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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Human Encyclopedia,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: BRASS KNUCKLES - The Oliver Quade Human Encyclopedia Stories: Ask Me Another; Dog Show Murder; Funny Man; Oliver Quade at the Races; Forced Landing; Death Sits Down; Words and Music; State Fair Murder; Rain the Killer; Death at the Main (Hardcover)
I've been a fan of Frank Gruber's books for years now. He wrote some fine westerns and the Johnny Fletcher mystery novels of the late thirties/forties seemed to be the child of these stories.
Oliver Quade bills himself as The Human Encyclopedia, having read a twenty-five volume set cover to cover four times, as well as the latest books of the the type. Along with his partner, Charlie Boston, he hawks one of them, a single volume condensed version. He first gathers a crowd with his full voice, then proceeds to challenge the audience for a period to ask him questions on any subject, he's an expert on everything he says, that he can't answer. After a bit, he pulls out his two thousand page single volume and amwazes them with the paring down of price. "Not $25, not $20, Not $10, but a mere $2.95." His partner Charlie is working the crowd while he's doing this. He also likes to solve murders, much to Charlie's consternation, and they seem to turn up surprisingly often Ten stories in this book that appeared in BLACK MASK during the Thirties. For me, the extra prize is the forward, a longish piece called THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE PULP STORY, a tale of his experiences writing for the pulps and the authors of the period he knew and friended. It was precursor to the later, longer book, THE PULP JUNGLE, that more fully covered the period. Good stuff here.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Fun,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: BRASS KNUCKLES - The Oliver Quade Human Encyclopedia Stories: Ask Me Another; Dog Show Murder; Funny Man; Oliver Quade at the Races; Forced Landing; Death Sits Down; Words and Music; State Fair Murder; Rain the Killer; Death at the Main (Hardcover)
Oliver Quade, the Human Encyclopedia and detective hero of this collection of stories from the 30's and 40's, is a memorable character and comic mystery invention. He appeared mostly in Black Mask Magazine with the screw ball mystery elan of a Bob Hope or Red Skelton at their 1940's best. Unique, charming, and innocent fun with both classic great detective puxxles, and light hearted, hard boiled trappings.
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