Created by Tucker Coe Pseudonym of Donald Westlake (1933-2008) Guilt? MITCH TOBIN's soaking in it. This unlicensed private eye and disgraced ex-cop appeared in five novels by Donald Westlake (under the pen name of Tucker Coe), and together they make up one of the most interesting and varied private eye series of the sixties. Obsessed and … Continue reading Mitch Tobin
Category: Hall of Fame
Ed Clive
Created by Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) She was wearing a white raincoat with the hood thrown back. There were raindrops caught in her soft black hair, but the drops in her thick lashes never came out of a Los Angeles sky. Her arms went around him, tight. He kissed her. "Hello, tramp." EDMOND CLIVE's your classic, … Continue reading Ed Clive
Chet Drum
Created by Stephen Marlowe Pseudonym of Milton Lesser Other pseudonyms include Adam Chase, Andrew Frazer, Jason Ridgway, C.H. Thames, S.M. Teneshaw, Gerald Vance, Alexander Blade, Darius John Granger, Adam Chase, Stephen Wilder, Ellery Queen (1928–2008) Stephen Marlowe wrote a quite popular, but now almost-forgotten series for Fawcett/Gold Medal about globe-trotting private eye, CHESTER "CHET" DRUM. It's a … Continue reading Chet Drum
Leo Haggerty
Created by Benjamin M. Schutz (1949-2008) One of the better post-Spenser P.I.'s out of the 1980s was LEO HAGGERTY, a Washington, D.C.-based private investigator with a mustache, a receding hairline à la Jack Nicholson, and enough little quirks to make him worth remembering. Like Spenser, he's a bit of a renaissance man, obsessed with the moral … Continue reading Leo Haggerty
Johnny Liddell
Created by Frank Kane Pseudonyms include Frank Boyd (1912 - 1968) Frank Kane's New York private eye JOHNNY LIDDELL may have never been essential reading, he was arguably the quintessential fifties private eye, comfortably and even enjoyably generic, an endlessly malleable amalgamation of everything that made that decade's dicks swing. Created by Kane for … Continue reading Johnny Liddell
Jill Fitzpatrick
Created by Dorothy Porter (1954-2008) "Christ, not more bloody poems." Subtitled "An Erotic Murder Mystery," Dorothy Porter's 1995 book The Monkey's Mask is more than just the story of JILL FITZPATRICK, an Australian lesbian private detective who dives head first into "murder, manipulation and the consuming power of sex." It's also some kind of literary tour-de-force, stunning … Continue reading Jill Fitzpatrick
Dan Turner
Created by Robert Leslie Bellem Pseudonyms include Ellery Watson Calder, Harley L. Court, Walt Bruce, John Grange, Nelson Kent, Kenneth A. Nelson, Jerome Severs Perry & Harcourt Weems (1902-1968) "And then, from an open window, a roscoe coughed Ka-Chow!" The hard-boiled private eye, born in the low-rent pages of the pulps way back in twenties, has … Continue reading Dan Turner
Carney Wilde
Created by Bart Spicer Pseudonym of Jay Barbette (1918-1978) "If Bart Spicer's been forgotten, it's a real shame. He was one of the best writers of private-eye fiction in the last century." -- Bill Crider Philladelphia's CARNEY WILDE was one of the few P.I.'s who ever seemed to make money and remain respectable. Over the … Continue reading Carney Wilde
Ben Jardinn
Created by Raoul Whitfield Pseudonyms include Ramon Decolta and Temple Field (1896-1945) "I'm after a killer, man or woman. It's my business. I'll take your money...I'll take anyone's money, if I can give something for it. This isn't a hobby with me. I don't work in a library, or go into trances. I don't dope … Continue reading Ben Jardinn
Carver
Created by John Lutz (1939 --) Talk about your walking wounded... Carrying the twin burdens of cynicism and pain, Del Moray, Florida private eye FRED CARVER toughs it out with every step he takes, thanks to a hold-up man's bullet that ended his police career and left him with a permanently stiff left leg, forcing … Continue reading Carver