Somebody's Stealing the Silk!

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #164

Dan Fowler's second appearance was also written by Geroge Fielding Eliot (using the house name C.K.M Scanlon). Dan's first case was an action-packed adventure against armed bandits. This time--well, I didn't count bullets fired or corpses found while reading it. I have an impression that "Bring 'em Back Dead" has a little less action than "Snatch." But if so, the difference isn't much. Much like the Robert Stack version of Eliot Ness, Dan burns through enough government-supplied ammo to probably contribute to the federal deficit.

It's another great story. Dan and a few fellow G-Men are assigned to stop a gang that is stealing valuable imported silk. We join Dan aboard a train, where he and his team are guarding a shipment of the stuff.

If I were to criticize any aspect of the story, it would be the inclusion of Jimmy--a newly minted, very eager agent who hero-worships Dan. That the kid is going to get killed is obvious pretty much from the moment he's introduced. To be fair, though, he gets a chance to save Dan's life before he goes down.

Jimmy's death and the theft of some of the silk despite the presence of G-Men shows Dan that this will not be an easy case to crack. Soon, he's up to his armpits in corrupt businessmen and several more murder victims. Dan's girlfriend, Sally, is not an agent herself and goes undercover as a receptionist at a silk importing business that might be involved.  It's also predictable that Sally will get kidnapped at some point, but she conducts herself with courage and intelligence even when this happens.

The case unfolds logically, with much of the novel having a police procedural feel to it. I like that Dan is isn't the only smart person among the good guys. When investigating a lead in San Francisco that takes Dan to Chinatown, he allows a local cop who knows the area to take the lead. One of Dan's fellow G-Men helps save the day at the end by acting on his own initiative. Dan Fowler stories aren't meant to be a realistic portrayal of detective work, but the story generates the veneer of "realism" necessary to make the story work.

The action scenes are uniformally great, especially a brutal fist fight Dan has with a bad guy and the book's final showdown, in which Dan is alone on a boat with an unknown number of villains, making use of an improvised gasmask and a captured tommy gun to hold his own. It's all great stuff.