I tend to avoid bestseller lists and top-rated television as I have always found more enjoyment with entertainment rejected by the masses. However, today I will turn away from my reviews of one forgotten TV series after another and focus on the most remembered.

   Who is each decade’s most remembered TV cop, private eye, or any other form of crime-fighter? (The category “Others” below includes not only amateur detectives, but spies, lawyers, reporters, and any other character solving crimes who is not a cop or PI.)

THE 1950s:

       Cops: DRAGNET (NBC). When Jack Webb brought his popular police radio show to TV it changed television. Best remembered for its unique dialog style, the opening and closing scenes, and theme music, but it was the series’ use of close-ups and narration to speed action along that soon became standard use in television.

       PI: PETER GUNN (NBC/ ABC) Created by Blake Edwards. The cool personality of Gunn (Craig Stevens) was unlike any other TV PI before. The eccentric characters that populated the stories, Mother’s jazz club with Gunn’s love interest and club singer Edie (Lola Albright) are all fondly remembered, but it was one of TV’s most famous theme songs (Henry Mancini) that made this show unforgettable.

       Others: PERRY MASON (CBS) Based on characters and books by Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry remains TV’s most fondly remembered lawyer. Still popular today in syndication, who done it no longer matters; it is the interaction of the characters, Perry (Raymond Burr), Della Street (Barbara Hale), Paul Drake (William Hopper) and Hamilton Burger (William Talman) that still entertains us. The series also benefits from an unforgettable theme song.

THE 1960s:

       Cops: THE UNTOUCHABLES (ABC) OK, this began in 1959, but name a more remembered and influential cop series in the 60s. Based on Eliot Ness’ memoirs (with co-writer Oscar Fraley), the series is still remembered for the protests from anti-violence and Italian-American groups. But it was the unforgettable narration of Walter Winchell, Robert Stack as Eliot Ness and its high production values that should be remembered. Among the many talented people involved with this Desilu Production was Quinn Martin who would become one of TV’s most famous producers of crime drama.

       PI: MANNIX (CBS) Created by Richard Levinson and William Link, and more importantly, developed by Bruce Geller. The original premise of having old school PI Joe Mannix (Mike Conners) work at a modern computerized PI agency failed. The second season found Joe on his own as he was meant to be, with his African-American secretary Peggy (Gail Fisher), Mannix would become one of TV’s most remembered PIs series.

       Others: THE AVENGERS (ABC) Created by Sydney Newman. This British TV series has existed in many forms, all with government agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee), but the best remembered version are the Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) years. Part of the 60s ITC British invasion of American television, the series was also noted for its surreal plots and modern fashion style of clothes. Kinky boots.

THE 1970s:

       Cops: COLUMBO (NBC/ ABC) Created by Richard Levinson and William Link. The series began as part of the NBC Mystery Movie wheel series and resurfaced more than once since. Columbo (Peter Falk) is such an iconic character that his rumbled raincoat is better remembered today than most of last season’s television series.

       PI: CHARLIE’S ANGELS (ABC) Created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Three beautiful female PI’s work for the mysterious Charlie. The series would live on with two successful theatrical films and a failed TV remake. People still can name you their favorite Angel. (Mine’s Sabrina — Kate Jackson.). This series is remembered less as a PI show but as the perfect example of 70s TV, pretty, cheesy, mindless fun.

       Others: KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER (ABC) Created by Jeff Rice and starred Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak. This is an example of how opinions of TV series can change over time. A few years ago the answer here would have been Six Million Dollar Man (ABC), but with the increase interest in supernatural fiction there has been a revival of interest in Kolchak. It would not be surprising if there are more people today aware of Kolchak: The Night Stalker than the number of people who watched it in the 70s.

THE 1980s:

       Cops: MIAMI VICE (NBC) Created by Anthony Yerkovich. Michael Mann took this TV buddy cop show with Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas and made it the perfect visual representation of 1980s pop culture.

       PI: MAGNUM PI (CBS) Created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen Larson. Set in Hawaii, Tom Selleck portrayed the easy going Thomas Magnum. Many today consider this series to be television’s best PI show.

       Others: MURDER, SHE WROTE (CBS) Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and Peter Fischer, with Angela Landsbury as Jessica Fletcher, mystery writer and amateur detective. This series is television’s most successful attempt to create an American original traditional mystery worthy of Agatha Christie. As with many on this list it has survived cancellation with TV Movies. Currently survives in syndication and as a popular book series written by Donald Bain.

THE 1990s:

       Cops: LAW AND ORDER (NBC) Created by Dick Wolf. This cop and lawyer series lasted twenty years, spawned several spin-offs and countless imitations. The famous two-note intro created by Mike Post joined the NBC chimes and Dragnet four-note opening in TV history.

       PI: ROCKFORD FILES (CBS) The NBC-TV private eye series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, made unforgettable by James Garner as Jim Rockford, returned to TV for a series of TV-Movies. It was a dark time for original TV PIs when the best-remembered of the decade was a remake of a PI from the 70s.

       Others: X-FILES (FOX) Created by Chris Carter. This science fiction mystery featured David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as two FBI agents solving strange crimes and dealing with a possible alien conspiracy.

THE 21st CENTURY:

       Cops: CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (CBS) Created by Anthony E. Zucker. The series is remembered for its striking visual style, but its effect on society has gone deeper as its portrayal of forensic role in crime fighting has changed how real juries view forensic evidence such as DNA.

       PI: VERONICA MARS (UPN/ CW) Created by Rob Thomas. Kristen Bell played a teenage student who got involved with her PI father’s cases. The series’ use of the season long arc story as a backdrop to weekly stand-alone episodes, as well as its school location, brought a new fresh look to the TV PI character that had been long in need of an update.

       Others: CASTLE (ABC) Created by Andrew W. Marlowe. Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) is a best selling mystery writer who tags along with Detective Kate Beckett’s team of homicide detectives. The series has such devoted fans there has been a series of “Richard Castle” Nikki Heat mystery novels published and make the NY Times bestseller list for real.

Editorial Footnote:   In the first posting of this list, Michael called his third category “Amateurs.” As the discussion of his choices went along, it was generally decided that the concept of amateur detectives was too small to include all of the non-cop and non-PI series that came up for consideration. Rather than expand the number of categories, Michael has agreed to call the category “Others” instead (actually his first choice). Any crime-fighting series involving characters who are not cops or a PI now belong to this newly formulated category, as you see it now.

DOUG HORNIG – Deep Dive. Mysterious Press, hardcover, 1988. Popular Library, paperback, March 1989.

   Doug Hornig brings back Charlottesville private eye Loren Swift for a fourth time in Deep Dive. Loren and his occasional bedmate Patricia Ryan have taken up scuba diving, and while practicing in a flooded quarry they happen upon a deceased diver.

   Accidental drowning is the verdict. In due course, the dead man’s sister, having other ideas, asks Loren to investigate. Her brother, it develops, was wealthy, an experienced diver, not a particularly nice person. The quarry is on the grounds of the Jordan Institute, which does psychic research, and soon Loren is having the oddest of experiences…

   Pleasant enough, though the plot takes an extra bit of believing and the ultimate solution comes out of left field.

Bibliographic Notes:

       The Loren Swift series —

1. Foul Shot (1984)    [Nominated for an Edgar.]
2. Hardball (1985)    [Nominated for a Shamus award.]
3. The Dark Side (1986)

4. Deep Dive (1988)

   Deep Dive was the final appearance of PI Loren Swift. Hornig also wrote two thriller novels with Steve Kirk as the leading character, but about him I know nothing more.

  LAWRENCE LARIAR – Death Paints the Picture. Phoenix Press, hardcover, 1943. Crime Novel Selection, nn [#6], digest-sized paperback, as Death Is the Host, no date [1943].

   A cartoonist himself, Lariar has as his detective Homer Bull, quite overweight and mastermind of the daily comic strip “True Stories of Crime.” Bull writes the strip while his assistant, Ham MacAndrews, does the cartooning. Ham also narrates Bull’s investigations. “‘Great jumping ginch!’ I blatted” is an example of MacAndrews’s speech which leads one to hope he draws better than he speaks.

   Because his man Shtunk was on a binge, Bull misses the invitation to weekend with Hugh Shipley, famed illustrator for the weekly magazines. It is an ill-assorted group that includes Bull’s ex-wife, a gossip columnist, and a tobacco mogul.

   If Bull had attended, he might have been able to prevent Shipley’s alleged suicide, alleged because Bull, who shows up afterwards, is convinced Shipley was murdered, despite the room having been locked with no way for any murderer to have escaped.

   Another murder made to look like suicide, though it doesn’t fool Bull, takes place before Bull figures out who and how. Probably because I have perverse tastes, I enjoyed the book.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTES:

       The Homer Bull series —

Death Paints the Picture. Phoenix Press, 1943.
He Died Laughing. Phoenix Press, 1943.

The Man with the Lumpy Nose. Dodd Mead, 1944.
The Girl with the Frightened Eyes. Dodd Mead, 1945.

   Lawrence Lariar has his own page on Wikipedia. Here’s the first paragraph:

   He wrote nine mystery novels under his own name; nine as Adam Knight, including eight adventures of PI Steve Conacher and one with female PI Sugar Shannon; two paperback originals as by Michael Lawrence, both cases for PI Johnny Amsterdam; and one book as by Michael Stark.

   If he wrote the one mystery credited to Marston La France, it is news to Al Hubin. (Marston La France was a long-time professor and academic dean at Carleton University in Ottawa. The mystery he authored, Miami Murder-Go-Round, was copyrighted in his name. It features yet another PI, Rick Larkan.)

ROBERT SKINNER – Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting. Poisoned Pen Press, hardcover, 1999; trade paperback, 2000. Hardcover reprint: Detective Book Club, 3-in-1 edition.

   At the present time there are six books in Robert Skinner’s series of Wesley Farrell adventures, of which this is the third:

Skin Deep, Blood Red (Kensington, 1997) [Nominated for the Anthony Award for Best First Novel.]

Cat-Eyed Trouble (Kensington, 1998)
Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting (Poisoned Pen, 1999)
Blood to Drink (Poisoned Pen, 2000)

Pale Shadow (Poisoned Pen, 2001)
The Righteous Cut (Poisoned Pen, 2002)

   Wesley Farrell is a mixed-blood Creole by birth, but at the time of this book, which is 1938, he’d been living in New Orleans as a white man for over 25 years. He’s a legend of a man — a night club owner whom everyone in the city seems to know and will defer to, rather than get on the wrong side of him. Nonetheless (and inevitably) it’s strictly his reputation that gets him into trouble this time.

   There are several threads of the widely rambling plot. The major one centers on the deaths or mysterious disappearances of prominent members of the aforementioned black community. Less important, or so it seems, is the request that Carol Donovan (*), the beautiful black owner of The Original Southport Club, makes of Farrell. She needs his help in fighting a tough thug named Archie Badeaux who has been making threats against her.

   A stash of stolen money that has gone missing is also involved, and when Ernie LeDoux gets out of prison and starts looking for it, a brand new series of events is pushed into motion. And there’s more. It takes well over 300 pages of fine action-oriented fiction to cover it all.

   Great characters and great atmosphere combine to make Gone A-Hunting very enjoyable reading. Back in 1938, and particularly in the South, there was an entire black community whose activities never made the white newspapers, and they certainly weren’t recorded in the white history books.

   A separate black squad of the detectives in the police department, black bankers and real estate agents — an entirely separate (but not equal) citizenry — which you notice most when you are reminded, as Skinner does, that trains, for example, had separate cars for blacks.

   Most of the threads of plot come together at the end, but not all. In all truthfulness they’re spread too thin to have the depth that would make this an absolute knockout of a novel. Sometimes the longer the book, the weaker the punch. The clues which the detection depends upon are suspect as well — what kind of witless killer would vomit at each of his scenes of the crime, and fail to clean up his mess afterward?

   But there are more adventures to come, and a couple of priors to catch up with also. I came in at the middle, and now with two different ways to go, I fully intend to.

(*) PostScript:   Here’s a quote that here, just now, at the last minute, I decided to leave you with. From page 21:

   Maybe Halle Berry could play the part? I was leaning toward a younger Richard Roundtree as Farrell, back when he played Shaft in the movies. When I mentioned this to another reader of the series (female), she immediately reminded me that Farrell is passing for white, and Roundtree is therefore too dark.

   She then suggested Giancarlo Esposito, who appears on some television show I don’t watch. I obviously have to think this over some more.

HELD FOR RANSOM. Grand National Pictures, 1938. Blanche Mehaffey, Grant Withers, Bruce Warren, Jack Mulhall, Kenneth Harlan, Walter McGrail, Robert McKenzie. Director: Clarence Bricker.

   Kidnapping is a federal crime, so it stands to reason that Betty Mason (Blanche Mehaffey) is working as a federal agent when she goes undercover to tackle this case. The ransom has been paid, but the victim has not been released. The police suspect the man’s nephew (Grant Withers) as part of an inside job, but Betty is wise enough to keep all her options open.

   I say “it stands to reason” in that opening paragraph, because the storyline of this film is plagued by some of the worst continuity and opening expository material I can think of, poverty row B-film or not. Events happen without explanation to characters who are not introduced, until later. I gave up once and started the film again, which helped a little.

   Once beyond the first 15 minutes or so, it settles down into a fairly enjoyable detective yarn. The lack of money behind the film’s production is an obvious drawback, but there are two good reasons why I can recommend Held for Ransom to you, with only the reservations I’ve stated so far.

   The first is the on-location shooting, that of an authentic mountain resort area around a lake somewhere near San Bernardino (Cedar Lake, IMDB says). It reminded me of several motor trips my family and I took when I was a kid, though we never made to California until the mid-1960s. The old general store with the ubiquitous candy bar ads plastered here and there brought back a lot of memories.

   The other reason — and this is the primary one — is the role of Blanche Mehaffey as a tough-as-she-needs-to-be policewoman, as handy with a gun as climbing out a window on bedsheets tied together and rowing across the lake at midnight. Crime action movies in 1938 like this one did not often have a female in the lead, not without a comedy sidekick or boy friend. This one doesn’t, and it’s all the better for it.

   The curly-haired and good-looking Mehaffey had a long career in silent films, beginning in 1923, but she seems to have made the into the sound era with no difficulties. Unfortunately she made only one more movie after this one, retiring from Hollywood when she was still only 31.

IRVING WEINMAN – Virgil’s Ghost. Fawcett Gold Medal, reprint paperback, January 1991. First published by Columbine, hardcover, 1990.

   Lenny Schwartz, the hero of Weinman’s two previous mystery novels, turns PI in this one. Years of guilt as a homicide policeman have taken their toll. (I haven’t read the first two, so that is all I know, but as you will see, if you read on, neither am I about to.)

   Lenny’s wife is upset by this decision for some reason, but maybe mostly because he didn’t tell her. Not, that is, until the night before he is to move into his new office. She kicks him out, saying that he is welcome home only on weekends, the next few of which they spend making love and feeling guilty afterward.

   So Lenny’s first case is important to him, more important than he knows. The parents of a mathematician whose mutilated body was recently found in the East River want him to prove that the coroner’s report was wrong, that their son did not die of AIDS. They feel guilty about this, but they are determined to pursue this course of action.

   Mixed in with all this guilt is a load of ethic humor (mostly Jewish), and fifty pages was as far as I went. Lenny’s new assistant is named Abrasha Addison (formerly Yarmolinksy), but at one time his real name was Abraham Resnick, and he can get a deal for you. When Lenny’s office/apartment is trashed by a firebomb, Abrasha is on the spot with a suitcase of clothes for Lenny. “What you think? Just your sizes, Lenny. No? Look, is first drawer quality. Bloomie’s Abe Strauss, good stuff, Huh?”

   The murder is serious, however. Pornography is hinted at. Snuff films. According to the back cover, perversion, conspiracy, and cover-ups are involved. Seamy sex clubs and drugs. Government agencies. Russkies. The Nuclear Regulatory Agency. Heaven help us. Can’t anyone write a plain old PI story any more?

   Anyway, I didn’t read most of this, but eight different newspapers and review services are liberally quoted on both covers, and they all read it and liked it, and you may, too. One of them even suggests that thus “great new literate sleuth” is “the American version of Adam Dalgleish.” I wouldn’t go that far, based on what I read, but I’d have to admit that I no longer read P. D. James either, and a lot of people do.

       The Lenny Schwartz series —

Tailor’s Dummy. Atheneum, 1986.

Hampton Heat. Atheneum, 1988.

Virgil’s Ghost. Columbine, 1990.
Easy Way Down. Columbine, 1991.

[UPDATE] 04-09-12.   One never knows for sure, but there’s a good possibility I would find something to reverse my opinion of this book, were I to read it now. Something as simple as my mood at the time may be different, or some eleven years later, certain overall ways I view things may have changed. On the other hand, I have not read P. D. James since I wrote this review, so perhaps not.

R. L. GOLDMAN – Death Plays Solitaire. Coward-McCann, hardcover, 1939. Green Dragon #10, digest-sized paperback, no date stated [1944], condensed.

   While it will not endear me to the doubtless many fans of Asaph Clume and Rufus Reed, “impulsive redheaded reporter,” I must confess I am glad I read the “condensed” version of this novel since its tediousness is staggering even in the abbreviated version.

   For example: “I’m supposed to be a political commentator, and I do a daily column, ‘Round-Up,’ which I sign ‘Rufus Reed’ because that’s my name.”

   A former police reporter, Reed has been assigned by Clume, his boss, to cover the execution of Dan Hillyard for murder during a bank robbery from which the money has never been recovered. On his last night Hillyard gives the deck of cards with which he has been playing solitaire to his wife.

   In turn, she gives the cards to Hillyard’s lawyer, who is murdered shortly afterwards. He, too, had been playing solitaire, something he had never done before, and the deck of cards has been taken by the murderer. Other deaths follow, and Reed himself faces torture and death. As Reed does the leg work, Clume does the thinking, such as it is.

   Not well written even for the times, a very thin plot, an evident but clueless murderer. Still, one waits, not breathlessly, to read The Snatch, in which, according to Green Dragon, “A slipping male movie idol is the victim-and there are more than enough suspects with motives. Irrepressible Rufus Reed, red-haired reporter figures out whodunit just in time for a smashing, surprise ending that’ll leave you worrying about ethics for quite a while.”

       The Asaph Clume & Rufus Reed series —

The Murder of Harvey Blake. Skeffington, 1931.
Murder Without Motive. Coward, 1938.

Death Plays Solitaire. Coward, 1939.
The Snatch. Coward, 1940.
Murder Behind the Mike. Coward, 1942.

The Purple Shells. Ziff-Davis, 1947.

Editorial Comment:   R. L. Goldman also wrote three non-series mysteries not included in the list above. Some biographical information about him can be found in the Ziff-Davis “Fingerprint Mystery” checklist compiled by Victor Berch, Bill Pronzini and myself.

FREDRICK D. HUEBNER – Judgment by Fire. Fawcett Gold Medal, paperback original, 1988.

   I was not surprised after reading Fredrick D. Huebner’s Judgment by Fire, a paperback original from Gold Medal, to learn that the author is an attorney.

   Even if my son weren’t a lawyer, I would disagree with the character in Shakespeare who said, “First, kill all the lawyers.” Writers in that profession, e.g., Huebner, Healey, Nevins, and Hensley are too good at integrating the law into their mystery plots.

   At times, Huebner’s well-described courtroom scenes (even the motions made are suspenseful) threaten to overwhelm his rather meager plot. The book reaches its peak midway with a murder-arson trial and then is anticlimactic.

   Still, on balance, this is a worthwhile mystery with a good description of the Seattle area, especially its perennial rain.

       The Matt Riordan mystery series —

1. The Joshua Sequence (1986)
2. The Black Rose (1987)
3. Judgement By Fire (1988)
4. Picture Postcard (1990)
5. Methods of Execution (1994)

REX BURNS – The Killing Zone. Viking, hardcover, 1988. Penguin, paperback, 1989.

   Rex Burns’ latest about Denver homicide detective Gabe Wager is The Killing Zone. I’ve muttered before about Wager, a gloomy, morose, irascible chap with a recently acquired payload of guilt to boot.

   But this one has a strong contemporary plot, with good suspense and character dynamics, and I was well swept along with the flow. A kid finds the city’s latest corpse in a vacant lot. It’s Horace Green, city councilman, black, hero and defender of the black community. Now wearing a bullet hole in the back of his head.

   Racial motives spring to mind, and the city gathers itself for explosion. Wager’s boss wants him to look only in one white place for a killer, for a tension-defusing solution. Wager, who rarely takes orders from anyone and routinely works sixteen-hour days, will look everywhere.

      The Gabe Wager series —

1. The Alvarez Journal (1975)

2. The Farnsworth Score (1977)

3. Speak for the Dead (1978)

4. Angle of Attack (1979)
5. The Avenging Angel (1983)
6. Strip Search (1984)
7. Ground Money (1986)
8. The Killing Zone (1988)
9. Endangered Species (1993)
10. Blood Line (1995)

11. The Leaning Land (1997)

   Rex Burns also wrote four books with PI Devlin Kirk as the lead detective. All 15 books have recently been published as ebooks by Mysterious Press.

GAYLORD DOLD – Bonepile. Ivy, paperback original, 1988.

   Bonepile by Gaylord Dold, the third Mitch Roberts novel, is more ambitious than the Rafferty book by W. Glenn Duncan (reviewed here ) but ultimately less satisfying.

   Dold is another writer to be commended for moving the private eyes’ mean streets from New York and Los Angeles to more unusual locales. In this case it is a rural farming community in Kansas where Roberts, on vacation from Wichita (“…the world’s largest small town”), has gone to recuperate. One can feel the heat and wind blowing off the plains, imagine walking through the park in the middle of town, and understand the people, including their worship of the St. Louis Cardinals.

   The book is set in 1956, but Roberts in true Lew Archer fashion permits guilt to cause him to try to solve a 1940’s murder. Unfortunately, Dold, like Archer’s creator, suffers from a severe case of a disease I believe I was first to diagnose and name: “metaphoritis.”

   Its primary symptom is overwriting, with swelling of metaphors, those necessary usages which transform ordinary into very good writing. When poorly used, as in Bonepile, we get such lines as “Night grew in me like a tumor” and “The tree itself creaked as if its heart were broken.”

   Sometimes, in an effort to be imaginative, Dold is merely anatomically unsound as he writes, “Sweat filled my mind and overflowed.” I suspect that the reason for all the overwriting and padding is that this time around he had too slim a plot and, based on the unsatisfactory ending, didn’t know how to conclude his book.

   Yet I perceive real writing talent here, and Dr. Lachman suspects this case of metaphoritis will not be fatal.

      The Mitch Roberts series —

Hot Summer, Cold Murder. Avon, pb, 1987.

Snake Eyes. Ivy, pb, 1987.
Bonepile. Ivy, pb, 1988.
Cold Cash. Ivy, pb, 1988.
Muscle and Blood. Ivy, pb, 1989.

Disheveled City. Ivy, pb, 1990.
A Penny for the Old Guy. St. Martin’s, hc, 1991.

Rude Boys. St. Martin’s, hc, 1992.
The World Beat. St. Martin’s, hc, 1993.
Samedi’s Knapsack. St. Martin’s, hc, 2001.