Created by Don Pendleton
(1927-95)
“I never met a man I didn’t like, until he takes a whack at me. Then I love the bastard, after I whack him back, for reminding me that life ought to be lovelier than it usually is.”
— Joe Copp gets all mushy in Copp on Fire
Was Joe Dick taken?
The creator of the phenomonenially successful Executioner series had a late-career swing at the bat with another string of real he-man adventures, full of sex and violence and macho swagger, this one featuring hard-as-nails ex-cop (what else?) turned LA private detective Cop. Like his creator’s previous series, Copp is a might-is-right, shoot-first, ask-questions-later kinda guy. And Pendleton always gives him plenty to shoot at.
Action? Over the top?
You’re soaking in it.
You can trace the pulp roots of this kinda stuff, detouring around all that namby-pamby Hammett/Chandler/Macdonald stuff, ploughing through Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and heading right back to Carroll John Daly’s Race Williams and Three Gun Terry.
And those were written a century ago.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Don Pendleton was one prolific dude, if nothing else. A Navy vet who served in WWII and Korea, he wrote mystery, action/adventure, science-fiction, crime fiction, and suspense novels, as well as short stories and non-fiction. he also wrote comics, poetry, screenplays and poetry. But he’ll always be remember for creating the Mack Bolan: The Executioner, which became the definitive Men’s Action/Adventure series. But somehow, he also found time in there to create psychic private eye Ashton Ford, and Stewart Mann, who actually was a bit of a dry run for Bolan.
STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE
- “Once, back in the late seventies, I wrote Don Pendleton asking him what crime genre he thought a new writer should try to break into — this was back when I was still trying to get published. The letter I got back bore his signature and looked like he had typed it out himself; such personal attention from a guy whose books were selling in the millions really impressed me. Then again, his advice was that police procedurals seemed to be the hottest selling genre. Go figure.”
— David Nobriga
NOVELS
- Copp for Hire (1987) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Copp on Fire (1988) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Copp in Deep (1989) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Copp in the Dark (1990) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Copp on Ice (1991) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Copp in Shock (1992) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- .Private Eyes By the Number
P.I.s in Men’s Adventure Books
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
