“Quinton Clyde: Private Investigator” by Trent McCoy

Published 1952 by Stanley Baker Publications Ltd., “Quinton Clyde, Private Investigator” was written by Trent McCoy, alias of David Boyce.

The novel, as indicated, is a humorous detective thriller, and they aren’t joking.

The protagonist (not depicted on the cover) is a copper-headed, out-of-town, nosey ‘dick’ investigating the murder of one gangster, formerly answering to the name of ‘Muscles.’

Certain that a local lower-tier gangster (O’Brane) was behind the assassination, Clyde is up against the following henchmen:
1. Sammy Stetson (a cowboy turned gunman)
2. Larry the Louse (a petty crook with a penchant for drunkenness and being nearly blind)
3. Brent Brewer (a behind-the-scenes whom we never officially meet)

Throw in a strip-tease dame operating under the name Jade Kavan (a name more at home in a Tarzan novel, no less), a seemingly useless police captain as Simon J. Stride (whom takes everything according to his surname and is more fond of never leaving his seat and listening to flute music), and the captain’s young, capable lieutenant, Champion (seriously), and you truly have an unusual crime story (or, at the least, an unusual mix of characters).

The crimes taking place in the isolated city of Gorryville are home to a multitude of underworld denizens, waiting to whack the competitor. The police are either corrupt or don’t seem to give a damn. Clyde is fed-up with the local police department and the inadequate attention to the murderous situation. And what’s with the moll that seems drawn to both gangsters? Throw in a bank robbery, a pharmaceutical theft of cocaine and other assorted drugs, a lunatic asylum, and you enter your own realms of insanity, wondering what possessed me to read this book, let alone, asking yourself, why are YOU still reading the plot synopsis?

Clyde eventually manhandles the cowboy, provides liquid courage to Larry the Louse, is delivered a final death sentence by O’Brane, Brewer is jacked up with enough poison by the lunatics in his asylum to eventually kill him but he escapes and Larry sets Brewer’s own starving hounds loose and they rip him to pieces. Larry also rescues Clyde, fatally wounding O’Brane once in the spine and gut, despite being now 100% blind.

The cops finally prove that they are not bystanders, but covertly working on a secret operation. Jade Kovan turns out to be in cahoots with the police force but in the end retires to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. And Clyde doesn’t get the girl? Don’t be too sure. He insinuates that he’ll relocate to Los Angeles, and pursue his career there….

The name “Trent McCoy” is home to numerous mushroom jungle-era publications.

1951 – Wake Not the Sleeping Wolf (Hamilton & Co.)
1952 – Order a Coffin, Now! (Hamilton & Co.)
1952 – I’ll Come Quietly (Cooper Books)
1953 – Lady, What Now! (Cooper Books)
1952 – Quinton Clyde, Private Investigator (Stanley Baker)
1953 – Treasure of the Yukon (Stanley Baker)
1955 – Railroad Renegade (Fiction House)
1955 – Justice of the Canyon (Fiction House)
1956 – Outlaws of the Range (Fiction House)
1958 – Stagecoach to Santa Fe (Fiction House)
???? – Dynamite Trail (Fiction House)

STAG: Man’s Own Magazine (Summer 1946)

Earlier, I had read and reported on the first issue of Stag. Now, we return, to learn that the magazine is here to stay, this time additionally filled-out with advertisements. What? oh yes, the last issue (that being the premier edition) featured NO ADS!!!

STAG: Man’s Own Magazine (Vol 1 # 2, Summer 1946) was published by Winter Bros. Press Ltd., and proclaims now to be published quarterly.

• Bevis Winter (Editorial Manager)
• Brett Ogilvie (Associate Editor)
• J. Robert Breen (American Editor)

Again, it is jam-packed with stock-photos of Hollywood actresses in various poses.

• Page 13 – unidentified lady
• Page 33 – Marie McDonald
• Page 34 – Vivian Austin
• Page 35 – Leslie Brooks
• Page 36 – Evelyn Keyes
• Page 43 – Jane Russell
• Page 44 – Paulette Goddard
• Page 66 – Rita Hayworth

Once more, it is filled with an assortment of masculine articles dealing in sports, men’s dress code, household, automobiles, etc., along with cartoons and joke-snippets interspersed by artists such as Arthur Potts (3 ), John J. Walter, and others.

This edition features:

• Ralph L. Finn – What the Butler Saw (pages 8-11)
  The late Judge Mannering died falling down a staircase. Nobody really laments his passing. Mannering was hard on local drunkards, stamping them with hefty fines or imprisonment. But, when the butler learns that Mannering is a hypocrite, he pushes the intoxicated judge down the steps…to his death!
• Michael Hervey – Grandstand Charlie (pages 17-20)
  Charlie does nothing without an audience. But when he takes one audience endeavor on too many… Let’s just say that he witnesses a person drowning in the ocean and while diving in, he breaks his own neck. Why dive in? He believed the water deeper than it was. The person drowning? A midget, in two feet of water.
• Sylvester McNeil – Strained Relations (pages 24-25)
  A odd story involving a penniless man applying to marry a rich man’s daughter, whom he claims, quite honestly, to love. The father laughs off the whole matter. It’s unclear to me just what is implied, unless he is not the first man to approach the father for her hand in marriage, before going into the Air Force.
• Dennis Wynne – Love Me, Love My Juke-Box (pages 41-42)
  A young man in love pushes his piano through town and under the window of the young lady he loves, in order to satisfy her desire to be musically serenaded. Sadly, she despises pianists!
• Brett Ogilvie – Keep Your Hair On (pages 45-50)
  A slightly weird tale involving a man’s desire to grow hair on his head. After various quack treatments, oils, salve, lotions, etc., he discusses the issue with his friend. Said friend learns of a doctor (of sorts) claiming to have discovered a sensational cure. However, he hasn’t had anyone to 100% try it on. Applying it to the hairless-one, the next day, he becomes covered head-to-toe in hair. Despite shaving it throughout the day, it keeps quickly re-growing. Eventually, they re-approach the “doctor,” who sprays weed-killer all over the man! The next morning the pair return, and he is again covered in hair! The spray failed. The friend slowly rolls up his sleeves, and suggests, at the very least, a full refund.