Created by Dale Bogarde
Pseudonym of Douglas Enefer; other pseudonyms include Paul Denver and John Powers
(1906-87)
Yet another would-be American tough guy by yet another British author with no particular knowledge of the United States, DALE BOGARD was the creation of prolific pulpster Douglas Enefer (one paperback billed him as “the fastest thriller writer on Earth!”).
I’ve read one of these alternative classics, Pardon My Body (1951), in which Bogard, an boozing ex-newspaperman living in New York City, takes on crooked cops, deadly dames and a rogue’s gallery of colourful thugs. But my guess is that all fourteen or so of Bogard’s adventures (written under Enefer’s “Dale Bogard” pen name, of course) were cut from the same generic, hard-boiled cloth.
Enefer started out writing American-style hard-boiled crime fiction in the early fifties, and over a long career, he used a variety of pen names which were — just to add to the confusion — often interchangeable with his series characters. Plots, titles and characters were recycled endlessly.
He created numerous series characters, including “American-style” private eyes like Dale Shand and Michael Power, and Liverpool copper Sam Bawtry, plus a slew of standalone thrillers, but he became best known for his film and television tie-ins and novelisations (The Phil Silvers Show, The Avengers, Cannon, etc.) and TV scripts (most notably The Saint and Coronation Street). In fact, his tie-ins for Cannon are better regarded than his own fiction.
To me, the most interesting thing about Enfer’s early books was that some of them were printed by Canadian publisher Harlequin, back before they became synonymous with romance fiction.
NOVELS
Send Her No Lilies (1950)- The Loveless Die First (1950)
- Lead Her Gently to the Grave (1950)
- Lay the Dame on Ice (1950)
- Speak Softly to the Dead (1951; January 1952, Popular Detective)
- Pardon My Body (1951) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Nobody Knows the Dead (1951)
- Nobody Died for Johnnie (1951)
- Nine Times Dead (1951)
- Make Sure I’m Dead (1951)
- Don’t Kill Me Twice (1951)
- It’s Lonely on the Sidewalk (1952)
- Double Kill (1952)
- Dark Kiss (1952)
