Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Markham Stories, and Other MSMM Memories


Yesterday on his blog Ed Gorman had some nice things to say concerning a story I wrote, oh, about a thousand years ago. It feels that long ago, anyway. “The Man in the Moon” appeared in MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE and was the third of four stories I wrote for MSMM that featured a private investigator named Markham. Reading Ed’s comments prompted a fit of reminiscing, so I hope you’ll bear with me.

The four Markham stories are:

“All the Way Home”, MSMM, April 1979
“Death and the Dancing Shadows”, MSMM, March 1980
“The Man in the Moon”, MSMM, April 1980
“War Games”, MSMM, April 1982

At first Markham was sort of a dry run for my private eye character Cody, who appeared in the novel TEXAS WIND and several short stories of his own. “All the Way Home” was written in June 1978, four or five months before I started writing TEXAS WIND. Like Cody, Markham has only one name and is the same sort of world-weary, cynical, tough but sentimental slob that Cody turned out to be (along with a lot of other PIs created by other authors; I wasn’t exactly breaking any new ground here). Markham’s first case finds him trying to find a mobster’s runaway daughter. Yep, it was a wandering daughter job. I still like the opening.

I put the gun against Jack Parker’s forehead as soon as he opened the door and said: “You yell and I won’t have one damn reason for keeping you alive.”

I’d probably rewrite that a little now, but it’s not bad.

That April ’79 MSMM is a pretty good issue overall, by the way. The Mike Shayne novella, “The Scent of Death”, is by pulp veteran Sam Merwin Jr., who was the magazine’s editor at the time. It also includes the first appearance of one of Joe R. Lansdale’s Ray Slater stories, “One Blonde, Well Dead” (great title), and stories by Edward D. Hoch and Richard Moore.

“Death and the Dancing Shadows” is probably the best-known of the Markham stories because it was anthologized once, in THE BLACK LIZARD ANTHOLOGY OF CRIME FICTION. When I wrote the story it was just called “Dancing Shadows”. Charles E. Fritch, who had taken over the editorship of MSMM by the time it appeared, added the “Death and the” part. The plot revolves around an old cowboy actor. Western B-movies are an abiding interest of mine. I wrote the Shayne story in that issue, “Payoff in Blood”, and there are also stories by Edward D. Hoch, again, Gary Brandner, and horror author Richard Laymon. Chuck Fritch made a habit of buying crime stories from writers better known for their horror fiction, which gave his editorial run on the magazine a distinctive and offbeat flavor.

“The Man in the Moon” is probably the most Ross Macdonald-influenced entry in the Markham series, since it’s about the damage that different generations of a family inflict on each other. I don’t recall it being deliberate, but the Markham stories seem to get more bleak as they go along. That issue of MSMM also features a Major Lansing story by W.L. Fieldhouse. Bill Fieldhouse was a regular in MSMM at the same time I was, and his stories about Major Lansing, an Army CID investigator in Europe, are outstanding. Fieldhouse was a fine writer and had a good career for a number of years as a novelist in the men’s adventure genre, and also wrote some pretty good Westerns. The last I heard of him, though, he had retired from writing. That issue also includes stories by Edward D. Hoch (man, was he in every issue or something?), William F. Nolan, and a collaboration between Joe R. Lansdale and Robert Fester. I don’t recall who Fester was, probably a friend of Joe’s.

The Markham stories also got longer with each one. The final Markham, “War Games”, is about 15,000 words. I don’t remember much about it except that it’s set at an exclusive military academy/boarding school and ends with a fairly tense sniper situation. I recall that Chuck Fritch liked it a lot but because of its length had a hard time finding space to run it. It was written in 1979 but not published until more than two years later. I wrote the Shayne story in the same issue, “Deadly Queen”, about a teen-age chess prodigy, and it’s actually shorter than “War Games”. No Edward D. Hoch in that issue, but there are stories by Michael Avallone and Mort Castle, another of those horror authors Chuck liked.

That was the end of the line for Markham. He was the second private eye character I created for MSMM. The first was called Delaney (what is it with these guys and their single names?), who appeared in a handful of short, very minor stories. Cody came along after Markham and I used both of them in stories for a while, but Cody last appeared in 1988, nearly twenty years ago. I’ve thought at times that a volume collecting all the Cody, Markham, and Delaney stories would make a nice little book. Maybe one of these days.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I'd buy a collection of these stories in a heartbeat.

I just looked through my very small stack of Mike Shaynes, and while I don't have the issues you mentioned, I do have September 1979, which features your story, "Down in the Valley," as well as one of those rare Lansdale/Lewis Shiner collaborations, "Black as the Night."

mybillcrider said...

I remember those stories (and those days) well. I guess I'll have to dig through my stack of MSMM back issues for some nostalgia reading.

Charles Gramlich said...

I've been reading "On Writing Horror" lately, which is edited by Mort Castle. Didn't realize he'd been along quite as long as he has.

Juri said...

Most certainly such book is required.

Cap'n Bob said...

You, Lansdale, and Richard Moore all in one issue? What a lineup.

Maybe that Fester guy wasn't Joe's friend, maybe he was his Uncle Fester.

James Reasoner said...

Duane, if you don't have a copy of PRIVATE EYE ACTION AS YOU LIKE IT by Lansdale & Shiner, I highly recommend it. It reprints all the PI stories from MSMM by both guys, along with a couple of previously unpublished stories. Probably out of print by now but worth looking for.

I've talked to one publisher about doing a collection of the Cody stories, probably with the Markham stories to fill out the volume. The project is sort of on hold at the moment. I hadn't thought about including the Delaney stories until I was writing the post about the Markhams. There were two Delaneys in MSMM plus a longer one that was published in some small-press mystery magazine, maybe SKULLDUGGERY. I'd have to look it up in my records to be sure. If such a book ever comes about I'd be tempted to write a new Cody story for it, or at least try to. But I'd have to set it in the Eighties. I think the guy would be getting pretty feeble by now.

James Reasoner said...

Hey, Mort, like Charles Gramlich above, I've read ON WRITING HORROR and it's a fine book.

Juri said...

James, is the Markham story you refer to "Play By the Rules", in Skullduggery, Spring 1981?

James Reasoner said...

Nope, "Play by the Rules" is a stand-alone story. I know that much but don't ask me what it's about. I think it has a boat in it.

Anonymous said...

hello my name is cody markham and this is all kind of weird reading all this email me at goth_punk_skittle@hotmail.com i promise on my life im not lying