Customer Reviews

Jo Gar's Casebook (Tales from the Black Mask Morgue Series)

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JOE GAR'S CASEBOOK is a "must have" volume for all serious fans and collectors of pulp detective fiction. Even more casual readers, however, will find much to enjoy in the pages of this lavishly produced book. (Whitfield truly deserves a much wider reading than he has hitherto received). The "mean streets" pounded by Gar are the humid, typhoon buffeted "calles" of pre-WWII Manila ... that's right, Manila ... you know, the Philippines! A more exotic and dangerous setting has perhaps never been devised for a hardboiled series. Gar himself is part Spanish and part Filipino. As such he fits right into the multi-ethnic mix of this teeming Pacific metropolis. The ambience in these stories is classic noir - from the seedy bars along the inky waters of the Pasig River to the smoke-filled multi-lingual babble of the ubiquitous cockfight arenas. And everywhere he goes Senor Gar, who has a reputation among the criminal element for always getting "his man" ("West of Guam"), must be ever on the lookout for a knife-blade or bullet aimed in his general direction.

De rigueur also in a series of this type is conflict with the local police, and one finds that here in abundance as well. A former officer in the Manila Police, Jo Gar has little patience for the blundering and pompous posturing of, first, his former partner Juan Arragon and later, of the supercilious and arrogant Lieutenant Sadi Ratan. At the end of "The Amber Fan," and after being outwitted yet again by the wily Gar, Ratan admits under some duress that the private detective is "very clever." The policeman then suggests (uncharacteristically) that the two men should work even more closely together. "I might even consider," Ratan remarks off-handedly, "resigning in order to enter and strengthen your private agency." Ever polite, Gar nonetheless rebuffs his adversary with grace and style. "I fear," the detective replies, "that the loss to the Force would be too great, Lieutenant."

At a time when Asians were being portrayed in the West as soulless villains (Fu Manchu) or as stereotyped ethnic caricatures (Charlie Chan), Whitfield broke new ground with his sensitive and nuanced characterization of Jo Gar. Also noteworthy in these stories is the fact that, although they stand smack dab in the middle of the hardboiled tradition and are played out against a noir background, each of Gar's cases presents the reader with a puzzle-plot to be solved. In that regard, at least, Whitfield was not afraid to borrow from the "cozy" tradition of the classic Victorian consulting detective. What results is an interesting and engaging amalgam that is a unique and hugely entertaining contribution to the genre. Pick up a copy of JOE GAR'S CASEBOOK and savor a singular reading experience. Can't you just hear the palm trees being tossed by the wind and rain as a blood-curdling scream rends the muggy tropical night? (James Clar, MYSTERY NEWS - March/April, 2003).