Created by Baynard H. Kendrick
Pseudonyms include Richard Hayward
(1894-1977)
Miami-based MILES STANDISH RICE was Baynard Kendrick’s other private investigator–you know, the one who wasn’t blind.
Now completely overshadowed by Captain Duncan Maclain, the sightless insurance investigator of numerous short stories, novels and even film, Rice nonetheless had a good run of his own back in the day, appearing in a handful of novels and several short stories, mostly in Black Mask.
Officially a Florida deputy sheriff, he wasn’t averse to taking on a private case–if the money was right.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Baynard Hardwick Kendrick was one of the more successful American mystery writers of the thirties and forties, enjoying a long and enduring career, with many of his works being adapted for film, television and radio. Born in 1894 to a well-to-do Philadelphia family, he devoted himself to business until World War I came along, and Kendrick headed north (just as Raymond Chandler did) to enlist in the Canadian Army. He was, in fact, the first American to enlist in the Canadian Army, signing up only one hour after World War I was declared. He served honorably and upon his return became interested in the blind. That, and all war experiences were to figure prominently in his crime fiction. His short stories appeared in such pulps as Black Mask, Detective Fiction Weekly and Dime Detective beginning in the thirties. His first series revolved around Miles Standish Rice, and he took a stab at creating another series eye, ship’s detective Cliff Chandler. He also wrote several thrillers under the pen name of Richard Hayward, but by far his most successful creation was Captain Duncan Maclain.
In his later years, Kendrick wrote for CBS television. He was also one of the co-founders, along with Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, Helen McCloy, Brett Halliday and others, of the The Mystery Writers of America, and was the first official member of that organization, serving as its first president. He was named a Grand Master in 1967.
NOVELS
- The Eleven of Diamonds (1936)
- The Iron Spiders (1936)
- Death Beyond the Go-Thru (1938)
- The Iron Spiders Murder (1944)
SHORT STORIES
- “The Iron Spiders” (June 1936, Mystery Novels Magazine)
- “Fish to Fry” (February 1937, Black Mask)
- “White Birds” (April 1937, Black Mask)
- “Plumes of Slaughter” (August 1937, Black Mask)
- “Burial Mound” (November 1937, Black Mask)
- “Hot Trail” (February 1938, Black Mask)
- “Venom” (June 1938, Black Mask)
- “The Death Pool” (October 1938, Black Mask)
- “Arson” (January 1939, Black Mask)
- “The Gorgon’s Head” (April 1939, Black Mask)
- “Death Plays Seventeen” (June 1939, Black Mask)
- “Headless Angel” (September 1939, Black Mask)
- “Clear as Crystal” (December 1939, Black Mask)
- “Fisherman’s Luck” (February 1940, Black Mask)
- “A Short Cut to Murder” (March 1940, Black Mask)
- “Whipsaw” (November 1959, The Saint Mystery Magazine)
