#paul pine

[seattlemysterybooks]

"John Evans" a pseudonym of editor and novelist Howard Browne

Halo for Murder published in hardcover by Bobbs Merrill, 1948

2nd of his 45 novels with Chicago PI Paul Pine

Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[dirtyriver]

Howard Browne - Halo for Hire, hardcover collection of the complete Paul Pine stories.

A garish cover for one of the greatest Chandleresque P.I.s.

[dirtyriver]

Mammoth Story Detective, May 1946, featuring Halo in Blood, the first Paul Pine novel by John Evans (pen name of Howard Browne)

[seattlemysterybooks]

Howard Browne writing as John Evans

Nov 1950 Pocket reissue, 3rd print, cover art by Mike Ludlow

Feb 1948 Bantam reissue, below

3rd with Chicago private eye Paul Pine, a great Chandleresque series

 - Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[seattlemysterybooks]

Howard Brown publishing as John Evans

December 1946 Bantam paperback reissue

His first with Chicago private eye Paul Pine, a terrific Chandleresque series that is far too little known

Feb 1958 3rd printing (new edition) bottom left

1984 Quill reissue, 1st printing

 - Seattle Mystery Bookshop

 - Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[straymessages]

thewoodwose replied to your quote: You know, at least once a month I dream about...

I need to read this. I’ve got a schizophrenic brother who refuses treatment, bad situation.

wow. I'm sorry about your brother. In Henry's Demons, a father and son memoir of the son's schizophrenia, they said that about a third recover with medication/treatment, another third are manageable with institutionalization or at home with medication/treatment, and the last third are more or less lost entire to the disease or the diseased system. Though Henry was lucky, he's British and they have better healthcare. In My Brother's Madness, Claude did eventually "recover", and even became a patient's rights advocate.

Claude's medical background and first-hand experience give him a unique perspective on psychotropic drugs.

Finally he begins to speak slowly, as if feeling the words take shape in his throat. Strides have been made targeting the limbic system, he declares. Schizophrenia is now understood as an excess of dopamine. "But I don't believe for a second it's that simple. It's the interplay between neurotransmitters that determine any state of mind. Like physicists trying to figure out photons, we're shooting in the dark."

Most of the questions are directed to him. While the others address the action of specific drugs, Claude alludes to the broader implications of neurobiology. In his closing statement he points out what no one else has mentioned: the chameleon ability of mental illness to shift symptoms from one diagnostic category to another. He ends by recalling and David Frost interview with futurist Isaac Asimov. 

"Frost asked what he thought would be the greatest breakthrough of the coming century. Asimov answered: understanding of the human brain. Strides over the next fifty years will make the answers of today seem primitive."

but he continued to experience 'bleed-throughs' of paranoia as he toyed with the dosage of his medication on his own and continued to drink excessively at times. I hope your brother gets the help he needs and soon.

(additionally, this is also a great read.)

[straymessages]

from Paul Pine's "My Brother's Madness"

"What about a hit man?" I ask.

"Paranoids have trouble focusing on a target. I've taken aptitude tests, preference tests, and spatial relations tests. According to the results I'd be an outstanding forest ranger or rabbi."

"You could be the first forest ranger/rabbi in the Adirondacks." I notice an ad for a herdsman in The Post-Star and urge him to apply.

"They probably want experience. Of course I can say, 'I herd you wanted someone.'"

[dirtyriver]

John Evans - Halo for Satan (Paul Pine)

Howard Browne (writing here under his John Evans alias) created one of the really great post WWII PI series with Paul Pine.

Paperback cover snatched from Mystery File http://mysteryfile.com/