Retro Review: Knights of the Open Palm (1923) by Carroll John Daly

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 This book collects three stories: Knights of the Open Palm (1923), Dolly (1922), and The False Burton Combs (1922). All first appeared in Black Mask Magazine but come to us now from Steeger Properties which is an agent for Daly's estate.

I happened upon this book via a review in Paperback Warrior and decided to give it a try having read one of Daly's Race Williams novels several years ago.

Paperback Warrior credits Daly with creating the hardboiled detective genre. Indeed, this first Race Williams story appeared before Hammett's Continental Op hit the pages. Race is also the direct inspiration for Spillane's Mike Hammer. In fact, the first use of the term "hardboiled" that I've found is in the 1927 Black Mask publication of the Race Williams novel, The Snarl of the Beast.

Race is approached by Ernest Thompson, a wealthy farmer from Clinton, whose son Willie had recognized some of the Klan tarring and feathering a woman. He's abducted before the trial and the case disappears. Without a prosecution, the father expected to see Willie returned but that doesn't happen. Earnest is relieved to learn that Race isn't afraid of taking on the Klan and offers him a large paycheck.

Race finds a bitter ex-member of the Klan who gives him the secret passwords, handshake, and salute. Armed with this information and his two trusty automatics, Race heads to Clinton where he immediately ruffles feathers. Three Klansmen, in robes, appear at his hotel room to warn him away but Race is not intimidated, faster at the draw, and sends them packing. With some needed information from a townsman with no love for the Klan, Race is soon hot on the trail of young Willie and his fate.

Race is brash, supremely confident in his ability to come out on top no matter what, quick with a wisecrack and his guns. Race tells us he isn't a murderer but if someone pulls on him you bet they're going down ... with a bullet between the eyes (his preferred target). With his vainglorious posturing, Race is practically a caricature of the hardboiled detective but he carries it off making a memorable character and a great way to launch a genre. I would also say that Race is a direct descendant of the old west gunslinger hired to ride into town and sort things out. If you think about it, 1923 wasn't that far removed in time from the American frontier.

Daly's take on the Klan is pure parody. He portray's them as conmen and thieves out to make a buck using their "lofty" ideals as a cover. You really can't read the depiction of their salute without smiling. Honestly it reminded me of the high sign in the Little Rascals. I don't know how bold it was to ridicule the Klan in 1923 but Daly doesn't hold back. Race, of course, has no respect for Klan and has no qualms about taking some of them down. I do like Race's wry comment on the influence of the Klan in town that some of the Klan were actually in jail for as much as ten minutes.

I'd definitely recommend this story particularly if you want to see the origins of the hardboiled detective.

There are two other stories in this book, Dolly and The False Burton Combs.

Dolly is very different than the Race Williams stories. Here, a medical student falls in love with a showgirl and they come up with a devious way to convince his father to let them marry. It doesn't go well. The story is predictable and read-and-forget. It does verge on Poe-like horror with its theme of insanity and the narrator's creepy obsession with the Dolly's throat

The False Burton Combs is much better. The first person narrator (don't think he's named) makes his living conning the conmen. He comes across as a Race Williams prototype, brash, confident, good with a gun, He's not a bad guy, he isn't after the innocent, but has no friends in law enforcement. He is hired by Burton Combs to impersonate him and his father's hotel on Nantucket. It seems that Combs ratted on some very bad people, some of which went to prison. He needs to lay low and our narrator is very capable of taking care of himself. Like Race, he is quick and sure with a gun. It looks like young Combs might be in the clear but then three men who don't blend with the holiday crowd show up and it gets messy. This is a pretty good story that has a neat little twist.

So two out of three stories isn't bad. Overall, this is a worthy read and at $2.99 for the Kindle version a steal.

Keywords: crime fiction, hardboiled detectives, Ku Klux Klan in fiction