Created by Gil Brewer
Pseudonyms include Bailey Morgan, Eric Fitzgerald, Frank Sebastian, Jack Holland, Roy Carroll, Elaine Evans and Barry Miles, as well as the house name of Ellery Queen
(1922-83)
Yet another of pulpmeister Gil Brewer’s poor saps driven to crime by some hot, steamy wench, WILLIAM “BILL” DEATH is a Florida private eye, still wet behind the ears, who gets suckered into as nasty a little frame job as you can imagine, and does it, as he says, “with my eyes wide open.”
Noir? You’re soaking in it.
Seems widow Grace Carter wants Bill to clear her lover of the murder of her wealthy husband, Irving. Along for the ride are a conniving first wife, a hot-to-trot stepdaughter, a dog walker named Cadillac Smith, and a couple of hired thugs out to permanently cancel Death’s ticket.
Death is pretty much your standard slightly seedy Marlowe clone of the era, with the obligatory first-person narration and penchant for wisecracks, but he’s less cynical or experienced, and he gets bounced around, beaten, pistol-whipped and knocked unconscious several time numerous times.
Never published during the author’s lifetime, Gun the Dame Down was purportedly rejected by Gold Medal in 1951 for “being too racy,” according to Chris Morgan in his introductory essay in the 2015 Brewer omnibus edition from Stark House that saw the novel appearing in print for the first time.
A few years later, the novella that Gun The Dame Down was based on finally saw print as well, in a collection of unpublished stories, albeit under its original title: “Death is a Private Eye“ — a title so corny but evocative that Stark House used it for the title of the whole collection.
The original novella (and its revised, slightly expanded version) may have been Brewer’s attempt to create a series character, but it obviously didn’t pan out. The manuscripts for both were discovered amongst his papers; one of the few that remained after he trashed most of his unpublished sometime in the late sixties. Alcohol may have been involved.
UNDER OATH
- “But what makes this stew of the familiar worth reading is that Brewer turns up the heat on it and lets it boil over by playing everything absolutely straight and compressing the action into a short period of time (part of one afternoon and a night). Gun the Dame Down is short, maybe 35,000 words, and it’s one of the fastest books you’ll ever read… highly recommended.”
— James Reasoner (2015, Ed Gorman’s Blog)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hard-drinking, hard-writing Gil Brewer was, of course, one of the shining lights of the Gold Medal era, pumping out a steady stream of twitchy, razor-sharp noir thrillers full of damaged men and the femme fatales who beckon them to their doom. Besides his short stories appearing numerous times in the hard-boiled digests of the time under numerous pseudonyms, he also cranked out thirty or so paperback originals, usually offering plenty of tough action, dark twists and a generous dollop of sleaze and tease, with such tantalizing titles as The Vengeful Virgin and Nude on Thin Ice. Brewer didn’t write many PIs, but some of his other eyes include Sam & Tate Morgan, William Maddern, and Lee Baron. Other pen names he used over his long career included Bailey Morgan, Eric Fitzgerald, Frank Sebastian, Jack Holland, Roy Carroll, Elaine Evans and Barry Miles, as well as the house name of Ellery Queen.
COLLECTIONS
The Erotics/Gun the Dame Down/Angry Arnold (2015) | Buy this book
Three previously unpublished novels, including Gun the Dame Down. Introduction by David Morgan.- Death is a Private Eye (2019) | Buy this book
22 unpublished stories by Brewer, and an introduction by David Rachels.
NOVELLAS
- “Death is a Private Eye” (2019, Death is a Private Eye)
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Bibliography: Gil Brewer’s Published Short Fiction
A great checklist, from David Rachel’s always great Noirboiled Notes. - Forgotten Writers: Gil Brewer
Bill Pronzini’s touching tribute to a writer he never quite knew. (1989, Mystery Scene)
THE DICK OF THE DAY
- September 24, 2026
THE BOTTOM LINE: Got noir? Yet another of noirmeister Brewer’s poor saps driven to crime by some hot, steamy wench, the unfortunately named Death is a Florida private eye, still wet behind the ears, who gets suckered into as nasty a little frame job as you can imagine. People are killed, the treachery is ample and the lies abundant, and poor Bill gets whacked around like a piñata. Fun, fun, fun.
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
