Created by Fletcher Flora
(1914-1968)
DANNY CLIVE is a special investigator for the Grand Jury, hired to bring in an old friend who could put the finger on a local gangster, in the great short story “The Heat Is Killing Me” from the February 1953 Dime Detective.
As the buddy’s wife says, “Judas. Judas Clive. Tough guy Clive. Nothing hurts him”
Danny just replies: “I’m not tough. I’m just a medium tough guy with a job.”
Flora was born in Parsons, Kansas, and was a regular contributor to the crime digests and pulps of the fifties and sixties, such as Manhunt, Ed McBain’s Mystery Book, Detective Story Magazine, Detective Tales, Pursuit, Shell Scott Mystery Magazine, Escapade, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Dime Detective et al. He did crank out a few private eye tales (including one featuring Gaspar Vane), but he wasn’t big on series characters. The closest he ever came was probably A few stories and a novel about P.I. Â Percy Hand.
But “The Heat is Killing Me” is well worth hunting down.
SHORT STORY
- “The Heat Is Killing Me” (February 1953, Dime Detective; also 1990, P.I. Files)
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
