Shoot the Works

Mike Shayne #29

by Brett Halliday

Although few men realized it, Lola wasn't actually beautiful. What she had was far more potent than mere beauty - an aura of pure unadulterated sex, so distinct it took your breath away.
Mike could easily understand how Jim Wallace, a faithful husband for twenty-five years and a man of irreproachable character, could suddenly go off the deep end over a babe like Lola.
Just looking at Lola's dead body, Mike could understand...

Genres: Mystery

160 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

AKA David Dresser
Excerpt from Wikipedia:

Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names

Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.

Reviews

[Patrick Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent Mike Shayne mystery first published in 1957. Imagine my shock when I got to end of this book, which was a dogeared first printing I bought at a book show for $4, and discovered the last page was torn out! Thankfully the criminal had been revealed at that point and was only disclosing what secretary Lucy Hamilton had been up to.

Mike is spending the evening with Lucy when the phone rings. She picks up and gets a frantic call from her friend to say she had come home early from a trip and discovered her husband dead. Lucy convinces Mike to check it out, he does so reluctantly, and finds the man with a shot to the head in his bedroom, a suitcase packed for a trip, and tickets for two to go to South America. He tells the wife to call the police, since she'll be the prime suspect for murder, though he does take the plane tickets after some pleading from Lucy. Mike is going to investigate what this man was up to, as well as the actions of those he knew.

No major criminals in this story, instead it's white-collar crime and infidelity as the dead man's partner's reveal they're missing one million dollars. Are the robbery and the murder connected? And was the dead man cheating on his wife? Some great moments, great lines, and tons of fun, though it's fairly obviously who the killer is, though the reasons for it were unknown from me until the finale.

A fun read for fans of pulp mysteries.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are no hoodlums, no gambling halls,no gun battles, and no police chases in this Mike Shayne mystery. Nevertheless, it is a solid pulp mystery read that centers on the mysterious death of an acquaintance of Secretary Lucy Hamilton's. The murdered man's wife has the damnedest alibi. There's evidence pointing to the murdered man being about to flee the country and a briefcase full of money is missing. This one is all about deductive reasoning, about bored drunken housewives throwing themselves at Shayne , and a vivacious inebriated woman who asks no questions about whoever shows up at her door.

[Hellblau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is another well written mystery by Davis Dresser. These last few novels that Dresser wrote under the Halliday name (1954s She Woke to Darkness to 1958 Murder and the Wanton Bride) seem to be some of the better books in the series. He makes a serious attempt to raise his game and leave the series on a high note. It’s a long series though with plenty of potential for interesting finds.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shoot the Works, Brett Halliday, Dell Books, 1957


Miami detective Mike Shayne is spending a quiet night with Lucy, his secretary, in her apartment, when she gets a frantic phone call. Myra Wallace, a good friend of Lucy's, returned home earlier than usual from a trip. She found her husband, Jim, dead on the floor, with a bullet between the eyes. She begs Lucy to come over.

It looks like Jim was packing for a trip (just before his wife was coming home?). A pair of one-way plane tickets to Rio would lead the average person to think that Jim was planning to run away with someone other than his wife. Myra, and Lucy, begs Mike to look into what's going on without involving the police. The police have to get involved, but Mike manages to stay one or two steps ahead.

Wallace was a partner in a local brokerage firm. Of the other two partners, Tomppkins is a bachelor with an eye for the ladies, who thinks of Shayne as some sort of barbarian, while Martin is the senior partner. In his investigation, Shayne meets up with a couple of women of, shall we say, questionable morals, one of whom, Lola, was in a relationship with Tompkins. A witness reports seeing Wallace in a local bar with Lola a few days previously. The obvious implication is that Lola was going to use the other plane ticket to Rio. Actually, Wallace was offering her money to stay out of Tompkins' life, once and for all. A few hours later, Lola is dead. Suspicion falls on Tompkins, maybe because Wallace was supposedly "interested" in Lola.

I don't read a lot of mysteries, but this one was pretty good. The reader can easily see this as a black and white noir fil, starring someone like Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum. It's worth reading.

[Angela Maher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little vintage American murder mystery from the 50s. Some of the slang and attitudes may be a little out-dated, as to be expected, but it still holds it's own as a great read, and a good mystery.

[Aries Van java]

i wanna read this book

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never actually read a detective novel before. Most of what I know of the genre comes from Star Trek: TNG, Calvin & Hobbes, and Problem Sleuth. I read this one because it was one of Daniel O'Brien's recommendations.

This was a really quick read and I can definitely see how books from this series keep getting made into movies as the plot is pretty sound and can be updated fairly easily. It's definitely of its time but isn't as problematic as it could be to a modern audience