Tue 1 Jul 2025
GEORGE HARMON COXE – Focus on Murder. Kent Murdock #15. Knopf, hardcover, 1954. Dell 970, paperback, February 1958.
A newspaper colleague of Ken Murdock, a reporter named Stacy, is found murdered in his apartment. Murdock had been with him earlier in the evening when he had been shot at in his car, and two women had been looking for him after that, at least one with a gun.
What is amazing is that the next morning Murdock is shocked to hear of the man’s death. It also take him to page 61 [of the paperback edition] for him to realize that the dead man was doing a brisk sideline business in blackmail. Other than that, the mystery is solved in typically good Coxe style.
— Reprinted from Mystery.File.4, March 1988.
July 2nd, 2025 at 7:35 pm
I was a long time fan of Coxe, even before I knew he had written for the detective pulps for many years. The fellow he wrote about there was a fellow named Flashgun Casey. When he started doing hardcover novels, he switched to Kent Murdock, the hero of this book, not Casey. I don’t think I ever knew why he didn’t stick with Casey. I do seem to remember him as being the tougher of the two.
July 2nd, 2025 at 7:56 pm
I’m a big fan of Coxe too.
But have never read this particular book,
There are maybe 5 Casey novels too.
Haven’t read them.
I enjoyed this review!
July 2nd, 2025 at 9:42 pm
Murdock is a slicker version of Casey, A little less hardboiled though still a tough guy.
Coxe is always reliable and sometimes much more.
July 4th, 2025 at 1:01 pm
I’ve read a number of George Harmon Coxe mysteries–both Flashgun Casey and Kent Murdock. I’ve enjoyed them both. As David says, Coxe is a reliable writer who delivers compelling entertainment.
July 4th, 2025 at 2:00 pm
All this talk about Coxe and both Casey and Murdock makes me want to drop everything and find one or the other to read. It doesn’t matter which one.