Dickenson: Kill 'Em with Kindness

A playboy with a bevy of ex-wives, and one on the hook, is murdered, leaving private detective Mack McGann to find the killer in this fast-paced mystery.

Additional

First published in 1950.

Review

Whodunnit fans who go for sleuths just a little on the tough side will like Kill ’Em With Kindness and private eye Mack McGann. McGann is a bit more educated and tactful than Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, but he’ll do.

Fred Dickenson has created a delightfully teasing mystery from these ingredients: a millionaire playboy who has made a career out of marriage (six of ’em!), numerous people who didn’t like him, and beautiful model Charity Jones, who was destined to be Bride No. 7. By adding a police reporter named Dink Wexton, a disk jockey and a prizefighter, Dickenson has come up with a corker.

The playboy is, of course, murdered—almost on the eve of his seventh marriage. The detective is right on hand—almost—when it happens. There are plenty of suspects and plenty of reading enjoyment in the remainder of the book.

(Lexington, KY, Herald-Leader, 1950)