Private Eyes You Can Count On…
Any excuse for a list, right? Every now and then, we get an eye whose name we never learn. Like the Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op or Bill Pronzini’s Nameless. And others were identified mostly–or only–by a number, particularly in the early days of the genre, when the detectives on the case were often something of a mystery themselves.
Here are a few prime examples:
- 1X, 2X & 3X (The Three Xs) by Robert O. Erisman & Newt Alfred
- Private Detective No. 39 by John W. Postgate
- Private Detective 61 by Raoul Whitfield
- Secret Agent X-9 by Dashiell Hammett
Preliminary list compiled by Kevin Burton Smith.
