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Pierre Chambrun Mystery #9
Walking Dead Man
NY 1973 1st Dodd Mead. 8vo., hardcover. Good in VG DJ.
- GenresMystery
188 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
5 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Pentecost
243 books20 followersHugh Pentecost was a penname of mystery author Judson Philips. Born in Massachusetts, Philips came of age during the golden age of pulp magazines, and spent the 1930s writing suspense fiction and sports stories for a number of famous pulps. His first book was Hold 'Em Girls! The Intelligent Women's Guide to Men and Football (1936). In 1939, his crime story Cancelled in Red won the Red Badge prize, launching his career as a novelist. Philips went on to write nearly one hundred books over the next five decades.
His best-known characters were Pierre Chambrun, a sleuthing hotel manager who first appeared in The Cannibal Who Overate (1962), and the one-legged investigative reporter Peter Styles, introduced in Laughter Trap (1964). Although he spent his last years with failing vision and poor health, Philips continued writing daily. His final novel was the posthumously published Pattern for Terror (1989).
His best-known characters were Pierre Chambrun, a sleuthing hotel manager who first appeared in The Cannibal Who Overate (1962), and the one-legged investigative reporter Peter Styles, introduced in Laughter Trap (1964). Although he spent his last years with failing vision and poor health, Philips continued writing daily. His final novel was the posthumously published Pattern for Terror (1989).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 24, 2022
I enjoy the Chabrun mysteries more at 74 than in my young adult stage.
March 19, 2025
Another somewhat dated but good mystery (although the twist was a little bit predictable). The ending was very abrupt but did cover everything.
July 21, 2014
Pierre Chambrun manages the massive, opulent and very busy Hotel Beaumont in New York City. It is a city unto itself in some ways...it has bars, nightclubs, restaurants, shops, spas...all managed under Chambrun's detail-oriented, hyper-efficient gaze. Chambrun's a man with a past, though, and it catches up to him in this fast-paced murder mystery.
An old colleague of Chambrun - and also the owner of the Hotel Beaumont - arrives to stay. He fears for his life, and with good reason, as people in his inner circle soon meet with untimely - and violent - ends. It is up to Chambrun to find the killer, all the while keeping the chaos behind the scenes from spilling over into the daily operation of his beloved hotel.
This is not the first book in the series, and probably not the best to meet the characters. It is not told from Pierre Chambrun's point of view, but from that of the Hotel Beaumont's public relations man, Mark Haskell. Haskell is quite likeable, but this method of storytelling does not provide enough insight into the main character of the series, Chambrun. I have a few more books in the series, and hope Chambrun will come off as less than a mystery man in one of those.
The mystery in this book is not difficult to solve (I did early on), and there does seem to be a bit of "off stage" activity that isn't presented to the reader before the story's end. That denouement is rather abrupt for my taste (and I wonder if it isn't out of character for Chambrun given what the preceding pages establish about him), but all loose ends are tied up by it.
The real appeal of this book for me is the Hotel Beaumont. It sounds luxurious, and the perfect setting for mystery and mayhem. I will certainly return to it as I rather enjoyed this first visit.
An old colleague of Chambrun - and also the owner of the Hotel Beaumont - arrives to stay. He fears for his life, and with good reason, as people in his inner circle soon meet with untimely - and violent - ends. It is up to Chambrun to find the killer, all the while keeping the chaos behind the scenes from spilling over into the daily operation of his beloved hotel.
This is not the first book in the series, and probably not the best to meet the characters. It is not told from Pierre Chambrun's point of view, but from that of the Hotel Beaumont's public relations man, Mark Haskell. Haskell is quite likeable, but this method of storytelling does not provide enough insight into the main character of the series, Chambrun. I have a few more books in the series, and hope Chambrun will come off as less than a mystery man in one of those.
The mystery in this book is not difficult to solve (I did early on), and there does seem to be a bit of "off stage" activity that isn't presented to the reader before the story's end. That denouement is rather abrupt for my taste (and I wonder if it isn't out of character for Chambrun given what the preceding pages establish about him), but all loose ends are tied up by it.
The real appeal of this book for me is the Hotel Beaumont. It sounds luxurious, and the perfect setting for mystery and mayhem. I will certainly return to it as I rather enjoyed this first visit.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews