The Crazy Mixed-Up Corpse by Michael Avallone

It is not about social snobbery, or attempts to join the rich. The book is about people who represent emotional needs of Noon. Oddly, this helps the emotional sincerity of the book. Much of the book is set within a few blocks of Noon's office, in a series of near-slum locations occupied by the working poor, Noon among them. Even though the cowboy is now a well to do gangster, his poor Texas origins are conspicuous. Ed Noon spends the entire book among characters of working class origin. While private eyes tend to be poor, their work regularly brings them into contact with the rich and upper crust, in most authors. It is part of the way Avallone's characters talk about fundamental human needs.Īvallone breaks from mystery history in a number of ways. This human quality is extremely refreshing. He conveys a sense of being blessed by the heroine's attentions. He goes on to share with the reader his almost unbearable loneliness. When the heroine tells him she finds him attractive, he is almost pathetically grateful. Avallone's rich writing style also helps convey a lot of feeling to the reader.Įd Noon is the least sexually arrogant private eye in mystery history. It is like an eruption directly from the inside of someone's fantasy life. The whole book has a surrealistic quality, in that everything it is emotionally charged. The feelings they represent come over to the reader with astonishing clarity and emotional impact. They are described with overwhelming vividness by Avallone. All of these characters seem to come right out of his subconscious, and represent deep emotional longings on his part. The handsome cowboy character also fascinates Noon. The two women in the book represent an emotionally sustaining woman, and cheap attractiveness respectively. The Chinese kids represent Noon's desire to have kids. Policeman Mike Monks is the hero's best friend, and someone who watches over him like a father. Many of the characters in the book represent emotional needs of the hero. The characters in Crazy are especially vivid.

Also like Crossen, Avallone includes sympathetic minority characters, in this case, a Chinese laundry man and his family.

Like Crossen, this is an escapist tale, with little of the angst associated with Raymond Chandler. Michael Avallone's The Crazy Mixed-Up Corpse (1957) is a private eye novel from the same era as Kendell Foster Crossen's tales of Milo March. Avallone, Michael - The Crazy Mixed Up Corpse

The Crazy Mixed-Up Corpse by Michael Avallone