[LO2]∎ PDF Gratis The Screaming Mimi Fredric Brown 9780881844498 Books

The Screaming Mimi Fredric Brown 9780881844498 Books

Download As PDF : The Screaming Mimi Fredric Brown 9780881844498 Books

The Screaming Mimi Fredric Brown 9780881844498 Books

This is my favorite novel of his mostly for nostalgic reasons. Several others, such as Lenient Beast and Night of the Jabberwocky have interesting plots too. The writing may be a little sharper here. The characters are vivid and realistic. There's less here of the sometime unnecessary exposition that one gets so much of in the Ed and Am novels where it seems like they take a paragraph or so to explain their actions for every action they take. It reminds me that Brown came from the pulp era when they paid by the word.

The nostalgia here is twofold. It's great to read a traditional(I use the word loosely here) mystery that contains no gratuitous, tedious and unnecessary sex scenes. I know that sex sells but to whom? If I want a tasteless sex scene, like those which contaminate Ed McBain's works, I'll look for it somewhere else besides my detective novels. The subject matter in The Screaming Mimi is risque but it never becomes cheap and vulgar. I understand that the standards were stricter then but I somehow can't see Fredric Brown turning this into a sex romp a la Lawrence Block if this book were written today.

The other part of the nostalgia is for the Chicago of my youth-the tawdry skid row of North Clark street where nestled in between the strip joints and adult book stores and endless bars was the rare book shop of Noel and Sam where I would buy first editions of Sax Rohmer and mint copies of Weird Tales. There was another book shop next to the 666 Clark strip joint which Jack Ruby worked in. The owner of that book store was somewhat ill tempered and didn't care for youths, nor for that matter, did Noel and Sam, so one tread carefully. The strip joints of West Madison street which Brown refers to were burnt down in the '68 riots and all relocated to the suburbs. Brown brought the whole scene vividly back to me and it gave an another dimension of enjoyment for me.

The plot here concerns a stripper who appears to be stalked by a serial killer.
If you're someone who's hooked on the cliche ridden procedurals with the standard dialogue, no exposition whatever, chases and endless shootings, overripe sex scenes, and boring terminology then this book would have no appeal. If you like odd and entertaining mysteries then this would be worth a few hours of your time.

By the way, there was a movie based on this book which I wouldn't recommend at all. 'Loosely based' are the key words.


Tags : The Screaming Mimi [Fredric Brown] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Bill Sweeney is a down-and-out lush. He is also a top-notch reporter. Aroused by the naked beauty of the Ripper's fourth victim--or near-victim--Sweeney pulls himself together and goes after the killer. As he puts questions and answers together,Fredric Brown,The Screaming Mimi,Carroll & Graf Pub,0881844497,VIB0881844497,Mystery & Detective - General,Crime & mystery,Fiction,Fiction Mystery & Detective General,MysterySuspense

The Screaming Mimi Fredric Brown 9780881844498 Books Reviews

"On top of the radio-phono, on the half that didn't lift up, stood a little ten-inch-high black statuette. It was the figure of a naked girl, her arms thrust out to ward off a ripper, her mouth open in a silent, eternal scream. Her body, which would have been beautiful relaxed, was subtly distorted, rigid with terror. Only a sadist could have liked it. Sweeney wasn't one; he shuddered a little and averted his eyes.

But it woke him up, seeing the (black statuette). It woke him up to a nightmare." - THE SCREAMING MIMI p. 64

This short mystery is a perfect example of noir writing at its best. Published in 1949, it is dated, but gives the reader an excellent slice of Post-WW2 big city life over 60 years ago. The author, Fredric Brown, was a prolific writer of that bygone era with an amazingly off-beat view of America at that time. Brown also had a great sense of humor. His likeable hero, newspaper reporter for the Chicago "Blade" John Sweeney, is, I think, more of an anti-hero with a heavy duty drinking problem, who wakes up on a park bench one day after a long bender and talks to God. Sweeney looks at life through the jaundiced eye of a professional newspaperman. He isn't surprised by much; except when he first sees Yolanda, the beautiful, blonde, stripper victim of a brutal attack by....well, you'll have to read the book to find out who done what to whom.

I highly recommend this novel. 5 BIG STARS
I'd never read any Frederic Brown before reading a story of his in an anthology. The editor clearly thought a lot of Frederic Brown, and his other stories and novels sounded intriguing, so I bought this first to sample his work. It has been made into at least two movies, one with the same title starring Anita Ekberg, and one adapted even more differently by Argento, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. The latter is the best adaptation, I think, while the Ekberg movie I found frankly dull and unimaginative. Forget the movies, though -- the novel is slow-moving at first but gains momentum, and though you may guess how it's all going to turn out, it's still rather riveting the way the author ends the story.

In regards to the particular edition I bought, the Black Mask paperback, I can only say I hope someone will reprint this and do a better job. The cover graphic is rather nice, but within the first three pages they repeat an entire passage that runs several paragraphs long. I counted also at least ten typos, which makes me think they either don't bother with proof-reading or this publisher is simply using some sort of OCR to scan a previously published book and selling it without giving credit. I find this to be the case more and more with some books I've purchased. Regardless, if you can get through these errors, I am glad the book has been reprinted at all. It didn't seriously hinder my reading experience, although I found it odd.
The Screaming Mimi by renown author Frederic Brown is told in the third person but from the point of view of protagonist William Sweeney. Sweeney is a jaded Chicago newspaperman with a serious drinking problem.
A serial woman killer is on the loose and Sweeney becomes convinced that the key to solving the case is somehow tied to a haunting gift shop statuette nicknamed The Screaming Mimi.
This classic crime novel from the late 1940s is hard edged but at the same time laced with humor. Though the plotting is rather farfetched, reader interest is successfully maintained from beginning to end. Recommended to fans of mid 20th century mystery and crime fiction.
This is my favorite novel of his mostly for nostalgic reasons. Several others, such as Lenient Beast and Night of the Jabberwocky have interesting plots too. The writing may be a little sharper here. The characters are vivid and realistic. There's less here of the sometime unnecessary exposition that one gets so much of in the Ed and Am novels where it seems like they take a paragraph or so to explain their actions for every action they take. It reminds me that Brown came from the pulp era when they paid by the word.

The nostalgia here is twofold. It's great to read a traditional(I use the word loosely here) mystery that contains no gratuitous, tedious and unnecessary sex scenes. I know that sex sells but to whom? If I want a tasteless sex scene, like those which contaminate Ed McBain's works, I'll look for it somewhere else besides my detective novels. The subject matter in The Screaming Mimi is risque but it never becomes cheap and vulgar. I understand that the standards were stricter then but I somehow can't see Fredric Brown turning this into a sex romp a la Lawrence Block if this book were written today.

The other part of the nostalgia is for the Chicago of my youth-the tawdry skid row of North Clark street where nestled in between the strip joints and adult book stores and endless bars was the rare book shop of Noel and Sam where I would buy first editions of Sax Rohmer and mint copies of Weird Tales. There was another book shop next to the 666 Clark strip joint which Jack Ruby worked in. The owner of that book store was somewhat ill tempered and didn't care for youths, nor for that matter, did Noel and Sam, so one tread carefully. The strip joints of West Madison street which Brown refers to were burnt down in the '68 riots and all relocated to the suburbs. Brown brought the whole scene vividly back to me and it gave an another dimension of enjoyment for me.

The plot here concerns a stripper who appears to be stalked by a serial killer.
If you're someone who's hooked on the cliche ridden procedurals with the standard dialogue, no exposition whatever, chases and endless shootings, overripe sex scenes, and boring terminology then this book would have no appeal. If you like odd and entertaining mysteries then this would be worth a few hours of your time.

By the way, there was a movie based on this book which I wouldn't recommend at all. 'Loosely based' are the key words.