Created by Douglas Heyes Pseudonyms include Matthew Howard (1919-1993) STEVE MALLORY is a partner in a small detective agency based in Los Angeles, that employs, besides his partner, Harry Jellison, at least three other ops. That's the set-up, anyway, in the 1951 novel The Kiss-Off, a quick, hard read that's one of those almost-forgotten treasures … Continue reading Steve Mallory
Category: Radio
Bill Lance (The Adventures of Bill Lance)
Created by J. Donald Wilson (1904-84) There were actually two separate version of the radio series The Adventures of Bill Lance, a radio show detailing the exploits of a wealthy, Los Angeles-based musical composer and behavioral criminologist whose cases took him all over the globe. An expert on the arts and sciences, he was often … Continue reading Bill Lance (The Adventures of Bill Lance)
Dirk Gently
Created by Douglas Adams (1952-2001) THAT Douglas Adams? The guy with the BBC show and the Vogons and the towels and the three-armed Betelgeusians? Yup, that Douglas Adams. So now he's writing about trenchcoats, fedoras, smoky jazz, and femmes fatales? Well, no... Even in an era of maverick and increasingly non-traditional P.I.'s, DIRK GENTLY defies … Continue reading Dirk Gently
Purkis and Wilburt Flower (The Flower Case)
Created by James Saunders The Flower Case was a radio mini-series broadcast as part of the CBC's The Mystery Project in 2000, featuring rival private investigators PURKIS and WILBURT FLOWER, who just happen to be father and son. Neither's exactly setting the world on fire (or getting any younger) though, and both have resorted to taking domestic … Continue reading Purkis and Wilburt Flower (The Flower Case)
Marty Carlin (In the Blood)
Created by Paul Ledoux MARTY CARLIN worked for fifteen yeara as a detective for the Toronto cops until health problems, a botched stakeout and a dead partner had him and his wife Sharon hightailing it back to his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he planned to pursue a calmer, quieter career as an insurance … Continue reading Marty Carlin (In the Blood)
Michael Flynn (Flynn)
Created by Lyal Brown Another popular series from The Mystery Project on the CBC was Flynn, which enjoyed a 13-episode run in the mid-1990's. In this one, MICHAEL FLYNN is a part-time private detective living on his boat in Vancouver. A middle-aged drop-out from UBC Law School, he now lives on the Blarney Boy, a weather-beaten … Continue reading Michael Flynn (Flynn)
Peggy Delaney
Created by James W. Nichol About time someone put the "broad" back in "broadcasting" at the CBC. PEGGY DELANEY is a hard-drinking, hard-writing forty-ish Toronto newspaper columnist who can more than hold her own with any of the guys in the newsroom, in a 1998 series of radio dramas which originally aired as part of … Continue reading Peggy Delaney
Becker (Becker: House Detective)
Created by Martin Kitsch The hero of Becker: House Detective, another CBC radio series,\clues us in on his lot in life: "The Queen of the Rockies. A Grand Hotel. About the last thing you'd expect to find in the Rockies in 1923, but then I may be the last thing you'd expect to find in … Continue reading Becker (Becker: House Detective)
Dick Barton
Created by Norman Collins "With one bound Dick, was free!" The beloved star of the BBC's first daily radio serial was sometimes a private investigator, sometimes an adventurer, sometimes a "special agent"and sometimes--this is my favourite--a  "world-famous secret agent." But whatever his actual occupation was (it seemed to be dictated by the story), DICK BARTON was … Continue reading Dick Barton
Richard Rogue (Rogue’s Gallery/Radio)
Created by Ray Buffum Dashing RICHARD ROGUE was a hard-nosed, if not quite hard-boiled, private eye with a certain flair for solving crimes before the police do in Rogue's Gallery, a NBC radio show that premiered in 1945, and ran for six or so years, under various titles, with different leads, on various networks. It … Continue reading Richard Rogue (Rogue’s Gallery/Radio)