The Scrambled Yeggs - Richard S. Prather

Running to around 40 novels and a number of novellas and short stories written over four decades, Richard S. Prather's work on the Shell Scott series feature great pulp crime writing and more than a measure of saucy humour. They deserves greater recognition, and I'll try and cover more as and when I get the opportunity.  

The Scrambled Yeggs, 1952

Opening line: "I was as uncomfortable as the defendant in a rape case".

Joe Brooks died in a traffic accident. A lot of people have died in traffic accidents recently and it's looking suspicious. Someone wants PI Sheldon Scott to look into Joe's death, and his leads takes him to Fleming Dragoon, who runs an illegal betting parlour that employed Joe. Along the way Shell drinks a lot of bourbon (even more than usual) and eats a lot of steak. It's important to keep his energy levels up on this case because there are a lot of deadly attractive women demanding his attention (more or less as many as usual). 

On a diet of steak, bourbon and women, Shell doesn't settle for half measures in any of these necessities, drinks being poured every couple of pages, usually in the company of a voluptuous willowy blonde. It's still a dangerous world for a PI, and for the keen journalist chasing him who has the bright idea of hiring a killer just to find out who is the organisation behind it. It doesn't seem such a great idea to Shell when he finds out the the journalist's bright idea includes setting Shell up as the target. 

It's no surprise then that Shell doesn't come out of this entirely unscathed, and not just from the hoods, but some of the woman are a bit rough too. Shell however proves to be tough enough and man enough to get results. The case in The Scrambled Yeggs is far from a straightforward one then; there's always a loose end or alibi that doesn't add up, but there is plenty of action, tense stand-offs and violence, to say nothing of a cracking simile or lecherous comment every couple of pages.

Favourite lines:

"She was no old bat. Maybe I should have started with the face, but if I had, I’d probably have missed all the fun I had getting to it."

"Stumble down three steps and you’re in the night club proper. Some people say night club improper."

"She was leaning over the table. Way over. I wondered if they were real or made out of plastic or something. If they were real, I wondered if they were insured. I wondered if I should have anything more to drink. “How about another drink?” she asked. Well, that settled that problem."

"She had on a smoky gray negligee that might have been a week’s work for a small spider."

"I’d already bumped into more peculiar characters than you’ll find on a ticket from a Chinese laundry." 

"The desk was as dirty as a censor’s subconscious and empty as a dead man’s eyes."

Reading notes: The Scrambled Yeggs by Richard S. Prather is included in the Shell Scott PI Mystery Series, Volume Five, part of an inexpensive six volume collection that covers the complete Shell Scott series (or as good as). The series is published as eBook/Kindle editions only by Wolfpack publishing. The Kindle edition is excellent, any of the sets worth sampling, the whole series worth collecting.