September 7, 2011

Cocktail Talk: Alibi Baby

Alibi Baby, by Stewart Sterling (who I’ve never read before, as far as I know. Which may not be too far, as the old pulp writers played pretty fast and loose with nom de plumes and such) falls into the perhaps sparsely populated genre of hotel detective story. It has nothing to do with the 1945 adoption drama movie (another sparsely populated genre). Our hero here is operating in a snazzy New York hotel, where a number of murders occur around an oil scheme. Or something like that. His name is Gil Vine (great name, really), and he’s hardboiled enough to say things such as, “Don’t play me for a sap!” without batting an eye. The murders begin after a night of drinking, which I like, though the drugged drinks don’t do much for me (they mess with the taste, if nothing else). But the party sounds like it was loads of fun (before the drugging, that is). Just read over the list of drinks:

He began to dress, reluctantly. “If there was any dope in Monsieur’s wine, I had nothing to do with it. He was mixing cocktails and Champagne, vodka and dessert wine; it was enough to put anyone under the table.”

“The Tokay was drugged,” I said. “Heinz had some of it; it put him out, too. You were paid to load the wine. The man who paid you hoped you’d be the one to help Lejourd up to his room after he passed out.”

 

Alibi Baby, Stewart Sterling

Rathbun on Film