Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe

Charles Kelly has struck a blow for more than he might have imagined in his biography "Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe." The first and most important is a likely renewed interest in the neglected works of Dan J. Marlowe, (1914-1986) the former suspense novelist of Fawcett Gold Medal books, his paperbacks selling in the hundreds of thousands of copies in the 1960's and 70's. Kelly's second, important accomplishment is to put the lie to the notion that self- published work is always a shoddy and chaotic practice. Anyone looking to see how it should be done, has found the standard in this work. From the cover to the typeface and especially the beautifully edited and managed content, this publication rivals the best in the business. Although Kelly painstakingly acknowledges all help, ultimately self-publishers can only truly rely on a staff of one.I read this book after finishing a well- published biography of a far more famously dead writer whose author neglected to mention the writer's creative process, an omission I consider unforgivable. Which gets me to the heart of what is so compelling about this read. Kelly artfully blends his own sleuthing intrigue, detailing how he followed a thin golden vein of material on Marlowe's life until a meeting in Marlowe's home town gave him the mother lode; materials collected by someone who planned but never completed the biography process. Kelly's delight in his subject is so palpable that we feel his excitement as if we are handling the material ourselves. And it has the aroma of providence. Kelly and Marlowe are perfect for each other.Letters and other artifacts document the personal and professional side of Marlowe, including close relationships with noted bank robbers, murderers and sociopathic criminals. Some even became writing partners, both public and silent. If happy, settled people make for dull reading than this has it all, dangerous liaisons, financial desperation, sexual fetishism, foreign travel, and even a bout with amnesia, an ailment that seems somehow quaint for all its terror. When was the last time you heard that term?It's not surprising that Charles Kelly was a finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel of the Year Contest. This story unfolds like the best biographies; truth that reads as fiction, containing narrative drive, setups and plenty of payoffs along the way, satisfying, literate. Somehow, with authorial sleight-of-hand, Kelly manages Marlowe's enigmatic nature, artfully peeling back one trait a time. I was particularly intrigued at glimpses of Marlowe's creative process, from labored beginning to polished end product, finally producing "The Name of the Game is Death," a novel that Stephen King so admired that he dedicated one of his novels to him, citing Marlowe as a great influence on his own work.Marlowe, even in his heyday, kept looking for the big break that would "release him from the grind of banging out action-packed thrillers every few months." The workaday grim financial reality of pounding away on his beloved IBM Selectric is echoed in mid-list writers today. Only the tools have changed.Somehow Kelly manages to reconcile a character that seems at odds with itself. In fact he succeeds so well that Marlowe comes off as an old-fashioned, civic-minded gentleman despite his known and intimate associations with murderers. Images and stories create a portrait of the times and the man, a tidy, almost formally dressed, middle-aged gentleman writing pornography to make ends meet; a philanderer who carries around a picture of his long dead wife with him until his own end some thirty years later. A patriotic homebody, yet Marlowe moved to Mexico, in one of many efforts to stretch his slender resources to accommodate a bad booze habit and desire for space and solitude. The greater puzzle about this mystery writer is what took us so long to reacquaint ourselves with Marlowe, once the Edgar Award winning hard-boiled hero of Fawcett Gold Crest, a publishing company that our own Mark Howell once worked for. "Gunshots in Another Room The Forgotten Life of Dan J Marlowe," succeeds on two levels at least. I want to go out and order "The Name of the Game is Death," and "Killer With a Key," both considered to be "the most hardboiled, ever" and classics of the era, but before that, I want other work by Charles Kelly, whatever the genre."Gunshots in another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe," is available in both print and digital editions.

Charles Kelly is a novelist at heart. You'll see what I mean before you finish the first sentence of GUNSHOTS IN ANOTHER ROOM. This doesn't start out like your average bio, and halfway through the first page I knew I was going to like the book. For fans of Dan Marlowe, this is required reading; for hardboiled connoisseurs unfamiliar with Marlowe, you're in for a treat. You are indeed about to discover a forgotten life.After setting the hook and reeling me in, Kelly spends the next few chapters dispensing the required info on Marlowe's background. His early years set him on a course well-suited for his ultimate calling, only Marlowe didn't catch on until he started writing at age 43. A couple of years later his first two books are published. Then, in February of 1962, he publishes his most famous novel, THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH (Spoiler alert: If you haven't yet read NAME OF THE GAME, skip chapter 4 until you have done so. Kelly gives away key details regarding the main character that are better left alone until revealed in the novel. Come back to Kelly's take on it later).Now things get interesting. Al Nussbaum and Bobby "One Eye" Wilcoxson are introduced in chapter 5. They're real-life bank robbers now wanted for murder around the time Marlowe publishes NAME OF THE GAME. We follow Nussbaum and Marlowe through parallel narratives until their lives cross paths. Nussbaum's partner, Bobby Wilcoxson, is a dead ringer for the bank robber in Marlowe's book. Nussbaum is captured, sentenced to a long stretch in prison, and manages to contact Marlowe after reading his book. So begins a relationship that lasts decades, with the two of them becoming collaborators, friends, and eventual roommates.From here on out, GUNSHOTS IN ANOTHER ROOM maintains the novelistic pace of the first chapter while at the same time leaving no doubt of the authenticity of the material. Woven into the narrative are excerpts from Marlowe's novels; correspondence between Marlowe and his agents, editors and friends; quotes from those who knew him; and further excerpts from various newspaper articles and TV shows. There's even a psychiatric report on Marlowe's mental state while struck with amnesia. Kelly's postscript gives you a good idea of the time and effort (and luck) it took to produce the book.I've always thought that people read non fiction for information, fiction for entertainment. Here's your chance to be informed AND entertained. As for me, I'm going to dig out my old copy of THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH and reread it with a new-found appreciation.