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The Best That Ever Did It
The Juciest Racket In Town Needed Too Many Murders.
Two men are show and killed outside the Grand Cafe on Amsterdam Ave. There's no connection between 'em, but the widow of one hires Barney Harris, a 250-pound auto mechanic, to sniff out police corruption and find her husband's killer. First issued 1955.
Also published as 'Visa To Death.'
Two men are show and killed outside the Grand Cafe on Amsterdam Ave. There's no connection between 'em, but the widow of one hires Barney Harris, a 250-pound auto mechanic, to sniff out police corruption and find her husband's killer. First issued 1955.
Also published as 'Visa To Death.'
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
4 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Ed Lacy
103 books10 followersEd Lacy was the pseudonymn of Leonard (Len) S Zinberg, who was born in New York City on 25 August 1925. After his mother and father had divorced and his mother remarried, he spent his early years living in relative affluence in the outskirts of Harlem.
During the late 1920s, he attended the College of the City of New York and then, in the 1930s he travelled throughout the United States where he had a variety of odd jobs, including working as a butcher, to support himself. In the early 1940s, he returned to New York, where he married and resided for the rest of his life.
Back in New York, he was a freelance writer and some of his early published work emerged in literary journals, such as a short story titled 'A Leaner' in 'Story Magazine' in November 1936. He was also a member of the League of American Writers, on whose committee, 'Keep America Out of War Committee', he served in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
During World War II he was Private First Class Len Zinberg, serving with the Allies’ 1943 push into Fascist Italy. As PFC Zinberg he had a story titled 'Timing' in the men’s magazine, 'Sir!' in October 1942 and his early detective story 'Pay Telephone' appeared with James M. Cain in 'Popular Detective' in October 1943.
In addition, in the 25 October 1943 issue of 'The New Republic', he won a Soldiers' Prose competition and published a war sketch. His war sketches also appeared in 'Yank', whose motto was 'written by the men ... for men in the service'.
He was later promoted to Sergeant and as such he wrote the scathing satire 'Welcome Home' about a GI returning to his childhood home and a second 'Yank' article recorded the reception in Rome on VJ-Day where 'most people were merely smiling quietly.'
And it was probably the contributions he made to such as 'Yank' and 'The New Republic' that paved the way for his 18 New Yorker pieces, published between 1945 and 1947, which in turn were instrumental in promoting his professional writing career.
As a marketing ploy he adopted Steve April as a pseudonym and he was able to
sell more stories to markets such as 'Esquire' and 'Colliers'. As Steve April he also wrote text for comic strips such as Ranger Comics (1946) and Fight Comics (1951) and a novel, Exit 13 (1954).
The Ed Lacy pseudonymn came about when the original paperback (rather than historic reprints) boom hit America and this presented him with a more lucrative writing opportunity as he turned dedicatedly to detective fiction.
His first published crime and detective novel, 'The Woman Aroused', followed in 1951 and this began an output that totalled 28 novels as well as many short stories, his 'New York Times' obituary suggested 'many hundreds', until his early death in 1968. He also wrote on boxing, both in his novels and historically.
His early books often had lurid titles and he was known to remark, 'Yes, the title made me grit my teeth, too' and the often sexy cover art perhaps did not do these books the justice they deserved as professionally they were regarded as being well written and solidly plotted.
By the mid-1950s, however, he realised he had established a strong presence in the paperback original market so in 1955 he was able to sign with the more prestigious Harper to bring out his works in hardcover and 'The Best That Ever Did It' (1955) gave him his first solid recognition as the book went into a second printing.
Included in his novel output were three separate series of detective novels featuring Dave Wintino, Toussaint Moore and Lee Hayes. A white American himself, Lacy is credited with creating 'the first credible African-American PI' in American fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore. His first novel featuring Moore, 'Room to Swing' (1957) won the 1958 Edgar Award for Best Novel and this clearly marked the high point of his writing career.
His short stories continued to be reprinted in Ellery Queen's Magazine and in var
During the late 1920s, he attended the College of the City of New York and then, in the 1930s he travelled throughout the United States where he had a variety of odd jobs, including working as a butcher, to support himself. In the early 1940s, he returned to New York, where he married and resided for the rest of his life.
Back in New York, he was a freelance writer and some of his early published work emerged in literary journals, such as a short story titled 'A Leaner' in 'Story Magazine' in November 1936. He was also a member of the League of American Writers, on whose committee, 'Keep America Out of War Committee', he served in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
During World War II he was Private First Class Len Zinberg, serving with the Allies’ 1943 push into Fascist Italy. As PFC Zinberg he had a story titled 'Timing' in the men’s magazine, 'Sir!' in October 1942 and his early detective story 'Pay Telephone' appeared with James M. Cain in 'Popular Detective' in October 1943.
In addition, in the 25 October 1943 issue of 'The New Republic', he won a Soldiers' Prose competition and published a war sketch. His war sketches also appeared in 'Yank', whose motto was 'written by the men ... for men in the service'.
He was later promoted to Sergeant and as such he wrote the scathing satire 'Welcome Home' about a GI returning to his childhood home and a second 'Yank' article recorded the reception in Rome on VJ-Day where 'most people were merely smiling quietly.'
And it was probably the contributions he made to such as 'Yank' and 'The New Republic' that paved the way for his 18 New Yorker pieces, published between 1945 and 1947, which in turn were instrumental in promoting his professional writing career.
As a marketing ploy he adopted Steve April as a pseudonym and he was able to
sell more stories to markets such as 'Esquire' and 'Colliers'. As Steve April he also wrote text for comic strips such as Ranger Comics (1946) and Fight Comics (1951) and a novel, Exit 13 (1954).
The Ed Lacy pseudonymn came about when the original paperback (rather than historic reprints) boom hit America and this presented him with a more lucrative writing opportunity as he turned dedicatedly to detective fiction.
His first published crime and detective novel, 'The Woman Aroused', followed in 1951 and this began an output that totalled 28 novels as well as many short stories, his 'New York Times' obituary suggested 'many hundreds', until his early death in 1968. He also wrote on boxing, both in his novels and historically.
His early books often had lurid titles and he was known to remark, 'Yes, the title made me grit my teeth, too' and the often sexy cover art perhaps did not do these books the justice they deserved as professionally they were regarded as being well written and solidly plotted.
By the mid-1950s, however, he realised he had established a strong presence in the paperback original market so in 1955 he was able to sign with the more prestigious Harper to bring out his works in hardcover and 'The Best That Ever Did It' (1955) gave him his first solid recognition as the book went into a second printing.
Included in his novel output were three separate series of detective novels featuring Dave Wintino, Toussaint Moore and Lee Hayes. A white American himself, Lacy is credited with creating 'the first credible African-American PI' in American fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore. His first novel featuring Moore, 'Room to Swing' (1957) won the 1958 Edgar Award for Best Novel and this clearly marked the high point of his writing career.
His short stories continued to be reprinted in Ellery Queen's Magazine and in var
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 25, 2021
"The Best That Ever Did It" is a 1955 crime pulp where Lacy broke with tradition in offering a rather unusual private eye, Barney Harris. He's an auto mechanic by trade, but his wife, Vi, had worked insurance and got him some work skip tracing missing autos. So, he's got a PI license, but he works mostly in a garage. He's also not your usual wisecracking, hard drinking, womanizing, clubgoing eye. Harris is a widower and he's got a young daughter, Ruthie, who he's raising on his own and he's constantly looking for babysitters. Really not much of a private eye or so his brother-in-law thinks when he offers him a referral on a murder case. Easy money, the brother-in-law thinks, cause one of the two victims of a street shooting outside a bar is a cop whose widow thinks the force isn't moving quickly enough to catch the shooter.
Problem is, as Harris finds out, there's not much to go on as the shooting makes almost no sense from any angle. Lacy tosses in a few odd clues throughout, but the clues don't add up without a backstory taking us back years. It's an abrupt shift to hear the backstories and feels at first as if a completely different story is being told. Nevertheless, in the end, Lacy brilliantly plots this one out and the backstory is well worth delving into. One of the ways Lacy stands out from other crime fiction writers is that he crested complex characters and that becomes evident in these backstories.
Problem is, as Harris finds out, there's not much to go on as the shooting makes almost no sense from any angle. Lacy tosses in a few odd clues throughout, but the clues don't add up without a backstory taking us back years. It's an abrupt shift to hear the backstories and feels at first as if a completely different story is being told. Nevertheless, in the end, Lacy brilliantly plots this one out and the backstory is well worth delving into. One of the ways Lacy stands out from other crime fiction writers is that he crested complex characters and that becomes evident in these backstories.
February 7, 2017
I really don't like giving someone's hard work less than three stars, but this was a little difficult to read. The time and setting were never really clear to me, it seemed that Lacy wanted it to be a certain decade and had looked into a few things and imagined what the vocabulary of the day would sound like for each of his characters and their specific backgrounds, but it often felt like the author unintentionally confused slang and other vernacular from different time periods. The time and setting just really didn't seem well researched. But I am not a historian, and perhaps my confusion is due to a lack of knowledge on my part. Nevertheless the formatting of the book also made it a task to read at times. The infrequent switches between narrators, slowed the pace down for several chapters and then the last several chapters felt rushed. The structure of the final chapter was the most confusing and the writing device used here was a genre technique that could have been a nice touch but didn't fit well with the structure of the rest of the novel and thus fell flat here. The language and structure of the novel was just really distracting to me. I'm also not sure what the genre was supposed to be, but it couldn't be a thriller or a mystery since everything is explained to the reader early on and you just wait until the end to see how the protagonist discovers everything you've already been told.
All of that said, I did end up caring for these characters and wanting to know more about them, and I cared what happened to them - that counts for something at least. Lacy's work is a pleasant light read you can pick up whenever and enjoy at your leisure, at your own pace. Nothing exceptional or groundbreaking, but enjoyable anyway when you just want to pass the time.
All of that said, I did end up caring for these characters and wanting to know more about them, and I cared what happened to them - that counts for something at least. Lacy's work is a pleasant light read you can pick up whenever and enjoy at your leisure, at your own pace. Nothing exceptional or groundbreaking, but enjoyable anyway when you just want to pass the time.
July 20, 2020
I love Ed Lacy's style of writing. Too bad this story didn't grab me the way some of his others have.
February 22, 2010
Another pulp thriller from Ed Lacy. I enjoyed this one more than the last, perhaps because Lacy has a way of creating detectives that aren't quite the standard mold. Barney Harris is a widower raising his eight-year-old daughter, Ruth, struggling to make ends meet with a part-time detective agency and as a part-time mechanic. Barney finds himself with his first criminal case when a beautiful widow enters his office. Her husband, a police officer, was killed in a shoot-out in Harlem (a favorite locale of Lacy) and while the police are investigating his death, she believes he killed himself. It seems an unlikely scenario, but she's willing to pay. So Barney Harris investigates. Like other Lacy novels, the mystery is not thick or convoluted. This one takes a slightly different tack in departing from the usual first person narrative to give us an account from the POV of the criminals themselves. We don't really understand why they commit the double murder that opens the novel until late in the story. I found the reason for the murder to be a little thin; also, Betsy Turner's desire to prove her husband killed himself is a difficult-to-swallow reason for starting the investigative process. But there is chemistry between Harris and Turner which develops slowly and ends with a slight twist and a laugh. Harris himself, struggling as a single father and a budding romance, as well as his stumbling detective work, make the book worth reading.
As with Lead With Your Left, Lacy tosses in a line that made me double back and read it twice. This time, it's about doctors, and in this regard Lacy was not prescient. Barney is talking to his client, Mrs. Turner, who disliked her husband's profession as a cop. "Mr. Harris," she tells him, "doctors are necessary too, but suppose a doctor limited himself to handling cancer cases all day, day after day--in time he'd probably become infected himself. A cop, always working with criminals, I think he becomes infected too. After a time the cop and the criminal blend, the hunter and the hunted become one." It's funny to read about a time when all doctors were the same. An M.D. meant you healed patients, not that you only saw children or only saw geriatrics, or only worked on feet, or only on cancer, or only on intestinal diseases. Lacy may not have been able to predict the future of medical care, but he certainly could spin a decent pulp detective thriller.
As with Lead With Your Left, Lacy tosses in a line that made me double back and read it twice. This time, it's about doctors, and in this regard Lacy was not prescient. Barney is talking to his client, Mrs. Turner, who disliked her husband's profession as a cop. "Mr. Harris," she tells him, "doctors are necessary too, but suppose a doctor limited himself to handling cancer cases all day, day after day--in time he'd probably become infected himself. A cop, always working with criminals, I think he becomes infected too. After a time the cop and the criminal blend, the hunter and the hunted become one." It's funny to read about a time when all doctors were the same. An M.D. meant you healed patients, not that you only saw children or only saw geriatrics, or only worked on feet, or only on cancer, or only on intestinal diseases. Lacy may not have been able to predict the future of medical care, but he certainly could spin a decent pulp detective thriller.
February 21, 2008
Wow. Let's just summarize the plot. First three chapters:
Meet Barney, mechanic-cum-private detective. Wait. No, no, mechanic-cum-bad private detective. Ooops. Barney is a mechanic-cum-bad private detective-cum father of a precocious little girl. So, no, actually, mechanic...cum bad father of precocious little girl.
Remaining chapters:
Barney gets irritating client, the mystery is explained to the reader in counterpoint, Barney manages to not die or get fired until the culprits are arrested. Barely.
On the plus side, sarcastiquotes were liberally used.
Meet Barney, mechanic-cum-private detective. Wait. No, no, mechanic-cum-bad private detective. Ooops. Barney is a mechanic-cum-bad private detective-cum father of a precocious little girl. So, no, actually, mechanic...cum bad father of precocious little girl.
Remaining chapters:
Barney gets irritating client, the mystery is explained to the reader in counterpoint, Barney manages to not die or get fired until the culprits are arrested. Barely.
On the plus side, sarcastiquotes were liberally used.
May 26, 2012
I was delighted to find this book after going through all of Raymond Chandler's work and searching for similar writers. Ed lacy doesn't have the prose-like style of Chandler but his noir is good and solid. I wish the book was longer. He crammed a lot into the story and even developed two characters from youth to adulthood through two countries. Great era descriptions for those who like time travel in their reading like I do.
A great price for the Kindle edition, too!
A great price for the Kindle edition, too!
Want to Read
March 4, 2019Synopsis: two men are killed outside the Grand Cafe on Amsterdam Ave. The widow of one hires Barney Harris to find her husband's killer.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews