The Eyes of James Reasoner are Upon You
“James Reasoner puts his stamp on everything he writes. His work can be funny, violent, sad, even whimsical at times, but it doesn’t matter because the craft and the art are always informed by the wisdom of the man telling the stories.”
— Ed Gorman, from the intro to Old Times’ Sake (2007), a Reasoner collection.
James M. Reasoner, of course, has written private eye stuff before. Besides the slew of Mike Shayne stories he wrote (or co-wrote with his wife L.J. Washburn) as “Brett Holliday” for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, he’s highly regarded among fans of the genre for Texas Wind, a much beloved P.I. novel, and the Markham short stories, featuring a Chandleresque Hollywood gumshoe.
But he’s also written created several other P.I.s over the years, including several featuring Delaney, a couple about Nicholas Lake and several one-offs. To the best of the author’s recollections (and what I could find, poking around) here they are…
- “Three Birds” (January 1979, MSMM; Delaney)
- “The $100,000 Collar” (March 1979, MSMM; Delaney)
- “All the Way Home” (April 1979, MSMM; Markham)
- “Death and the Dancing Shadows” (March 1980, MSMM; Markham)
- “The Man in the Moon” (April 1980, MSMM; Markham)
- “The Golden Bear” (May 1980, Skullduggery; Delaney)
- “Outback” (April 1981, MSMM; Allen Garver)
- “The Double Edge” (Summer 1981, Skullduggery; Markham)
- “War Games” (April 1982, MSMM; Markham)
- “Dead in Friday” (Summer 1982, Spiderweb; Cody)
- “Kemidov’s Treasures” (September 1982, MSMM; Nicholas Lake)
- “The Elephant’s Graveyard” (January 1985, MSMM; Cody)
- “The Spanish Blade” (Spring 1987, Hardboiled; Cody)
- “The Safest Place in the World” (1988, An Eye for Justice; Cody)
- “In the Blood” (1988, A Matter of Crime # 3; Cody)
- “Terran Girls Make Wonderful Wives” (1995, Gryphon Double #8; Wes Holman)
- “Woollies” (2000, Tin Star; Dan Boyd)
- “Assisted Dying” (2010, Fort Worth Nights; Cody)
RELATED LINKS
- Rough Edges
James Reasoner’s blog.
Respectfully compiled by Kevin Burton Smith.
