Review of France and Richard Lockridge "Nathan Shapiro" Series

 

Series Three of Four

This series takes place in the same universe as Mr. and Mrs. North and Captain Heimrich. In fact, Shapiro’s police captain is none other than William “Bill” Wiegand of Mr. and Mrs. North. He appears only in that capacity, at least in the few that I have read. They were written between 1956 and 1980. Frances Lockridge died in 1963, so the last eight were written by Richard alone.

I will be honest — I’ve only read four of the eleven books in the series, because the library doesn’t have any of them and I’m too cheap to fork over $7.99 for the eight remaining books. I’m waiting for them to go on sale. I’ve also read the first three chapters of four of the books — they are “bonuses” at the end of the four I have read. I think that these three, plus the Captain Heimrich novel which he appears in, Murder Can’t Wait (1964), are a decent sample. They include the first novel, The Faceless Adversary (1956), 1961’s The Drill is Death, 1971’s Preach No More, and 1975’s Or Was He Pushed?

The first thing I notice is that these are much darker than the Mr. and Mrs. North or the Captain Heimrich (which were themselves darker than Jerry and Pam). Some people attribute this to Frances’ death, but she contributed to the first four (and most of the Heimrich), so I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s more that they wanted to write something different from what they had written earlier and that society had changed between the 1930s, when the short stories which introduced Pam and Jerry were written, and the post-War world of 1956.

While the books are set in Manhattan, it is an entirely different Manhattan from that inhabited by Mr. and Mrs. North. This is the Manhattan of the lower East Side and Greenwich Village, of narrow, twisting streets, dark alleys, and fourth-floor walk-ups, and of seedy dive bars, prostitutes and small time crooks. The mysteries feel more complicated and convoluted than those of the Norths’, as well. Shapiro himself is a darker character; we’d call him a “depressive” today and say that he suffers from “imposter syndrome.” We’re never told why. There may not even be a reason, other than it is his personality. His relationship with his wife, Rose, a school teacher, is warm and loving, and he has fond memories of his father. They live in working-class Brooklyn rather than the wealthy upper East Side of Manhattan. Again, my feeling is that the Lockridges wanted to write a character different from the Norths and Heimrich, just as Heimrich is different from the Norths. Oh, and they eventually get a dog — not cats.

Shapiro is a detective at the opening of The Faceless Adversary. His work on that case results in his promotion to lieutenant, a promotion he is convinced he does not deserve. This book serves as a transition between this series and the Heimrich series and also placed us firmly within that same universe, with the action moving between Manhattan and Brewster, New York, where an unnamed “large square detective” is heard to agree that the city cops want to take a certain action, “naturally.”

Beginning with The Drill is Death, the fourth in the series, he shares the role of main character with his young partner, Anthony (Tony) Cook, possibly because readers can only take so much self-pity in a single work. Cook also represents the “younger generation,” who were emerging as a major consumer market in 1961. He swears (very mildly) and has sex (behind closed doors) with his girlfriend, Rachel Farmer, an artist’s model, who sometimes poses in the nude. He meets her in the fifth book, Murder for Art’s Sake (1967), which is also the first book in the series written after Frances’ death — six years after The Drill is Death. Richard did not write any Mr. and Mrs. North mysteries after Frances died, but continued with the Captain Heimrich without a gap.

Just as the Heimrich novels explored issues of desegregation and redlining in the white suburbs, these novels address inner city issues, including racism, classism, and religious bigotry, and other contemporary problems as the series develops. At this point, the Lockridges are beginning to recycle plot lines, although the details and resolutions vary. In both The Faceless Adversary and The Drill is Death the main character is framed for murder. Or Was He Pushed?, like 1947’s Mr. and Mrs. North Untidy Murder feature the defenestration (I’ve waited decades to use that word!) of a magazine editor. Write Murder Down takes place in the world of publishing, as do many of the Mr. and Mrs. North, given that Jerry was a publisher. I have to admit that they are my favorite among all of the series, for obvious reasons.

I’m still hunting for the books in the fourth series, which is called “The Paul Lane Series,” but seems to morph into “The Bernard Simmons Series.” With luck, I’ll have worked it out by next month. If not — on to a different author!