The Mouse in the Mountain

by Norbert Davis

Book Overview

Book Excerpt: ...his trip just a rumor?""Here he comes," said Janet.Bartolome trotted down the terrace steps and leaned in the door. "Starting instantly in a few moments. Have the kindness of patience... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0915230410
• ISBN13: 9780915230419
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Rue Morgue Press
• Length: 151 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Great fun!

Funny, fast-moving, and surprisingly contemporary; this story is a great quick read for people who like funny mysteries. An earthquake traps a group of tourists in a remote, charming Mexican village. The heiress, the gigolo, the maid, the scholar, the detective, the business man and his family, the giant dog... One by one the tourists are being picked off, but what do they have in common? Who is killing whom, and why? And is anyone really just a tourist? Missing treasure, stashes of weapons from the Mexican revolution, crooked U.S. politicians, and the friendly and lethal Doan the P.I. make this a great installment.

Great WW II period piece

I am a sucker for mysteries set during WWII. this one is not as much involved in the war as he author's Sally In The Alley but the plot is actually better. It has the usual unusual gang of madcap 1940's characters. I really like the dog because he really doesn't like his master and his master knows this and accepts that the dog is a better judge of character abd probably smarter than he is. This is all done without any Disney taking dog tricks. It is all in the Great Dane's expresssion and body language. An enjoyable read. Wish the author had not come to such a sad end.

Hardboiled hilarity from a forgotten master! Super Dog P.I.!

Norbert Davis is an almost forgotten hardboiled mystery writer for the pulp magazines who flourished in the 1940s. Davis had an incredible talent for combining the tough, violent pulp mystery style originally created by Dashiell Hammett with the screwball comedy of a Preston Sturges movie. Tough bruisers and back-stabbing dames mix it up with assoerted nutcases, obnoxious kids, goofy waiters, and English mangling bus-drivers. (Davis's own world apparently wasn't so hilarious: he committed suicide in the summer of 1949.)Some of Davis's terrific stories were available in a recent volume, "The Adventures of Max Latin," now about of print and expensive to find used. Thankfully, a small mystery press, The Rue Morgue Press, has put out this re-print of Davis's 1943 novel, "The Mouse in the Mountain." It's the first of three books Davis wrote about an unusual detective team: pudgy P.I. Doan and his partner Carstairs -- who happens to be an enormous Great Dane. Carstairs ain't no animal sidekick, and he's no wimpy Scooby-Doo: he's the dominant member of the partnership, cool under pressure, nobody to mess with, and constantly saving Doan from trouble.This novel takes Doan and Carstairs to the tiny Mexican town of Los Altos, apparently to convince a possible informer to stay put. Along on the trip is a gaggle of typical Davis comic creations: pretty Janet Martin, fascinated with the history of Los Altos and the romantic explorer who chronicled it; toilet salesman Henshaw, his crabby wife, and obnoxious little son Mortimer; Patricia van Odsel, glamorous heir to a flypaper fortune, and her gigolo Greg and maid Maria; and the rude and domineering Captain Emile Perona, looking for a fugitive of his own. Soon, an earthquake strikes (wonderfully, vividly described) cutting off the town from the rest of the world, fugitives with dark secrets and assassination on their minds start crawling out of the rocks, and certain people end up dead. Who's the killer? What are the strange secrets buried in the crumbling buildings of Los Altos? Will Henshaw manage to sell a new toilet to the grouchy hotel owner? Will Carstairs sitting on Henshaw's awful brat Mortimer ever shut the kid up? Learn all these answers and more in this hilarious, fast-paced mystery from a forgotten master!The book also contains a helpful introduction about Norbert Davis's life and his unique style, a funny and helpful cast of characters, and the original back of the 1943 book jacket, urging readers to buy War Bonds -- a great way to get you in the right frame of mind for a hardboiled mystery set during the war years.Get a copy today before Rue Morgue Press runs out of them! Also look for the sequel, "Sally's in the Alley."

A Pleasure To Read

Looking for the most dangerous, enigmatic and ruthless sidekick in the mystery genre? Have you decided it's Joe Pike? Or Hawk? Or Bubba Rugowski? Well forget about it. The meanest, most unsympathetic and unpredictable sidekick out there would have to be Carstairs, partner of private detective Doan. He's huge, aloof handsome, successful, ruthless and...a Great Dane. Who could ask for more?This is the first of three Doan and Carstairs mysteries and is a comical hardboiled mystery set in the Mexican mountains in the tiny village of Los Altos. Doan accompanied, by his multi-talented partner Carstairs, visits the village in the guise of a tourist, but by the time Los Altos is cut off from the rest of the world thanks to an earthquake, it was already clear to him that there was more than the average amount of foul play taking place in such a small village. Plenty of murders, thieves and double crosses keep the action lively, while the banter from Doan continually jollies the mood along no matter how desperate the situation. For all his good-naturedness and happy go lucky exterior, there is a tough side to Doan which he is forced to exhibit on occasion and, like all hardboiled detectives, shows no hesitation in using deadly force when necessary.This is an extremely fast book to read with plenty happening surrounded by snappy, often whimsical dialogue. A real pleasure to experience.