Quick Shots: The White Cad Cross-Up by William F. Nolan

William F. Nolan is mostly known as the guy who wrote "Logan's Run," the book not the movie. He wrote a lot books. Including books where the real life "Black Mask Boys" i.e. Hammett, Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner solve their own (fictional) mysteries. Then more "Logan's Run" books, a series of Sci-fi/P.I. books about a detective names Sam Space, lots of biographies, a good deal of work for film and TV (including a TV movie called "Sky Heist" that I now have to watch because Stephanie Powers is married to Frank Gorshin (!) and the they rob 10 million in gold with a helicopter) and the Challis series. The Challis series mostly involves a California private eye named Bart Challis, but there's some stories about his brother Nick too. In what is a cosmic blunder these pitch perfect paperback private eye novels only ever appeared in hardback and the odd chapbook. 

The plot is convoluted as all get out. It's a tale of double-cross, murder set-ups, astray Cadillacs, old gangsters complete with Molls, groovy 60's California sub-cultures, gun-fights and fisticuffs, no cliché is left unturned and it boils down to a HOOT! Hanging out with Challis is fun. He a wise-ass who gets more broken bits and head trauma that any man can take. He shoots his .38 straight and drives his Covair Sprint around with abandon, questioning, roughing up and bugging people until the plot is clear enough to see for miles ahead. The action comes at you fast and its well-told, the dialog bouncing pleasantly back and forth from wit to old welcome tough guy banter. Nolan's tongue has to be in his cheek with these yarns, he knew the format and style of the hardboiled school well and it's fairly obvious that Challis and all of his concussions aren't meant to be a gentle poke on the conventions. It's not an all-out parody or even a really comic novel, like say a Shell Scott, it just has a knowing "aren't we having fun" tone.

A nice surprise.

William Nolan is a pretty solid writer, I remember enjoying "Logan's Run" when I read it years ago, but I never sampled much more of his work, save his teleplay for "The Norliss Tapes"  the best "reporter hunting vampire" TV movie this side of "The Night Stalker." It's a shame that's there's only really two novels, this one and "Death is for Losers" the rest being novellas and short stories. Maybe if Challis made the leap to softcover because that's really where all this fun hokum is meant to be. Hardback mystery fans might not have taken too well to some light camp mixed with their tough-guy antics or be completely appalled at the sex and violence, instead going back to their softer Lew Archer novel. Paperback readers would have lapped it up, it would have set nicely on a shelf next to a Ron Goulart John Easy book, Mike Shayne or a Pete Chambers. To steal a line for Joe R. Lansdale, it's private eye action, as you like it.