PaperBack: “It Ain’t Hay

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.


It Ain’t Hay, by David Dodge (Dell, 1949). This is the last of four novels Dodge wrote about hard-boiled San Francisco tax accountant-cum-detective James “Whit” Whitney, a character he had introduced originally in 1941’s Death and Taxes. It Ain’t Hay was published as part of the now-famous Dell “mapbacks” series, with a cover painting by Gerald Gregg.

PaperBack: “The Lone Wolf”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Lone Wolf, by Louis Joseph Vance (Dell, 1943). This was published as part of the now-famous Dell “mapbacks” series, with a cover painting by Gerald Gregg.

Published originally in 1914, this is the first of Vance’s eight novels starring Michael Lanyard, aka The Lone Wolf. As The Thrilling Detective Web Site recalls, Lanyard began as “an English-born orphan of unknown parentage who endured a horrid Dickensian childhood after arriving at Troyons, a Parisian restaurant, where he was ‘raised’ by the cruel and disreputable ‘Madame,’ and trained in the criminal arts by the mysterious Irishman, Bourke, who had a ‘heart as big as all outdoors,’ and took the young boy under his wing. Somehow, Michael survived until adulthood, and became a charming sort of rogue, a European jewel thief who worked alone (hence the nickname), despite a soft spot for damsels in distress and a yearning for travel.”

However, the character changed as the 20th century progressed, and as his exploits were portrayed a couple of dozen times on the big screen, and later on radio and in a syndicated, half-hour TV series titled, appropriately, The Lone Wolf. That last starred British-American actor Louis Hayward, found Lanyard reinterpreted as an American private eye of sorts, and ran for 39 episodes (1954-1955). You can watch colorized versions of most of those TV installments here.

(Vance’s protagonist should not be confused with this very different Lone Wolf, created by “Mike Barry,” aka Barry N. Malzberg.)

PaperBack: “The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope, by C.W. Grafton (Dell, 1947). Published originally in 1943—but recently reissued by Poisoned Pen Press—this was the first of four novels penned by Grafton, the father of better-known mystery writer Sue Grafton. It’s a spirited little whodunit tinged with humor, starring Gilmore “Gil” Henry, a “pudgy,” self-deprecating young attorney of short stature and scant attractiveness to women, who practices in fictional Calhoun County, Kentucky, south of Louisville. A second Henry yarn, The Rope Began to Hang the Butcher, was released in 1944.

Dell’s 1947 soft-cover edition of Rat was part of its famous “mapback” series, with cover art by Gerald Gregg and a rear-side scene-of-the-crime illustration by Ruth Belew.

PaperBack: “Report for a Corpse”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



Report for a Corpse, by Henry Kane (Dell, 1949), an entry in Dell Books’ famous “mapback” line. This collection of short stories was also part of Kane’s series starring “swingin’” Manhattan private eye Peter Chambers. Cover illustration by Gerald Gregg.