Book Review: The Black Lace Hangover by Carter Brown
Private eye Danny Boyd throws wild parties. But the hangovers are murder. He doesn’t remember too much about what happened last night, though a jealous professional wrestler tossing him into a wall stands out. The apartment is a wreck, and there’s what looks like a severed pair of women’s legs lying on top of the overturned couch.
Thankfully, the rest of the woman turns out to be attached, and Danny gets an eyeful of her black lace panties. She’s considerably less thrilled to see him. The attractive young lady turns out to have come to the wrong door last night, got pulled into the party, fed several extra strong drinks and passed out. She still needs to see her Uncle Joe, and strongarms Danny to come with her in case her uncle needs proof of where she’s been. Uncle Joe is in no mood to listen, as he’s hanging over the bathtub with his throat slit.
Danny’s still pretty hungover or he might not have agreed not to immediately call the cops and instead consult with her Uncle Jerome. This uncle turns out to be Jerome Lansing, a smooth operator who runs the remaining legitimate businesses of exiled mobster Duke Brasco. The girl with the lace turns out to be Lucia Brasco, Duke’s only daughter, and Mr. Lansing is afraid that there’s a kidnapping in the works for her. Duke’s on his deathbed, and his old associates want his secrets to either be told to them, or die with him, and his daughter would be leverage for that. He’s willing to pay a generous fee for Danny to disappear with Lucia for a couple of weeks.
Danny might be inclined to go to the police instead, but he mistakes a real cop for a fake one, and wallops the man solid. Now would be a good time to get out of town for a while.
When Mr. Boyd picks up Lucia, she’s brought along a chaperone. This is the equally luscious Roberta Carrol, who is Uncle Joe’s sort of widow. They divorced a little bit back due to his physical abuse, and Joe hadn’t gotten around to changing his will, so if it wasn’t other mobsters, Roberta’s got a decent motive for his murder.
Their hiding out at a Long Island cabin lasts less than a full day before first Lucia and then Roberta Carrol run out on Danny. Lucia even took his car! So it’s back to New York City to actually investigate the murder and discover just who’s been lying, and about what.
This 1966 mystery is in the hard-boiled detective style. Danny Boyd is a hard-drinking fellow who likes the ladies and has few moral qualms to get in the way of getting his job done. He isn’t afraid to use fists or a gun when they’re called for.
Fittingly, most of the other characters are also sleazy. Mobsters who haven’t reformed as such, just gone legitimate; women no better than they should be, and mobsters who haven’t even fully gone legit.
It’s a short, fast-paced book with little padding, though Danny does wax lyrical in descriptions of women and the very little they’re wearing. Despite his hard-boiled roots, he can’t quite resist gathering all the suspects at the end to reveal who the killer is and how he figured it out.
Content note: Danny drinks to excess and engages in extramarital sex, and so do several other characters. While rape is mentioned, no one in this story has non-consensual intercourse. Roberta has physical abuse in her backstory. Male-oriented fanservice is described.
Overall: Carter Brown was a popular writer of men’s mysteries in the 1960s and it’s easy to see why. The story mostly makes sense, it moves quickly, and there’s just enough suspense to keep a quick reader from guessing the mystery too soon. Carter Brown books should be readily be available at used bookstores, even if this particular volume is missing. Recommended especially to the sort of reader who enjoys men’s adventure paperbacks.
