Mon 20 Jul 2026
Archived Mystery Review: BOB McKNIGHT – Secret Sinners.
Posted by Steve under Uncategorized[3] Comments
BOB McKNIGHT – Secret Sinners. Merit 355, paperback original; 1st printing, June 1960.
Or, perhaps as an alternate title, The Case of Cocky Robin. No kidding. Attorney Arch Behan is hired by Cocky’s sister, to locate him after he turns up missing. Just as in The Bikini Bombshell (reviewed here), the story takes place in Florida, and involves gun-running to Castro’s rebels.
And lots of naked, willing women. This is a story for red-blooded males, that is for sure. The swamp girl who wants Arch to help her make a baby is tops. One question: a Miami deputy think Cocky might have been “gator et.” What could he have meant?
PostScript: If you follow the link above to my review of The Bikini Bombshell , be sure to read on to the comments that follow.
July 21st, 2026 at 9:55 am
Et, in southern parlance, means ‘eaten’, as in, when greeting a friend round dinner time, one might say ‘et yet’? Which translates to: have you already eaten or would you like to join us for supper?
Thus, I believe that the deputy is hypothesizing that Mr. Cocky may have been eaten by an alligator.
July 21st, 2026 at 3:45 pm
Thanks, Tony. Makes sense to me!
What I don’t recall now is just how that phrase fit into the story. What it does do is tell you more what kind of story this is.
July 21st, 2026 at 3:59 pm
To switch to another subject matter, though, Merit, the outfit that put this book out, was a third or fourth rank publisher of sleaze books back in the 60s. I can’t tell you where I found this one, but wherever it was, I bought it because I recognized the author’s name (and not because of the cover). He wrote quite a few action adventure books for Ace, mostly if not all as halves of Ace Doubles.