Rush Henry

Created by Joe Barry
Pseudonym of Joe Barry Lake
Other pseudonyms include Donnell Carey
(1909-61)

Hard-boiled, hard-drinking RUSH HENRY slugged his way through five rough, tough books in the 1940s, first as an undercover op for Army Intelligence, then a journalist, and finally a P.I. earning fifty dollars a day, plus expenses — or whatever he can get away with.

A former Chicago crime reporter, he’s persuaded by his editor in the third book in the series, The Fall Guy (1945), to take up private investigation upon his return from overseas. Seems Henry was sent home after a serious injury left him with a metal plate in his shoulder.

But the steel plate doesn’t seem to slow down Henry — or his drinking. So he sets up a small, one-man detective agency, complete with a cheeky but gorgeous secretary, Gertrude, whose default mode seems to be desuetude.

Yeah, I had to look it up, too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Interestingly enough, author Joe Barry (the pen name of Joe Barry Lake, who also wrote as Donnell Carey) was born in Iowa, but he was evidently quite popular worldwide. Originally published for the Mystery House and Arcadia lending libraries, the Rush books were eventually published in several countries, including Argentina, Australia, France, Spain and Canada (where several of his books were at one point published by Harlequin.)

The author also wrote two books featuring Donn O’Mara, apparently a New York P.I.; another featuring a gumshoe named Bill August, and under the pen name of “Donnell Carey,” he wrote one called Kisses Can Kill! (1951) featuring private eye Chase Colburn (1951), which was apparently only published in Australia.

Sometime in the fifties Lake apparently abandoned mystery writing, and started writng for television, working on Danger for CBS and a couple of soap operas, The Road of Life and The Inner Flame, of all things.

UNDER OATH

• “Invasion of S.F. gangsters in pursuit of idol’s-eye emeralds brings good old days back to Chicago; private detective Rush Henry maneuvers through the carnage to a tidy solution. Good fast reading.”
  — Anthony Boucher on The Fall Guy (San Francisco Chronicle.)
• “Implausible but swiftly moving and cadaver-sprinkled tale with dauntless hero, helpful gal and exceptionally well concealed diabolus ex machina”
  — Saturday Review of Books on The Clean Up

NOVELS

• The Pay-Off (1943) | Buy the book
• The Third Degree (1943) | Buy the book
• The Fall Guy (1945) | Buy the book | Kindle it!
• The Triple Cross (1946) | Buy the book
• The Clean-Up (1947; aka “Dangerous Bargain”) | Buy the book

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to C. Brooke Gruenberg (whose father worked with Barry in the 1950s) and Mike Russell for helping fill in some of the blanks.