Monday, March 23, 2020

The Five-Day Nightmare by Fredric Brown

IF YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR WIFE ALIVE AGAIN YOU HAVE FIVE DAYS TO RAISE TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS IN UNMARKED BILLS NOT OVER HUNDREDS.  STAY HOME WEDNESDAY NIGHT ALONE AND YOU WILL RECEIVE INSTRUCTIONS ON DELIVERY.  IF YOU GO TO THE POLICE YOUR WIFE WILL BE KILLED....  
Joachim Boaz just reviewed a 1953 SF novel by Fredric Brown, and I just read four 1940s detective stories by Brown featuring bats, clarinets, fake news, and a guy who murders his brother.  I hope the internet is ready for more Fredric Brown content, because today I am opining about Brown's 1962 novel The Five Day Nightmare, AKA The Five-Day Nightmare.  I am reading the novel from a scan found at the internet archive of a three-book omnibus collection printed by Walter J. Black for the Detective Book Club.  My mother is a big reader of Agatha Christie-type mysteries, as was her mother (whom we always called "Nana") before her, and Nana was a member of the Detective Book Club for a period and had quite a few of these triple-book volumes on the bookshelf in her living room.  By reading this novel in this form, I feel like I am paying homage to Nana, whom we saw often and who always spoiled us with candy and cookies and ice cream, and making a gesture towards continuing a sort of family tradition!

Lloyd Johnson, our narrator, is an investment broker and partner with his wife's cousin Joe Sitwell in a small investment firm in Phoenix, Arizona.  Lloyd comes home one day to find his wife, Ellen, is gone and there is an all-caps note in his typewriter--Ellen has been kidnapped and he has to hand over $25,000 in five days or else!  Should he contact the police, Ellen will be killed!  Just two months ago, Lloyd remembers, the wife of a prominent Phoenix businessman and local politician was kidnapped; her husband contacted the cops and she was killed, so Lloyd has every reason to believe this creep ain't bluffing!

For like 95 pages (The Five-Day Nightmare takes up like 112 pages of this omnibus volume) we follow Lloyd as he travels around Arizona raising the money demanded by the murderous kidnapper.  We are privy to his negotiations with a used car dealer, for example, as he sells his Buick for $1,000.  In his quest to secure 25 grand he talks to lots of people--e.g., his partner Joe, a friend in real estate, the husband of an earlier kidnap victim who paid off the kidnapper and got his wife back in one piece--I guess to pile up lots of suspects?  We also get a lot of quotidian details about what Lloyd eats and drinks and what he feeds his cat.  (In my New York days I read the first four or five Mike Hammer novels by Mickey Spillane, and I recall scenes in which Mike cooked himself up some eggs.  I guess that is a traditional element of these hard-boiled noir stories.)

Along with Lloyd we learn all about the methods used by the kidnapper in his first two kidnapping operations as the stock broker talks to those with second-hand knowledge of those crimes.  There are various clues I suppose we readers are expected to weigh when assessing who the kidnapper might be--e. g., the kidnapper seems to know about real estate...hmm, who does Lloyd know who knows about real estate?

Lloyd has the cash in a shoe box when the kidnapper calls and tells him where to leave it, and Lloyd follows his instrutions.  Then comes the astonishing twist.  Ellen was not kidnapped!  The killer who kidnapped those two other women, who we have been hearing about for page after page, does not even appear in the story!  Ellen at no time was at risk of being beaten, tied up, drugged, raped, or murdered.  Ay, caramba!

You see, Ellen left to spend a week with her sister because she and Lloyd had a fight and she thought they needed a week apart.  One of Lloyd's friends (who was strapped for cash) by chance found this out before Lloyd, and stole the note Ellen left her hubby and substituted the ransom note, based on the notes left by the real kidnapper.  In minutes Lloyd figures out which of his friends is the culprit and convinces this joker to give the money back and leave town--Lloyd doesn't even beat him up or sic the police on him or anything.  And he certainly doesn't have a tense and bloody shoot out with anybody, as I thought all the scenes of Lloyd acquiring a revolver and practicing with it at the range and giving us the pro and cons of a revolver vs an automatic were leading up to.

This novel doesn't end in tragedy or in cathartic violence or the triumph of justice or any sort of explosion like that; instead of a bang we get a sputtering deflation.  Ellen and Lloyd even agree their fight was silly and they still love each other! 

Brown is a capable writer, and The Five-Day Nightmare is internally consistent and Brown presents all the clues you would, theoretically, need to predict the truth about Ellen's disappearance, but there is a strong shaggy dog element to the tale and it is hard not to think reading it was sort of a waste of time.

Barely acceptable.

7 comments:

  1. I didn't see a link? Could you provide one, please?

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    1. Here is the url: https://archive.org/details/howlikeangel00mill

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  2. Have any other of his SF works lined up? (definitely what I'm more interested in, as you know)

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    1. Years ago I read Brown's famous and beloved novel What Mad Universe, which is a very meta spoof of SF. It had some good thrilling SF elements--like a scene depicting travel through a dangerous city under black out--but I am not that interested in lampoons and parodies, and the resolution of the plot of the novel felt like a cop out to me. I am avoiding his Martians, Go Home, which I understand to be another satire or parody. The Mind Thing is a possibility (the cover blurb says it is "terrifying" and the image is scary) but I don't see the novel at internet archive.

      http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/2/20/TMNDTHN1961.jpg

      Brown wrote many (like over a hundred) short SF stories, and I think they are all available to read at the internet archive in old magazines or collections. I liked the award-winning "Arena," which I recall being very "straight," and I am considering reading the intros to some of those collections (by Robert Bloch and Barry Malzberg) in an effort to distinguish the sincere stories from the goofs and then reading a bunch of the stories which are supposed to be suspenseful or insightful instead of being funny.

      But before I read more Brown SF I am going to read one or two more of his noirish thrillers--I have already splurged and ordered a 2016 omnibus edition of two Brown crime novels with an intro by Malzberg. I may have it in my hands this week.

      https://www.amazon.com/Far-Cry-Screaming-Mimi/dp/0988306298/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=far+cry+fredric&qid=1585108025&sr=8-2

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  3. Haffner Press is reprinting much of Fredric Brown's short stories. Here's the TABLE OF CONTENTS from MURDER DRAWS A CROWD:
    The Moon for a Nickel, Detective Story Magazine Mar. 38
    The Cheese on Stilts, Thrilling Detective Jan. 39
    Blood of the Dragon, Variety Detective Feb. 39
    There Are Bloodstains in the Alley, Detective Yarns Feb. 39
    Murder at 10:15, Clues Detective Stories May 39
    The Prehistoric Clue, Ten Detective Aces Jul. 40
    Trouble in a Teacup, Detective Fiction Weekly Jul-13-1940
    Murder Draws a Crowd, Detective Fiction Weekly Jul-27-1940
    Footprints on the Ceiling, Ten Detective Aces Sep. 40
    The Little Green Men, The Masked Detective Fall 1940
    Town Wanted, Detective Fiction Weekly Sep-7-1940
    Herbie Rides His Hunch, Detective Fiction Weekly Oct-19-1940
    The Stranger from Trouble Valley, Western Short Stories Nov. 40
    The Strange Sisters Strange, Detective Fiction Weekly Dec-28-1940
    How Tagrid Got There, unpublished until 1986
    Fugitive Imposter, Ten Detective Aces Jan. 41
    The King Comes Home, Thrilling Detective Jan. 41
    Big-Top Doom, Ten Detective Aces Mar 41
    The Discontented Cows, G-Men Detective Mar. 41
    Life and Fire, Detective Fiction Weekly Mar-22-1941
    Big-League Larceny, Ten Detective Aces Apr. 41 {as by Jack Hobart}
    Selling Death Short, Ten Detective Aces Apr. 41
    Client Unknown, The Phantom Detective Apr. 41
    Your Name in Gold, The Phantom Detective Jun. 41
    Here Comes the Hearse, 10-Story Detective Jul. 41 {as by Allen Morse}
    Six-Gun Song, 10-Story Detective Jul. 41
    Star-Spangled Night, Coronet Jul. 41
    Wheels Across the Night, G-Men Detective Jul. 41
    Little Boy Lost, Detective Fiction Weekly Aug-2-1941
    Bullet for Bullet, Western Short Stories Oct. 41
    Listen to the Mocking Bird (NT) G-Men Detective Nov. 41
    You'll End Up Burning!, Ten Detective Aces Nov. 41
    Number Bug, Exciting Detective Winter 1941
    Thirty Corpses Every Thursday, Detective Tales Dec. 41
    Trouble Comes Double, Popular Detective Dec. 41
    Clue in Blue, Thrilling Mystery Jan. 42
    Death is a White Rabbit, Strange Detective Mysteries Jan. 42
    Twenty Gets You Plenty, G-Men Detective Jan. 42
    Bloody Murder, Detective Fiction Jan-10-1942
    Appendix:
    Fredric Brown in Trade Magazines, Part One
    The "V.O.N. Munchdriller" stories from The Driller
    The "William Z. Williams"" stories from Excavating Engineer

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  4. And here's the TABLE OF CONTENTS for DEATH IN THE DARK:
    Little Apple Hard to Peel, Detective Tales Feb. 42
    Death in the Dark, Dime Mystery Mar. 42
    The Incredible Bomber, G-Men Detective Mar. 42
    Pardon My Ghoulish Laughter, Strange Detective Mysteries Mar. 42
    Twice-Killed Corpse, Ten Detective Aces Mar. 42
    A Cat Walks, Detective Story Magazine Apr. 42
    Mad Dog!, Detective Book Magazine Spring 1942
    Moon Over Murder, The Masked Detective Spring 1942
    "Who Did I Murder?", Detective Short Stories Apr. 42
    Murder in Furs, Thrilling Detective May 42
    Suite for Flute and Tommy Gun, Detective Story Magazine Jun. 42
    Three-Corpse Parlay, Popular Detective Jun. 42
    A Date to Die, Strange Detective Mysteries Jul. 42
    Red is the Hue of Hell, Strange Detective Mysteries Jul. 42 {as by Felix Graham}
    Two Biers for Two, Clues Detective Stories Jul. 42
    "You'll Die Before Dawn", Mystery Magazine Jul. 42
    Get Out of Town, Thrilling Detective Sep. 42
    A Little White Lye, Ten Detective Aces Sep. 42
    The Men Who Went Nowhere, Dime Mystery Sep. 42
    Nothing Sinister, Mystery Magazine Sep. 42
    The Numberless Shadows, Detective Story Magazine Sep. 42
    Satan's Search Warrant, 10-Story Detective Sep. 42
    Where There's Smoke, Black Book Detective Sep. 42
    Boner, Popular Detective Oct. 42
    Legacy of Murder, Exciting Mystery Oct. 42
    The Santa Claus Murders, Detective Story Magazine Oct. 42
    Double Murder, Thrilling Detective Nov. 42 {as by John S. Endicott}
    Appendix:
    Fredric Brown in Trade Magazines, Part Two
    "Willie Skid: Cub Serviceman Says" from Ford Dealer & Service Field
    "Let Colonel Cluck Answer Your Questions" from Independent Salesman
    "Barnyard Bill Says—" from Feedstuffs

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  5. Here's the link to the Haffner site: http://www.haffnerpress.com/author-books/fredric-brown/

    A third volume of Fredric Brown stories is being planned.

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