Harry McLean

Created by M.E. Proctor

HARRY McLEAN is a middle-aged private eye, an easy-going ex-cop and Army vet toiling for the Houston-based DG Investigative, a small, Houston-based detective agency owned and operated by Diana Galindo. So far, he’s only appeared in short stories, but then again, maybe that’s the way he likes it.

The way the author plays it, Harry’s a character she wheels out when she’s inspired to pen a humorous and light-hearted yarn. He’s a plodder; an “old-school pavement pounder.”

“Harry is a very laid-back private investigator,” the author explains. “He’s the kind of PI that’ll catch a cold standing all night in the rain in a back alley because a client needs ammunition to win a nasty divorce case.”

Harry’s “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” which appeared in 2024’s Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith, was a Shamus-finalist.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Brussels and living in Livingston, Texas, M.E. Proctor is a Derringer Award and Shamus nominee whose work gets around. It has appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including Vautrin, Bristol Noir, Pulp Modern, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review, Thriller Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and Shotgun Honey. She’s also the author of the sci-fi The Savage Crown Series, and her short story collection, Family and Other Ailments (Crime Stories Close to Home) was published in 2023.  She’s also writes the Declan Shaw series, about an extremely good-looking Houston private eye, and the co-author of, with Russell Thayer, of Bop City Swing, featuring her San Francisco homicide dick, Tom Keegan.

SHORT STORIES

• “Back Alley Blues” (May 2021, Expat Press) | Read it!
• “Caleb’s Canon” (Spring 2022, Guilty Crime Story Magazine)
• “Cottonmouths” (April 2023, Black Cat Weekly #85)
• “Flame of the West” (Spring 2024, Guilty Crime Story Magazine #11)
• “Drop Dead Gorgeous” (2024, Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith)
• “Magpie” (November 23, 2024, Black Cat Weekly #169)
• “Sweet Marylou” (2025, Illicit Motions Anthology)
• “Goldenrod” (2025,  Trouble in Texas)

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Lone Star Eyes
  The Eyes of Texas are Upon You

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.