Some Great Private Eyes Who’ve Appeared in Only One Novel
Although the success and popularity of the literary private eye seems to be built on series characters, there have been some memorable private eyes who’ve only appeared in one novel. We even once polled readers of this site back in 1998, although we’ve slowly added to the list over the tears.
- Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)*
- Ben Jardinn in Death in a Bowl by Raoul Whitfield (1931)
- Karl Craven in Solomon’s Vineyard by Jonathan Latimer (1941)
- John J. Shannon in The Private Eye by Cleve F. Adams (1942)
- Walter James in Deadly Weapon by Wade Miller (1946)
- Steve Lawson in Hard and Fast by U.S. Andersen (1956)
- Murray Kirk in The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin (1958)
- Max Raven in Cain’s Woman by O.G. Benson (1960)
- Neal Fargo in Interface by Joe Gores (1974)
- The Eye in The Eye by Marc Behm (1980)
- Cody in Texas Wind by James Reasoner (1980)
- Ralph Poteet in Peeper by Loren Estleman (1989)
- Bernardo Thomas in Tropical Murder by Louis Williams
- Fritz Brown in Brown’s Requiem by James Ellroy (1981)
- “Peekaboo” Frankie Fagan in Bohemian Heart by James Dalessandro (1993)
- Ernest DeWalt in An Ocasional Hell by Randall Silvis (1993)
- Reno Sloan in The Asylum by John Edward Ames (1994)
- George Webb in The Light of Day by Graham Swift (2003)
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
List respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith, with an assist by Steve Lewis of Mystery*File.
* In 2009, Joe Gores published Spade and Archer, an official “prequel” to Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.
