Review: "In at the Kill" by Emmett McDowell

 

In at the Kill
by Emmett McDowell
Stark House Press, 2023*

 

In at the Kill—which began life as one-half of an Ace Double in 1960 (paired with McDowell’s own Bloodline to Murder)—is a medium-boiled mystery with a touch of humor, an unscrupulous amateur sleuth, and a rip-roaring plot. Jonathan Knox is the proprietor of the Green Barn. A Louisville, Kentucky, auction house “that flourished like the proverbial green bay tree.” While checking the day’s mail and suffering the results of a late-night Halloween party, Jonathan is interrupted by his pal, Lieutenant Ben Harden Helm.
     Ben tells Knox a whacky story about a construction crew tearing up the sidewalk in front of city hall, digging a hole underneath, removing ten bundles of wastepaper, and then repairing everything good as new. When the construction company bills the city for the work, no one in public works knows anything about the job. But Knox, who has a photographic memory, recalls a tale about a batch of rare stamps being buried under city hall’s sidewalk at the turn of the twentieth century. With haste, Knox purchases the salvage rights to the wastepaper, which was taken away from the site by a phony city inspector, and he drops everything to track down the stamps. What starts out as a simple fraud, or so Knox believes, quickly turns into blackmail and murder with Knox stuck in the middle of the whole ugly affair.
     In at the Kill is a sharp, funny, and entertaining post-World War 2 crime novel. Knox is marvelously shady. He floats bits and pieces of truths, half-truths, and outright lies to every character in the book, and when he gets so deep in the mud that it begins sticking to him, he is willing to do almost anything to escape; except be labeled as a blackmailer. There are red herrings and a twisty plot that never feels overly busy. In at the Kill is a riot, in a very good way.
       

*In at the Kill is the second book (of three) in Stark House Press’ Three Aces. The other titles are: The Gilded Hideaway, by Peter Twist (1955), and Heat Lightning by Wilene Shaw (1954).

Click here for the Kindle edition and here for the paperback at Amazon.
Click here to purchase Three Aces at Stark House’s website.