This is Lynds’ longest-running and best-known series. One-armed private detective Dan Fortune grew up tough in New York’s Chelsea district, learning life’s lessons equally from both cops and crooks. A smart kid who had to get a lot smarter after losing an arm in a teenage crime, Dan developed a keen sense of human nature he’s turned into a living of sorts as a PI. As we follow Dan through eighteen adventures from New York to California, Lynds illustrates his own take on the human condition, from the unbelievable greed to the most vicious hate; from the sheer heartbreak to even the noblest sacrifice. These powerful and intricately plotted stories will leave you with the satisfaction of a well-crafted mystery, but perhaps a little bit saddened by the truth about man’s capacity for cruelty to his fellow man.

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PAUL SHAW (writing as Mark Sadler)

Lynds’ second New York series stars Paul Shaw, something of an anomaly in the world of hard-boiled detectives. He’s a failed actor who doesn’t mind living well on Central Park South with his successful actress wife’s money. But it’s important to him to have work; something he does well, a reason to exist, and for him it just happens that he’s a better detective than he was an actor. He believes in helping those who need it, and would like to make a difference before going home to the privileged life he’s not sure he deserves. He does just that in six of the most moving and memorable mysteries of Lynds’ career.

BUENA COSTA COUNTY (writing as John Crowe)

With this series Lynds takes a sharp departure from the urban grit of New York City. Hot sun, dusty mountains and wide open spaces replace the skyscrapers and back alleys, but Lynds’ singular voice and socially charged themes shine as brightly as ever. Rich ranchers, small-town politicians, poor Mexicans and persecuted Indians cross paths in these six remarkable stories, with the predictable violence and human folly Lynds portrays so vividly.

KANE JACKSON (writing as William Arden)

Industrial spy Kane Jackson may be the toughest of Lynds’ heroes to get to know, but he’s definitely worth the effort. This seemingly cold, cynical professional relies on his military background to get the job done in the cutthroat world of industrial espionage, but he has a soft spot for the inevitable innocent victims of corporate greed. He knows just how far men will go to steal or protect secrets worth millions, and he’ll go even further to see that his own sense of justice is served.

GEORGE MALCOLM (writing as William Arden)

Lynds was ahead of his time when he created George Malcolm. A regular, nice-guy detective with a wife and kids, his real dream was to be a big-league ball player. After seven years in the minors (great field, no hit), he had to get a real job, and ended up working for Lion Securities. Long before immensely popular detectives like Kinsey Millhone and Jim Rockford, Malcolm was the non-cop, non-spy whose job was usually boring, scraping by on routine background checks with only the occasional excitement. This series never caught on, leaving us with only one great novel, Woman in Marble (1972), but we’ll always wonder what Malcolm might have done next if the publishing world had foreseen the potential of the "cozy" PI genre.

These 13 stories published in MSMM were Lynds’s earliest work in the detective genre, and featured the somewhat humorous, sleazy, cunning Slot-Machine Kelly. During the process of writing them, the flippant, seedy Kelly slowly turned into the far more developed, complex, and social-philosophical Fortune. The stories are now collected in a volume with commentary from Lynds.

DENNIS LYNDS

Until recently Lynds has mostly reserved his own name for straight literary endeavors, preferring to write mysteries under the plethora of pseudonyms you see here. These works span his entire career, from a very early novel based on personal war experiences, Combat Soldier (Signet 1962), all the way to the mature novella Talking to the World (John Daniel, 1995), with other novels and short story collections along the way, and, he hopes, more to come.

MISCELLANEOUS STORIES AND NOVELS

These are for the most part works for hire under house names, although one or two are commissioned works.