Drinkers, Stinkers and Occasional Tipplers "Alcohol is like love: the first kiss is magic, the second is intimate,the third is routine. After that, you just take the girl's clothes off." -- Terry Lennox in The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler It started out on the printed page, but it's mostly through all those damn movies … Continue reading Gentlemen, Name Your Poison (I)
Tag: Alcoholic
Jaakko Piira
Created by Jorma Napola (1914-2000) Private eye novels have never been big in Finland. I don't really know why, but I have my suspicions: the private eye is a product of a culture that believes heavily in individualism and the right to take the law into one's hands if necessary. But Finland is pretty much … Continue reading Jaakko Piira
Onni Syrjänen
Created by Tapani Bagge (1962–) ONNI SYRJÄNEN, Finnish crimewriter Tapani Bagge's not very successful lawyer, is a sad sack drunk too poor to hire a detective. So he does his own gumshoeing. He lives and works in Kerava, a small railroad town near Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Onni's office is on the first floor … Continue reading Onni Syrjänen
Shep Stone
Created by Jeff Jacks An unlicensed New York private eye working the Greenwich Village area, SHEP STONE, only made two appearances, both in Fawcett Gold Medal paperback originals in the early seventies. According to Robert Randisi, these two hard-to-find novels are full of "great P.I. stuff with a wonderful New York atmosphere." In fact, in … Continue reading Shep Stone
Max Thursday
Created by Wade Miller Pseudonym of Bob Wade (1920-2012) and Bill Miller [1920-1961]) "Outside the sky was the same monotonous gray. The rain was drying into large puddles on Fifth Avenue. Max Thursday watched the early morning traffic and wished for the clean needles of a cold shower and something scalding to change the taste … Continue reading Max Thursday
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
Julian “Digger” Burroughs/Devlin “Trace” Tracy/Daedulus Patrick Murphy
Created by Warren Murphy (1933-2015) "It's a bubble that's gonna break, it's Murphy's law..." --theme song lyrics, sung by Al Jarreau I'm sorry, but there's just no sense listing these guys separately. Warren Murphy wrote them all, and they're all basically the same guy, especially the first two, JULIAN "DIGGER" BURROUGHS and DEVLIN "TRACE" TRACY. … Continue reading Julian “Digger” Burroughs/Devlin “Trace” Tracy/Daedulus Patrick Murphy
Nick Noble
Created by Anthony Boucher Pseudonym of William A. P. White Other pseudonyms Theo Durrant & H. H. Holmes (1911-1968); Noted (and prolific) mystery critic Anthony Boucher (that's who the Bouchercon is named after) somehow also managed to find the time to squeeze out several novels and some sixty short stories during his lifetime, about equally split … Continue reading Nick Noble
Mel Samson (Too Late)
Created by Dennis Huack "I need to change my life." -- Mel Samson MEL SAMSON is the hapless L.A. private eye centrepiece in Too Late, a twisted little bit of cinematic chess perpetrated by writer/director Dennis Hauck that plays with all your favourite P.I. and noir tropes (circa 2016) in all-new ways, thanks to a … Continue reading Mel Samson (Too Late)
Cecil Younger
Created by John Straley "There is something ardent and romantic about getting drunk. I feel like it's a homecoming and a departure all at once." -- Cecil gets all mopey about drinking in The Woman Who Married a Bear CECIL YOUNGER has at least two claims to fame: he works the mean... er, roads, trails and … Continue reading Cecil Younger