Created by Edward Parrish Ware
(1883–1949)
Private dick. Cowboy. Raconteur. Philosopher.
Edward Parrish Ware’s TUG NORTON was all those things. He was the star of over forty short stories and novelettes in the pages of of the pulps (mostly Flynn’s Detective Weekly, but also Dime Detective) from 1926 until 1934.
Each of the stories is narrated by Tug, who reflects back on the cases he worked for the Kaw Valley Detective Bureau of Kansas City, Missouri, a detective agency he started up after his days as a cowboy and a cop in Kansas City. He was bounced out of the department, the story goes, when a new police commissioner was appointed, and Tug was deemed “politically off-colored.”
But it’s the cowboy element that’s played up in the stories, most notably in in the story “The Sow’s Ear,” in which an old trail buddy shows up and they reminisce (plenty of the stories feature Tug reminiscing) about their days when they rode together in rural Oklahoma—all of twelve years earlier. And while many of the stories take place in urban settings, plenty of them are played out in rural locations.
What’s also interesting is that in some ways, the stories harken back to the pre-hard-boiled era, utilizing classic murder and dime novel tropes (spooky and unusual settings, the reliance on the great detective’s skills to crack the case, a boy detective, etc.), even as the more hard-boiled private eye was taking shape.
Also setting the Tug Norton stories apart as the lone wolf P.I. was gaining favour was the fact that he didn’t work alone. Although initially the Bureau only employed Tug and Mary Malloy as his secretary-receptionist, he wasn’t shy about occasionally calling in other ops when needed, eventually hiring Jim Steel as his assistant and a kid called Spec to serve as office boy and junior apprentice.
But make no mistake—despite some of the more gee whiz Great Detective and dime novel trappings, the stories are pretty rough and tumble, supposedly some of the most hard-boiled stories to ever appear in Flynn’s Detective Fiction Weekly. They’re filled with plenty of two-fisted action and more than a few shootouts, although Tug doesn’t particularly like relying on guns, and isn’t too keen on those who do. In one story, “Hell’s Backyard,” he even proclaims that “This business of detecting crime and tracing criminals is better done with the head than the gun—and I invite proof to the contrary.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prolific pulpster Edward Parrish Ware was born in Arkansas in 1883, and died in Arizona in 1949, and his stories appeared in everything from Detective Fiction Weekly, Clues, Dime Detective and Weird Menace to Esquire. The Tug Norton stories were popular enough, but he was best known for the almost 70 surprisingly violent stories (which also appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly) featuring U.S. Ranger Jack Calhoun set in Arkanas’ Sunken Lands.
SHORT STORIES
- “The Tree-Top Trail” (January 30, 1926, Flynn’s)
- “The Fifth Gate” (March 13, 1926, Flynn’s)
- “The Queen’s Patteran” (January 1, 1927, Flynn’s)
- “Hell’s Backyard” (March 26, 1927, Flynn’s Weekly)
- “The Silent Partner” (April 2, 1927, Flynn’s Weekly)
- “Lost Lake” (May 14, 1927, Flynn’s Weekly)
- “The Hole in the Hill” (October 1, 1927, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Empty Pouches” (December 3, 1927, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Tomahawk” (February 18, 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Devil’s Pocket” (February 25, 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Devil Winks” (March 3, 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Hitched to the Wind” (April 14, 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Wheels Turn” (April 28, 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “When Fate Wants a Man” (October 20, 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “When Thief Catches Thief” (December 1, 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Signed with Lead” (December 15, 1928, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Death Stone” (November 2, 1929, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Trackless Trail” (November 30, 1929, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Locomotive Mystery” (February 22, 1930, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “A Game with Death” (May 24, 1930, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Hot Eyes” (July 5, 1930, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Sow’s Ear” (October 18, 1930, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Prison Shoes” (November 22, 1930, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Jade Boomerang” (December 6, 1930, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Snow Camp” (December 13, 1930, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “A Background of Vendetta” (April 11, 1931, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Consider the Sphinx” (October 24, 1931, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Trouble Up the Stream” (November 28, 1931, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Skull of Judgment” (March, 1932, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Skull of Judgment” (March 1932, Dime Detective)
- “The Yellow Demon” (July 16, 1932, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Devil’s Do-All” (July 23, 1932, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Pole-Axe Problem” (October 1, 1932, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Behind the Green Mask” (November 12, 1932, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Monkey Blood” (February 25, 1933, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Red Skies” (May 27, 1933, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Gallows Clue” (July 15, 1933, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Gallows Clue” ( July 15, 1933, Dime Detective)
- “A Dead Man in the Cast” (August 12, 1933, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “Dynamite and Six-Guns” ( January 20, 1934, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Seven Coffins” (February 17, 1934, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
- “The Dumb Spot” (June 9, 1934, Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction)
COLLECTIONS
- The Fifth Gate: The Complete Cases of Tug Norton, Volume 1 (2022) | Buy this book
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
