The Hard-Boiled Detective

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Created by Ben Solomon
Pseudonym of Jeremy Aaron Pollack
(1959-2014)

“I don’t mean to be cute. But sometimes my line of work calls for it.”

Pulp? On a subscription basis? Digitally?

Sure.

It may have been a whole new world out there, but Ben Solomon’s THE HARD-BOILED DETECTIVE was a delicious and unapologetic throwback to another, simpler era–of cheap thrills printed on cheaper paper; an era of broad-shouldered he-men and soft-shouldered broads, where fedoras and trenchoats are the order of the day and the roscoes spit ka-chow ka-chow all night long.

At the time, I said, “This ain’t no Chandler, this ain’t no Hammett, but the ghosts of Daly and Bellem and a million other forgotten word slingers are there, ready to kick up a little dust.”

Sure.

Solomon never really gave us his character’s name, or even clued us in on which era (The twenties? The thirties? The forties?) or which city’s mean streets his guy goes down, although the smart money was on Chicago.

But hey, what did names matter when the tough guy patter came spilling out in all its B-list pulp perfection? This was genre as in generic, but rendered with such a giddy sense of glee and so little pretension that you really didn’t mind.

And the scheme the author had to get this stuff out was just as ballsy as his unnamed gumshoe. Starting in January 2013, for a measly 29 simoles, Ben promised three shots of the good stuff every month for a year (in the electronic format of your choice: epub, mobi or PDF), with each yarn running 3,000-9,000 words for a 30 to 90-minute read. “Even longer if you move your lips,” he helpfully added.

Each story was presented as the nameless detective’s statement to the cops, and each, Ben says, was crammed with “dishonest dames, manipulative mugs, cagey crooks, and plenty of victims. There’s always plenty of victims.” Not a bad deal, if you ask me, and Ben certainly delivered. Every month, there were three more little noirish nuggets of crunchy, pulpy goodness, and he never missed a deadline. That must have been one hell of a New Year’s resolution. Plus, I loved swapping emails with him–he was a riot.

Ultimately, Ben Solomon (turns out that was just a pen name of actor, writer and artist Jeremy Aaron Pollack) managed to crank out at least 57 of the suckers, and even squeezed out a  collection that rounded up the first eleven stories, before succumbing to pancreatic cancer at fifty-five.

Does life suck?

Sure.

SHORT STORIES

  • “Pierre-Louis Leblanc” (January 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #1)
  • “Vincent Grigio” (January 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #2)
  • “Simeon Von Runck” (January 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #3)
  • “Johnny Shin” (February 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #4)
  • “Mr. North” (February 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #5)
  • “William Sykes” (February 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #6)
  • “Anna Burgle” (March 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #7)
  • “Carlo Spinetti” (March 2013,The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #8)
  • “G-Man” (March 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #9)
  • “Jane Doe” (April 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #10)
  • “Marcel Dupree” (April 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #11)
  • “Mr. Lucy” (April 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #12)
  • “Clarence Toppy” (May 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #13)
  • “Dolan Dooley” (May 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #14)
  • “Simon & Sammy Kohlvak” (May 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #15)
  • “Rex Stanford” (June 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #16)
  • “Mathilda Olive” (June 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #17)
  • “Pandereos Ajax” (June 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #18)
  • “Louis Pelka” (July 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #19)
  • “Eugene Feathers” (July 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #20)
  • “Gabriella Merlo” (July 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #21)
  • “Emmanuel Slide” (August 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #22)
  • “Brigid Lang” (August 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #23)
  • “Natalia Ernst” (August 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #24)
  • “The Kid” (September 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #25)
  • “Julian Rehnquist” (September 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #26)
  • “Sylvester Farcas” (September 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #27)
  • “Janus Piquant” (October 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #28)
  • “Donovan Creel” (October 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #29)
  • “Krivitz & Trafalgar” (October 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #30)
  • “Mr. Z Returns” (November 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #31)
  • “Lillian Best” (November 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #32)
  • “Elias Coffey” (November 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #33)
  • “Muriel Folger” (December 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #34)
  • “Hannah Glass” (December 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #35)
  • “Dorothy Crust” (December 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #36)
  • “Cedars Buttersworth” (January 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #37)
  • “Patricia Vermillion” (January 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #38)
  • “Sheila Mason” (January 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #39)
  • “Leonardo Binks” (February 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #40)
  • “Ramona Dove” (February 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #41)
  • “Gilbert Penny” (February 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #42)
  • “Pappy King” (March 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #43)
  • “Lemoyne” (March 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #44)
  • “Gladys Stout” (March 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #45)
  • “Noodles” (April 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #46)
  • “Stella Geddis” (April 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #47)
  • “Christopher Lowe” (April 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #48)
  • “Maxie Baloin” (May 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #49)
  • “Doc Ross” (May 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #50)
  • “Chloe Thurman” (May 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #51)
  • “Mr. Colt” (June 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #52)
  • “Hubert Hinkle” (June 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #53)
  • “Cole Machesney” (June 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #54)
  • “Sheila Wong” (July 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #55)
  • “The Torp Brothers” (July 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #56)
  • “Davis Monk” (July 2013, The Hard-Boiled Detective.com #57)

BOOKS

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

  • The Hard-Boiled Detective
    Originally, ground zero for Ben Solomon’s retro dick, where you could subscribe, read some samples, or check out some way cool features. With his passing, the site’s become a tribute to the man, his life and his work, maintained by his friends. There are also several tales up for grabs, featuring the Hard-Boiled Detective, plus some of his other work.
  • “It’s Not Supposed to Matter”
    Ben Solomon looks back at Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation”
  • Heavier Than Broken Hearts
    Ben Solomon’s 2013 interview with Raymond Chandler
  • Forgotten Hammett
    Ben Solomon unearths a long-lost interview with Dashiell Hammett
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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