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Detour
Danny Ross, kid hitch-hiker trapped by circumstantial evidence … Now he was a fugitive, alone and friendless …
His one ally lay on the seat of the stolen car, the gun he’s ripped from the sheriff’s holster when he escaped. The sight of it brought sweat to his forehead, made him want to toss it out the window. But he could not …
Now it was all he had, and he was going to need it …
152 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
2 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Helen Nielsen
85 books5 followersHelen Nielsen was author of mysteries and television scripts for such television dramas as "Perry Mason" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".
She studied journalism, art and aeronautical drafting at various schools, including the Chicago Art Institute. Before her writing career, she worked as a draftsman during World War II and contributed to the designs of B-36 and P-80 aircraft. Her stories were often set in Laguna Beach and Oceanside, California where she lived for 60 years.
Some of her novels were reprinted by Black Lizard, including "Detour" and "Sing Me a Murder".
She studied journalism, art and aeronautical drafting at various schools, including the Chicago Art Institute. Before her writing career, she worked as a draftsman during World War II and contributed to the designs of B-36 and P-80 aircraft. Her stories were often set in Laguna Beach and Oceanside, California where she lived for 60 years.
Some of her novels were reprinted by Black Lizard, including "Detour" and "Sing Me a Murder".
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 28, 2020
One of the great things that Prologue Books has done is introduce a new generation of readers to forgotten writers from the great age of the pulps. There were few women writers of pulps and mysteries during that age and fewer still that did not write under pen names. Helen Nielsen wrote about a dozen novels from the 1940's through to the 1970's, including The Brink of Murder, Dead on the Level, and Sing Me A Murder. She is, however, most well known for being a screenwriter for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Perry Mason. Her pulp writings often featured either a Mike Shelly, a hardboiled detective, or a female detective. Detour to Death features neither of these. It is nevertheless an excellent book.
The basic plot for Detour to Death is familiar to most pulp readers. A man, through no fault of his own, becomes the chief suspect in a murder and, while he is on the run from the law, other bodies fall in his path and he is the chief suspect in those murders as well. He stands friendless, alone, unable to prove his innocence until the end of the story. Most of the time this plot is found in New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia (if it is a David Goodis story). What is wonderful and unique about Detour to Death is that the familiar plot is not played out in familiar territory. The entire story takes place in a small, desolate town in the west and the murder at the center of the story is of the town's popular doctor, a man everyone loved, and the entire town is arrayed against the protagonist. Who is the protagonist of this story? Danny Ross, a young kid of nearly eighteen, who had set out from Chicago and was headed down to Mexico to start life over. His seventeen-year-old jalopy had given out and, after pushing it to the side of the road, he thumbed a ride with the doctor. "Danny was barely eighteen. Eighteen and skinny in a pair of tight Levi's and an old leather jacket, with his sun-bleached hair cut a quick two inches from his scalp, and his tanned face marked with anger and pride. Danny wasn't running away from life; he was running toward it." This is a well-written story that surprisingly, despite its bleak and desolate location, draws the reader in quickly to a mystery that gets ever deeper. It is a terrific read and highly recommended.
The basic plot for Detour to Death is familiar to most pulp readers. A man, through no fault of his own, becomes the chief suspect in a murder and, while he is on the run from the law, other bodies fall in his path and he is the chief suspect in those murders as well. He stands friendless, alone, unable to prove his innocence until the end of the story. Most of the time this plot is found in New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia (if it is a David Goodis story). What is wonderful and unique about Detour to Death is that the familiar plot is not played out in familiar territory. The entire story takes place in a small, desolate town in the west and the murder at the center of the story is of the town's popular doctor, a man everyone loved, and the entire town is arrayed against the protagonist. Who is the protagonist of this story? Danny Ross, a young kid of nearly eighteen, who had set out from Chicago and was headed down to Mexico to start life over. His seventeen-year-old jalopy had given out and, after pushing it to the side of the road, he thumbed a ride with the doctor. "Danny was barely eighteen. Eighteen and skinny in a pair of tight Levi's and an old leather jacket, with his sun-bleached hair cut a quick two inches from his scalp, and his tanned face marked with anger and pride. Danny wasn't running away from life; he was running toward it." This is a well-written story that surprisingly, despite its bleak and desolate location, draws the reader in quickly to a mystery that gets ever deeper. It is a terrific read and highly recommended.
June 3, 2023
from 1953
According to Paperback Confidential, this is also known as just Detour and also Detour to Danger. As well as Detour to Death.
A Man-on-the-Run plot, beginning with a hitchhiker on the road. Who gets picked up by a doctor, entangled in murder, accused of it, has to prove his own innocence. He runs away, goes back, a lot happens. It's quite a full story.
Yet I didn't even get impatient with the length until the very end.
According to Paperback Confidential, this is also known as just Detour and also Detour to Danger. As well as Detour to Death.
A Man-on-the-Run plot, beginning with a hitchhiker on the road. Who gets picked up by a doctor, entangled in murder, accused of it, has to prove his own innocence. He runs away, goes back, a lot happens. It's quite a full story.
Yet I didn't even get impatient with the length until the very end.
July 17, 2022
A young hitch-hiker, Danny Ross, finds himself mixed up in a crime.
Difficult to mark this one: it was a 4 for the first third, a 3 for the second third, dropping to a 2 for the last third – so we’ll average it out to 3.
I picked this up after reading Helen Nelsen’s three top notch short stories compiled in the two ‘Best of Manhunter’ collections. A classy writer I wanted to read more of. Unfortunately, after a great start - which was tight and building to something promising, it began to feel more and more like a very stretched out short story. Stretched to the point – in the last third – when it seemed to me that a series of names (with little character) were just standing around talking, while precious little was actually happening.
I’m not letting this put me off; the opening of this novel is pretty good, and her three stories in the two Manhunter collections are among the best of a great bunch.
Difficult to mark this one: it was a 4 for the first third, a 3 for the second third, dropping to a 2 for the last third – so we’ll average it out to 3.
I picked this up after reading Helen Nelsen’s three top notch short stories compiled in the two ‘Best of Manhunter’ collections. A classy writer I wanted to read more of. Unfortunately, after a great start - which was tight and building to something promising, it began to feel more and more like a very stretched out short story. Stretched to the point – in the last third – when it seemed to me that a series of names (with little character) were just standing around talking, while precious little was actually happening.
I’m not letting this put me off; the opening of this novel is pretty good, and her three stories in the two Manhunter collections are among the best of a great bunch.
February 6, 2017
The novel I read directly before this one was Charles Williams's
Nothing in Her Way
, and when I got to the end of it I thought, "Golly. They don't make yer classic hardboiled too much better than that." Imagine my delight, then, dear reader, on immediately afterwards encountering this novel, which is at the very least every bit as good.
Eighteen-year-old Danny Ross is heading south for Mexico, hoping to lose himself there, when his jalopy breaks down. Reckoning his sole course of action is to make for the border on foot, he pushes the dead car into a ditch and starts walking. But he's in luck! A car stops and its driver, elderly Doc Gaynor, offers Danny a lift as far as the small, dying town of Cooperton. Danny leaps at the chance, because Cooperton is halfway from here to the border . . . but soon he's wishing he hadn't, because when they stop at a roadhouse Doc Gaynor is murdered and Danny finds that he's Suspect #1 in the eyes of Cooperton's brutal Sheriff Virgil Keep, not to mention the local population, who're by no means bright and who reckon the best place for Danny would be dangling from a tree . . .
In addition to being a good hardboiled tale, and with so many examples of quite beautiful writing that I soon stopped trying to keep count of them, this offers a genuine mystery populated by vivid characters. In fact, I worked out the mystery component of it all a little while before Danny and his few allies did, but it was genuinely only a little while and until that moment I'd been treated to plenty of thoroughly exhilarating bamboozlements. Even without those, this would have been a splendidly engaging novel, because I became completely involved in Danny's plight as someone whose only real crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, yet who might very easily suffer a brutal death solely because of that.
Objections? (a) As I say, I solved the mystery a little before our heroes did. (b) Also, the very end of the book offers us a somewhat trite, return-to-the-status-quo finale that I could have done without. (c) In a couple of instances I wasn't sure if the author was savagely satirizing the vomitworthy racism of the 1950s American South or just accepting it.
But it was only after I'd put the book down that I thought of any of these things.
Eighteen-year-old Danny Ross is heading south for Mexico, hoping to lose himself there, when his jalopy breaks down. Reckoning his sole course of action is to make for the border on foot, he pushes the dead car into a ditch and starts walking. But he's in luck! A car stops and its driver, elderly Doc Gaynor, offers Danny a lift as far as the small, dying town of Cooperton. Danny leaps at the chance, because Cooperton is halfway from here to the border . . . but soon he's wishing he hadn't, because when they stop at a roadhouse Doc Gaynor is murdered and Danny finds that he's Suspect #1 in the eyes of Cooperton's brutal Sheriff Virgil Keep, not to mention the local population, who're by no means bright and who reckon the best place for Danny would be dangling from a tree . . .
In addition to being a good hardboiled tale, and with so many examples of quite beautiful writing that I soon stopped trying to keep count of them, this offers a genuine mystery populated by vivid characters. In fact, I worked out the mystery component of it all a little while before Danny and his few allies did, but it was genuinely only a little while and until that moment I'd been treated to plenty of thoroughly exhilarating bamboozlements. Even without those, this would have been a splendidly engaging novel, because I became completely involved in Danny's plight as someone whose only real crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, yet who might very easily suffer a brutal death solely because of that.
Objections? (a) As I say, I solved the mystery a little before our heroes did. (b) Also, the very end of the book offers us a somewhat trite, return-to-the-status-quo finale that I could have done without. (c) In a couple of instances I wasn't sure if the author was savagely satirizing the vomitworthy racism of the 1950s American South or just accepting it.
But it was only after I'd put the book down that I thought of any of these things.
March 24, 2013
Much better than average.
April 14, 2018
Enjoyable locked-room mystery, except the room is the town of Cooperton. Great cast of characters.
August 30, 2023
Tenía bastante curiosidad por esta novela. Aparece referenciada en algunas webs o blogs como una estimable obra, así como una de las mejores, si no la mejor, de su autora, Helen Nielsen (1918-2002), con cierta popularidad gracias a algunas piezas tales como Obit Delayed (1952, La muñeca mexicana / Asesinato postergado), The Woman on the Roof (1954, La mujer de los altos) o Gold Coast Nocturne (1951 aka Dead on the Level (Asesinato por poder / Phyllis la del perfume desconcertante), ésta última accedida al cine por Terence Fisher con el mismo título que recibió en su distribución literaria en Reino Unido: Murder by Proxy.
Detour (1953) -originariamente Detour To Death, o "El acusado acusa" en su ingeniosa traducción en el mercado hispano de hace más de 60 años; su título más bien sería, Desvío o Desvío a la muerte- nos habla de las peripecias de un joven de 18 años, Danny Ross, de quién nada sabemos de su pasado y por lo que parece inicia una aventura sobre ruedas sin rumbo fijo y buscando-a-saber-qué, a quien el destino va a jugarla una mala pasada.
Tras tener que abandonar su ya fenecido y viejo vehículo, hace autoestop por calurosos parajes de las carreteras del medio-oeste americano y es recogido por un médico, ya otoñal y popular y entre los paisanos de su pueblo, para poco después recalar junto a Danny en el bar del pueblo para repostar, apareciendo poco después asesinado, junto a su coche y con la cartera de dinero robada. Las sospechas no tardan en recaer en el hasta ahora desconocido joven, quien se disponía a coger otro autobús, siendo apresado por el Sheriff y llevado al calabozo del pueblo con el clamor de indignación popular sonando de fondo. Nielsen despliega una intrincada historia con varios personajes interrelacionados en los que pronto saldrán a la palestra algunas rencillas de origen pretérito, y, podemos decir, que todo esto daba para un buen punto de partida. La clásica historia de un hombre que se ve injustamente acusado de un crimen, y que huído debe probar su inocencia mientras el círculo se va estrechando en torno a él al compás de otra serie de asesinatos (aparte de la del médico) que van apareciendo, y en cuya inocencia apenas creerán uno o dos personajes. Es una historia en constante movimiento, que acontece en un par o tres de días y en las que la “cierta” intriga cara al lector es saber quién de toda la galería de personajes está detrás de todo eso. Pero este es un globo que desinfla rápido, por más que haya cierta fluidez narrativa. No sé si ha sido por la prosa de Nielsen, o por la traducción (apuntaría más bien, tras cotejar el inglés original, a lo primero, aunque la segunda tampoco es un dechado de ingenio) pero no me ha seducido nada la historia. Trazado psicológico pobre, falta total de sutilidad, tosca y rudimentaria exposición de psique de personajes, prota (Danny) incluido. Por supuesto ya ni me atrevo a invocar a Dorothy Hughes o Patricia Highsmith (por no salir del ámbito femenino) por no ofenderlas…En fin que digamos que esto podría ser un fallo o escollo relativo cara al conjunto global de la historia, si no fuera porque ésta, además y en su resolución final, se revela bastante pobre desde una óptica de misterio, con situaciones muy esquemáticas, mal trabajadas, mal definidas. No tengo nada en contra de una novela que se aparta de ciertas convenciones del noir más puro (en cada cual de sus subgéneros) para transitar sendas más afines a la novela de misterio tipo Agatha Christie, pero este es un libro que fracasa al no encontrar su tono. Poco importa que hayan varios personajes en el pueblo, borrachos, médicos, barman, o incluso algunos jóvenes cuyo noviazgo se viera cercenado por circunstancias acaecidas en el pretérito…todo me ha parecido pobre y sobre todo tosco y mal explicado. Creo Helenita, que te voy a dejar una larga temporada en cuarentena…
Detour (1953) -originariamente Detour To Death, o "El acusado acusa" en su ingeniosa traducción en el mercado hispano de hace más de 60 años; su título más bien sería, Desvío o Desvío a la muerte- nos habla de las peripecias de un joven de 18 años, Danny Ross, de quién nada sabemos de su pasado y por lo que parece inicia una aventura sobre ruedas sin rumbo fijo y buscando-a-saber-qué, a quien el destino va a jugarla una mala pasada.
Tras tener que abandonar su ya fenecido y viejo vehículo, hace autoestop por calurosos parajes de las carreteras del medio-oeste americano y es recogido por un médico, ya otoñal y popular y entre los paisanos de su pueblo, para poco después recalar junto a Danny en el bar del pueblo para repostar, apareciendo poco después asesinado, junto a su coche y con la cartera de dinero robada. Las sospechas no tardan en recaer en el hasta ahora desconocido joven, quien se disponía a coger otro autobús, siendo apresado por el Sheriff y llevado al calabozo del pueblo con el clamor de indignación popular sonando de fondo. Nielsen despliega una intrincada historia con varios personajes interrelacionados en los que pronto saldrán a la palestra algunas rencillas de origen pretérito, y, podemos decir, que todo esto daba para un buen punto de partida. La clásica historia de un hombre que se ve injustamente acusado de un crimen, y que huído debe probar su inocencia mientras el círculo se va estrechando en torno a él al compás de otra serie de asesinatos (aparte de la del médico) que van apareciendo, y en cuya inocencia apenas creerán uno o dos personajes. Es una historia en constante movimiento, que acontece en un par o tres de días y en las que la “cierta” intriga cara al lector es saber quién de toda la galería de personajes está detrás de todo eso. Pero este es un globo que desinfla rápido, por más que haya cierta fluidez narrativa. No sé si ha sido por la prosa de Nielsen, o por la traducción (apuntaría más bien, tras cotejar el inglés original, a lo primero, aunque la segunda tampoco es un dechado de ingenio) pero no me ha seducido nada la historia. Trazado psicológico pobre, falta total de sutilidad, tosca y rudimentaria exposición de psique de personajes, prota (Danny) incluido. Por supuesto ya ni me atrevo a invocar a Dorothy Hughes o Patricia Highsmith (por no salir del ámbito femenino) por no ofenderlas…En fin que digamos que esto podría ser un fallo o escollo relativo cara al conjunto global de la historia, si no fuera porque ésta, además y en su resolución final, se revela bastante pobre desde una óptica de misterio, con situaciones muy esquemáticas, mal trabajadas, mal definidas. No tengo nada en contra de una novela que se aparta de ciertas convenciones del noir más puro (en cada cual de sus subgéneros) para transitar sendas más afines a la novela de misterio tipo Agatha Christie, pero este es un libro que fracasa al no encontrar su tono. Poco importa que hayan varios personajes en el pueblo, borrachos, médicos, barman, o incluso algunos jóvenes cuyo noviazgo se viera cercenado por circunstancias acaecidas en el pretérito…todo me ha parecido pobre y sobre todo tosco y mal explicado. Creo Helenita, que te voy a dejar una larga temporada en cuarentena…
July 7, 2023
A wonderful read - streamlined to be not only a terrific noir trek, but it’s also a cracking good whodunit.
I preferred this over Sing Me A Murder, which I will always feel a little guilty about sticking only 3 stars on. Maybe it’s the setting here - desert murder is coarse and gets into everything. At least this time it does; this book has quite a high body count for so compact an effort. I had no idea our main character, desperate to clear himself of an initial slaying out of the blue (this also manages to get him retroactively framed for the major death of the backstory that starts trickling in), does nothing but get caught around the next body. It doesn’t help that Danny Ross has come to arid Cooperton on the run from something, and doesn’t like talking to Sheriff Virgil Keep about his past or where he is from, with a strong urge to make it to Mexico.
The Sheriff is one of a great cast of supporting characters - some of whom, as they scream that the young, furtive stranger in their midst has to be the killer of a wonderful fellow citizen, slowly emerge as folks with their own dark secrets. This functions as a tantalizing red herring airing; Nielsen is adept at teasing out little morsels of info about what is a fascinating suspect pool. Meanwhile, Danny turns out to be very good at daring escapes, but also, alas, at not getting far. Or regretfully standing over another fresh(-ish) corpse.
The fairly ingenious plot does feature the occasional far-fetched link in the chain of shocking twists, but if I can take, and delight in, this kind of thing in John Dickson Carr (“you are bloomin’ lucky this outrageous string of nonsense scenarios make such a wonderfully entertaining puzzle!”) I’m more than okay with it here - and Detour, as wild as the plot gets, never goes full gonzo, like The Mad Hatter Mystery. Slightly hard to buy into, or incredibly hard to buy into, fiction is fun when it’s stranger than real life anyway. “Do things really happen that way?” becomes such a useless question; it’s a whodunit, so of course many characters are packing strange, suspicious secrets as they make that one choice that just makes things more complicated…and it’s noir, so our protagonist, in trying to get out of trouble, runs right into that which only makes things worse.
I preferred this over Sing Me A Murder, which I will always feel a little guilty about sticking only 3 stars on. Maybe it’s the setting here - desert murder is coarse and gets into everything. At least this time it does; this book has quite a high body count for so compact an effort. I had no idea our main character, desperate to clear himself of an initial slaying out of the blue (this also manages to get him retroactively framed for the major death of the backstory that starts trickling in), does nothing but get caught around the next body. It doesn’t help that Danny Ross has come to arid Cooperton on the run from something, and doesn’t like talking to Sheriff Virgil Keep about his past or where he is from, with a strong urge to make it to Mexico.
The Sheriff is one of a great cast of supporting characters - some of whom, as they scream that the young, furtive stranger in their midst has to be the killer of a wonderful fellow citizen, slowly emerge as folks with their own dark secrets. This functions as a tantalizing red herring airing; Nielsen is adept at teasing out little morsels of info about what is a fascinating suspect pool. Meanwhile, Danny turns out to be very good at daring escapes, but also, alas, at not getting far. Or regretfully standing over another fresh(-ish) corpse.
The fairly ingenious plot does feature the occasional far-fetched link in the chain of shocking twists, but if I can take, and delight in, this kind of thing in John Dickson Carr (“you are bloomin’ lucky this outrageous string of nonsense scenarios make such a wonderfully entertaining puzzle!”) I’m more than okay with it here - and Detour, as wild as the plot gets, never goes full gonzo, like The Mad Hatter Mystery. Slightly hard to buy into, or incredibly hard to buy into, fiction is fun when it’s stranger than real life anyway. “Do things really happen that way?” becomes such a useless question; it’s a whodunit, so of course many characters are packing strange, suspicious secrets as they make that one choice that just makes things more complicated…and it’s noir, so our protagonist, in trying to get out of trouble, runs right into that which only makes things worse.
July 31, 2024
I found this story hard to follow. It was slow moving and the plot inched along, losing my attention and its momentum. The characters were thinly drawn stereotypes and all sounded alike. Ugh
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