Short Stories,
Linked Stories & Novelettes:

Reprinted: One More Thrill (July, 1934, 10-Story Book magazine [vol. 33, No. 1])
[*first line: "I paused, my cup to my lips. It seemed impossible that this healthy, rosy cheeked man who smiled at me across the little restaurant could be Henry Livermore, the physical wreck I parted with some five years before".]

[--1st-person narrated mood piece (p. 57-65); with editorial comment on story (p.65)]

[--1st-person narrated in vernacular. The main character - an unnamed "gentleman adventurer/soldier of fortune"]

[--1st-person narrator, preying on "leading lights of the underworld", e.g., Ed, The Killer]

Knights of the Open Palm (1 June 1923, Black Mask) Race Williams-1
(Reprinted in The Great American Detective: 15 Stories Starring America's Most Celebrated Private Detectives, edited by William Kittredge & Steven M. Krauzer [NY: New American Library [Mentor-?*], 1978])

[--Debut of Race Williams. KKK story in special KKK issue of Black Mask, with a letter from Daly on story (page 127)]

[--Prize-fight story]

[*the main character - a lawyer]

[*the main character - Buck Henderson. set: South Seas]

[*the main character -Tracey Young, a 1st person P.I., talks just like Race Williams]

[*the main character - Larry Donnigan, a tough ex-con]

[--Race Williams in Mexico]

[--Tod wanted more than anything to be a game guy. And he was one, although nobody realized it. But there came a time when a game guy was needed and when not any sort of a guy was available – except Tod. Well, that was a time when several thousand people saw a real crisis in football.]

[--A vivid tale of Chinamen, opium traffic, Secret Service, and desperate FIGHTING! A Complete Chinatown Mystery Novelette by the Author of 'Honor of the Force']

[--Race Williams in South Seas]

[--Race Williams among the Oklahoma oil-rich Osage Indians]

[*the main character - Benny Slawson, "product of Delancey Street"]

[*republished as a novel (NY: Clode, 1927; London: Hutchinson, 1928)]

[--" The name of Race Williams stands for service"]

[--Crime story in 2 parts, with 1st person narrator, Charlie]

[*These five stories are a "loosely organized serial".] [+ word-sketch of Race Williams in October issue, p.124]
[*republished as the novel - The Hidden Hand (NY: Clode, 1929; London: Hutchinson, 1930)   Race Williams ]
[--Race Williams vs. The Hidden Hand (Howard Travers).]

[*These four stories are a "loosely organized serial"]
[aka: *republished as the novel - The Tag Murders (NY: Clode, 1930; London: Hutchinson, 1931) Race Williams (& Flame)]
[--Introducing The Flame (Florence Drummond) - the Girl with the Criminal Mind]

[*? in 2 parts:
"The Silver Eagle" (October 1929, Black Mask)  Race Williams
"The Death Trap" (November 1929, Black Mask)   Race Williams]

[*serial dropped after Part 2.]

[???* NB: part 5. The Hidden Hand - The Last Shot (October 1928, Black Mask) Race Williams]

[*These three stories are a "loosely organized serial"]
[*republished as the novel - Tainted Power (NY: Clode, 1931; London: Hutchinson, 1931) Race Williams (& Flame)]

[--Race Williams goes out of town on a gun job]

[--Race Williams vs. Bull Lowery]

[aka: *republished as the novel - The Third Murderer (NY: Farrar and Rinehart, 1931; London: Hutchinson, 1932) Race Williams (& Flame)]

[--Race Williams pinch-hits for his friend, Sergeant O'Rourke]

[+ a Daly's anecdote, page 119 in April issue]
[*republished as a novel (NY: I. Washburn, 1933; London: Hutchinson, 1933)]

[*republished as 1st part of the novel Death's Juggler (UK, 1935 *book), aka: The Mystery of the Smoking Gun. (US, 1936 *book)

[*republished as 2nd part of the novel Death's Juggler (UK, 1935 *book), aka: The Mystery of the Smoking Gun. (US, 1936 *book)

[--Race Williams out in the countryside]

[*republished as 3rd part of the novel Death's Juggler (UK, 1935 *book), aka: The Mystery of the Smoking Gun. (US, 1936 *book)

[*republished as 4th part of the novel Death's Juggler (UK, 1935 *book), aka: The Mystery of the Smoking Gun. (US, 1936 *book)

[--Over the whole city hung a ghastly murder pall - the dread shadow of The Black Death. And only Detective Vee Brown - The Crime Machine--new its source. Knew that the killer was whetting his blade to carve at a blood feast.
--Description from Vintage Library: This version was the first part in a series of Vee Brown stories for Dime Detective. These stories were later re-worked to become the novel "The Emperor of Evil".]

[*republished as 5th part of the novel Death's Juggler (UK, 1935 *book), aka: The Mystery of the Smoking Gun. (US, 1936 *book)

[--There it hung at the cross roads of the world-Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street - a ghastly, mutilated corpse. And on its chest was pinned The Black Death's final warning. How had it got there through the midnight fog? Why had the Cat Man swung it from a lamp post on the best known corner in all New York?
--Description from Vintage Library: This version was the second part in a series of Vee Brown stories for Dime Detective. These stories were later re-worked to become the novel "The Emperor of Evil".]

[--The Murder Syndicate - that was how the death notes were signed. And only Detective Vee Brown - Crime Machine - Killer of Men, knew the ghastly menace that lay back of them - knew that crimeland's newest post-Repeal venture could be met with his own bullets and his alone.
--Description from Vintage Library: This version was the third part in a series of Vee Brown stories for Dime Detective. These stories were later re-worked to become the novel "The Emperor of Evil".]

[*These three stories are a "loosely organized serial"]
[aka: *republished as the novel - Murder from the East (NY: Frederick A. Stokes, 1935; London: Hutchinson, 1935) Race Williams (& Flame)]

[NB! There is a different story (NOT about Race Williams) - Murder By The Book (September 1954, Smashing Detective Stories) with the main character - Baldwin Scott, P.I.]

[--Friday the 13th - that was the night on the Murder Syndicate's crime calendar which had been picked for the final blood coup--a coup that was due to net millions for the death master. And that was the night Detective Brown went berserk - for Gertrude la Palatin was scheduled to "go up on the wall," a living picture of the Syndicate's red revenge on the Crime Machine.
--Description from Vintage Library: This version was the fourth and final part in a series of Vee Brown stories for Dime Detective. These stories were later re-worked to become the novel "The Emperor of Evil".]

[*This story was later re-worked for the novel "Ready to Burn" (London: Museum Press, 1951; no American edition) Satan Hall

[*This story was later re-worked for the novel "Ready to Burn" (London: Museum Press, 1951; no American edition) Satan Hall

[*This story was later re-worked for the novel "Ready to Burn" (London: Museum Press, 1951; no American edition) Satan Hall
--Daly combined several of his Detective Fiction Weekly stories to make up the novel "Ready To Burn", including the title story.]

[*This long novelette was later re-worked (with 2 others) to become the novel "Mr. Strang" (1936). Hardly a word was changed.]

[*This long novelette was later re-worked (with 2 others) to become the novel "Mr. Strang" (1936). Hardly a word was changed.]

[*This long novelette was later re-worked (with 2 others) to become the novel "Mr. Strang" (1936). Hardly a word was changed.]

[*republished as a novel (Toronto: Popular Publications [Canada], 1947)]

[*NB!!!  They are two different stories! -??*
see: The $100,000 Corpse (March 1950, Popular Detective [New York])  Race Williams ]

[*NB!!! different story than I Am the Law (November 1948, Black Book Detective) Satan Hall ]

[--"Meet that implacable, coldly reckless manhunter, Satan Hall"]

[--Race Williams, a fast-shooting, fast-talking private investigator, is faced with the death-threat of a faster shooting crook named Orlin Tasker. Faster-shooting, or so they say... Race wants to get Tasker first, but his employers, the People Vs. Crime, want to use him as bait to Tasker's demands for a face-to-face meeting!]

[*NB!!!  They are two different stories! The early DFW version has Clay Holt as the main guy and the later story has Satan Hall.
see: Mr. Sinister (April 1944, Flynn's Detective Fiction) Satan Hall ]

[--Bert - which seemed to be all the name he had - was a walking corpse with hair that had turned white overnight. Quite a guy - Bert. He had more courage than most dead men and quite a few live ones - and when it came to leading me to Ira Lent - the invincible killer who ran the country's greatest spy-ring - he was right there with the goods. But me - I'm no slouch myself when I know who I'm shooting at. Hell, hadn't the G-men called me in to do their dirty work? Appointed me a sort of one-man Department of Justice when they couldn't cope with the great Ira on their own?]

[?*=]  Cash for a Killer (in 'The Evening Standard Detective Book'. [London: Gollancz, 1950])  Race Williams-?*

[--Pete Hines' motto: " It's better to be a live sap than a dead wise-guy' "]

[*the main character - Connelly]

[chapters: 1. Death Gives an Order; 2. The Gunmaster; 3. "I Like to Make Trouble!"; 4. Satan Takes Over; 5. Scene Set for Murder.
*first line: "If you have a little better food, a little better cooked and for a little better price, more people will wear a path to your door than any "better mouse trap" racket, despite the old adage."]

[*NB!!!  They are two different stories! The early DFW version has Clay Holt as the main guy and the later story has Satan Hall.
see: Mr. Sinister (11 November-25 November 1939, Detective Fiction Weekly) Clay Holt ]

[--NOTE: Freddy is a wealthy gentleman and a snappy dresser living in New York City.  His adventures are narrated by his friend named Mack, formerly wealthy, who is now Freddy's private secretary and companion.  Freddy is known as a man who never breaks his word. "Murder Theme" is set in WWII because it's 1944 and Mack is then serving as a sergeant in the army.]

[--It was a detective's stubbornness that made big Joe Fenton, racketeer, and it was a detective's stubbornness that broke him.]

[*first line: "I checked into the hotel, hesitated a moment over the register, and finally wrote my name – Race Williams."]

[*first line: "There may be likeable crooks and there may even be likeable killers, but Jake O'Hara was not one of them."
--blurb: Three debutantes are slain and a fourth is slated for death when a hard-hitting private sleuth comes along to challenge a grim killer whose cryptic messages spell doom!]
[! NB: NO RELATION to Unremembered Murder (March 1947, Detective Story)]
[--NOTE: "Not My Corpse" is a good story, with a very tangled publishing history. It was reprinted in Bill Pronzini and Martin Greenberg's "The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories" (1988), where I read it. It appeared under that title in the 1953 "Top Detective Annual", a yearly pulp collection. But internal evidence shows that the events of the story are taking place around 1946, shortly after the end of World War II in 1945. The Annuals were full of reprint material, suggesting that this is a retitled version of a story Daly first published c1947. A good candidate is "Unremembered Murder" (1947), a tale from the March 1947 Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine. The title of "Unremembered Murder" fits the plot of the story. This Race Williams novella is a bit different in tone from some of his earlier works. It is more purely a detective story, with Williams solving a set of serial killings. Williams seems to be adapted a bit to the conventions of the Raymond Chandler private eye tale, then at the peak of its influence and popularity. There is no sign of the "pulp style of plotting" which Daly pioneered; instead, all the crimes turn out to be the work of a single villain, as in the classical detective tale. (Michael E. Grost. A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection)]

[*NB!!! different story than the earlier one - I Am the Law (March 1938, Black Mask) Satan Hall ]

[--"Meet that implacable, coldly reckless manhunter, Satan Hall"]

[*first line: "There was something very likeable about Johnny Sharp."
--blurb: That hundred grand had already claimed one man, and offered death again, but Race Williams swore to deliver it to a girl – who didn't know it was hers!]

[*NB!!!  They are two different stories! -??*
see: The $1,000,000 Corpse (December 1937, Dime Detective) Race Williams-?* ]

[*the main character - Cop "Old Benny"]

[--NOTE: the Mental Detective.
The narrator is the editor and publisher of the weekly newspaper the Sino Date Palm. The Mental Detective is a hypnotist named Malcolm Benedict.
*first line: "The little desert city of Sino lay broiling in the sun."
--blurb: Go with the Mental Detective on a trip into Betty Stanton's memory, where a killer hides, shrouded, unknown – and deadly!]

[wrong title - Murder in the Wind http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/t749.htm#A16271 ]

[*the main character - Willie Bloto]

[*the main character - Baldwin Scott, P.I.]
[NB! This story is NOT about Race Williams (see: Murder Book [August 1934, Black Mask] part3 for the novel - Murder from the East, 1935) Race Williams (& Flame)]

[wrong title (misspelling) - Head over Heels]

Novels:

[* Charles Carey Waddell (1868-1930), also published as Charles Carey]
[set: Mexico]
[--Description from Vintage Library: Carroll John Daly brings his tough guy, hard boiled attitude to the Old West by teaming up with famed writer C.C. Waddell in Two Gun Gerta.
  When movie stuntman Red Conners heads south of the border for real life adventure, he meets up with Two-Gun Gerta who runs her own cattle ranch and is always running up against her ruthless competition. After Red agrees to work for Two-Gun Gerta, he begins to realize that she may have some dark secrets of her own that Red would rather not know about.]

[set: NYC]

[originally serialized in 4 parts: (June, July, August, September 1927, Black Mask)]

[--The first hard-boiled detective novel in hardcover form. A Race Williams mystery. "The story that introduced millions of mystery readers to Race Williams, a hard-boiled detective living in the gray areas between law and justice. Williams comes to the aid of a troubled young man who wants to protect his sister from being robbed of a large inheritance by their unscrupulous uncle."
--Book Description (from abebooks):  New York: Edward J. Clode, Inc, 1927. Inscribed To Joseph T. Shaw an editor and a friend Carroll John Daly. Carroll John Daly published the first hardboiled detective story in the pages of Black Mask (edited by Joseph Shaw) in 1923. Throughout the 1920s, his sleuth Race Williams was one of the magazine's most popular characters and Daly its most popular author. While his critical reputation has been eclipsed by Hammett, Daly's place in detective literature is assured. The Snarl of the Beast is his second book. An outstanding association linking two of the key names in American detective fiction.
--Description from Vintage Library: Race Williams is once again at his fighting best in this novel chock full of action. Behind the action unfolds a plot to get a large sum of inheritance money from the rightful owner. But who is the rightful owner? And why is everyone out to kill Race, who carries a secret document from his client? Among the Race Williams' pursuers is a man of gigantic proportions, a beast, some say, with the ability to deflect even bullets. Join Race in this battle to kill the beast, save the girl, and solve the case.
--"The police don't like me. The crooks don't like me. I'm just a halfway house between the law and crime; sort of working both ends against the middle. Right and wrong are not written on the statutes for me, nor do I find my code of morals in the essays of longwinded professors. My ethics are my own."]

[set: New England]
[--Book Description (from abebooks): Daly is considered THE pioneer writer of hard-boiled detective fiction. A complete recluse who was neurotic and agoraphobic, he was still one of the most popular detective writers of his time. His detective Terry Mack is significant as the first tough-talking private eye ever to appear in the pulp genre (debuting in May, 1923 in Black Mask). Mack reappears here with a plot that pingpongs from the present back to the Klondike gold rush, and ends in a series of dramatic episodes in the present (of course with his usual startling and unexpected conclusion).]

[originally serialized in 1928 in Black Mask (in 5 parts): The Hidden Hand [Creeping Death] (June), Wanted For Murder (July), Rough Stuff (August), The Last Chance (September), The Last Shot (October). These five stories are a "loosely organized serial"]

[set: Florida]
[-- Book Description (from abebooks): New York: Edward Clode, 1929, 1929. First Edition. An exceptional association copy; inscribed by the author to the editor of Black Mask, "To Joe Shaw, A Regular Guy. Carroll John Daly." The author is generally considered the first important hard-boiled writer, and was a popular staple of Shaw's magazine.
--"Private investigator Race Williams is approached by a larger detective agency to help hunt down a criminal gang leader named James McCleary, but he turns down the deal because he prefers to work solo. Somehow word leaks out that he's on the case, and an assassin is put on his tail."
--"A ship bound for Miami on which a beautiful woman enters his life to complicate matters, and Private investigator Race Williams can't help hunt down a criminal gang leader named James McCleary."
--Daly's The Hidden Hand (1928) is at least as much a story sequence as a novel. It appeared as five short stories in Black Mask. Each tale is of novella length, around 50 pages. This is what Black Mask clearly considered as the ideal length for a short story. Each tale has a separate villain. The dividing lines between the stories is easily discerned in the book version. I do not have editions of the original Black Mask stories to compare, but my guess as to how chapters in the novel line up with the Black Mask stories: "The Hidden Hand": Chapters 1 - 8; "Wanted For Murder": Chapters 9 - 16; "Rough Stuff": Chapters 17 - 25; "The Last Chance": Chapters 26 - 34; "The Last Shot": Chapters 35 - 44; the dividing line between the last two stories is fuzzy, and 34/35 is just a guess. (Michael E. Grost. A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection)]

[aka: originally published in Black Mask (in 4 parts): Tags of Death (March 1929), A Pretty Bit of Shooting (April 1929), Get Race Williams (May 1929), Race Williams Never Bluffs (June 1929). These four stories are a "loosely organized serial"]

[--Description from Vintage Library: Race Williams is at his best in this story about a ruthless criminal and his gang, whose signature is a metal tag, left on the body of their victim.
Race Williams fans will not be disappointed in this thriller...It features Daly's best characters, Gregory Ford, another detective which seems to bring out Race's competitive nature, and the Flame (Florence Drummond), the Girl with the Criminal mind. This is the first Flame story, and reveals a little more information about her background and interest in Race.]

[originally published in Black Mask: Tainted Power (June 1930); Framed (July 1930); The Final Shot (August 1930). These three stories are a "loosely organized serial"]

[set: NYC]
[--Description from Vintage Library: 'Tainted Power' is vintage Daly, featuring Race Williams mixing with the Racketeering crowd, and "The Flame", the girl with the criminal mind.]

[aka: originally published in Black Mask: The Flame and Race Williams [parts:1-3] (June, July, August 1931)]

[set: NYC]
[--Description from Vintage Library: 'The Devil is unchained!' This simple messages sends Race into his most complex and exciting case of his career. The Gorgon crime family is ruling the streets and courts of New York and Race's unknown client is orchestrating the showdown which will hopefully bring the Gorgons down. As the message unleashes a whirlwind of activity, the hidden, dark secrets of two families are uncovered. Follow Race through a complex, twisting and turning plot which will keep you and Race guessing at every turn. One of the best Daly stories we have found, we think it is one of the best action detective stories from the 1930's.
--Recommended Reading for Carroll John Daly (from Vintage Library): 
A great way to start is with 'Better Corpses' with Race Williams and the Flame. Its a great, action detective story which is also hilarious.
If you enjoy 'Better Corpses', and enjoyed the relationship between the Flame and Race, then we suggest the following three stories - 'The Tag Murders'; 'Tainted Power'; 'The Third Murderer' - where Race first meets the Flame and her story unfolds. This series concludes with the 'Third Murderer' which may be one of the most complicated plots in Pulp history.]

[originally serialized in 4 parts: (April, May, June, July 1932, Black Mask)]
[set: Baltimore, MD]

[set: NYC]
[--Description from Vintage Library: Murder Won't Wait chronicles another adventure of Detective Vee Brown, a diminutive, yet dangerous upholder of the law. Along with his side-kick, Dean Condon, Brown tries to save a mysterious girl from the clutches of a dangerous underworld criminal]

[originally published in Black Mask: Six Have Died (May 1934); Flaming Death (June 1934); Murder Book (August 1934, Black Mask). These three stories are a "loosely organized serial"]

[set: NYC]
[--Description from Vintage Library: This is an out-and-out fast action thriller by an author whose previous yarns have raised the hair and chilled the spines of even the most blood thirsty mystery fans. Adventure - intrigue - hard sleek villains - beautiful women - and a hero who is really tough. Race Williams can shoot circles around any man you ever read about. If you want a story you don't have to think about - one that will take you by the scruff of the neck and pull you along without a break - this is it. Anyone who read paper back magazines when he was a kid and hid them, only to catch the old man reading them later - and who hasn't? - will be eternally grateful if you give him this.
--"The incomparably hard-boiled, bone-crushing, fast shooting Race Williams." (ERLE STANLEY GARDNER)]

[This novel is made up of 5 connected novelettes originally published in Detective Fiction Weekly in 1933: 1. Death by Appointment (25 March 1933); 2. Satan's Mark (22 April 1933); 3. If It Is Murder (3 June 1933); 4. Satan Strikes (12 August 1933); 5. Satan's Threat (11 November 1933)]

[set: NYC]
[-- "This is not really a mystery story. It is a tale of war to the death between an honest and fearless detective and the ruthless head of a great criminal organization... Regardless of how much or how little truth there be in the picture, it is one that stirs the blood and holds the attention as few crime stories do." (The New York Times, January 1936)
--Pulpmeister Daly, creator of the immortal Race Williams, acknowledged inventor of the hardboiled school of detection, in the book-length debut of another of his remarkable urban cowboy gumshoes, Satan Hall.]

[--NOTE: The novel was made up of of the three long novelettes: Parole (6 April 1935), Lady of Death (1 June 1935), Behind the Curtain (10 August 1935). Hardly a word was changed.]

[--Mystery novel by an important Black Mask writer. "Mr. Strang is the punch packing story of a mysterious individual who sets out single handedly to break up the racket of Parole."
--Oddly engrossing tale from the hardboiled pioneer of an elegant vigilante with piercing eyes the color of "steel just before it cooled"--who targets paroled criminals. "You joke. I killed Faine, of course; but the death of such a man is hardly murder.]

[originally published serially in Dime Detective: The Black Warning (1 September 1933); The Swinging Corpse (15 December 1933); Make Your Own Corpse! (15 April 1934); Red Friday (1 September 1934). These stories were later re-worked to become the novel "The Emperor of Evil".]

[set: NYC]
[--Description from Vintage Library: Detective Vee Brown, although a diminutive body, drew and shot a gun faster than most any man alive. In this story, Brown, with the aid of his friend Dean Condon and the "girl of the night", attempt to bring a blackmailer to justice.
---To all appearances a respectable member of society and even possessed of an effeminate predilection for cats, Vincent van Houton never-the-less hid a mind of almost unrivalled evil and mental sadism behind a mask of suavity. Little Detective Vee Brown who, in spite of his apparent frailty, was "quicker on the draw" than the most practiced gangster, knew that this human devil was behind the Black Death organization. The organization dabbled in the most despicable of all criminal activities – blackmail. When its satellites wanted front page publicity they calmly arranged for the murder of an innocent victim. Van Houton's generalship was so perfect that the police refused to believe Vee Brown's allegations, so, together with his friend Condon and "the girl of the night", the detective set about unmasking the man who threatened a city.
   Vee Brown is Daly's most successful detective character. There are elements of surprise and slickness in everything he does down to the song hits which he writes when not engaged in killing gangsters. Detective story "fans" will be surprised to hear than van Houton neither makes the one customary mistake, nor is he brought to justice, but the
indomitable Brown, after incredible escapes, finds his own solution in ridding the city of an octopus-like menace and bringing peace of mind to "the girl of the night".]

[--Description from Vintage Library: Mary Morse, heiress to one of the oldest jewelry firms in New York, finds that her uncle has been using the business as a "front" for some highly criminal activities. Immediately after this discovery she receives blackmailing letters, threatening to expose the whole racket unless she pays up. Unable to help herself, and fearing to go to the police, she at last, in desperation, turns to Race Williams for practical assistance. Now Race Williams is a character worthy to be placed among the great ones in criminal Action. He is a gunman and a killer, but he is not a crook. He operates midway between the police and the gangster fraternity. And in this case, when he comes to Mary's aid, he finds himself up against a gang who are determined to get the better of him. Again and again he finds himself in situations from which it seems that nothing but his corpse can emerge, and each time he manages to extricate himself through his own dexterity and courage.
 Mr. Daly writes the story from the first-person view of Race Williams, a detective with a fast wit and faster gun. If ever a detective story can ever be humorous and thrilling at the same time, Daly has created it in Better Corpses.
--The Flame (Florence Drummond) - the Girl with the Criminal Mind. A woman of good - a woman of evil.]

[originally serialized in 4 parts: (4part: 15 May 1937, Detective Fiction Weekly)]

[--Description from DFW: Mr. Strang returns from the Dead]

[--Daly combined several of his Detective Fiction Weekly stories to make up this novel, including - 1. Satan Returns (8 September 1934); 2. Satan Laughed (15 December 1934); 3. Ready to Burn (16 February 1935).]

[set: NYC]
[--Description from Vintage Library: The police had long wanted to lay their hands on Hollis Daggett, gangster leader, who held the town in his grip. Their opportunity came when his gunmen committed a series of murders arising out of blackmail. "Satan" Hall, a brilliant detective, previously frowned upon and "retired" by authority because of his ruthlessness in bringing evil-doers to justice, is recalled to round up the gang, and the hunt is on. Conspiracy, violence and sudden death are encountered along the dark paths of the underworld, and the relentless fight to bring the criminals to justice is described in the author's most exciting manner.]

Collections of Short Stories:

Contents [alphabetical order]:
Satan Laughed (15 December 1934, Detective Fiction Weekly)
Satan Returns (8 September 1934 Detective Fiction Weekly)
Satan Sees Red (25 June 1932, Detective Fiction Weekly)
Satan's Law (6 August 1932, Detective Fiction Weekly)

[--Introduction by Robert Weinberg. Four noveletts, over 295 pages. the very best of Daly's hard-boiled thrillers are the adventures of Satan Hall. The original series appeared in the early 1930's, during the height of of gang warfare and political corruption in the cities. And Satan Hall was Daly's avenging angel of the law--a killer as ruthless and unrelenting as any crook, and twice as deadly. The courts might forgive, but Satan Hall never did.
--Description from Abebooks: "The hard-boiled detective story began sixty-five years ago, in the June 1923 issue of Black Mask magazine. The lead story of the month was 'Knights of the Open Palm' by Carroll John Daly. The novelette was a hit with the magazine's readership - and by the late 1920s Daly was recognized as the most popular writer of pulp detective stories. The very best of Daly's several hundred thrillers are the adventures of Satan Hall. The original series appeared in the early 1930s, during the height of gang warfare and political corruption in the cities. The villains of the series were crime bosses and influence peddlers, direct from the newspaper headlines.
--The original series appeared in the early 1930s - Satan Hall was 'the man the police and gangdom alike feared'.]

Contents [alphabetical order]:
City of Blood (October 1936, Dime Detective)
Corpse & Co. (February 1936, Dime Detective)
Dead Hands Reaching (November 1935, Dime Detective)
Just Another Stiff (April 1936, Dime Detective)
Some Die Hard (September 1935, Dime Detective)

[--Description from Abebooks: The Adventures of Race Williams: A Dime Detective Book (Dime Detective Pulp Classics). Series Consultant Robert Weinberg. ISBN 0892969598 Paperback. Mysterious Pr. Date: January, 1989.
--Description from Vintage Library: "I never bumped off a guy what didn't need it... you can't make hamburger without grinding up a little meat." -- Race Williams
The first Race Williams story was "Knights of the Open Palm," published in June of 1923. It marked the birth of the hard-boiled detective tale, and by the end of the 1920s Carroll John Daly was the king of the pulp detective writers - surpassing even Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley Gardner in popularity. And Race Williams - in the private eye business for thrills and the dough -- was the cause of it all. Though his base of operations moved from New York to Chicago to California, though he posed as newsmen, insurance investigators, gamblers, cameramen, police detectives, Williams was always a darkly heroic figure, guided by a personal moral code seldom identical with the law. Fearless, violent, brutal, Williams never hesitated to kill -- dead or alive, his prey was brought to justice. This Mysterious Press edition collects 5 Dime Detective classic stories featuring Race Williams plus an introduction by noted pulp historian Robert Weinberg.] 

Contents:
This Corpse on Me (June 1947, Thrilling Detective [New York]) Race Williams-?*
Avenging Angel (February 1954, Famous Detective Stories) Satan Hall
Race Williams' Double Date (August 1948, Dime Detective) Race Williams
Murder Yet To Come (December 1954, Famous Detective Stories)
This Corpse Is Free! (September 1952, Smashing Detective Stories) Race Williams
Gas (June 1953, Smashing Detective) Race Williams
Manhunter (August 1954, Famous Detective Stories)
You'll Remember Me (March 1946, Mammoth Detective)
I'll Feel Better When You're Dead (December 1947, Thrilling Detective)
Appendix A – The Ambulating Lady (nonfiction)

[--Trade paperback 265 pages. Selected and with a foreword by Stephen Mertz. Introduction by Evan Lewis. Cover design by Tom Roberts.
--For two and a half decades Carroll John Daly was a driving force in crime fiction, inventing the hard-boiled school of detection. Stories of his character Race Williams are unrivaled in their headlong pace and breathtaking action. Finally, nine of the best stories by one of the most influential detective writers of all time are collected in this volume showcasing his storytelling ability at its peak.
--Race Williams' Double Date is the first major anthology of Carroll John Daly's work.
--"It's fascinating to read these compelling, powerful stories from the father of the private eye genre, written in the shadow of his successful son, Mickey Spillane." (Max Allan Collins, Edgar Award winning author of Road to Perdition).]

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