We're introduced to Race Williams with "...I'm what you might call the middleman-just a halfway house between the dicks and the crooks." That's as perfect of a description of a "hard-boiled" private investigator I've encountered. Plus, an opening page illustration of a Klu Klux Klan meeting in a forest is about as ominous as it gets. Will Race run up against the KKK? Will he win? And if so, how? If you aren't hooked, the hard-boiled detective genre isn't for you.
PACE=4: This novella is, and should be, on the fast side.
PLOT=3: A person is missing. Race must find him. Standard for any crime genre.
CHARACTERS=4: Race, as previously stated, is the first hard-boiled series detective, and it's intentional that his first case involves race relations. Add the horrendous KKK bunch, the kidnapped son (Willie Thompson), Buck Jabine and his two sons (the ONLY 3 men in town, other than Race, who openly defy the Klan) and town members shaking in their boots (for good reason) and this cast explodes!
PLACE=4: We get a bit of the feel of a small town in the South, but not much, definitely not enough. That said, the illustration on the first page adds much atmosphere to the text, for a 4th star. And since this story is most likely only to be found in this omnibus format, you're going to encounter the illustration.
SUMMARY: 4.0. This is a very good start for the first of its kind. You have to hand it to Daly for taking on such a huge issue, race relations, and pushing it toward the pulps. No, there isn't a starring role for a sexy, curvy, troubled, pulp gal. He handles it beautifully, and he does the right thing: the KKK MUST be humiliated and without giving away the when and who and how, the good guys win, gloriously.