Halo in Brass – Howard Browne

Halo in Brass is the third Paul Pine detective novel from Howard Browne published in 1949. Browne made his living editing pulp magazines before making the pilgrimage to Hollywood. I discovered Browne after reading about him in reference to the work of Raymond Chandler. Browne’s ambition was to create a mystery novel where the killer was the least likely suspect. Naturally, I found this quite intriguing. As I’ve mentioned before in a previous post, the giallo film is what led me by the hand to the crime novel. Gialli, at times, thrive on convoluted twisty turns and sudden “gotcha” out of no-where killer revelations that can be both surprising and disappointingly illogical. Once I discovered that Browne worked to construct his novel in a way that guessing the killer was to be the challenge, I had to see for myself how it compared.

In short, Halo in Brass delivers the goods. Hometown Nebraska girl Laura Freemont has been missing for eight months in the Windy City. Her parents hire detective Paul Pine to track her down. Pine has a penchant for wise cracks and humorous observations while he investigates Laura Freemont’s known associates. Oddly enough, as his investigation unwinds Laura’s contacts start turning up dead and it’s not long before Pine is a suspect.

Browne acknowledges in his introduction to the McMillan Press reprint that his book negatively centers on lesbian themes. He also considers his own beliefs were negative, but changed since the timeframe of the original writing. The novel includes salacious subject matter considering the book came out in the late forties. Comparatively, the novel seems tasteful when stacked up to contemporary films such as Basic Instinct or Jade. However, placing a work in the context of its era adds a specific layer of social observation that’s pertinent at the time written. I think it’s important to know how those themes resonated in the time-period and how they play into the construction of the narrative and the audience’s perceptions.

Most importantly, the novel is good hard-boiled fun. It doesn’t beat around the bush and the plot works in a logical fashion. The one aspect of the story that really pays off is the revelation of the killer. I won’t spoil it, but it does work even despite countless movies and books that I’ve been exposed to using a similar plot mechanism. Browne even uses a Mark Twain reference that helps solve the mystery! I am currently tracking down Browne’s other novels including the other Paul Pine mysteries. Several titles were originally published under the pen name of John Evans. Browne died in 1999.