Created by Richard A. Olson In the 1930s, Peoria, Illinois was a Big Bad Place, a Sin City stuffed to the gills with mobsters, gamblers, hookers, and enough crooked cops and politicians to start their own baseball league. And a tough guy, name of NICK STIHL. Used to be a boxer. Now he ain’t. Now … Continue reading Nick Stihl
Tag: Pulp
“Special Delivery”
By Hugh LessigAn Alamo Barnes StoryApril/May 2000 The body arrived in the newsroom around mid-morning. It came in a reinforced cardboard box from American Bathroom Fixtures that supposedly held a recessed bathtub. At least that's what it said on the outside. No one paid any attention to it. Corporate flaks mail their stuff to … Continue reading “Special Delivery”
Alamo Barnes
Created by Hugh Lessig “He stormed out, knocking paperweights off desks as he went, calling the Frisco Foil 'a cheap, rotten, dickless rag.' Personally, I didn't think we were that cheap…" -- Alamo calls 'em as he sees 'em. ALAMO BARNES is another reporter for The Frisco Foil, a sensationalist tabloid that proudly offers "Truth and … Continue reading Alamo Barnes
Jack Hagee
Created by C.J. Henderson Pseudonyms include Robert Morgan (1951-2014) "Hagee's Manhattan is the one the tourists don't get to see. It's those small twisty back streets in Chinatown, the reeking dumpster-filled alleys of midtown, the crumbling docks, the beer-drenched bars that stink of rotting foam and their patron's indifference. It is a lump of land … Continue reading Jack Hagee
Jake Barrow
Created by Nick Quarry Pseudonym of Marvin H. Albert Other pseudonyms include Mike Barone, J.D. Christilain, Al Conroy, Albert Conroy, Ian MacAlister, Anthony Rome 1924-96 A tough, no-nonsense private eye from New york City, JAKE BARROW slugged his way through six solid Gold Medal paperback originals in the late fifties/early sixties. The series kicks off with … Continue reading Jake Barrow
Quarry
Created by Max Allan Collins (1948--) The first series I know of to be based on the exploits of a hired killer, predating both Loren Estleman's Peter Macklin and Lawrence Block's Keller, was the QUARRY series penned by baby boomer renaissance man Max Allan Collins, creator of Nate Heller, Ms. Tree, Mallory, Nolan, et al. … Continue reading Quarry
Jim Anthony
Created by John Grange House pseudonym, includes Victor Rousseau, Robert Leslie Bellem, W.T. Ballard & possibly others "As a manhunter Jim Anthony had no equals; his fame as an amateur scientific criminologist was world-wide. Detection was his hobby, his avocation; countless were the mysteries he had solved, the murderers he had brought to justice after the police … Continue reading Jim Anthony
Terry Clane
Created by Erle Stanley Gardner San Francisco's TERRY CLANE is yet another of Erle Stanley Gardner's pulp characters, a two-fisted lawyer and adventurer with plenty of friends and connections in that city's Chinatown. But unlike most of Gardner's more pulpy characters -- and Terry's plenty pulpy -- he didn't appear in the pulps at all, … Continue reading Terry Clane
Ken Corning
Created by Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason, was one of the leading writers for Black Mask, the legendary hard-boiled crime fiction magazine. Although Mason never actually made it into its pages, in the early 1930s the pulp published a string of six short stories starring a slick, crusading … Continue reading Ken Corning
Lester Leith
Created By Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) "Do you know, Scuttle, an impartial observer hearing Sergeant Ackley's theories might come to the conclusion I was guilty of some crime or another..." He's not really a private eye, in that he doesn't really take on paying customers, but he certainly gets paid (and paid well) for his, … Continue reading Lester Leith