It's hard to label The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain forgotten since it was re-released by Hard Case Crime in 2005. I would make the case, however, that McBain's Matt Cordell should be in the discussion for the greatest PI put to paper.
The Gutter and the Grave was firsted published under the title I'm Canon - For Hire in 1958 by the great Ed McBain. Matt Cordell (in the pre-Hard Case edition known as Curt Cannon) is a successful private investigator in New York City until one day he comes home to find his wife in bed with one of his operatives. After pistol whipping the man, he loses his license and his wife. His life spirals out of control and finds him disgraced and alone on the streets. That is until Johnny Bridges, an old friend from the neighborhood, finds him on a park bench, drinking another day away. Initially asked to help Johnny find out if his business partner is stealing from him, Cordell is sucked in to a murder mystery when the partner is found dead, with Johnny's initials scrawled in blood next to him. From there Cordell reluctantly takes the case and the story takes twists and turns, with the truth a hard thing to come by.
The premise is nothing too original but Cordell as a character is the real highlight. As with any hardboiled detective worth his salt, he is tough as nails but soft as butter when it comes to woman. Through out the book Cordell has numerous run ins with woman, with some looking to change him and others looking to use him. He also had a brutal side, as evident by the pistol whipping, that seemed to be mostly uncommon for the PI's that preceded him.
I'd be interested to see if Cordell had some influence on Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder. Both are brilliant detectives but horrible events in their lives have turned off their will to care. If, as Raymond Chandler said in The Simple Art of Murder, "Dashiell Hammett gave murder back to the people that do it for a reason, not just to provide a corpse", McBain gave the hard stuff back to PI's that do it for reasons other than just quenching their thirst.
The Gutter and The Grave is the only full length novel featuring Matt Cordell, with six short stories collected in 1958's I Like'em Tough. It's a real shame considering, in my opinion, Cordell could have been one of the greats of the genre had he been fully fleshed out.
5 comments:
I will eventually get to this book since I'm working my way through the Hard Case books. I tend to prefer these detectives that are a little more hidden with only a few adventures to their name. The author didn't have the chance to run them into the ground... Thanks for the review.
I regret now I didn't join this at the beginning. Now it would be quite expensive catching up. But I love McBain's precinct books.
TGATG stands special in my mind: it was the first McBain book I ever read. Really, really liked it. The brutality in the fight scenes shocked me (in a good way). Plus, there's a certain bleakness to this book that seeps through the words on the pages. I'm an optimist at heart but I likes me a little bleakness mixed in every now and then. TGATG filled the bill.
And there's something to what David wrote: a author who takes the needle off the record of a certain character before the public makes the character that much better.
For awhile I was addicted to true crime books. McBain's novels sound interesting. Now if I could only find the time.
Scott, TGATG was my fist McBain and my first HCC book as well. I definitely agree with you and David about the "less is more" when it comes to great characters. Spencer comes to mind as a character that could have taken a few less cases over the years.
I definitely agree about the bleakness that runs through the story. I really thought it was the closest I've come to finding a story that has the hard-boiled prose I love with a noir vibe. I just expected some ray of hope for Cordell in the end but he ends up right back where the story started.
JR, this is the only McBain I've read but I'm eagerly awaiting getting around to starting the 87th Precinct series.
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