Early Xmas Gift: Murder Picks the Jury
Murder Picks The Jury. Never been reprinted or seen until, well, probably Friday, Monday latest 
W.T. Ballard and Norbert Davis used to hang at a writer’s group in California. The exact details of the collaboration on this one are in dispute. Some say they worked together, others that one wrote a story which the other expanded. Both wrote for Black Mask, however briefly (after the Shaw era).
Ballard, of course, becomes Todhunter Ballard, and enjoys a great deal of success as a Western writer in the ’50s (those were all renewed). Davis didn’t make the transition to the slicks, couldn’t sell his whimsical detectives, and took his own life when the era ended for good circa ’49, I believe (in CT.)
The Bestseller Mysteries were pulp-like two-column works. Far as I know, that’s the only edition. A bit more difficult to proof, but the story is all about a guy who fell on tough times, comes back hard, and is able to bring down everybody. Kind of an inexplicable, Heathcliff-like change of heart, actually.
However, I sorta got into it.
As a stated goal: during the three months when Charles will be on vacation, I’m gonna try to do one pulp a week, at least until his triumphant return in April. Helps that there’s only one show and a little overnight ski trip planned for that period. (Economy killed most of my other events.) This is a bonus week for y’all, with a couple of redoes coming.
/Forgive me for the weekend outage yet?
//Another pulp-like PB, by “N.R. De Mexico”–is in my to-do-soon pile, but for some reason I’m thinking he’s a bit smutty.
Tags: Ebooks, Norbert Davis, Pulps, Todhunter Ballard, W.T. Ballard
December 8th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Hey, thanks for that one!
This is really a hidden jewel. I loved that one. Keep on bringing the good stuff!