Retro Review: A Bullet for Cinderella by John D. MacDonald

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Keywords: crime fiction, crime thriller

If you mention John D. MacDonald (JDM), people, if they know the name at all, immediately think of the 22 books in the Travis McGee series, the first of which appeared in 1964 and the last in 1985. This is certainly a good thing to be known for since these are excellent mystery/crime/thrillers that are still readable today.

But JDM has a long list of standalone thrillers beginning with The Brass Cupcake in 1950. More often than not every year since 1950 saw a new JDM book published. He even ventured away from thriller to write three science fiction novels. As good as the Travis McGee books are, JDM's standalone thrillers represent some really fine writing. Ed Gorman has a nice article on JDM and his standalones on the Mystery Scene website: My Ten Favorite John D. MacDonald Standalone Novels.

A Bullet for Cinderella isn't on Gorman's list of favorite standalones but it is a good, solid thriller. My Kindle copy identifies it as one of the "noir masters" but it really isn't noir so don't be misled. It would be more noir if it was told from the viewpoint of the villain of the story, Earl Fitzmartin. The cover and cover blurb are also a bit misleading. Mind you, I like the cover but it represents a small part of the book. I really can't explain the cover without spoiling the story.but I will say that it's worth getting there.

Tal Howard comes to the town of Hillston looking for treasure. His cover is that he is writing a book about the men who died during the Korean War in the Chinese camp where Tal was also a prisoner. While in the prison camp Tal was friends with Timmy Warden who made a deathbed confession that he had embezzled $60,000 from the family business. His only clue to the location of the buried money is the enigmatic clue, "Cindy would know". Being a POW changed Tal and nothing about life after repatiation satisfied him, not the job or girl that waited for him. Restless, he took of for the treasure hoping it would fill the emptiness within him.

When Tal arrives in Hillston, he finds that he has been preceded by Earl Fitzmartin who was in prison camp with Tal and Timmy and who overheard Timmy's confession. He wants the $60K. Tal has no love for Fitzmartin, in fact he and other prisoners vowed to track him down and kill him after the war more for what he didn't do than anything he did do.

Using his cover as a writer, Tal begins his search for the mysterious Cindy all the while shadowed by the menacing Fitzmartin. One of the people he "interviews" is a former girlfriend of Timmy's, Ruth Stamm to whom he is strongly attracted.

Tal not only has to contend with Fitzamartin dogging his steps but the local police aren't too happy with him either. They think he might be a private detective looking into the disappearance of the wife of Timmy's brother George who apparently left town with a salesman in the dark of night.

For someone who is not a detective, Tal does a pretty good job of trying to track down the elusive Cindy and I would say that his approach is logical but with lots of dead ends and frustrations to keep the tension up.

One of the characteristics of JDM's writing are his observations on society, people, and behaviors. Personally I enjoy this aspect of his writing. In the first chapter he describes Tal's reaction upon driving through Hillston:

Standardization had given most of our small cities the same look. Plastic and glass brick store fronts. Woolworth's and J.C. Penney and Liggett and Timely and the chain grocery. The essential character of Hillston had been watered down by this standardization and yet there was more individuality left than in many other cities. Here was a flavor of leisure, of mild manners and quiet pleasures. No major highway touched the city. It was in an eddy apart from the great current.

MacDonald wasn't a great fan of homogenization. I love that last sentence. It's simple but conveys much.

Later in the book, JDM describes a shack where his investigation has led him:

It had a sagging porch, auto parts stamped into the mud of the yard, dingy Monday washing flapping on a knotted line, a disconsolate tire hanging from a tree limb, and a shiny new television aerial.

You have 4 signs of poverty and despair then he finishes with the incongruity of the television aerial. It is this kind of writing the makes JDM appeal to me.

So, to wrap up, it's a solid, nicely plotted story. It's not the best nor the worst and it isn't noir but it is a good read. I recommend looking a Gorman's article, cited above, for outstanding examples of MacDonald's standalone thrillers.