The Private Practice of Michael Shayne is a 1940 novel by Brett Halliday, the pen name for Davis Dresser.
It is the second edition of the long-running Michael Shayne detective series. This one opens with Shayne the private detective being approached by a friend of his, lawyer Larry Kincaid. Larry meets with Shayne along with local rich guy Elliot Thomas. It seems that one Harry Grange, a local scumbag, has approached Kincaid with a blackmail demand against Thomas, and Thomas and Kincaid want Shayne to handle it. Shayne refuses to get involved, not because of his own concerns, but because he thinks the whole affair will besmirch Larry's reputation. Larry, who needs the money, gets violently angry.
In the course of this conversation Shayne learns that Harry Grange is squiring around Phyllis Brighton, the sexy young rich girl that Shayne got off of a murder rap in the first Michael Shayne book, Dividend on Death. Shayne goes to Joe Marco's casino and finds Phyllis, in the company of Grange, getting taken for a lot of money at the roulette tables. With a show of aggression Shayne forces Grange and Marco (who are actually in cahoots) to send Phyllis away, although Phyllis herself is pissed off at this. Shayne goes home only to get a phone call from Grange asking for a meeting and promising a big case. Shayne goes to the beach to meet Grange, only to find that he has been murdered...
The character of Michael Shayne was once a full-blown franchise, with books, short stories, a radio show, a B-Movie film series, and later a TV show.
Tropes:
- Age-Gap Romance: Phyllis Brighton is specified to be nineteen, while Shayne is said to be "nearly twice" her age. This is why Shayne hesitates to make a move with Phyllis even though she is very sexy and very much into him.
- Asshole Victim: Harry Grange was a blackmailer who in his spare time lured dimwitted young women like Phyllis into casinos so they can be cheated. As Shayne observes, "Grange deserved killing."
- Bathtub Scene: An unusual gender flip on this trope. It's Shayne who takes a bath in his apartment, after escaping from a car that plunged into a canal (the two mooks in the car were killed). And it's Phyllis who cracks open the door to the bathroom and says "Can I do anything?" Shayne, still reluctant to do anything with Phyllis as she's so much younger, demands his privacy.
- Bedsheet Ladder: Shayne bluffs his way into Marsha Marco's bedroom by pretending to be her doctor, only to discover that she has escaped the room and the Marco mansion via a bedsheet ladder.
- Blackmail Backfire: Harry Grange, a local lowlife, has decided to blackmail Elliot Thomas. This, naturally, gets him killed.
- "Burly Detective" Syndrome: The later, hackier Michael Shayne novels written by ghostwriters were the Trope Namer. At no time in this book is Shayne called "the burly detective", but there are multiple references to his red hair and red brows, as if the author is afraid the reader will forget that Shayne is a redhead.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Very common in the Michael Shayne series where the women were always curvy and hot.
- "Her figure swelled the shimmering silver of her evening gown" when Phyllis, who has been suckered into losing $2000 in 1940 money at Joe Marco's rigged roulette tables, is called into Marco's office.
- Shayne tells Helen Kincaid to dress herself up, because she needs to coax some information out of Elliot Thomas. He is surprised by how hot Helen looks when he sees the results, as she boasts "curves where he hadn't expected them."
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Surprisingly, Shayne the tough guy's hands shake a little bit as he lights a cigarette during a nasty confrontation with his friend Larry, who has accused Shayne of pursuing Larry's wife.
- Continuity Nod: Phyllis Brighton previously appeared in Dividend for Death, the first Michael Shayne novel. There are references to Shayne getting Phyllis off of a murder charge, and also to Shayne reluctantly sending Phyllis out of his apartment, since she's only 19.
- Curse Cut Short: Shayne is taken aback when Phyllis, whom he imagines to be sweet and innocent, uses the word "hell." She says she's not shy about bad words."I'm not very good at it yet. Hell and damn are really as far as I've gotten with any degree of sophistication. But I know lots more. Like—"
"Skip it," Shayne snapped. - Double Entendre: After hearing Phyllis use the word "hell" Shayne expresses disapproval, saying he'd rather take her as she is. Phyllis, who very much wants Shayne to see her as a woman, touches his arm and says "Why don't you? Take me, as I am."
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!:
- Shayne, after narrowly avoiding getting arrested for Grange's murder, is irritated when he leaves a police station and hears a newsboy saying "Detective held for playboy murder! Read all about the beach murder! Miami detective charged with shooting Harry Grange!"
- Shayne weaponizes this, arranging for Rourke to run a story, so that a newsboy is shouting "ELLIOT THOMAS GRILLED IN DROWNING OF BEACH DEBUTANTE!" while Thomas is actually in the police station being asked about the disappearance of Marsha Marco.
- And then Shayne and Rourke time the story well enough that the newsboy is shouting "EXTRA! EXTRA! MILLIONAIRE CONFESSES TO TWO MURDERS!" immediately after Thomas confesses.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Most every Michael Shayne book used this trope. This story takes place over about 48 hours.
- Frame-Up: Someone kills Harry Grange with Shayne's gun, stolen from his apartment, and then calls Shayne to the scene immediately afterwards. Shayne has to figure out who the real killer is to avoid going to prison himself.
- Friend on the Force: Chief Will Gentry, who is remarkably friendly to and indulgent of Shayne. Towards the end, when Shayne realizes to his horror that a ballistics test is going to wind up getting him arrested and charged with first degree murder, he gets Gentry to agree to send the ballistics tech home for the day, so that Shayne will have the day to catch the real killer.
- Hand Gag: Phyllis shows up at Shayne's apartment, sees Helen Kincaid all tarted up, and draws the wrong conclusion (Shayne is actually introducing Helen to Elliot Thomas so she can find out what Thomas knows). He has to slap a palm over her mouth to keep an angry Phyllis from saying too much and ruining everything.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Shayne thinks that his gun killed Harry Grange, but he also finds John Marco's gun, which is the exact same model. So he changes out the barrels so that ballistics will match Marco's gun to the murder, only for Marco's gun with his barrel to be ruled out as the Grange murder weapon. As the meaning of this hits home for Shayne—the Marco gun was the murder weapon, but now the cops will think Shayne's gun was, which means Shayne is about to be arrested for murder—Shayne imagines that he has been "hoisted on his own petard."
- Inspector Javert: Peter Painter, chief of detectives. He loathes Shayne for continually showing up the cops, and leaps at the chance to arrest him for the murder of Grange, more or less admitting that he doesn't really care if Shayne is guilty or not.
- Intrepid Reporter: Timothy Rourke, a newspaper reporter who is a friend an associate of Shayne. Rourke promises a "thorough investigation" when it looks like Chief Parker might try and railroad Shayne for murder. Later, Shayne asks Rourke for information, and in return gets Rourke to tag along with him for the climactic confrontation so that Rourke can get the scoop.
- Love Triangle: At some point in the backstory, Shayne was involved with Larry Kincaid's wife Helen. Larry angrily accuses Shayne of wanting Helen back. Later, Helen says outright that she picked the wrong guy.
- Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Peter Painter is "perspiring freely, and dabbed at his forehead close to the edge of his smooth black hair," in a scene where he had hoped to arrest Michael Shayne but, yet again, Shayne is talking his way out of trouble.
- Police Are Useless: Apparently the cops in Miami don't bother to check the suspects in murder investigations for weapons, which is why John Marco is able to pull a gun in the middle of an interrogation. Shayne disarms him.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Shayne, as part of his intricate scheme, makes it look like Marsha Marco has killed herself. But she hasn't, and at the end a newspaper is running an item about how "Marsha Marco refutes rumors of her own death."
- Sexy Backless Outfit: How does the reader know that Joe Marco's casino has a high-class clientele? Because all the women wear "backless gowns."
- Sexy Sweater Girl: A random unnamed character, a maid at the Marco house, has "heavy breasts" which "bulged the front of her starched uniform."
- Would Hit a Girl: John Marco the gambling kingpin slaps his own daughter Marsha across the face when she backtalks him.
