Review: Doan and Carstairs' Excellent Adventure in Mexico
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 23, 2010
This novella was written in 1943 by Norbert Davis as a sequel to the short story HOLOCAUST HOUSE, which introduced the characters Doan (a detective) and Carstairs (his sidekick Great Dane).There are currently four Doan and Carstairs stories available in Kindle format. It was published in 1943, and fully develops the partnership of Doan and Carstairs, the Great Dane as large as a Shetland pony, who only made a brief cameo appearance in the short story. It is a wonderful example of early pulp fiction. Unfortunately, Norbert Davis, the author of the series, is not as well known as other pulp fiction writers of the 1940's for three reasons. First, his stories encompassed a wide array of genres, so he never built a reputation as a practitioner of a specific type (e.g. detective, SF, etc.) . Second, his detective stories included a strain of humor which was highly unusual for the period, a hard boiled detective story was not supposed to be funny. Third, he committed suicide at age 40, supposedly after he had been diagnosed with cancer. Thus, his potential literary legacy was truncated. However, among his peers he was regarded as in a class with the best writers of the era, including Hammett and McDonald. He graduated from Stanford with a law degree, but never took the bar exam - choosing instead to pursue a career which he had already established by being published while still in college, usually being paid at the going rate of a penny a word. Hopefully, the advent of ebooks and specialized small presses will allow many more potential fans to enjoy his works and dog lovers will be irresistably drawn Carstairs' collaborations with Doan.This story is simply a delightful detective yarn which fully reveals both the author's comic genius and storytelling abilty. Doan and Carstairs are hired to locate an individual residing in Los Altos, Mexico. The assignment involoves an interesting bus ride to that remote mountain village as part of a group of other tourists on a sightseeing tour.  The plot is too convoluted to even attempt to describe, or this review would be as long as the story itself. Included among the other passengers is Janet Martin, a history teacher who is great admirer of one of Cortez' lieutenants and who both follows her dream and in doing so plays a crucial role in the story. As the story develops, there are other agendas among the passengers which are at work as well. Finally, who ever thought a bathroom supply rep and his family could provide so much comic relief? Suffice it to say, deaths and violence ensue, nothing is at it appears, and all ends well - except for the dead people and the villians.My only caveat is a reminder that you are reading pulp fiction written during WWII. There are passing references to that conflict, although it is not a major plot element as it is in the next series installment - SALLY'S IN THE ALLEY. But, in the current era of political correctness and concern about sterotypes some of Davis' dialog and caricatures might offend a few readers who are particularly sensitive about such humor. In my view, it is not all all bitter or degrading, but simply a function of that era and in fact probably not an inaccurate characterization of the fractured English and cultural attitudes which an American might have encountered if traveling through Mexico at that time.This is a quick read which had me smiling often, laughing out loud a few times, wishing that I could observe Doan and especially Carstairs in action (and hoping that Carstairs would deign to let me pat his head) and marveling at Davis' convoluted plot.Tucker Andersen 6/23/2010