The Killer Is Mine introduces tough guy Private Investigator Ed Rivers, hunting a mad killer among the Florida Rich. The case is tight, and the murder quite raw for 1959. Readers who enjoy detection outside the scope of the police will find a lot to like from Talmage Powell.
"She was the kind who'd make the whole trip for a man, right to Hell's front door. Even a guy in his spot."
Laura Tulman was denied twice by Ed Rivers, her husband Wally already convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and killing of young Ruthie Collins, his neighbour's daughter. It was a heinous crime he was too blackout drunk to remember, the bloody knife found in his hand, her body on his patio. The incriminating evidence from the bartender at the yacht club stated he left earlier than he said, leaving no doubt. When Laura arrives at Ed's door with a slim chance, and he feels the need to take it. Giles the bartender, prosecution head witness, has disappeared. The newspapers have proclaimed Wally guilty. It's up to Ed to remove the stain of public shame off his back, and release him from the death house.
Ed is driven and no nonsense, a New Jersey policeman before he began working for Nationwide Detection Agency. They have an office but he runs cases out of his dingy walk-up bedsit in the Latin Quarter, complete with cold beer and block of ice in a pan. It's a hot day, even for Tampa. Hairy and sweaty he's used to people calling him ugly, and strong enough to not back down after several attacks warning him off the case, even by the police. His friendship with Lieutenant Julius Patrick cuts no ice, as Patrick is running for City Hall - in fact supported by Ruthie's Grandmother Wherry, head of the most respected family in town, pulling the strings of politics. Despite their exterior of class and a home with private dock, Ruthie's father is an alcoholic hothead, her mother mentally unstable and sent to a hospital after her murder.
Into the scene comes Evie Grove, a good looking blonde with a honey mist of hair and fresh lipstick. She worked the yacht club with Giles, helping lonely businessmen find company, with perhaps a little blackmail on the side. She knows where Giles the vanishing witness is - for a couple thousand.
The threads of deflection, blackmail, and detection tighten as Ed and Laura evade police and reveal a scenario that is lurid and shocking (even today), a sad and hopeless finale.
The Killer Is Mine has everything you are looking for in a classic private eye novel. The setting is hot and humid, the liars well versed, and so convincing they may even believe it themselves. The trick with detection novels is the tropes they follow, and how to make the framework new. Powell has achieved this delivering an intriguing investigator I want to follow. One of my favourite detective novels in a while. Recommended.
Talmage Powell wrote hundreds of stories (under about eight pseudonyms) for detective magazines such as Black Mask, Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock before turning to novels with The Smasher in 1959. The same character was renamed Ed Rivers for a series of five novels including: The Killer Is Mine, The Girl's Number Doesn't Answer, Start Screaming Murder, With A Madman Behind Me, and Corpus Delectable.
1959 / Paperback / 150 pages
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