Girl on the Beach

We've covered two prior novels by Bruce Cassiday, one stand-alone book, The Girl in the Trunk, and The Buried Motive, the first of two Cash Madigan novels featuring a Manhattan bonding investigator. Cassiday was a versatile writer that transitioned from the pulps to writing paperback originals in crime-noir, science-fiction, and gothics. I discovered a sleaze novel titled Girl on the Beach that Cassiday authored using the pseudonym of Max Day. The book was published by Beacon in 1960 and remains out of print at the time of this writing. 

The novel is set on the shores of fictional Seahaven, Connecticut (probably based on West Haven), specifically a makeshift two-story studio house brooding over Long Island Sound. Artist Shad Crispin makes a mediocre living selling his paintings to the local art community and trusts his business affairs to a sneaky agent. Shad is in a relationship with Cynthia, an independently wealthy woman who met him at his easel in Central Park and quickly installed him in Seahaven as her boy-toy. He lives and sleeps at the studio and Cynthia lives at her Village apartment. It works.

One frosty foggy night Shad sees a golden-haired girl laying on the beach and runs out to help her. After the thawing out, the gorgeous girl introduces herself as Lissa Cloud from the Iowa cornfields. Her explanation of swimming in the cold ocean at night is sketchy at best, but Shad goes with it. Obviously, there's a temptation here to jump little Lissa's bones, but Shad does the respectable thing and places her in the guest bedroom. Through the paper-thin wall, Cassiday enticingly describes Lissa's sexy unclothing to readers. Soon Shad awakens from the brink of sleep to find the vixen in his bed, confessing she is a virgin, and begging for love. Shad pisses himself off by throwing her in the guest bed and locking the door. 

The next morning Shad awakens to find that his sea nymph has disappeared. But, she took the opportunity to destroy his portfolio of nude paintings. Shad wants to know who the girl is and begins making a mini-investigation into her history. This is where things get interesting – Lissa may be a figment of Shad's imagination. Unable to corroborate his story, both his agent and lover believe that Shad made the whole thing up due to mental exhaustion. Instead of finding a detective, they begin searching for a psychiatrist. But, Shad later experiences another run-in with Lissa and begins to think she could be real.

I liked this crafty cozy mystery and enjoyed Cassiday's ability to transition nicely from a very tepid romance into a full-fledged crime-noir. Granted, there isn't a lot of locales trekked through the narrative, but I never became bored with the confined studio and tight atmosphere. The narrative's positioning in this small dwelling made the mystery aspect feel intimate. I also found Lissa – or the idea of Lissa – just sexy as Hell. 

Girl on the Beach isn't going to be anyone's literary mantle piece, but you could do a lot worse. Read the book for free HERE.