Created by Wilson Collison  In the screwball thriller There's Always a Woman (1938, Columbia), BILL REARDON (Melvyn Douglas) quits his comfy job an investigator with the District Attorney's office to open up his own detective agency at the urging of his pushy but ditzy wife SALLY REARDON (Joan Blondell). But the agency never quite … Continue reading Bill & Sally Reardon (There’s Always a Woman)
Tag: Detecting Couples
Vince Pope
Created by Michael A. Black Author Black riffs on Hammett's The Thin Man with a string of short stories featuring former private eye VINCE POPE and his sexy (and very wealthy) socialite wife Laura. Set in the years immediately following World War II, Vince, a returning vet, decides to shuck his gig as a "pretty … Continue reading Vince Pope
Roger & Suzanne Bowman
Created by Jerold Last A globe-trotting married couple who find trouble wherever they go? If you were expecting Frances Crane’s Pat and Jean Abbott, you’d be wrong. This is a more modern itineration. Plus dogs! Former patent attorney and police officer ROGER BOWMAN and UCLA biochemist SUZANNE FOSTER are boyfriend/girlfriend visiting Montevideo, Uruguay, when we first … Continue reading Roger & Suzanne Bowman
Trixie Meehan & Mike Harris
Created by T.T. Flynn Pseudonym of Thomas Theodore Flynn (1902-78) "Pert and sweet, soft and cuddly, harmless as a kitten and luscious-looking to all big strong men—that's Trixie if you don't know her." Nuts about each other, or just nuts? One of those hard-boiled dames from the pulps, cute, gun-toting TRIXIE MEEHAN was, along with her … Continue reading Trixie Meehan & Mike Harris
Dane Skarle
Created By Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) Smooth taking, fast-thinking DANE SKARLE, aka "The Gamy Crimefighter," was a sleight of hand expert and former carnival worker, and  yet another of Erle Stanley Gardner's colourful pulp characters. Dane and his lovely assistant Velma Colma, another ex-carny, roamed from town to town, hunting down criminals for the reward … Continue reading Dane Skarle
Frank Malloy
Created by Victoria Thompson Although FRANK MALLOY has been a central figure in Victoria Thompson's long-running and bestselling "Gaslight Mystery" series since Book One (1999's Murder on Astor Place), it wasn't until the nineteenth book in the series, Murder in Morningside Heights (2016) that he becomes a "confidential inquirer". That's the book where the former … Continue reading Frank Malloy