Sweeney is a great narrator–jaded but with just enough hope for humanity left to get himself into trouble, and his laid-back style is matched perfectly by the author’s tone. While I love noir fiction, I have a soft spot for noir that’s tinged with the weird and the slightly bizarre–take the books of Charles Willeford, for example, so Fredric Brown’s The Screaming Mimi was right up my alley. Sweeney wasn’t one he shuddered a little and averted his eyes.” Her body, which would have been beautiful relaxed, was subtly distorted, rigid with terror. It was the figure of a naked girl, her arms thrust out to ward off a ripper, her mouth open in a silent, eternal scream. “On top of the radio-phone, on the half that didn’t lift up, stood a little ten-inch-high statuette. Sweeney acquires the Screaming Mimi, and he is convinced that the statue holds the key to the Ripper murders: There’s also Raoul Reynarde, the eccentric, flamboyant owner of a gift shop, and Charlie Wilson, an artist who created a statue known as the Screaming Mimi. His possessive obsession of Yolanda causes Doc Greene to see Sweeney as a rival in love.

His search uncovers some peculiar characters–Doc Greene, a one-time psychiatrist who is Yolanda’s agent. While Yolanda is fortunate to survive the attack, the Ripper has brutally murdered three other beautiful blondes within the last few months, and it’s certain that the killer will strike again.Įntranced by Yolanda, and intrigued by the case, Sweeney sobers himself up and begins to investigate. The sight of the woman is enough to slap Sweeney into sobriety, and he manages to write an exclusive story on the blonde, a dancer named Yolanda Lang, who is–it appears–the latest stabbing victim of a vicious serial killer know as the Ripper. He sees a gorgeous half-naked blonde woman who’s been stabbed sprawled on the floor of the building, guarded by a loyal, ferocious wolf-like dog. He spies a crowd of people around the doorway of an apartment building, so he walks over to see what everyone is gawking at. Hanging out with a homeless man, and unable to sleep late one night, he wanders the streets in an inebriated state looking for another drink. When the novel begins, reporter Sweeney is drunk out of his mind, on one of the periodic binges he takes as some sort of vacation from his job at the Chicago newspaper, The Blade.

File this story under the ‘be careful what you wish for’ category. So for any noir fans out there who haven’t read this yet, put it on your list. Intrigued by the title, I bought a copy and loved it. “There are strange things, and there are stranger ones.”Īs a noir fan, I find myself increasingly reading novels of the genre, and this led me to The Screaming Mimi by Fredric Brown.