When I received word of the death of Maureen Peters from John Herrington yesterday, I emailed my daughter Sarah immediately, as she’s the historical fiction expert in the family, and I thought she’d like to know. While Maureen Peters wrote a sizable number of books included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, under her own name she was known far more for her fiction about the past, most often re-creating the lives of women born to royalty.

   Here’s a portion of Sarah’s opening paragraphs about Maureen Peters on her blog, Reading the Past:

   There you have it. The secret is out. In the world of mystery fiction, Maureen Peters is far better well known as Veronica Black than she is as her own. For the rest of Sarah’s overview of her career, please follow the link above, and I hope you do.

   For more about Sister Joan, the contemporary nun who is the series character in many of the Veronica Black books, see this page on Philip Grosset’s website dedicated to clerical detectives:

   Said Maureen Peters about Sister Joan in an interview with her that you can find online:

   As Catherine Darby, Maureen Peters wrote books that were sold as Gothics, such as the 12 books in the “Falcon Saga,” but were really what Sarah calls “dark family sagas.” Or more precisely, she describes their plot lines this way: “Themes of illicit passion, family rivalry, witchcraft, revenge, and even reincarnation permeated the novels…”

         BIBLIOGRAPHY. Crime Fiction only.
[Expanded and revised from her entries in CFIV; British editions only, except as noted.]

PETERS, MAUREEN (1935-2008). Pseudonyms: Veronica Black, Catherine Darby, Elizabeth Law & Judith Rothman.

BLACK, VERONICA

Dangerous Inheritance (n.) Hale 1969 [England]
Portrait of Sarah (n.) Hale 1969 [England]
The Wayward Madonna (n.) Hale 1970 [England]
A Footfall in the Mist (n.) Hale 1971 [England]
Master of Malcarew (n.) Hale 1971 [England]
The Enchanted Grotto (n.) Hale 1972 [England]
Fair Kilmeny (n.) Hale 1972 [England]
Moonflete (n.) Hale 1972 [England]
Minstrel’s Leap (n.) Hale 1973 [England]
The House That Hated People (n.) Hale 1974 [England]
Spin Me a Shadow (n.) Hale 1974 [England]
Echo of Margaret (n.) Hale 1978 [England]
Greengirl (n.) Hale 1979 [England]
Pilgrim of Desire (n.) Hale 1979 [England]
Flame in the Snow (n.) Hale 1980 [England]
-Lover Dark, Lady Fair (n.) Hale 1983 [England]
Hoodman Blind (n.) Hale 1984

Last Seen Wearing (n.) Hale 1990 [England]
A Vow of Silence (n.) Hale 1990 [Sister Joan; England]

Vow of Chastity (n.) Hale 1991 [Sister Joan; England]
My Name Is Polly Winter (n.) Hale 1992 [England]
A Vow of Obedience (n.) Hale 1993 [Sister Joan; England]
A Vow of Sanctity (n.) Hale 1993 [Sister Joan; Scotland]
A Vow of Devotion (n.) Hale 1994 [Sister Joan; England]
A Vow of Penance (n.) Hale 1994 [Sister Joan; England]
A Vow of Fidelity (n.) Hale 1995 [Sister Joan; England]

A Vow of Adoration (n.) Hale 1996 [Sister Joan; England]
Vow of Poverty (n.) Hale 1996 [Sister Joan; England]
A Vow of Compassion (n.) Hale 1997 [Sister Joan; England]
Vow of Evil (n.) Hale 2004 [Sister Joan; England]

DARBY, CATHERINE [All were published first in the US as paperback originals.]

-A Falcon for a Witch (n.) Popular Library 1975 [Falcon Saga #1; England; 1910 ca.]

-The King’s Falcon (n.) Popular Library 1975 [Falcon Saga #2; England; 1644]
-Fortune for a Falcon (n.) Popular Library 1975 [Falcon Saga #3; England]
-Season of the Falcon (n.) Popular Library 1976 [Falcon Saga #4; England; 1774]
-Falcon Royal (n.) Popular Library 1976 [Falcon Saga #5; England]
-The Falcon Tree (n.) Popular Library 1976 [Falcon Saga #6; England; 1841]
-The Falcon and the Moon (n.) Popular Library 1976 [Falcon Saga #7; England; 1886]

-Falcon Rising (n.) Popular Library 1976 [Falcon Saga #8; England; 1818]
-Falcon Sunset (n.) Popular Library 1976 [Falcon Saga #9; England; 1916]
Whisper Down the Moon (n.) Popular Library 1977 [Moon Chalice Quest #1; England]

Frost on the Moon (n.) Popular Library 1977 [Moon Chalice Quest #2; England]
The Flaunting Moon (n.) Popular Library 1977 [Moon Chalice Quest #3; England; 1644]
Sing Me a Moon (n.) Popular Library 1977 [Moon Chalice Quest #4; England]
Cobweb Across the Moon (n.) Popular Library 1978 [Moon Chalice Quest #5; England]
Moon in Pisces (n.) Popular Library 1978 [Moon Chalice Quest #6; England; 1800s]
-Seed of the Falcon (n.) Popular Library 1978 [Falcon Saga #10; England]
-Falcon’s Claw (n.) Popular Library 1978 [Falcon Saga #11; England; 1399]
-Falcon to the Lure (n.) Popular Library 1978 [Falcon Saga #12; England]

LAW, ELIZABETH

ROTHMAN, JUDITH

   For a complete listing of all of Maureen Peters’ fiction, see the Fantastic Fiction webpage for her.

Q. E. D.   CBS, 1982. Cast listed below.

    “Q. E. D.” are the initials of Professor Quentin Everett Deverill (Sam Waterston) who, on a self-initiated exile from Harvard University in the year 1912, ends up in England, where he puts his scientific abilities to good use in having a fine time going on far-fetched adventures and solving crimes, and in the process, saving the world more than once.

   I only vaguely remember this series when it was on. It lasted only six weeks, although I’m sure more were planned. The sets and general ambiance, with the series filmed in the UK, are nicely (if not lavishly) done. The performances are doubly fine — I’ll get to the primary cast shortly — but the stories themselves are creaky and old, disconnected and disjointed, too short of material for the hour time slot, and frankly, rather dull.

   I’ve found a few photos to use here on the blog, and since I still don’t know how to embed videos here, you’ll have to follow the link to see a long clip from the first show, including the opening credits, complete with the light-hearted type of music that signifies that this is going to be a comedy as well as a serious adventure. (And how can you not look at Sam Waterston in the image above and not at least smile?)

   But when you watch too many episodes in as short a time as I did — just over a week — the music will also all but drive you up a wall, or into a moat, or some such more or less drastic means of trying to avoid it.

   Thankfully, though, Kilkiss’s role is dropped by the fourth episode, his name and face no longer appearing in the opening credits. There are, after all, only so many ways, someone can take over the world, even a diabolically clever genius.

   Having been kept from firing rockets at London in the first episode and the pilot for the series, there is only one way to go from there, and that’s down. Assassination plots and the winning of motor races simply do not compare, either in magnitude or innate possibilities.

   When I saw Deverill described by wikipedia as being a Sherlock Holmes type of mystery solver in Edwardian England, I jumped at the chance to obtain DVDs of the complete series, but alas! There is very little deduction, although the last two shows seemed be heading in that direction, but unfortunately, too late.

            Episode list:

      1. 03-23-82. Target: London.
      2. 03-30-82. The Great Motor Race.
      3. 04-06-82. Infernal Device.
      4. 04-13-82. The 4:10 to Zurich.
      5. 04-20-82. To Catch a Ghost.
      6. 04-27-82. The Limehouse Connection.

   In “To Catch a Ghost,” for example, Deverill and company are required to find the culprit behind the ghosts haunting Jenny’s aunt’s castle of a home, and perhaps it’s the best episode of the series. “The Limehouse Connection” is the grittiest of the six, taking place as it does in the opium dens of Limehouse, London’s original Chinatown, and the underground boxing matches of the era, but I’d also have to add that when you get down to details, the story itself doesn’t hold a lot of water.

   In spite of the weak plots that contained too much filler for this fellow — the uniformly favorable comments by others on IMDB are due to a rather common combination of nostalgia and faulty memories — I grew fond of the cast over the course of the six episodes and ten evenings, and believe it or not — faults and all — I would have willingly watched more of them if I could have.

   Taken from Part 27 of the ongoing online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. The work of only two authors is cited in this posting, but with the number of pen names each of them had, it may make it seem as though there were more.

BRETT, JOHN MICHAEL. Pseudonym of Miles Tripp, 1923-2000, q.v.; other pseudonym: Michael Brett, q.v. Under these two pen names, the author of three adventures of Hugo Baron, an agent who works for a British organization called Diecast.
      A Cargo of Spent Evil. Barker, UK, hc, 1966. SC: Hugo Baron. Add setting: England, Germany. [On this assignment Baron poses as a Neo-Nazi sympathizer.] Shown is the cover of the reprint Pan edition.

      _Diecast. Pan, UK, pb, 1966. Previously published as by Michael Brett. [Add this edition.]
      A Plague of Dragons. Barker, UK, hc, 1965. SC: Hugo Baron. Setting: Africa.

BRETT, MICHAEL. Pseudonym of Miles Tripp, 1923-2000, q.v.; other pseudonym: John Michael Brett, q.v.
      Diecast. Barker, UK, hc, 1964. Gold Medal, US, pb, 1963. Add: also published as by John Michael Brett: Pan, UK, pb, 1966. SC: Hugo Baron.

FORBES, COLIN. Pseudonym of Raymond H. Sawkins, 1923-2006, q.v.; other pseudonyms: Jay Bernard & Richard Raine. Born in London; served in North Africa in World War II before joining a publishing and printing firm. Under this pen name, the author of over 30 novels of espionage, action and adventure. Appearing in many of them is a man called Tweed, the Deputy Director of the Secret Intelligence Service. For a long article on Forbes after his passing by Iwan Morelius, a long-time friend, see this earlier post on the Mystery*File blog.
      The Janus Man. Collins; UK, hc, 1987. Harcourt, US, hc, 1988. SC: Tweed. Add setting: Europe. [Tweed hunts a killer working on Moscow’s orders; one of four European section chiefs is working for the other side.] Shown is the cover of the reprint Pan edition.

SAWKINS, RAYMOND H. 1923-2006. Pseudonyms: Colin Forbes, q.v., Jay Bernard & Richard Raine. Best known for his works of espionage, mystery and adventure under the Colin Forbes byline. Under his own name, the author of three detective novels featuring Supt. John Snow. One of these is shown below (Heinemann, 1966).

TRIPP, MILES. 1923-2000. Pseudonyms: John Michael Brett, Michael Brett, qq.v. Born in England, served in RAF Bomber Command during World War II. Studied law and admitted as a solictor in 1952. Under his own name, the author of over 30 crime and detective novels included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. Fourteen of these featured a private eye named John Samson; one of these is shown below (Severn House, 1999).

   The link above leads to an installment of the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, which contained an entry for Williams. He was born in 1935, with no known year of death. In fact, there’s very little information about him available online. The short bio I wrote for him in the Addenda entry is about all I could come up with.

   Al Hubin, when I asked him, said in reply that he’d discovered much the same thing, which was nothing:

   And at this point in time, this is as far as we’ve gotten. Assistance, if any, would be welcome.

[UPDATE] 07-14-08.   I’m over a week delayed in posting this, but today’s better than tomorrow, at least. I heard from one source who’d prefer to stay anonymous, but who had a lot to say about Alan Williams and his career, none of it substantial enough to put online.

   I passed the information on to Susan, though, who replied with thanks. She also added: “I heard from a distant relative who says he is still with us.” She’s now trying to see if she can speak to him, “if I’m lucky enough to do so.”

   More later, it may be, if things work out the way she hopes.

  Steve

   I have now updated the blackhorsewesterns.com site with the June-August offerings. You may find it of general interest, since various topics like library distribution and author rewards are touched upon in the content, and these apply as much to mystery as other light fiction.

         Best as always,

            Keith (aka Chap O’Keefe)

   Thanks, Keith. I recommend the site highly to everyone who’s reading this, especially if you’re interested at all in the current state of genre fiction. Topics include:

1. The present market for western fiction. (Black Horse, an imprint of the UK publisher Robert Hale, is one of the few lines still committed to westerns, putting out 8 to 10 a month.)

2. Plot or Not? A long panel discussion by several Black Horse writers concerning how much plotting should be done ahead of time.

3. News and events in the world of western fiction.

4. An interview with Ray Foster, who as Jack Giles, had to regain most of his memory after a stroke before he could start writing again.

   One telling (and rather discouraging) paragraph came up in the panel discussion, which I’ll quote in full:

    “Most fiction writers are back to being, like many Victorian forerunners, hobbyists, part-timers. As BHW publisher John Hale has pointed out, ‘I am only too well aware of the low rewards to authors on these westerns, particularly in the light of continuing inflation. However, the sad fact is that if we had to pay more we would have to stop publishing them. Writing westerns for us really has to be regarded as a labour of love.'”

AILEEN SCHUMACHER – Affirmative Reaction.

Worldwide, paperback reprint, July 2000. Hardcover edition: Write Way, 1999.

   Over the course of years, many things change, and the ingredients that make up mystery stories are no exception. It’s quite a jump from 1946 to 1999, and there’s an quantum jump of difference between this book and the one just preceding.

   [Note: Referred to in the paragraph above is my review of The Case of the Fan-Dancer’s Horse, by Erle Stanley Gardner, posted here on the M*F blog several weeks back. Fan-Dancer was published in 1946.]

   Let’s get to the story first. Tory Travers is a working engineer. (I’d better add that she’s female.) Trying to uncover the problem the storm drains are having in an abandoned housing development, she discovers a body. The woman worked for the city, as it happens, and she was a notorious opponent of affirmative action. Her past record also includes some political dealings with the project, and immediately popping into everyone’s mind is the fact that the contractor (Hispanic) committed suicide soon after his contract was canceled.

   Detective David Alvarez has run into Tory before. This is not the first body she has found — apparently she has been making a habit of it. This is their third case together. And they are romantically involved, or at least that’s what David Alvarez is hoping. Tory is resisting.

   So. While the sparks between the two fly, they’re also solving the mystery — and the twists and turns their love life takes them is more of a tangle than the trail they follow in uncovering the culprit. There are very few suspects, and the finger soon points to one of them only.

   In the Perry Mason stories, the focus is on whodunit, and nothing else. Where Perry Mason lives, no one knows. Who he’s dating — besides the occasional steak dinner with Della — no one has a clue. If his contrary father comes to visit, as Tory’s does, we never hear of it. Perry with teen-agers underfoot, such as Tory has? Not a chance in the world.

   Things change. And Schumacher’s book is fun to read. More, she sets it up beautifully for the reader to quiver in anticipation while waiting for what’s next in store for these sometimes-yes-sometimes-no lovers — and that’s no small success.

   You’ll notice that I didn’t say much about the detective work, though.

The Tory Travers mysteries. The link leads to Aileen Schumacher’s website, where the information below was obtained:

      Engineered for Murder. Write Way, hc, August 1996; trade ppbk, January 1997.
      Framework for Death. Write Way, hc, 1998; Worldwide, pb, May 2000. 1999 Anthony Award nominee.
      Affirmative Reaction. Write Way, hc, 1999; Worldwide, pb, July 2000.
      Rosewood’s Ashes. Intrigue Press, hc, May 2001; Worldwide, pb, May 2001.

VICTORIA LAURIE – What’s A Ghoul To Do? “A Ghost Hunter Mystery.”

Signet, paperback original, April 2007.

   Victoria Laurie is described in the inner back-cover copy as a “real-life psychic,” author of the Psychic Eye series that features Abby Cooper. She’s apparently branching out with a new series in which medium M. J. Holliday and her sidekick Gilley Gillespie help souls stuck on this “side” cross over.

   This is psychic lite as M. J. and Gilley (who functions as her manager, and has a notable aversion to spooky manifestations) attempt to help the grandfather of Dr. Steven Sable cross over, a job that’s more difficult than they expect and involves some real-life characters with larceny on their mind and no objection to murder.

   And, to complicate matters, M. J. has to break one of her prime rules, which is that nobody accompanies her on her ghost-busting for a very attractive doctor, grandson of the dead – and possibly murdered – ghost.

   The psychic lite elements pretty much drain the novel of any suspense, but the characters are appealing, and there’s enough ghostly business to keep a ghost fancier like me reasonably entertained.

VICTORIA LAURIE – A Vision of Murder “A Psychic Eye Mystery.”

Signet, paperback original, December 2005.

   I was looking for another M. J. Holliday Ghost Hunter mystery, but all I found on the shelf at the Mystery Lovers Bookshop was the third in an earlier series whose protagonist is Abby Cooper. Abby’s a professional psychic who’s taking some time off from her psychic readings to enter into a real-estate venture with her sister (“Cat”) and handyman (“Dave”) that involves fixing-up a very run down house.

   (I liked this hook since my wife and I entered into a similar agreement some years ago with a handyman to a house in our neighborhood that was up for a sheriff’s sale.)

   Unfortunately, the house seems to have two very active spooks, and a mysterious intruder whose intentions are just as threatening as those of the resident haunts, and a good deal more deadly.

   These two books constitute a pleasant addition to my meager supply of contemporary conventional supernatural fiction (somewhat overloaded, I’ve concluded, with vampire novels). I like the author’s carefree but committed approach to the dark side and hope to visit her spectral world again.

      Psychic Eye Mysteries:

1. Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye (Signet, December 2004)
2. Better Read Than Dead (Signet, June 2005)
3. A Vision of Murder (Signet, December 2005)
4. Killer Insight (Signet, September 2006)
5. Crime Seen (Obsidian, September 2007).     [Reviewed earlier by Steve here.]
6. Death Perception (Obsidian, September 2008)

      Ghost Hunter Mysteries:

1. What’s a Ghoul to Do? (Signet, April 2007)
2. Demons Are a Ghoul’s Best Friend (Signet, March 2008)

   One of the beneficiaries of the [recent] Sherlock Holmes “boom” was John Dickson Carr’s excellent 1949 biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which was reprinted by Vintage in paperback in 1975. “Renaissance man” is a term too frequently used nowadays and applied to anyone who can both read and write. There are some people to whom it applies. Anthony Boucher was one. Doyle was certainly another with his knowledge and ability in such diverse fields as medicine, literature, politics, sports, medieval history, and military tactics. Furthermore, as Carr clearly shows, Doyle was a “‘doer,” a man who accomplished an incredible amount in his lifetime.

   Carr gives most of his attention to the non-Holmesian Doyle, and there is much to be learned on many non-mystery subjects – e.g., South Africa. Without saying so, Carr clearly shows how today’s apartheid problems had their roots in the Boer rebellion at the turn of the 20th Century. Doyle went to South Africa, in charge of a field hospital, and published a history of the war on his return.

   Though he is generally objective, Carr occasionally intrudes, getting in a few digs at Socialist Britain which he left at about the time he was writing this book. He also, I am glad to say, doesn’t entirely forget that he was one of the best Holmesian scholars around. He especially enjoyed The Valley of Fear which, unlike most critics, he considered Doyle’s best mystery novel.

   The Valley of Fear is based on the 19th Century violence in the Pennsylvania coal fields. Doyle became familiar with this through his friendship with William Pinkerton, son of the famous detective. An engrossing non-fiction account of this strife is Wayne G. Broehl’s The Molly Maguires (1964), originally written as a dissertation at Harvard and reprinted in paperback, as part of a series on American violence, by Chelsea House/Vintage.

   This is a book which, in addition to being a fine history, offers many bonuses to the reader. For example, there is the origin and correct usage of the much mis-used expression “reading the riot act.” Also, for students of perhaps the smallest sub-genre within the mystery (“exchanged murders” as used by Patricia Highsmith, Nicholas Blake, and Evelyn Berckman), there is a historical example of this. In Ireland, rebels, in various counties, would mutually import strangers to commit murders against landholders, thus permitting alibis and suspects who had no apparent motive.

   Though it was the “Golden Age” of detection, thrillers were also popular about the time that Doyle stopped writing of Holmes. Furthermore, lest you believe that the drug problems of the 1960’s and 1970’s are either new or unique, you should consult English thrillers of this time. A.S.F. The Story of a Great Conspiracy (1924) by John Rhode is a good example, a fast-moving book about the drug traffic in England and Europe and how it affects members of the British upper classes.

   This is a book with enough coincidences to choke a horse, or at least a reader. I wouldn’t dream of detailing them because part of the fun in this book is reading them and saying “WHAT!” as they occur. One of Rhode’s characters sums up the situation nicely when he refers to “just one of those malicious strokes of Fate which endows men’s actions with a grim humour.”

   However, in case you never get closer to this book than my review, I suppose I should quote Rhode’s last paragraph:

   And, yet, with all that is corny, there is a vitality of writing here that is very apparent in this, Rhode’s first book. It would lead to a grand, prolific career with well over one hundred mysteries for this author who gave pleasure to many but whom Julian Symons derided and whom hardly anyone reads today.

   Just as much fun is Gerard Fairlie’s The Muster of the Vultures (1929), a thriller in which Robin Murdoch does battle against “the best brains of the criminal profession … joined together under one genius of organizations.” I frankly loved such other examples of comic book dialogue in this book as:

      1. “I am much too powerful for the police of any country to suppress.”

      2. “We meet again, Robin Murdoch!”

      3. “Curse him, I say, for the foul fiend that he is!”

      4. “Take that, you hound!” he cried. “Take that! and that! and that!”

   Books reviewed or discussed in this installment:

JOHN DICKSON CARR – The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes. Harper & Row, hardcover, 1949. Vintage Books, paperback, 1975. Carroll & Graf, trade paperback, 1987. Da Capo Press, trade paperback, November 2003

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE – The Valley of Fear. Smith-Elder, UK, hc, 1915. George H. Doran, 1915. Reprinted many times and the basis for several films.

WAYNE G. BROEHL, JR. – The Molly Maguires. Harvard University Press, hardcover, 1964. Vintage/Chelsea House Book, softover, 1968.

JOHN RHODE – A.S.F.: The Story of a Great Conspiracy. Geoffrey Bles, UK, hardcover, 1924. US title: The White Menace. McBride, hc, 1926.

GERARD FAIRLIE – The Muster of the Vultures. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1929. Little-Brown & Co, US, hc, 1929.

   At the end of my previous post on Zekial Marko, better known to paperback collectors and mystery fans as John Trinian, I hinted at a small piece of information that turned up in his online obituary.

   Namely, that Marko had a brother named Kenn Davis. The double N immediately caught my eye. Could this be the same Kenn Davis, the mystery writer? Turns out that he is, and I hadn’t known it before. It was also news to Al Hubin, author of Crime Fiction IV, but after doing some investigating on my own, if it was a secret, it hasn’t been very well kept. People on various blogs and Yahoo groups have pointed it out on several occasions in the past.

   So it’s not exactly breaking news, but it’s still reason enough to talk about Kenn Davis’s books. Expanded slightly from his entry in CFIV:

  DAVIS, KENN. 1932- . Series character: CB = PI Carver Bascombe. All books are paperback originals.

      The Dark Side [with John Stanley]. Avon 30957, pb, December 1976. [CB]
      The Forza Trap. Avon 44552, pb, June 1979 [CB]
      Bogart ’48 [with John Stanley]. Dell 10853, pb, February 1980

      Dead to Rights. Avon 78295, pb, August 1981
      Words Can Kill. Gold Medal 12667, pb, May 1984 [CB]
      Melting Point. Gold Medal 12901, pb, May 1986. [CB]

      Nijinsky Is Dead. Gold Medal 13096, pb, 1987 [CB]
      As October Dies. Gold Medal 13097, pb, 1987 [CB]
      Acts of Homicide. Gold Medal 13351, pb, 1989 [CB]
      Blood of Poets. Gold Medal 13352, pb, 1990 [CB]

   In spite of the number of books, I have a feeling that both Kenn Davis and Carver Bascombe are fairly well forgotten today. Even though I believe I have all but one or two of the books, they’re boxed away where I can’t get at them. (You’ve heard that before.) So far I’ve been able to come up with only a few cover images, which you will see both above and below.

   But did you know, as I certainly didn’t — and I’ll get back to Carver Bascombe shortly — that Kenn Davis is also a well-known California-based artist, and has been for over 50 years? Taken from a website illustrating some of his work, one of which is shown here:

   Kenn Davis and John Stanley also co-wrote the screenplay for the comedy-horror film Nightmare in Blood, the storyline described on IMDB as: “Attendees at a horror-film convention in San Francisco keep disappearing. It turns out that the guest of honor is a real vampire…” Kenn Davis was the producer, and John Stanley directed. More on the making of the movie here, written by John Stanley himself. (No, that is not him in the coffin below.)

   As for Carver Bascombe, from the second of the two websites linked to in the above paragraph, Stanley says:

   As it happened, The Dark Side was nominated for an Edgar in 1976 as Best Paperback Original. (Note that by the time the book was published, the movie Shaft had already appeared, in 1971, based on Ernest Tidyman’s 1970 novel) From the cover of The Dark Side:

   Kevin Burton Smith in the online January Magazine has this to say about the series:

   Of special note, the link above leads to a long article by Kevin about black PI’s, a complete overview from a historical perspective. It’s well worth your reading.

[UPDATE] 01-18-10. I have bad news to report. Kenn Davis died six days ago at the age of 77. For a wonderful tribute to him as an author, check out Jeff’s piece about him on The Rap Sheet. I am pleased to say that Mr. Davis saw this post I did on him (see Comment #7). I am not pleased to say that in spite of all good intentions, an interview I kept meaning to do with him never happened. I wish it had.

   It was Juri Nummelin who on his blog was one of the first to post the news of Zekial Marko’s passing. A brief obituary can be found in its entirety on the Writers Guild of America website.

   Here’s a shortened version:

   Marko’s list of TV credits would in itself qualify his death be mentioned on this blog. What the obituary does not say, however, but what has been known to fans of his work for some time, is that he was also “John Trinian,” author of a small eclectic set of mystery and crime paperbacks written back in the 1960s.

   It turns out that Al Hubin already knew this – the name behind the names is included in Crime Fiction IV, as you can easily check. What’s not there, but will appear in the next installment of the online Addenda — and right here, right now, of course — is any biographical information about Markos, including the year he was born (1933) and the fact that his name at birth was Marvin Leroy Schmoker. The latter Juri learned from a relative of Marko’s who contacted him after he died, perhaps because Juri had written about John Trinian on his blog and elsewhere.

   Based on and expanded from his entry in CFIV, here’s the list of all of Trinian’s paperback mystery fiction:

      A Game of Flesh. Bedside Book BB106, 1959; Lancer/Domino 72-678, 1963; Macfadden 75-360, 1970. “An explosive novel of a wanton gigolo and the love-starved women he shamed!”

      The Big Grab. Pyramid G548, 1960; Manor 95230, 1973. Reprinted earlier as Any Number Can Win. Pyramid F-925, 1963. “Their take would be a cool quarter of a million-or a hot slug in the gut.” Film: Cipra, 1963, as Melodie en Sous-Sol (Basement Melody). Released in Britain as The Big Grab; released in the U.S. as Any Number Can Win. Stars: Jean Gabin, Alain Delon.

      North Beach Girl. Gold Medal s1000, 1960. Reprinted as Strange Lovers. Macfadden 60-301, 1967. [A novel set in the San Francisco beat world of the Fifties.]

      The Savage Breast. Gold Medal s1104, 1961; Macfadden 60-330, 1968. “Born beautiful, spoiled rotten..was she a goddess to be loved or a tigress to be tamed?”

      Scratch a Thief. Ace Double F-107, 1961. Also published as: Once a Thief. Gold Medal k1569, 1965, as by Zekial Marko; and under the latter title as by John Trinian: Manor 95272, 1973. “A blood and guts book about a cop with a grudge and an ex-con who wanted to go straight…” Film: MGM, 1965, as Once a Thief; in French: Les Tueuers de San Francisco. (scw: Zekial Marko; dir: Ralph Nelson). Stars: Alain Delon, Ann-Margret. [Go here for a short clip from the film.]

      House of Evil. Pyramid F-712, 1962. [?? Macfadden-Bartell, 1970] “The story of a Hollywood sex cult.”

      Scandal on the Sand. Gold Medal k1449, 1964. Macfadden-Bartell 75-338, 1970.

   Reviews or commentary on Trinian’s work are few and hard to come by, but on Ed Gorman’s blog he had this to say, not too long ago:

   What better things could one writer say about another? A fitting way to end this short tribute, I hope you’ll agree.

[UPDATE.] Later the same day. Keen eyes on your part may have noticed the same thing I did. It is true, it is he, and this small bit of information is what a followup post, coming up soon, will be all about.