By Monte Herridge
One of the precursors of Erle Stanley Gardner’s series character Perry Mason, the attorney, the Hugo Oakes series is fairly entertaining. J. Lane Linklater created this series about a criminal defense attorney who solved crimes. It appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly from 1930-1934, a respectable run. J. Lane Linklater was the pseudonym of Alex Watkins (1893?-1983?). He had two other series that also ran in the magazine: Sad Sam Salter (1937), and Paul C. Pitt, a kind of con man (1936-1941).
One of the stories describes Oakes the person: “Hugo Oakes, lawyer, investigator, gruff friend of the penniless in trouble, had four great interests in life. Those interests were law, detection, people—and horses.” ("Finishing Touches")
A physical description of Oakes is noted in another story: “He was a wizard with flowery eloquence, too, but outside of the courtroom it didn’t seem to go with his age-colored, shapeless clothes, his casual manner, his pudgy person.” ("You Think of Everything") He wears a slouch hat and rolls his own cigarettes. Very little information is given about Oakes’ background and upbringing. There is a mention by Oakes himself on one occasion that he liked horses because he grew up on a farm ("Not One Clew"). He prefers to use ungrammatical, common speech that belies his education. However, when he wishes he can use much better language. Inspector Mallory prefers Oakes to use common language; he “liked Oakes much less when the lawyer used four-syllable words.” ("Arsenic in the Cocktail")
Oakes is not one of those high-priced lawyers with a fancy office and furniture. He has a shabby office that costs him twenty dollars a month, and often doesn’t have enough in his business accounts to pay that. His only employee is Mamie, who is his combination stenographer-bookkeeper-secretary. The reason he has very little money is that people rarely paid him for the legal work he did for them. Oakes has a thriving practice helping people with little money out of trouble. He did his own detective work rather than hire a detective agency to do it for him. However, we must remember that these stories take place during the Depression, when many people either lacked jobs or had poorly paying ones. Oakes is an egalitarian, preferring regular people and the poor to the better off and wealthy classes. A person’s lack of money never affected Oakes’ decision to take them on as a client.
The only other regular in the series is police Inspector Mallory, who is usually glad to have Oakes help on his cases, but “he would never admit it. They might gibe and grouch at each other on occasion, but Mallory had intelligence enough to recognize the value of Oakes’s assistance, and Oakes was always willing to let the credit go to Mallory.” ("Finishing Touches")
Each story usually involves Oakes being called in by a client and then having to solve a murder, usually to save the client. Once his client was a murder victim before Oakes could reach the scene. Inspector Mallory was always on hand at the scene of the crime. Mallory either does not understand what is going on, or seeks the simplest explanation (always wrong, of course).
Very rarely did Mallory actively ask for Oakes’ help on a case. One special case was in the story "A Pair of Shoes," in which Mallory asked for assistance. A rich businessman had disappeared, and three weeks of work had led Mallory to be desperate enough to ask for unofficial help. Oakes gets to work and very quickly solves the case in a logical manner.
Another request for help from Mallory led to a murder investigation by Oakes at a high society horse show in "Not One Clew." Oakes said he did not care for society, but he did like the horses. Part of the deal with Mallory was a free ticket to the horse show.
Another off-beat story for the series is "Crazy People Are Smart," in which Oakes accepts the challenge of a prison chaplain and investigates an old murder. Bill Tubby had just twenty-four hours before his scheduled electric chair execution for a crime he claimed he did not commit. Inspector Mallory had solved the case to his satisfaction, and he is afraid Oakes will do something to change the outcome. Oakes goes to the scene of the crime and investigates, coming up with an unusual solution that saves Tubby.
Hugo Oakes has a system for locating the murderer in crime situations:
"Always look for the type of mind capable of conceiving and executing the particular crime under scrutiny." ("The Wild Man From Borneo") Inspector Mallory knows about this system, and in this story attempts to use it himself. Unfortunately he chooses the wrong person as the murderer, and Oakes has to straighten him out. This is one case where Oakes becomes involved because the victim was a friend of his. Oakes is uncharacteristically not in his usual cheerful mood; in fact he is angry and unsmiling.
Another story gives a bit more of Oakes’ insight into crime detecting:
"But a man always leaves the imprint of his personality on his crime. What a man does is the expression of what he is. He may not leave fingerprints, but he always leaves mind prints." ("Crazy People Are Smart") So Hugo Oakes is a believer in the application of psychology to crime-solving. The stories contain little violence, though one exception is in the story "Finishing Touches." Here Oakes confronts the guilty party and has Inspector Mallory secretly back him up, which is needed when the murderer attempts to kill Oakes. Mallory wounds the murderer and saves Oakes' life.
The series is interesting to read, although there are not any great criminal masterminds, fancy destructive gadgets, or gangs of criminals running around. It took all kinds of stories in the pulp era, and this series is as good or better than most.
The list below is probably mostly complete, but may be missing some stories.
The Hugo Oakes series by J. Lane Linklater:
In Detective Fiction Weekly
The Wild Man From Borneo -- February 22, 1930
The Watchful Woman -- May 10, 1930
Not One Clew -- May 24, 1930
Crazy People Are Smart -- May 31, 1930
The Seventh Green Murder -- July 26, 1930
Three Old Crows -- October 18, 1930
A Pair of Shoes -- November 15, 1930
Finishing Touches -- January 3, 1931
You Think of Things -- February 7, 1931
Women Always Mean Trouble -- March 28, 1931
Arsenic in the Cocktail -- April 4, 1931
Murder Next Door -- September 5, 1931
Find the Silencer -- October 10, 1931
The Second Floor Murder -- November 19, 1932
The Dead Client -- December 2, 1933
On the Brink -- June 2, 1934
(c) Monte Herridge
Links:
Monte Herridge has supplied a biographical sketch about Linklater that was originally published in Detective Fiction Weekly. You can read it elsewhere on The Pulp Rack by clicking here.
Linklater has a story in the anthology, 100 Crooked Little Crime Stories. Click here to visit Amazon.com for a copy.
Posted by ds at July 13, 2006 01:05 PM
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