Created y W.R. Burnett
(1899-1982)
Published by retro press Stark House forty-five years after his death, Man With a Thousand Enemies (2025) is a feisty little read. No, it doesn’t stand up to the author’s classics (The Asphalt Jungle, Little Caesar), but it is a quick, satisfying blast of hard-boiled pulp: terse, taut and generally fast-paced, full of quick action and snappy patter.Okay, it’s also occasionally sloppy, mawkish and confusing, but given that it was written possibly eighty or so years ago, that adds to its charm.
Thirty-year old ex-cop and ex-conJIMMY DEVORE is the bodyguard for Gordon Minot, the occasionally ill-tempered and impulsive middle-aged millionaire widower of the title. Minot is a piece of work; the big wheel in Steel City, owner of more than a few local businesses, including the plant that’s the town’s biggest employer, and the possessor of more political clout than he probably needs, or knows what to do with.
Brusque, opinionated and not always able to read the room, Minot is always quick to put Jimmy — or anyone else — in their place, and he’s a difficult, if generally well-meaning, boss.
Still, Minot leaves Jimmy with little time to tend to his on/off relationship with his demanding girlfriend Eve, or the growing attraction he’s feeling for Minot’s daughter Jean, who also lives — as does Jimmy —on the Minot estate.
I know people are getting killed, and there’s a surprising amount of violence going on in the “good” part of town, but the whole working class Eve/rich girl Jean rivalry is a clunker of a side plot; more Betty and Veronica than expected, more wheel-spinning than plot-driving.
Especially when attempts are made on Minot’s life, and various notorious criminals are spotted around town. Is it coincidence, or is there something happening?
In his savvy introduction to the the collection (the publisher paired the book with The Loop, another unpublished novel), David Laurence Wilson speculates that Man of a Thousand Enemies may have been intended as a screen treatment, due to its being “episodic and character-based.”
I think Wilson may have been on to something. Because the story doesn’t so much flow as jump from scene to scene. And the snappy patter snaps merrily along, sorta like the machines that chatter and the roscoes that spit throughout the story.
I mean, really? Pass the popcorn.
And Stark House? Please go through those archives again. Because maybe Jimmy’s got another adventure tucked away somewhere. I can’t guarantee I’ll love it, but I’m pretty sure I’d like it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William Riley (W.R.) Burnett was born November 25, 1899 in Springfield, Ohio. Moving to Chicago in 1927, he developed an interest in gangsters (and may have known Al Capone), which prompted him to write his first noir novel, Little Caesar, in 1929. Soon after that overnight success, Burnett moved to Los Angeles, eventually writing 36 novels — including High Sierra and The Asphalt Jungle and over sixty screenplays (including another gangster classic, 1932’s Scarface), as well as songs, plays and short stories. Nominated twice for an Academy Award, he received both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery writers of America and an O. Henry Memorial Award for his short story “Dressing-Up”, published in Harper’s in November 1929.
COLLECTIONS
- The Loop/Man with a Thousand Enemies (2025) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- I Could Be Your Bodyguard (Hey!)
Personal Security Specialists
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
