The Corpse Came Calling is a 1942 novel by Brett Halliday, the pen name for Davis Dresser.
It is an installment in the long-running pulp novel series about tough-guy Miami private detective, Michael Shayne. One idle afternoon "six months after Pearl Harbor," Shayne is canoodling in the office with Phyllis, his combination wife and Sexy Secretary. Shayne is just through saying that he doesn't want any detective business to interrupt a pleasant afternoon, when a strange man staggers through the door to the office.
The strange man is Jim Lacy, a rather sleazier private detective and acquaintance of Shayne's from Shayne's New York days. Lacy takes one step into the office before collapsing. He gasps out the words "They—didn't—get—", before he dies. As it turns out, Lacy had been shot three times. The thing "they" didn't get was a torn scrap from a cardboard ticket, which Shayne finds clutched in Lacy's hand.
Shayne could just call the cops and have them deal with the dead guy, but then there would be no book. Instead, he decides to pursue this mystery himself, and tells Phyllis to wait until he makes it upstairs to their apartment before she calls the police. He goes upstairs and almost immediately has a beautiful woman come to his door. The woman, Helen Brinstead, says she was referred to him by Jim Lacy, whom she doesn't know is dead. Helen wants Shayne to kill her husband Mace Morgan, a murderous escaped convict.
From there, a complicated mystery plays out, one that eventually grows to include a cell of Nazi spies stealing U.S. Navy secret plans.
Tropes:
- Almost Dead Guy: The story kicks off when Jim Lacy, shot three times, makes his way into Shayne's office and mutters three cryptic words before he expires.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: The women in the Michael Shayne series were always busty and hot. Shayne insists to Phyllis that nothing improper happened between him and Helen but also admits that Helen has "one of those figures that melt into a Lastex bathing-suit."
- Call-Back: At the beginning, Shayne lifts $200 from Jim Lacy's wallet and calls it a "retainer" to investigate his murder. At the end, he tells Phyllis to see if Lacy had any next of kin, and if so, to send them $200.
- Conflict Ball: After two goons assault Shayne and nearly rape Phyllis, only to be chased away by beat cops, Phyllis points out that Shayne doesn't actually have a case or a client here, and could just give the torn scrap of cardboard to the cops and forget about it. Shayne, being Shayne, insists on keeping the information and investigating himself.
- Contrived Coincidence: It's a little neat that Barton the crooked banker, and Houseman/Gorstmann the hoodlum, both independently cooked up tales of German espionage as part of their schemes to retrieve the money.
- Cry into Chest:
- Phyllis "relaxed against him, sobbing pressing her face against his chest," after Shayne re-enters his office and pretends to be surprised by finding the cops and a dead body there with Phyllis.
- Helen does the exact same thing when telling Shayne how scared she is of her criminal husband, but in this case it's part of a seduction tactic to get him to do her dirty work.
- Dies Wide Open: "There was that look of dismay, of reproach, congealed in his open eyes" after Mace Morgan falls to the ground dead, after Helen shot him.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: The torn piece of cardboard clutched in Jim Lacy's hand. It turns out to be part of a train station claim check for a Briefcase Full of Money, which was torn into three pieces—and eventually turned into four pieces when the goons who took the piece out of Jim Lacy's hand didn't realize that they tore it again and he was still holding part of the ticket.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The formula for the Michael Shayne series. Events play out over a busy 24 hours.
- Femme Fatale: Helen Brinstead, who made up her sob story and in fact was part of the plot to rob the money from the beginning. She betrayed her husband to the cops over the robbery, double-crossed Lacy and shot him to death, then manipulated events so that she could kill Mace and make it look like self-defense.
- His Name Is...: All Jim Lacy has time to say is "They—didn't—get," before he expires.
- Idiot Ball: Peter Painter, Miami Beach detective, took Pearson at his word about being an FBI agent based on nothing more than a telegram from J. Edgar Hoover, and didn't even ask to see his ID. Shayne points out that Hoover would hardly be likely to send telegrams directly to random Miami cops, and that if it had been a real counterespionage investigation the Miami field branch of the FBI would have handled it.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Shayne, enjoying a quiet afternoon with Phyllis, says "Here's to a continued dearth of clients. May they avoid my office—", when a dying Jim Lacy stumbles in.
- Impersonating an Officer: "Pearson", the FBI agent investigating the espionage case, is actually a New York crooked banker named Barton. And there is no FBI spy case, as Barton is really trying to retrieve a Briefcase Full of Money and made up his story to get the help of dumb Miami cops.
- Kimono Fanservice: Shayne enjoys how Phyllis looks, relaxing at home in "an old kimono."
- Lingerie Scene: Helen, hiding from the cops in Shayne's bedroom, changes into "one of Phyllis's silk nightgowns" in an effort to seduce Shayne.
- MacGuffin: The plans for "a new and secret weapon" in anti-submarine warfare, said to be in the briefcase at the train station. Ultimately averted when it turns out that "Pearson" made the whole story up.
- Narrative Profanity Filter: Shayne asks Grayson the newspaper editor if his reporter Tim O'Rourke has made contact and receives "a blasphemous negative reply." (O'Rourke hasn't called in because he is tied up in Shayne's apartment.)
- No Honor Among Thieves: Averted. Barton is a thief and a murderer but "I have a conscience," which is why he didn't retrieve the bag of money immediately. He wanted to get his partner Morgan out of jail first.
- Pretty Little Headshots: "A red spot appeared in Mace Morgan's forehead" after his own wife, Helen, plugs him.
- Spy Fiction: Seemingly a departure for the Michael Shayne series, as Shayne gets mixed up in an FBI investigation of German spies stealing U.S. Navy secrets. Averted in the end when Shayne reveals that the entire espionage story is made up.
- Strange-Syntax Speaker: Otto, a German immigrant and restaurant owner who says that business has fallen off badly since the United States got into the war. He says stuff like "Could I in my office see you after the dinner is ended? There is somethings for talk in private that I your advice would ask."
- Thrill Seeker: Phyllis pegs Shayne as this, saying that he's inserting himself into a case that doesn't really concern him because he likes danger and "the continued imminence of death."
- Wall Slump: Gorstmann falls against the wall and "slid down to a sitting position" after getting shot twice in the stomach. He promptly dies.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Tim O'Rourke, Shayne's reporter buddy, is usually indulgent of his various shenanigans. But when he finds out that Shayne was hiding Helen in his apartment and he had the missing piece of the claim check ticket, his patience snaps. He says that this time Shayne has gone too far, that withholding information "vital for our defense" is too much. He has to apologize at the end of the book when Shayne makes The Reveal that Pearson is an impostor and there is no secret information and no German spies.
- Would Hit a Girl: Shayne finally gets tired of Helen's relentless sexual come-ons and slaps her in the mouth.
