An interesting collect of pulp detective stories is A Cent a Story! The Best from Ten Detective Aces (1986). It was edited by Garyn G. Roberts and published by Popular Press at Bowling Green State University (now at University of Wisconsin).
While the hardcover edition is still available from them, you can find the paperback editions fairly inexpensively. This is more a facsimile reprint, with the stories reproduced from the pulps with their illustrations, rather than being reset.
This volume has 10 stories from Ten Detective Aces from between 1933 and 1936, most from two issues. Many of these are part of serialized characters, most of which have been collected elsewhere, so this can be an introduction to these characters. During its run, there where many serialized detectives.
We kick things off with an intro by editor Garyn Roberts. It’s a good overview of the development of detective fiction from its origin, briefly through the dime novel, and more heavily in the pulp magazines, which gave us the psychic or occult detective, the hard-boiled detective, and the avenger detective, which are usually the pulp heroes. We briefly look at other pulps like Black Mask, before getting an overview of the development of Ten Detective Aces and then an overview of the stories here. There are a few flubs here, like claiming Solar Pons is an occult detective (he’s not), and a few other minor issues.
Kicking things off with five tales from the October 1933 issue is “The Corpse Laughts” by Harry Widmer, who was an editor for Aces. We have an unusual story where a quartet of acquited murderers — a surgeon, a gun-man, a gambler, and a dance hall girl — is living in a home setup by a millionaire as a refuge for just such people, managed by a pair of attorneys. But when one dies laughing after admitting to being guilty, but now beyond the law as he was found innocent, there is a murderer among the group. Who is it, and can they be stopped?
We get a one of the best of Paul Chadwick‘s Wade Hammond stories in “Fangs of the Cobra.” This detective who confronts weird-menace tales has been collected in four volumes from Off-Trail Publications, which I reviewed.
From Norvell Page is “Satan’s Hoof,” one of his Ken Carter detective stories, who was a kind of proto-Spider. All of these stories have been collected by Black Dog Books, which I’ve reviewed.
Carl McK. Saunders was really prolific pulp author Philip Ketchum, who wrote about 60 John Murdock stories for years. “The Wax Witness” is a good example of this hard-boiled police captain. Black Dog Books has reprinted a collection of the first 20 stories.
The last story, from the October 1933 issues, is “The Tank of Terror” by Lester Dent, which is one of his Lee Nace stories. He had previously done the Lynn Lash stories and several stand along “weird menace” stories. The Lee Nace and Lynn Lash stories were collected by Altus Press/Steeger Books, while all the weird-menace tales were collected by Black Dog Books. I have reviewed both books.
Then we get a trio of stories from the February 1934 issue. First is a Moon Man tale, “Mask of the Moon Man” by Frederick C. Davis. The Moon Man is the well-known “Robin Hood” pulp hero who is really a cop who robs from criminals and unjust rich in a strange garb including a glass globe helmet. This is the first of the “Red” storyline, where the Moon Man deals with a gang of (at first) six, the Red Six, that he whittles down over time. All of the Moon Man stories have been collected by Altus Press/Steeger Books in several volumes which I’ve reviewed.
From Richard B. Sale, we get “The House of Kaa,” one of the stories from his short-lived hero The Cobra, which has been collected by Altus Press, which I’ve reviewed.
A one-off character is found in “The Whisperer Prowls” by Alexis Rossoff, while Roberts claims there are other stories with this character, I can’t find evidence of this. The Whisperer is police detective Brady, no first name given. He’s called The Whisperer because a criminal’s bullet damaged his larynx, leaving him to just whispering. Due to the pain of the wound, he drinks. But when he’s on a case, he is sober and shaved, and the underworld knows to look out. Here he’s after the murder of a jeweler, who was also a fence and police informer, with a sad ending.
From the prolific G.T. Fleming-Roberts is “The Death Master” from the January 1935 issue.
Finally from Emile C. Tepperman is “Killers’ Club Car,” from the August 1936 issue. This stars his hard-boiled detective Marty Quade, who appeared in about 30 stories. While no collection of these original stories exist, Airship 27 has put out a collection of new tales.
So this is another nice collection from Garyn Roberts and the old Popular Press. As noted, this is a great introduction to the stories from this pulp. Has anyone done an overall work on this pulp and the various series characters? That would be nice.
