Doc Egg

 

cover art by Rafael De Soto

Doc Egg is a great character. Created by Day Keene (real name Gunard Hjertstedt), Doc's real name is Egbert Thistlewaite. He owns a pharmacy on Times Square, having funded his way through pharmacist school by boxing in the feather-weight division. His store is also a "mecca for the sporting and theatrical crowd, and for the underworld as well. He never forgot a favor or forgave a slight." While working at the store, he and his head pharmacist quote Shakespear, Shelley and Wilde at each other, trying to stump one another as to the source of specific quotes. And, from time to time, Doc Egg also gets involved in solving crimes. 

There were eight Doc Egg stories published during the 1940s, most of them in Dime Mystery Magazine. I'd love to find all of them collected into a single volume. The publisher Ramble House has been putting out anthologies of Keene's pulp stories and this do have at least a few of the Doc Egg stories scattered within them. But the world really needs a specific Doc Egg collection.

"Doc Egg's Graveyard Reunion" appeared in the February 1946 issue of Dime Mystery. The story starts strong with an atmospheric and intense opening. A man named Bart Irish, beaten and half-starved, has been held prisoner aboard a freigher for months. While the ship is docked in New York harbor, he has a chance to escape, though he's shot during that escape. When he stumbles into a waterfront bar, he's too weak to talk. But he is able to indicate (by pointing to specific items in the bar) that Doc Egg is somehow involved.

The cops talk to the Doc, considering him a suspect in the murder. And, just before the cops arrive at his store, a sailor enters and tries to shoot Doc. So, both to protect himself and prove his innocence, Doc gets invovled in the case.

 

Clues soon point to an old murder. It's a murder that is supposed to be solved, with a rich society girl named Glenda (an ex-wife of Bart Irish) on death row. Doc soon decides she's innocent, but there's only one day left before her execution. 

Doc is kidnapped by the same sailors who had been holding Irish. Tied up in the freighter's hold, Doc uses a trick taken from a Poe story to get loose. By now, he realizes what's going on. To prove Glenda innocent, he and a police detective friend are going to have to set a trap in a graveyard to trap the bad guys and then find a clue hidden in a corpse to clear Glenda.

The story is solid, hard-boiled fun, anchored with a strong and unique protagonist. You can read it online HERE. 

The world yearns for a Doc Egg anthology.