Created by Jiro Kimura
JOE VENICE is a New York City private eye with an office across the street from City Hall where, I guess, he can keep an eye on the mayor.
Just an ordinary “Joe,” except that his mother was Japanese. He was born at an American military base in Sakai, just outside of Osaka, Japan but grew up in Oklahoma City near Route 66. He works for an agency called The Fred Browning Investigations (FBI. Get it?)
Joe’s adventures have been rounded up in a 1994 collection, See Venice and Die, which drew praise from Lawrence Block (“Joe Venice is a worthy heir to Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. I think he and Matt Scudder would get along just fine!”) and Edward D. Hoch (“It’s a pleasure to meet Joe Venice, a New York private eye who recalls the glory days of the old Black Mask magazine. This is hard-boiled mystery the way we like it!”).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jiro Kimura, who hails from Kanazawa, Japan, is truly an “International Man of Mystery.” Jiro has worked as a translator for over forty years, and has been responsible for Japanese editions of books by Donald E. Westlake, Joseph Wambaugh, Roger L. Simon, Arthur Lyons, Gregory Mcdonald, Benjamin Schutz, Michael Collins, Bill Pronzini, Marcia Muller and a ton of others. He also reviews mystery fiction and reference books for Hayakawa’s Mystery Magazine and EQMM. He’s a member of MWA, PWA and MWJ (The Mystery Writers of Japan). He founded the Japanese chapter of the Maltese Falcon Society in 1982 and edited its newsletter, The Maltese Falcon Flyer, till 1988. Somehow, he also finds the time to run the excellent The Gumshoe Site, and created a couple of private eyes, including Japanese PI, Sachinosuke Terada. Unfortunately, none of his fiction as far as I know, has been translated into English….
COLLECTIONS
- See Venice and Die (1994)
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Start Spreading the News…
Big Apple Eyes - A Mystery Website—Easy to Launch, But So Hard to Keep Fresh
Jiro gives us the scoop on The Gumshoe Site. I can sympathize. (May 2024, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
