Dan Hyland, Police Reporter

This book is not one I had ever really planned to purchase and read.  I had seen it numerous times at various used book stores and antique malls, but, again, I'm not overly interested in books with male lead characters.  I prefer the female-led mysteries, as they seem to be more mystery-focused and less adventure-focused.  However, this book happened to be at a local used book store that I frequent, and it was there on the shelf week after week, month after month, and I finally told myself that if the store ever has a sale, I will get it and see what it's about.  Well, wouldn't you know it, the store had a sale, so I decided that since it was less than $10 and it had a pretty good, in tact dust jacket, I would bite the bullet.  And while the story is not exactly my normal cup of tea, so to speak, I would say it was worth the small price I paid for it.

Dan Hyland, Police Reporter is a story about ... well ... Dan Hyland, who happens to be ... a police reporter.  The book opens with a brief, two-page introduction to Dan and explains how he became a reporter for the Chicago Daily Star.  Then it moves right into a dangerous scenario, as Dan must fly a plane into Chicago during a turbulent storm, then he joins his fellow newshawk, Billy Parker, as they evade the guns of Jules Sparoni and his gangsters - after all, it's the evidence against Sparoni and his men that Dan has brought back to Chicago!  And if it gets published in the newspaper, then Sparoni is done for good.  Of course, the he and Billy make it to the Star, and their editor, grumpy old George Anderson Gargan, takes the article with barely a word of praise and tells Dan to head home and get some sleep.

After such an exciting opening scene, the story slows down a bit.  In the apartment that Dan shares with Billy, he opens a letter postmarked from Hollywood, California and receives some very unexpected news - his uncle Ray Hyland, who helped Dan make it in the newspaper world, has gifted Dan with the Norfolk Clarion, a small, weekly newspaper in Norfolk, Indiana, which Ray Hyland had built up and turned it into quite a success (p. 36). It seems his uncle previously sold the paper, but the new owner could not handle it, fell into default in payments, allowed the paper to become a mouthpiece for the criminal element in the area, and nearly bankrupt the paper.  Dan's uncle is hoping he can rebuild it into the great paper it once was.  Of course, that would mean leaving his established career in Chicago and starting all over in a small town.

The story then picks up the pace as Dan moves to Norfolk, meets the current editor of the paper, Leslie Wysong (who Dan mistakenly believes is a man and is shocked to discover Leslie is actually a pretty young woman [p. 88]), and begins his new career as the owner of the Norfolk Clarion.  His first order of business is to figure out who "the Ghost Gang" is that has been terrorizing and robbing the Chicago and Southern railroad's Midnight Special.  Dan figures if he can solve that mystery and stop the attacks on the train, he can help boost sales for the paper and get it back on track.  When it turns out that the city's big-wig, Con Sheldon, may be behind the robberies, it only makes Dan more determined than ever - and with Leslie and the rest of his newspaper staff joining his crusade, he can't help but feel success is within his grasp.  But Con has other ideas and puts into motion a new plan that does more than just rob the mail and money from the train - it makes the entire train disappear in the middle of the night!  How did he do it and where is the train now?  Dan publishes a special edition, letting the citizens of Norfolk know that he will solve the crime and make his city safe - but can he accomplish that before time runs out?

The majority of the book follows Dan (and later Billy, as he travels to Norfolk to get the story for his Chicago paper) as he tracks down the missing Midnight Special and fights the criminal element led by Con Sheldon (gotta love that name - "Con" - pretty much says everything about the man!).  I give the author credit for coming up with a creative means whereby Con and his men were able to "steal" the entire train and make it disappear between stops.

And speaking of the author - Norton Hughes Jonathan (almost sounds like his name is backwards, doesn't it?).  I have never heard of him before this book, and looking online, it appears he was not an overly prolific author.  He did write some books under the "Eagle Scounts banner - The Movie Scout (or The Thrill Hunters), The Lost Empire (or Larry Hannon Carries On), and Speedway Cyclone, none of which I've ever heard of, let alone seen.  It appears he also wrote another book called Gentlemen Aren't Sissies, which is toted as a "guidebook" for the modern young man of the 1930s.  Interestingly enough, that book is illustrated by none other than Pelagie Doane, who provided the art for the early Judy Bolton books!  What little else I could find on the author states he began writing at the age of seven, when he started his own little newspaper called the South End Scoop.  I suppose that may account for his writing a novel about a newspaper reporter, since it is something he apparently thought of becoming when he was a child!

Not being a series, this is the one and only appearance of Dan Hyland, and while the story was a half-way decent read, it's probably not a character I would continue to read if it were an ongoing series of books.  Although, I will admit, the story does feel like something that would have made a decent noir film in the 1930s or '40s.

 

One last thing I needed to make mention of - something odd I have discovered about Goldsmith books is that the first chapters usually begin on page 11, 13, or 15 - yet, I am unable to figure out how they come up with that numbering, as there are never 10, 12, or 14 pages before that!  So, I'm at a loss as to explain why they start the opening chapter at such a high number, instead of as page 1 (or, at the very least, the actual page number for the page count that comes before!). 

RATING:  7 quarry holes filled with cold, jagged stones out of 10 for a crime story with an ingenuous way of making a train disappear!