Created by Thomas B. Dewey
Pseudonyms include Tom Brandt and Cord Wainer
(1915-81)
Whatever fame the great but unjustly ignored Thomas B. Dewey managed to claim was for his two fine private eye series, featuring the husband-and-wife team of Pete and Jeanne Schofield and hard-boiled Chicago gumshoe Mac respectively.
But he created another very entertaining series, featuring SINGER BATTS, a hotel owner in Preston, Ohio, as well as a bookworm, Shakespeare expert, history buff and full-tilt oddball. Not a private eye, perhaps, but considering the type of shenanigans he and his hard-nosed hotel manager Joe Spinder routinely get involved in, he might as well have been.
Cranky and persnickety, Singer hates being interrupted when he’s reading, and doesn’t even like stopping to eat or drink. But set him on the trail of a murderer, and Singer makes for an unlikely hard-boiled dick, witty, clever and determined.
And pissed off because h’s lost his place.
Batts appeared in four novels, making his first appearance in Hue and Cry (1944), Dewey’s first novel.
NOVELS
- Hue and Cry (1944; aka “Room For Murder,” “The Murder of Marion Mason”)Â |Â Kindle it!
- As Good As Dead (1946)Â |Â Kindle it!
- Mourning After (1950)Â |Â Kindle it!
- Handle With Fear (1951) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
COLLECTIONS & OMNIBUS EDITIONS
- The Singer Batts Mystery Megapack: The Complete 4-Book Series (2015)Â |Â Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Thomas B. Dewey
A brief bio, taken from Brian Ritt’s Paperback Confidential (2013). - Dewey Does It: Hailing One of Crime Fiction’s Underrated Stars
J. Kingston Pierce’s telling June 2014 take on Dewey, from Kirkus.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
