Pick Up A Pulp [83]: THE LOVING AND THE DEAD by Carter Brown

 

"This detective business is like necking - a girl needs to keep a cool head or suddenly it's too late..."

Mavis Siedlitz, the curvaceous blonde bombshell private eye finds herself smack bang in the middle of a family drama as her new case takes her to a secluded mansion stacked with potential murderers, cult-like torture chambers, and voices from the grave who haunt the living - sounds a little gothic doesn’t it?

Well, The Loving and Dead is more humour than horror with Mavis, once again filling out a role (not nearly as good as she fills out a tight dress) as a woman with loose morals and limited skills of deduction and reasoning (key requisites for a private eye one would assume). 

Hired to provide undercover protection for a client while posing as his wife, Mavis’s sole job (aside from not getting killed herself) is to see her client alive and well through 78hrs in the former residence of his deceased father; a condition set out in the fathers will. 

"...like Mr. Ebhart said,none of the other people who will be at the house have met his wife.They don't know what she looks like. He could take any girl up there with him and say she was his wife, and they wouldn't know the difference." [said Johnny]

    "I've got it!"I snapped my fingers. "Why don't you do just that? Get some dumb blonde to take the place of Mr. Ebhart's wife!" [said Mavis]

    "It's a wonderful idea," Johnny said. "We've already thought of it."

    "You have?" 

    "You."

Should the client and Mavis survive the 78hrs in the house, the client will receive a large inheritance. The only problem? The clients’ siblings stand to earn a pretty penny too – and, should any of the siblings not see it through the 78hrs, the remaining will walk away with a greater share of the inheritance. 

Much like the Honey West books, Carter Browns' Mavis Siedlitz series makes light of the protagonist, preferring to focus on slapstick comedy over hardboiled crime which fits the overall theme of the series - it's light hearted and doesn't take its self too seriously. I find this approach refreshing for a sub genre which can read pretty dark at times. 

In order to enjoy these books, you do need to suspend your sense of reality as the cases and their all-too-convenient conclusions are completely unbelievable but entertaining nevertheless. 

The Loving and the Dead is a pulp well worth picking up.