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Death on a Ferris Wheel
165 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1951
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 1, 2025
I'm a fan of hardboiled fiction that takes place in carnivals and amusement parks, so when I saw this cover, I got excited. I soon found out, though, that while the murder happens on a fairgrounds, the majority of the novel does not take place there.
Floyd Anthony's dead body is found slumped on a Ferris Wheel, his throat slit. A throwing knife is found nearby and the police start interviewing the carnies for clues. Sweep away from that location to a southern Californian office where Matt Hughes, former-FBI-agent-now-lawyer, is hired to represent dead Mr. Anthony's ex-wife, just in case the cops frame her for murder. Hughes starts his own investigation to find the killer, who may or may not be his new client, or any other number of carnies, hoods, mafiosos, and femme fatales.
Although the novel had a bit of a clunky start—Martin seemed to be trying too hard to be clever with his prose—it eventually became a pretty convoluted, albeit engaging, murder mystery. There's plenty of red herrings and diabolical plots for Matt Hughes to sort through, though I wish it had lingered on the fairgrounds. Carnies make such colorful characters and I love to read their slang.
Terrible title, though. I'm amazed the Fawcett editors thought it was good enough.
Floyd Anthony's dead body is found slumped on a Ferris Wheel, his throat slit. A throwing knife is found nearby and the police start interviewing the carnies for clues. Sweep away from that location to a southern Californian office where Matt Hughes, former-FBI-agent-now-lawyer, is hired to represent dead Mr. Anthony's ex-wife, just in case the cops frame her for murder. Hughes starts his own investigation to find the killer, who may or may not be his new client, or any other number of carnies, hoods, mafiosos, and femme fatales.
Although the novel had a bit of a clunky start—Martin seemed to be trying too hard to be clever with his prose—it eventually became a pretty convoluted, albeit engaging, murder mystery. There's plenty of red herrings and diabolical plots for Matt Hughes to sort through, though I wish it had lingered on the fairgrounds. Carnies make such colorful characters and I love to read their slang.
Terrible title, though. I'm amazed the Fawcett editors thought it was good enough.
July 2, 2024
The scene of the death —a woebegone little amusement park with a Ferris Wheel, sitting right next to an old oil derek and a couple of gas stations. In a sequence lifted from some RKO Radio second feature, a disreputable drug addict is found dead when some bratty kid wants to ride the cheesy old ride. The corpse has a knife in his throat, thrown from the nearby oil well.
The atmospherics are fine — but after a couple of chapters of this, we need a plot. So we get one. A wife of one those heirs with money and mistresses but no sense and no job seems to have disposed of a diamond ring.she claims it is stolen, but husband retains a lawyer to investigate things. Soon enough, this investigation gets entangled with the title murder and suspects who have professional knife throwing in their past. Also included — the usual gangster kingpins and beautiful dames with few morals and less clothes.
Good enough — 3.5 stars for fast moving pulp told with a touch of style and descriptive flair.
The atmospherics are fine — but after a couple of chapters of this, we need a plot. So we get one. A wife of one those heirs with money and mistresses but no sense and no job seems to have disposed of a diamond ring.she claims it is stolen, but husband retains a lawyer to investigate things. Soon enough, this investigation gets entangled with the title murder and suspects who have professional knife throwing in their past. Also included — the usual gangster kingpins and beautiful dames with few morals and less clothes.
Good enough — 3.5 stars for fast moving pulp told with a touch of style and descriptive flair.
October 17, 2025
"Get a guilty person worried enough, and theres a chance he'll betray himself. A guilty person trusts no one, Emily. He's alone with his fear. Plant distrust on top of that fear and you sometimes catch a criminal"
I had a similar observation about this novel to the one made in Benjamin's review. This isn't a carny novel in the sense that there wasn't much emphasis on the carnival and its constituents. It's most definitely not a carny noir novel either, at least not by the standards of a novel like Robert Edmond Alters classic CARNY KILL. The vibe just wasn't there. Benjamin also used the word "convoluted" in describing DEATH ON A FERRIS WHEEL, which was a word that certainly kept coming to mind as I tried to keep up with all the characters and relationship dynamics between both couples and cohorts. There are marriages, hidden marriges, marriages of bigamy, divorces both legal and otherwise, all in service of a plot involving a murdered junky named Anthony and an ex FBI man named Matt Hughes who's hired for the case and remains a bulldog sleuth all the way to the end.
Homicide Detective Homer Aselin wants an open and shut case and therefore isn't willing to probe too deep into the circumstances surrounding Anthony's murder. Matt Hughes, who isn't satisfied with the easy answers, becomes the thorn in Homer Aselin's side.
"You'll fabricate a chain of evidence against her," Hughes went on without a pause, "that will look airtight until its brought before a judge and jury. Then it will be shown up for what it is--just alot of circumstantial evidence that you can't substantiate or prove. That's the way with cops working under pressure of public opinion, and thats why so many murderers stay alive!"
This is all well and good until so many red herrings are introduced that It becomes a little exhausting. This Gold Medal paperback was 165 pages long; a little longer than average, and I found myself having to read at a snails pace just to keep up with the case as it unfolds.
I thought the dialouge was authentic, even where the carny's were concerned, but once again, there just wasn't much focus on the carnival aspect of it. Not a terribly written mystery, but not much action or atmosphere and overall not my bag. One thing I found amusing was cocaine being called "nose candy"...in 1951!
I had a similar observation about this novel to the one made in Benjamin's review. This isn't a carny novel in the sense that there wasn't much emphasis on the carnival and its constituents. It's most definitely not a carny noir novel either, at least not by the standards of a novel like Robert Edmond Alters classic CARNY KILL. The vibe just wasn't there. Benjamin also used the word "convoluted" in describing DEATH ON A FERRIS WHEEL, which was a word that certainly kept coming to mind as I tried to keep up with all the characters and relationship dynamics between both couples and cohorts. There are marriages, hidden marriges, marriages of bigamy, divorces both legal and otherwise, all in service of a plot involving a murdered junky named Anthony and an ex FBI man named Matt Hughes who's hired for the case and remains a bulldog sleuth all the way to the end.
Homicide Detective Homer Aselin wants an open and shut case and therefore isn't willing to probe too deep into the circumstances surrounding Anthony's murder. Matt Hughes, who isn't satisfied with the easy answers, becomes the thorn in Homer Aselin's side.
"You'll fabricate a chain of evidence against her," Hughes went on without a pause, "that will look airtight until its brought before a judge and jury. Then it will be shown up for what it is--just alot of circumstantial evidence that you can't substantiate or prove. That's the way with cops working under pressure of public opinion, and thats why so many murderers stay alive!"
This is all well and good until so many red herrings are introduced that It becomes a little exhausting. This Gold Medal paperback was 165 pages long; a little longer than average, and I found myself having to read at a snails pace just to keep up with the case as it unfolds.
I thought the dialouge was authentic, even where the carny's were concerned, but once again, there just wasn't much focus on the carnival aspect of it. Not a terribly written mystery, but not much action or atmosphere and overall not my bag. One thing I found amusing was cocaine being called "nose candy"...in 1951!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews