The Third Murderer

Race Williams #5

by Carroll John Daly

308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1931

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

[Vel Veeter]

This book is one of the two full novels presented in the Otto Penzler edited collection "The Big Book of Pulps" and published by Black Lizard. As a novel, it's not great or anything, but it's perfectly entertaining, and as the over all collection offers, it's a good piece of study of the genre and its tropes and conventions. In addition, it comes in the collection at about the time the reader really needs something of more substance and length, after a handful of stories that have a problem of blending in together too much, especially in the audiobook.

The novel is the fifth book in the "Race Williams" series, a private eye written in a hard-boiled fashion, and pre-dating The Maltese Falcon by two years (the Race Williams series, not this particular novel). As such, it's pretty rough and very trope-heavy. A private eye is hired onto a case that he feels might be a set-up. He's got connections to both the underworld (who are Italian) and the police (who are Irish), and there's a girl. In a kind of goofball turn, the girl here has her own little demimonde sobriquet, "The Flame". Ooooooh.

The story is conventional, but the written description is so silly, it wraps back around to funny and good again. It's super violent, questionable morally, and over-all solid. Is it good? No. Does it more or less do what I would want it to? Yes. Does it stand out in any meaningful way? Absolutely not.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century American Crime
BOOK/Novel 150 (of 250)
Daly is credited as being the first author to create and utilize the hard-boiled genre/detective as per Otto Penzler, editor of "The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps," in which this novel is included. Penzler goes on to tell us that Daly's creation of Terry Mack first appeared in a short story entitled "Three Gun Terry" published in Black Mask, issue dated May 15, 1923. Here, in "The Third Murderer", our P.I./narrator, Race Williams is "boiling" mad by page 2. Later, Daly describes "the whiteness of a boiled shirt." And, finally, the author writes, "And then the amateur detective discovers that the hard boiled Inspector..." had overlooked evidence. So, yes, it appears Daly can lay claim to labeling a certain kind of crime novel "hard-boiled."
Hook=3 stars: "I didn't like his face and I told him so," is the opening line. We're introduced to Race Williams, P.I., two of the three infamous Gorgon Brothers, and a woman known as The Flame in the first chapter. Good start!
Pace=3 stars: The word count of this novel is about 85,000. (Publishers prefer mystery novels to come in at 75K to 120K). The pace is solid, but I spread this out over a three day read, which is unusual for me. This isn't a high-speed read but rather an intriguing one because of the...
PLOT=4: By the end of chapter 6, I had a huge list of questions written down, issues unanswered thus far by the author, written because I wanted to go back to see if the author came through and explains a relatively convoluted plot: Colonel who? Why is a member of the police force moving a dying man from a hospital? Who is the dead man in the back seat of a gangster's car? Who is the now-dead gangster who had been driving the car? Who is The Devil? Who was locked in the Colonel's bedroom but has escaped? Who is Rose Marie? Why is our dame (who may be good or bad) called The Flame? Will Race fall for The Flame? (Well, yes, natch, it's the nature of the genre but when and where and will anyone survive The Flame?) The author does indeed pull everything together nicely.
PEOPLE=4: Race Williams is okay and I liked his name but I felt like I didn't know him very well (Perhaps because this is a series character and I came in late to the Race's arc.) But the three Gorgon brothers are nicely done (with a great back story), but The Flame and her back story alone is worth a fourth star..
PLACE=2: I received no sense of any specific place, the weakest element of this book.
Summary: My average rating is 3.2, or 3 stars here on goodreads. The author certainly does a nice job of pulling together a convoluted plot, and there are some very fascinating characters, but atmosphere itself can be a great character, and that was lacking here. I'd like to read another book by this author and hopefully I can find one in print. And I'd especially like to thank Otto Penzler (editor) and "Vintage Crime/Black Lizard" publishers for putting together the "Big Book of Pulps", otherwise I would probably have not found/had access to a novel by Daly. My "Readathon" would have been incomplete without "The Third Murderer." (And does the title have anything to do with the three brothers? It's worth the read to find out!)

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Third Murderer (1931)

This is a Race Williams thriller by Carroll John Daly. This novel was first published in Black Mask Magazine but I’m reviewing it separately because it’s a novel. Daly is considered by many the father of the hard boiled school of mystery writers. He wrote some awful prose, but this one wasn’t too bad. Race goes after three gangster brothers named Gorgon, two of whom are hoods and one of whom is an older super-villain. There is a woman named Florence, whose criminal nickname is The Flame. There’s a chapter about the supervillain brother, Michelle, titled “Just Another Wop.” There are references to Hawthorne’s book of mythology because of the mythological references to the gorgons. This moves right along and is not as horrifically horribly written as other Daly pieces I’ve read.

[Darren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the genre and respect must be given to one of the fathers of the hard boiled noir type of detective fiction. I just found this a little to wordy and too long. As though Daly was trying to make a novel out of a short story. My thanks and respect to this forefather but 2 stars.

[Jim Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - just skimmed through it and wasn't interested.

[The Poor Person's Book Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read the big sleep and the Maltese falcon, this was better!