The Deadly Orchid

 

cover art by Walter de Maris

The excellent Thrilling Detectives website compares Trixie Meehan and Mike Harris to a couple of television shows that ran decades after these stories were published. Moonlighting and Remington Steele both used the premise of a male/female detective team in which they constantly argued with one another, but still managed to get the job done. With perhaps a dollop of romantic tension tossed in.

It's become a well-used trope, but it was probably much fresher when the first of the 16 Harris/Meehan stories was published in 1933. (Most of the others were also published in the '30s, though the last appeared in 1951).

T.T. Flynn (who wrote a lot of pulp stories and is mostly remembered for his Westerns) was the author and he proves that even if a trope such as this is used a lot, it can still be the basis for good stories. Tropes and cliches become common specifically because, when used well, they can still be a part of effective storytelling.

Anyway, the first story is "The Deadly Orchid," appearing in the April 15, 1933 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly. We meet Mike Harris, a detective with the Blaine Agency, as he is tasked with catching a beautiful blackmailer known as the Orchid. She currently has some letters written by a wealthy and influencial banker that are worth at least a quarter-million dollars.

Mike is to go undercover, checking into the same hotel at which the Orchid is staying, posing as a rich oil man to catch her interest. To Mike's annoyance, Trixie Meehan is given the job of posing as his wife. But, though Mike claims to dislike Trixie, he admits to himself that she has "forget-me-not eyes, a knock 'em dead face, and a clinging vine manner that covered concentrated hell. She has a razor tongue, muscles like steel springs, a brain that made me dizzy at times, and absolutely no fear." She also carries a pistol and a pen that squirts tear gas. 

The ensuing story, as Mike and Trixie dip into a large expense account to set up their cover as rich idiots, is a good one. The humor needed to make their adversarial relationship work is there and the plot itself is solid and logical. This has been the only story from the series I've been able to locate, so I do wish that Trixie had been a little more involved in Mike's plan to outwit and trap their target, but she does get to step in to capture a couple of thugs who were getting away from Mike. In the end, she does feel like she is as good a detective as Mike claims she is. If I can ever dig up other stories in the series, I'll be curious to see if she ever gets to be more proactive in coming up with clever plans. 

Heck, here's yet another pulp series that needs to be reprinted. Once again, I'M WAITING!

"The Deadly Orchid" can be read online HERE.