From March, 1945, and one of the sources of endless speculation on the
"decline" of DOC............

A very odd cast. DOC, Renny, and Monk. No Ham, Off the top of my
head, I can't think of another one like this.

How are the guys doing financially? Renny is supposedly sleeping on a
cot in a room in his office. On the other hand, he's got at least
three rooms in mid-town, and a fulltime secretary, so you figure he
has to be doing OK. And with him overseas so much, it probably didn't
pay him to keep a regular place in wartime NYC.

Talk about Monk having been evicted from a swank apartment near Radio
City. But he always did have the reputation of being fast and loose
with $$$..

Then we get introspective DOC. DOC getting all misty-eyed over his
bizarre upbringing with some guy he barely knows who is involved in
the case, speculating that if he'd raised more heck as a boy he'd be a
more normal adult. Not sure what the intended phsycological masseage
to the reader would be.

The famed "DOC is slipping, DOC ain't what he used to be" moments.
They're there, but they seem more as convenient plots devices rather
than as message. A certain editorial slackness, letting Dent get away
with stuff.

To me, once the word count starts being cut back on DOCs, I get the
feeling that we get more padding of wordage; that it is that which
shows the apparent "change" in DOC. Rather than shortened "novels"
the later DOCs often read as "lengthened" novelettes.

Dave