Created by Ken Crossen
Pseudonym of Kendall Foster Crossen
Other pseudonyms include Bennett Barlay, M. E. Chaber, Richard Foster, Christopher Monig & Clay Richards
(1910-81)
NECESSARY SMITH was a New York City-based private investigator who partners with his buddy JASON JONES, a NYPD Homicide Dick, to solve impossible crimes.
Or is that the other way around?
In a cock-eyed spin-around, Jason is the obvious star of the show here, a large, overweight gourmet and near-genius cheekily referred to at one point as a”poor man’s Nero Wolfe,” who enjoys nothing better than tending to his geraniums on his rooftop hothouse, while Necessary is relegated to sidekick status.
Like, yeah, that’s what police departments want: their detectives teaming up with civilians to run around investigating homicide and other crimes.
The odd duo appeared in two novels, The Case of the Curious Heel (1942) and The Case of the Phantom Fingerprints (1945).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kendall Foster Crossen, working under his own name and a series of pseudonyms, wrote over 400 radio and television dramas, some 300 short stories, 250 non-fiction articles and around forty-five novels. He was best known for creating The Green Lama, a costumed vigilante who appeared in the forties pulps, but he also wrote reviews, and edited several science fiction collections, and served as editor for a while for Detective Fiction Weekly. He also wrote reviews, and edited several science fiction collections, and served as editor for a while for Detective Fiction Weekly. His radio credits include The Green Lama (naturally), Suspense, The Saint, and Mystery Theater, and for television he penned episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, The Man from Blackhawk, and Perry Mason). Still, Crossen’s probably best known in these parts, though, as M.E. Chaber, the writer of numerous books and stories featuring insurance investigator Milo March. Other private eyes he created were Brian Brett and outer space gumshoe Manning Draco, and “two-fisted Miami private eye” Pete Draco, who may or may not be related to ol’ Tzitsa-playing Manning himself. Never shy about using pseudonyms, as Richard Foster he also wrote a couple of private eye novels about American/Tibetan gumshoe Chin Kwang Kham.
NOVELS
- The Case of the Curious Heel (1942) | Buy this book
- The Case of the Phantom Fingerprints (1945) | Buy this book
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
