Don Marko

Created by Stewart Sterling
Pseudonym of Prentice Winchell
Other pseudonyms include Spencer Dean, Jay de Bekker, Giles Norcroft, Robert Wallace
(1895-1976)

DON MARKO was an apparent predecessor of the author’s series character Don Cadee, whom he wrote about under the pen name of Spencer Dean. MNarko appeared in five  short stories near the end of the pulp era with the last story, “The Kiss and Kill Murders,” appearing in the May 1953 issue of Popular Detective.

The first Don Cadee novel, The Smell of Fear, appeared just a year later, in 1954.

Like Cadee, Marko worked as Chief of Store Protection at a swank Fifth Avenue department store, but in Marko’s case, the store was called Nimblett’s, not Amblett’s.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Spencer Dean‘s real name was Prentice Winchell (ouch!), who also wrote novels  (under the pseudonym of Stewart Sterling) about upscale house dick Gil Vine and Fire Marshall Ben Pedley. Before that, though, he churned out a slew of stories for the pulps, featuring a long list of series characters that included Jim Big-Knife,  Johnny Hi Gear, Steve Koski, Eric Lewis, Vince Mallie, and The Special Squad. He also worked as a journalist, a screenwriter and a writer of radio scripts.

UNDER OATH

• “… an excellent detective story from the end of the pulp era. A little spicier than most of the stories found in earlier years. Not really a hardboiled story, but this guy has nearly as many dames throwing themselves at him as Mike Hammer.”
  — PulpGen on “The Kiss and Kill Murders”

SHORT STORIES

• “The Frightened Faces” (October 1950, Thrilling Detective)
• “The Butcher Always Smiles” (February 1951, Thrilling Detective)
• “A Key for Any Lock” (Winter 1952, Triple Detective)
• “Weapon Invisible” (Winter 1953, Triple Detective)
• “The Kiss and Kill Murders” (May 1953, Popular Detective)

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.