Thu 20 Nov 2025
Archived Mystery Review: BOB McKNIGHT – The Bikini Bombshell.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
BOB McKNIGHT – The Bikini Bombshell. Ace Double D-387. Paperback original; 1st printing, 1959. Published back-to-back with Fare Prey, by Laine Fisher (reviewed here).
Another story taking place in the days before the fall of Batista in Cuba. Sam Petrie, American owner of a small airline based there, has managed to escape, but only after liberating $25,000 of his own money from Madhouse Manny’s casino.
Now Manny is looking for him and two beautiful girls are helping him, one of whom, clad in only ski mask and bikini, shot a cop. Petrie’s problem: which one? McKnight’s knack is telling a story that starts on page one and doesn’t let up until it’s over.
— Reprinted from Mystery.File.4, March 1988.
November 20th, 2025 at 11:46 pm
My review of RUNNING SCARED, by Bob McKnight appears here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=879
In some comments that follow the review, I left the information below about the author, along with a complete mystery bibliography. I won’t repeat the latter, but all of the books were published as halves of Ace Doubles. Quite a few of them featured a PI named Nathan Hawk, but he’s not in this one. I owned them all at one time, but alas, no longer.
McKNIGHT, BOB. 1906-1981. Mining engineer, pilot and horse-racing handicapper before semi-retiring to Florida.
November 21st, 2025 at 1:12 pm
I haven’t read this one, but I like Bob McKnight’s work. Here’s my review of one of them:
https://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2009/12/forgotten-books-slice-of-death-bob.html
November 21st, 2025 at 1:22 pm
Thanks for the link, James. I noted that the review was from 2009, a year that seems a long time ago now. McKnight’s books never got much critical notice, but one thing his reviews had in common was that the pacing was non-stop and the books were a lot of fun to read. I wonder how many of them are available now as Kindle editions. They seem to be naturals to me.
November 21st, 2025 at 4:55 pm
As far as I can tell, none of McKnight’s novels have e-book editions. I agree, they’d be great in that format.
November 22nd, 2025 at 2:31 am
He seems a natural for an ebook revival.
December 5th, 2025 at 5:42 am
I suspect there’s a whole subgenre of stories about the last days of Batista and the first days of Castro in Cuba. I read Jack Webb’s The Delicate Darling (1959), which capitalized on the existing interest in that subject. My post in Spanish: https://unaplagadeespias.blogspot.com/2019/08/un-joven-delicado-de-jack-webb-acme.html