Robert L. Fish

• Born: August 21, 1912
• Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
• Died: February 23, 1981
• Place of death: Trumbull, Connecticut

Types of Plot: Police procedural; thriller

Principal Series: Captain José da Silva, 1962-1975; Police Lieutenants, 1963-1976; Kek Huuygens, 1967-1976; Carruthers, Simpson, and Briggs, 1968-1979

Contribution

As Robert L. Fish said in numerous interviews and speeches, his work was written with the view to entertain. He wanted his characters to be realistic and their locales to be authentic, however, and believed that he wrote best when describing that with which he was familiar. His lifetime of travel and work throughout the world permitted him to achieve this authenticity naturally. With wit and charm, Fish informed his public of the relentless demands and scant rewards of the professional law enforcement agencies, the importance of one dedicated individual in a moment of crisis, and the universality of human foibles.

Fish’s craftsmanship is immediately apparent: His well-defined characters change and grow in sophistication and maturity in his series; his plots are constructed with care; and his prose is economical, cogent, and polished. His impressive body of work includes pastiche/parody, thrillers, and delightful short stories as well as his celebrated series.

Biography

Robert Lloyd Fish was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 21, 1912. He received a bachelor of science degree from the Case School of Applied Science, later Case Western Reserve University, in 1933 and served in the Ohio National Guard from 1933 to 1936. He married Mamie Kates in 1935, and the couple had two daughters. Fish’s career as an engineer was highly successful. He held numerous managerial positions in major companies, including Firestone Tire and Rubber. He was a consultant on vinyl plastics in many parts of the world—Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, and Venezuela, among others. When he submitted his first effort at detective fiction to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in 1960, he was forty-eight years old and had lived with his family in Rio de Janeiro for ten years.

Fish was to have as successful a career in writing as he had in engineering. Several popular series established his reputation after he received the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award for The Fugitive, written in 1962. He collected two more Edgars from that organization and served as its president in 1978. Two of his stories were made into films. Mute Witness (1963) was the basis for Bullitt (1968), starring Steve McQueen and Robert Vaughn, and The Assassination Bureau (1963), which was the completion of a Jack London spy story, was made into an English film with Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, and Curt Jurgens; the film, however, departs so far from the original as to be unrecognizable.

Failing health did not deter Fish. He had open heart surgery in 1971 but continued to work at his Connecticut home until his death on February 23, 1981, when he was found in his study, pen in hand. A moving tribute from his friends in a memorial section of The Armchair Detective indicates that he was also a humane and compassionate man. In 1984, the Mystery Writers of America established the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award, sponsored by the author’s estate. The award honors the best mystery short story by a previously unpublished author.

Analysis

Robert L. Fish’s career began in 1960 with a short story, “The Case of the Ascot Tie,” which introduced the memorable character of Schlock Homes. Eleven more Homes stories were written between 1960 and 1966, all of which first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Clearly, Fish was a student of Arthur Conan Doyle and knew the canon well enough to use the latter’s style and devices both creatively and comically. His stories are, in the opinion of most critics, excellent pastiches and parodies of Doyle’s work. Schlock has a friend and narrator, Dr. Whatley; Mrs. Essex lovingly keeps house; Schlock is frequently confronted by the evil plans of Professor Marty; and much of the action takes place at 221B Bagel Street. Inevitably a worried or desperate person appears hoping to win the assistance of the great detective. Questioning these clients in a manner that does credit to his model, getting at the pertinent facts by the most logical of deductive reasoning, Schlock is nearly always wrong in every particular.

The tales are laced throughout with puns that are described by every critic as outrageous. Fish had a reputation among his friends for puns and could string together dozens of them in a matter of minutes. Excellent examples of this penchant for puns may be found in the titles of the stories. When Homes offers his help to a group of Polish men, the result is “The Adventure of the Danzig Men.” The tale of a British aristocrat forced by his conduct to resign from his clubs is dubbed “The Adventure of the Dismembered Peer.” It is noteworthy that no member of the Baker Street Irregulars protested the fun; evidently, they recognized that the parodies were a form of affectionate tribute. The Mystery Writers of America awarded a prize to “The Case of the Ascot Tie,” arguably the best of the Homes stories.

The Fugitive

Fish’s first full novel, The Fugitive, was more serious in tone. With this book, which concerns Nazis who have escaped to South America, Fish introduced the most popular of his heroes, Captain José da Silva of the Rio de Janeiro police force. Da Silva, a large, swarthy, pockmarked man with black, curly hair and a fierce mustache, evokes the image of a romantic highwayman and immediately captures the reader’s attention. As the plot develops, it is evident that da Silva’s dramatic presence is less important than the gifts of intelligence, humanity, and sensitivity with which he is endowed. Yet his character remains credible. Although he is vulnerable to women, he is realistic in his assessment of them in the course of his investigations. He has an almost obsessive fear of flying, certain that any flight he endures will be his last. He can never relax on an airplane, which interferes with his appreciation of the attendants’ physical charms and his partaking of the available libations. In moments of great physical danger, he knows fear and dreads dying.

Nevertheless, da Silva is a man of extraordinary courage. It has been suggested that the earlier volumes in the series, particularly Isle of the Snakes (1963), in which da Silva must contend with several poisonous reptiles, and The Shrunken Head (1963), which involves him with bands of head-shrinking Indians, tend to emphasize the primitive facets of his homeland, while the later volumes describe the wealth and culture of the cities, the other face of Brazil. Brazilian Sleigh Ride (1965) emphasizes that da Silva is at home even on the sidewalks of New York, as he confronts a gambling syndicate in Manhattan.

Police Lieutenants Series

One trait that seems a constant in the makeup of Fish’s detectives is first explored in da Silva’s character: He is remarkably independent. Although he holds the rank of captain, he is a part of a bureaucracy. He wastes little time with authority, however, and acts on his own. Clancy and Reardon of the Police Lieutenants series operate in much the same fashion on their respective police forces but are more conscious of the penalties that independence carries. Clancy is well aware that his duty may be complicated by superiors and politically ambitious prosecutors. Reardon’s superiors seem convinced of his ability and value, yet his independence makes them nervous, and he is often closely questioned. Nevertheless, each of Fish’s operatives displays a willingness to assume great risk in following his own best ideas to achieve the end.

Women and Humor

The female characters in Fish’s novels are not as well defined as the men, which is not to imply that they are denigrated. Many of them are professionals. Reardon’s female friend, for example, is an architect. Although their relationship is intimate, it does not provoke steamy bedroom scenes. Reardon’s problems with her center on the conflict caused by his profession, which may mean that a long-awaited dinner at a favorite restaurant is interrupted. Reardon is always being called away on his current case. Fish’s detectives are clearly attracted to beautiful women, but they are never blinded to the fact that such women may be culprits in a given case. None of these men reacts in a hard-boiled manner, as do some famous detectives. Women are not “dames” in this author’s work, and the female criminal is often viewed with sympathy and is always treated fairly. Sex is a fact of life in Fish’s work, but it is never the major theme.

Humor is not abandoned in the police procedural works. Da Silva is paired with a somewhat mysterious figure, Wilson, an American agent of considerable ability. His intelligence sources are never revealed, but he is always well-informed about da Silva’s cases. Although he is no Watson, he serves as a sounding board for da Silva’s observations and deductions. He is also used to exchange banter with da Silva, where humor, usually subtle, is always present. In all Fish’s novels, principal characters find a backup in the department or a friend who fulfills the twin assignment of assisting in the crucial moment and sharing remarkably witty repartee. It would seem that Dr. Watson’s usefulness in Doyle’s stories left a lasting impression.

Carruthers, Simpson, and Briggs Series

The later characters of the Carruthers, Simpson, and Briggs series are more humorous in their adventures. More frequent and obvious use of humor is characteristic of this group. Incidents and actions are played for greater comic effect, and the three older men are essentially rogues. Indeed, humor was fundamental to Fish’s outlook, as is illustrated by a well-known incident in his career. Fish disagreed with his publisher concerning the pseudonym under which he would write his Police Lieutenants series. He wanted to write as A. C. Lamprey, with the projected plan of doing a subsequent series as D. C. Lamprey, a brother of the first author. He lost this battle and wrote as Robert L. Pike.

The craftsmanship of Fish’s plots is evident in his novels and his excellent short stories, though some are more successful than others. Once the crimes are delineated, the plots unfold and the clues add up in a convincing manner. In his best stories, the ultimate clue is something very small and tantalizing that eludes the detective for a period of time. Some fleeting scene, some insignificant thing out of its normal place, suddenly remembered, brings the pattern to completion.

One of Lieutenant Reardon’s cases is an excellent example. What appears to be an accident in which a pedestrian is killed on a darkened street by a repentant driver, proves to be premeditated murder involving theft and smuggling. With the murderer dead after a chase through San Francisco streets and a fog-shrouded harbor, his accomplice escapes safely. The mental image of a bottle of milk left on the table instead of being returned to the refrigerator, however, is enough to lead the officer to the accomplice.

Fish’s critics have noted that he is a writer who describes action with a cinematographer’s eye. It is no accident that Bullitt, based on one of his novels, features one of the most spectacular car chases ever filmed. Fish’s descriptive passages are rich because he knows his scene. The authenticity of his Brazilian landscapes, for example, is a result of his having lived more than a decade in that country. One reviewer commented on Fish’s creation of a genuine ethnic detective in da Silva. Fish created da Silva because he knew Brazilians like him, not to make a social statement. When he had no contact with an area, he traveled to see it before attempting to describe it. He researched The Gold of Troy (1980) during a long sojourn that took him to several parts of the world, and he did not write Pursuit (1978) until he had traveled to Israel to gain a sense of the people and the land.

His characters are appealing because they, too, are authentic. They are not larger than life but seem very much like ordinary people, with strengths and weaknesses, problems and disappointments, and they sometimes experience moments of reward and great happiness. The author liked people and had friends around the world. Yet he was direct, blunt, and outspoken, often labeled contentious. One friend spoke of his belligerent integrity, a trait that might also describe some of his creations. His plots are sound and satisfy the reader. Although nicely timed surprises sometimes catch his public off guard, he does not make the reader wait until the end of the book to learn the details of the plot. Instead, he reveals the evidence gradually, and the timing of his clues is excellent.

Above all, Fish believed mystery writers are given too little credit for their contribution to literature. His long association with the Mystery Writers of America made him their champion. He encouraged young writers and fought for writers struggling with their publishers, insisting on the worth of crime and mystery fiction. No one can describe Fish’s creed better than he did himself:

I write to entertain; if it is possible to inform at the same time, all the better, but entertainment comes first. I like to write using places I have been and enjoyed as the background location for my stories and books. I write the kind of stories and books I like to read, and if I can get a reader to turn the page, I feel I have succeeded in what I started out to do.

Principal Series Characters:

• Captain José da Silva , the swarthy, romantic, mustachioed captain of police in Rio de Janeiro, is independent, intuitive, witty, and courageous. He is also the liaison between the Brazilian police and Interpol.
• Wilson , an undercover agent from the United States embassy in Rio, acts as da Silva’s assistant. A friend and generous supporter of the captain, he is both a help and a major source of frustration to the officer.
• Lieutenant Clancy of the Fifty-second Precinct in New York and
• Lieutenant Jim Reardon of San Francisco are representatives of the demanding and dangerous life of the professional law enforcement officer. Clancy is the older veteran, and Reardon is the younger and more passionate officer. Both are humane and resourceful men who face personal problems and tough decisions as they resolve their cases.
• Kek Huuygens , an international smuggler, is a man of cultivated tastes, a collector of fine art, and a master of his calling; he appears in several novels and short stories.
• Carruthers ,
• Simpson , and
• Briggs are a set of intriguing and reprobate former writers of detective fiction whose exploits are recorded with amusement and tolerance.

Bibliography

Boucher, Anthony. Introduction to Kek Huuygens, Smuggler. New York: Mysterious Press, 1976. This introduction to Fish’s novel is written by an expert in genre fiction: a fellow mystery writer and editor of science fiction.

Horsley, Lee. Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Examines a broad range of crime fiction from a wide variety of critical perspectives—from formalist to postcolonial. Designed to introduce students to the academic analysis of popular detective and crime literature. Provides perspective on Fish’s work.

Pronzini, Bill, and Marcia Muller. 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado’s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction. New York: Arbor House, 1986. This reference work for fans places Fish’s novels in their proper context.

“Robert Fish: In Memoriam, 1912-1981.” The Armchair Detective 14, no. 2 (1981): 118-121. Obituary in a leading crime-fiction journal, detailing Fish’s contributions to the genre.

Rosenthal, Marilyn. Review of Shlock Homes: The Complete Bagel Street Saga, by Robert L. Fish. Library Journal 115, no. 10 (June 1, 1990): 191. Review of this reprint, which combines two volumes of stories originally printed in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, notes that Fish was a respected member of the Mystery Writers of America.

Sutton, Michael, and Anthony Fingleton. Over My Dead Body. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1998. This play was inspired by and represents a reinterpretation of and commentary on Fish’s The Murder League.