Harvey Mapes

Created by Lee Goldberg Just what the world needs now: an over-educated and under-employed slacker twenty-something security guard with private eye wet dreams. HARVEY MAPES works for Bel Vista Estates, one of those ubitquious SoCal gated communities, working the night shift and not exactly setting the world on fire. Though having a stapler that works … Continue reading Harvey Mapes

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

Harry Ross (Twilight)

Created by Robert Benton and Richard Russo Looking for sparkly vampires? Keep going... Retired, and just plain tired, Hollywood gumshoe HARRY ROSS takes odd jobs (and once, a bullet, trying to rescue their jailbait daughter) for his old pal and dying movie star, Jack Ames, and his one-time sexpot actress wife, Catherine. He bides his time, … Continue reading Harry Ross (Twilight)

Doc Holiday

Created by Kirk Alex You’ve heard the expression “too on the nose”? Like, when some writer thinks he’s being clever, offering a simple hint or allusion to something, a shout-out meant to be subtle or disguised, but in fact is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face? This series may qualify. Naming your … Continue reading Doc Holiday

Matt Singer & Jamal Wade

Created by Jack Polo "Sleuthin' ain't pretty." -- Matt warns a potential client Trouble may be their business, but it doesn't pay well enough for SoCal private detectives MATT SINGER and JAMAL WADE, so they come up with what they hope will be a slam dunk side hustle: real estate. But flogging McMansions in the … Continue reading Matt Singer & Jamal Wade

Pedro Gomez & Dennis “Hardball” Bakelenekoff (Grand Slam)

Created by Bill L. Norton In this extremely short-lived action/adventure series, comic Paul Rodriguez and John "Dukes of Hazzard" Schneider starred as PEDRO GOMEZ and DENNIS "HARDBALL" BAKELENEKOFF, bounty hunters for competing firms who eventually team up to nail a ruthless South American drug dealer, and end up going into business together, despite the fact they … Continue reading Pedro Gomez & Dennis “Hardball” Bakelenekoff (Grand Slam)

Floyd Jackson

Created by James Hadley Chase Pseudonym of Rene Brabazon Raymond Other pseudonyms include Raymond Marshall, Ambrose Grant & James L. Dougherty (1906-1985) “Women are funny animals. You never know where you are with them – they don’t often know where they are with themselves.” -- Floyd gets wise Got pulp? In his one known appearance, … Continue reading Floyd Jackson

Gus Slavin (Loophole)

Created by Dwight V. Babcock and George Bricker This time out, he's GUS SLAVIN, an LA-based investigator for a bonding service, who's putting the screws on war hero turned nice guy bank teller Mike Donovan (Barry Sullivan, the star of the show, playing the classic noir bonehead/doofus to perfection). Gus is convinced Donovan had something … Continue reading Gus Slavin (Loophole)

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

Ed Gray (The Buena Costa County series)

Created by John Crowe Pseudonym  of Dennis Lynds (1924-2005) ED GRAY is the private eye hero of book number four, 1975's Crooked Shadows (and possibly a few others), in John Crowe's Buena Costa County series, a string of six novels set in a fictional jurisdiction along the southern California Coast, just north of Los Angeles that is … Continue reading Ed Gray (The Buena Costa County series)