Jo Gar's Casebook

by Raoul Whitfield

Ellery Queen "Whitfield is a much too neglected member of the Hammett-Chandler hardboiled school." Dashiell Hammett himself praised the Whitfield stories for their "naked action pounded into tough compactness by staccato, hammerlike writing." Previously announced but long delayed (as we searched for more stories) Jo Gar's Casebook is the first collection of Whitfield's extraordinary tales. In the February 1930 issue of Black Mask, a new character was introduced to the American detective story. Jo Gar was both a classic "thinking" sleuth and a tough man of action who inhabited an exotic noir world on the Philippines, facing a rogue's gallery of colorful villains from mixed-race Chinese to upper-crust American exiles. "The Little Island Detective" lived in a vivid world of pre-war Asia where typhoons threatened the harbor, criminals escaped from the local prison, and the waterfront was home to cut-throats from all countries. Throughout the 1930's, Raoul Whitfield was a star contributor to Black Mask – only Erle Stanley Gardner appeared more often. The cover and design are by neo-pulp artist Tom Roberts. Crippen & Landru is pleased to work with Black Mask Press on this new series, Tales From the Black Mask Morgue, to bring to a new generation the best uncollected stories from the greatest of all hardboiled magazine. Future publications will include books by Norbert Davis, Paul Cain, Frederic Nebel, and others.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Although born in New York, Raoul Fauconnier Whitfield's early life was shaped by his father's transfer to the Philippines where he led the privilege life as the dependent of a Territorial Government bureaucrat. Young Whitfield would later travel through China and Japan where his memory of Asia would prove to serve him well. Back in the States, the teenager aspired to motion pictures, where his rugged good looks graced the silent cinema. If it weren't for America's entry into the Great War in 1917 we might know him as an actor, but Whitfield enlisted in the Army and was initially assigned to the ambulance corps. Desiring action, he sought and won a commission as a pilot and saw duty on the German Front as a combat pilot. After the Armistice, Whitfield spurned his steel business-based family's desires, married his first wife Prudence and landed a job with the Pittsburgh Post as a reporter. Prudence encouraged his long held desires to write pulp fiction stories. His writing drew upon his childhood travels in the Far East (his 'Jo Gar, Island Detective' character was based in Manila) along with his more recent wartime exploits. He succeeded in selling stories for Boy's Life, War Stories and Battle Stories (under the pseudonym 'Temple Field') - but he's especially notable for his contributions to Black Mask, the creme of the pulps. His 'Crime Buster' Black Mask stories were so popular they were amalgamated into his first novel, Green Ice (published in 1930) earning the praise of none other than the genre master, Dashiell Hammett, with its hard-as-nails emphasis on action. Whitfield had a total of 9 books published during the depths of the Great Depression. The speed in which he ground out work was amazing but it also drew criticism; his lesser stories were spurned as hack work. Whitfield often wrote under the pseudonym, Ramon Dacolta, who ironically proved a heady rival in readership popularity. Many of his 1927-33 stories easily ranks with the best authors of pulp fiction. Whitfield's screen writing career began in earnest after his divorce from Prudence and relocated from Florida to Los Angeles in 1933. He landed a job as a writer for Paramount and on a whirlwind trip to New York City, met and married the wealthy and unstable Emily Davies Vanderbilt Thayer, with emphasis on the Vanderbilt. Life was good for a short period; the couple purchased a large ranch outside Las Vegas, Nevada and Whitfield's writing productivity slowed to a trickle. The Whitfield's marriage was wobbly, masked by partying. Emily experienced bouts of manic depression and the couple separated in early 1935. Her mental state was far more fragile than anyone had imagined, she committed suicide at the Nevada ranch that May. Whitfield was inconsolable over his wife's death and he was utterly destroyed. Contracting TB in his 40s he died at a military hospital in California in 1945.

Reviews

[Two Envelopes And A Phone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manila, 1930s. Jo Gar. Sadi Ratan. Juan Arragon.

White duck suits. Pith helmets. Khaki. Screens and netting. Amber. Jade. Lacquer.

The Walled City. The Pasig. Typhoons. The Bay. A sampan.

The Escolta. Hotels. Fan-backed chairs. Hemp. Cords. Stranglers’ knots.

Siamese cats. Lizards on the walls. Cock fights.

Knives, knives, knives. Betel-nut. Brown-paper cigarettes. Sandals.

Filipino. Chinese. Japanese. Malay. Spanish. Portuguese. Dutch. English. French. American. Arab. ‘Half-breed.’. Slurs.

Murders, murders, murders. Police: “it’s obvious!”. Jo Gar: “perhaps once again it is not so obvious.”

For fans of: The Murder Book of J. G. Reeder, The Mysterious Mr. Quin, Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Maigret. Or anyone looking for a wonderful variety of Crime & Mystery tales in a clear and beautiful setting, featuring one of my new favourite detectives.

[Mark Weiss]

great book