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Dennis Lynds

kevinburtonsmith

Pseudonyms include Michael Collins, William Arden, John Crowe, Robert Hart Davis, Carl Dekker, Mark Sadler, Sheila Lynds, Sheila McErlean, John Douglas, Walter Dallas
House pseudonyms include Nick Carter, Brett Halliday, Don Pendleton, Maxwell Grant
(1924-2005)

“I just ask questions.”
September 29, 2002, Santa Barbara Book Festival

“I write mysteries to say something, not just for entertainment.”
Santa Barbara News-Press, 1982.

One of the true masters of the private eye novel (and a class act all the way), DENNIS LYNDS, under his own and multitude of pen names, not only gave us some genuinely memorable P.I.s, but has, in his own tough, quiet way, truly stretched the boundaries of the genre, bringing a sense of compassion and political awareness to it that too often gives little but lip service to such notions. Most notable of all is Lynds’ series featuring his introspective, compassionate one-armed detective, Dan Fortune, written under the pen name of Michael Collins,  one of the few long-running P.I. series that actually challenged one to think about things. And even better, not the same things every time.

It’s just a crime the Fortune series has never gotten the acclaim or sales they deserved. While other flashier, trendier (and louder) writers, with their big turgid tomes, played it frustratingly safe and playing lip service politics, talkin’ loud and sayin’ nothin’, all the while racketing up sales, Lynds continued to take chances. With his quiet, tough, empathetic voice and solid storytelling, Lynds spoke volumes. Dan Fortune and all his other heroes not only talked the talk, but walked the walk, and offered plenty of proof, as if any were needed, that a detective novel could have a social conscience, and still ask hard questions. Lynds was determined to rise above the genre’s conventions; to imbue his work with his own keen intelligence, sly wit, psychological insight and vivid characterization, political and cultural conscience, and love of good writing. Like Natty Bumpo before him, Fortune dared “to speak the truth consarnin’…any man that lived.” We need more like him.

His contributions went far beyond just the Fortune books, though. In his long career, he wrote over eighty novels and god knows how many short stories, novellas, novelettes, essays and articles.

* * * * *

Lynds was born in St. Louis in 1924, to two British actors who were on tour, and spent his early years in London, England. The family moved to New York City when he was six, where he spent the rest of his childhood, and attended Brooklyn Technical High School. He subsequently attended The Cooper Union in New York and Texas A&M College before earning a B.A. in chemistry from Hofstra College in Hempstead, New York and an M.A. in journalism from Syracuse University.

He served in the infantry in WWII, receiving the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantry Badge, and three battle stars. Following the war, he returned to New York, and  attended Hofstra College in Hempstead, NY, receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and took a lab position at Charles Pfizer & Co. Disillusioned with research scientist, he pursued a master’s degree in journalism at Syracuse University, while working as a writer and editor for chemical industry magazines and journals, while devoting his spare time to writing short stories and poetry, which began to appear in literary journals in the early l950s.

Combat Soldier, a novel based on his wartime experiences was published in 1962,  at about the same time that he began selling detective stories regularly to Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, under his own–and eventually various pen names. A second non-crime novel, Uptown, Downtown, appeared in 1963. Encouraged that both novels had been well-received, and that his crime stories had proven popular with readers, he quit his job and moved to Santa Barbara, with intentions of becoming a full-time writer.

He succeeded, and began churning out crime and detective novels at a furious place.

“Too Friendly, Too Dead” (which appeared in the September 1962 issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine) was the first novella I did for Leo Margulies and MSMM,” Lynds recalls. “Dave (Davis Dresser) bought it from me, changed the title and rewrote it as a novel. He did that with at least two other of my novellas for MSMM, and I later wrote what I think was his final novel for him. Again he rewrote it. His rewrites were never much, just put more in his style, because his novels were pretty short. All in all I wrote some 88 of the novellas as ‘Brett Halliday’.”

Lynds was also a prolific pen-for-hire, pumping out a steady stream of contracted works, including several novels in The Three Investigators series for young readers, particular favourites of mine as a kid, and hence a good part of the reason this site even exists. He also was responsible for several Shadow novels, under the house name of Maxwell Grant and a number of Nick Carter books, under that group name as well.

Dan Fortune himself is actually a more refined, socially- and politically-aware version of an earlier detective character of Lynds, “Slot Machine” Kelly, who appeared in several short stories in such pulp digests as Manhunt and Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.

He also created series about private eyes Paul Shaw (as Mark Sadler) and Kane Jackson (as William Arden), and wrote standalone thrillers, and numerous novelizations and tie-ins. Under various housenames, he’s penned the adventures of such icons as Charlie Chan, The Shadow and, of course, Mike Shayne.

Lynds also wrote, under the pen name of John Crowe, the Buena Costa County series of crime novels, which takes its name from its setting, a fictional area along the southern California coast north of Los Angeles. There are recurring characters, but the detective varies from book to book. Sometimes it’s a cop, sometimes an amateur sleuth, sometimes a member of the Border Patrol. And one book features bona fide private eye Ed Gray. In his Encyclopedia Mysteriosa, William D’Andrea called this series Ross Macdonald-like, and went on to mention how Macdonald’s work was a major influence on Lynds. It turns out that not only was he an influence, but also a good friend. In fact, Macdonald and Lynds and his wife, fellow writer Gayle (Stone) Lynds,  were all residents of Santa Barbara.

In fact, he and Gayle wrote several books together, including a couple in the Mack Bolan, The Executioner series, under the Don Pendleton house name. And lest anyone forget, he was also Brett Halliday, pumping out all those Mike Shayne adventures.

A past president of The Private Eye Writers of America, Lynds was awarded The Eye, that organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award, in 1988.

I was fortunate enough to meet Dennis several times after I moved to California, and we corresponded a little. After some gentle nudging on my part, he even contributed a short piece for this site. Last time I saw him, we’d just split a cab ride from a PWA dinner back to the Bouchercon hotel in Toronto. I was off to a family dinner, and he was off to to a poker game.

Dennis’ sudden passing in August 2005 caught us all by surprise, and the rapid outburst of emotion displayed by the mystery community was as effusive as it was heartfelt and genuine. Dennis, in both his work and his life, touched a lot of people, and there’s a great big hole in the world now that he’s gone. I’ve collected a few of the comments that hit the web in a days following his death.

It’s a shame his work seemed to be such a hot potato among publishers but, to his credit, Lynds never backed down. Shortly before he passed away in August 2005, he told me that there were still some short stories in the works, and he had another Fortune novel in mind, perhaps, he suggested,  “Dan’s swan song.”

“If,” Dennis added, “anyone wants to pay me some bucks for it.”

Maybe we should have started passing a hat earlier. Suffice it to say that Dennis will be missed…

   

UNDER OATH

AWARDS

NOVELS

All novels by Dennis Lynds, unless otherwise specified.

COLLECTIONS

SHORT STORIES

By Dennis Lynds, unless otherwise noted.

NON-CRIME SHORT STORIES

COMIC ADAPTATIONS

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Photograph by Chris Gardner. Thanks, Dennis, for everything.

 

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