Customer Reviews

Doan & Carstairs Mysteries, Book Two: The Mouse in the Mountain (The delightful mystery classic!)

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This novella was written in 1943 by Norbert Davis as a sequel to the short story HOLOCAUST HOUSE, which introduced the characters Doan (a detective) and Carstairs (his sidekick Great Dane).

There are currently four Doan and Carstairs stories available in Kindle format. It was published in 1943, and fully develops the partnership of Doan and Carstairs, the Great Dane as large as a Shetland pony, who only made a brief cameo appearance in the short story. It is a wonderful example of early pulp fiction. Unfortunately, Norbert Davis, the author of the series, is not as well known as other pulp fiction writers of the 1940's for three reasons. First, his stories encompassed a wide array of genres, so he never built a reputation as a practitioner of a specific type (e.g. detective, SF, etc.) . Second, his detective stories included a strain of humor which was highly unusual for the period, a hard boiled detective story was not supposed to be funny. Third, he committed suicide at age 40, supposedly after he had been diagnosed with cancer. Thus, his potential literary legacy was truncated. However, among his peers he was regarded as in a class with the best writers of the era, including Hammett and McDonald. He graduated from Stanford with a law degree, but never took the bar exam - choosing instead to pursue a career which he had already established by being published while still in college, usually being paid at the going rate of a penny a word. Hopefully, the advent of ebooks and specialized small presses will allow many more potential fans to enjoy his works and dog lovers will be irresistably drawn Carstairs' collaborations with Doan.

This story is simply a delightful detective yarn which fully reveals both the author's comic genius and storytelling abilty. Doan and Carstairs are hired to locate an individual residing in Los Altos, Mexico. The assignment involoves an interesting bus ride to that remote mountain village as part of a group of other tourists on a sightseeing tour. The plot is too convoluted to even attempt to describe, or this review would be as long as the story itself. Included among the other passengers is Janet Martin, a history teacher who is great admirer of one of Cortez' lieutenants and who both follows her dream and in doing so plays a crucial role in the story. As the story develops, there are other agendas among the passengers which are at work as well. Finally, who ever thought a bathroom supply rep and his family could provide so much comic relief? Suffice it to say, deaths and violence ensue, nothing is at it appears, and all ends well - except for the dead people and the villians.

My only caveat is a reminder that you are reading pulp fiction written during WWII. There are passing references to that conflict, although it is not a major plot element as it is in the next series installment - SALLY'S IN THE ALLEY. But, in the current era of political correctness and concern about sterotypes some of Davis' dialog and caricatures might offend a few readers who are particularly sensitive about such humor. In my view, it is not all all bitter or degrading, but simply a function of that era and in fact probably not an inaccurate characterization of the fractured English and cultural attitudes which an American might have encountered if traveling through Mexico at that time.

This is a quick read which had me smiling often, laughing out loud a few times, wishing that I could observe Doan and especially Carstairs in action (and hoping that Carstairs would deign to let me pat his head) and marveling at Davis' convoluted plot.

Tucker Andersen 6/23/2010

A trigger happy PI, and a very large Great Dane...where they travel, trouble abounds. The characters are interesting, and the story line good. The reader is surprised many times, even near the end. If you like mysteries, give this one a try.

Doan and Carstairs take a break from their active lifestyle to vacation in Latin America. But, they get into more trouble down there than they planned on. A sightseeing lad almost gets eaten by Carstairs! Much to the delight of the boy's father. A fun adventure.

It is hard for a book to be timeless and this one was definitely aged - Not as clever as it thought it was in these current times.

Doan is a private eye with questionable ethics - by his own account. He is a short fat man who goes everywhere with his huge great dane Carstairs. Doan is easily and often underestimated, although Carstairs is not. Carstairs and Doan loathe each other, so this is is not the typical dog owner-pet novella.

D & C end up in Mexico where Doan's mission is to dissuade an American city embezzler from returning to the States where he will rat on the other politicians. A bus takes him to a small town with a cast of other tourists. Once there, all heck breaks loose and Doan is in the middle. The book is filled with good humor and amusing characters. The plot is a good one with many of the supporting characters throwing in important contributions. Some of the dialogue is priceless including the bus driver's exceptional broken English.

This is decent mystery that will often bring a smile to the reader's lips as he is taken for a ride by the unassuming Doan and stately Carstairs.

This is the first full-length novel starring Doan and his oh-so-pedigreed and oh-so-smart Great Dane, Carstairs. The duo are introduced in the novella Doan & Carstairs Mysteries, Book One: Holocaust House, but this book can be read as a standalone novel without having read the prequel.

The humor in this book will definitely not appeal to everyone. In today's world, a lot of it simply is too politically INcorrect and might rub a lot of readers the wrong way. However, if you don't mind non-PC humor, and want a good laugh, this is ready-made for you. The adventures of Doan and Carstairs in Mexico during WWII are crazy, zany, silly, unbelievable, hilarious - you name it. It's all a little over-the-top, but you'll be laughing so much you won't really care.

Highly recommended!

Note on Kindle formatting: Good, but not perfect. I found a few instances of what could either be typos or OCD errors, but nothing major. There were also a few instances of missing paragraph breaks during conversations, making it difficult to determine who-said-what. But, overall, none of these things impacted readability.

and the characters are real 'characters' but the 'unbelievable' was often enough to be occasionally annoying. But don't let my personal preferences interfere with your possible enjoyment of funny characters skillfully put together by a good author.