PaperBack: “Hunter at Large”

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



Hunter at Large, by Thomas B. Dewey (Permabooks, 1963). This standalone thriller, published originally by Simon & Schuster back in 1961, features a “simple” plot, according to a Goodreads reviewer. “Nevertheless, Dewey channels his best Mike Hammer in a man’s single-handed thirst for vengeance.”

Cover illustration by Robert K. Abbett.

PaperBack: “Death and Taxes”

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



Death and Taxes, by Thomas B. Dewey (Berkley, 1968). Posting the paperback front of this novel—Dewey’s 13th starring the Chicago private eye known as “Mac”—seemed appropriate in the run-up to this week’s U.S. income tax filing deadline, April 17.

READ MORE: “Death and Taxes: Tax Day Mysteries,” by Janet
Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare).

Revisiting a “Severely Underrated Writer”

During my recent visit with a friend in Minneapolis, I spent some high-quality time just kicking back with a cold beer (well, maybe more than one) and reading a few more Thomas B. Dewey novels. The result is that I devoted my latest Kirkus Reviews column to that once critically acclaimed author, whose detective tales now all seem to be out of print. You’ll find my full piece here.

And when you’re done, click over to Killer Covers to see a gallery of almost three dozen Dewey book fronts from the last 70 years.

Giving Kalin His Due

Just over a year ago, I wrote in my Killer Covers blog about artist Victor Kalin (1919-1991), who was responsible for the outstanding cover illustration on Thomas B. Dewey’s 1962 paperback novel Go, Honeylou. Then, just last month, Kalin’s daughter, Rebecca, e-mailed me with news that she has created a “Web archive of his paperback book covers.”

Located here, that resource-in-progress features Kalin’s work on series by such well-known authors as Mary Roberts Rinehart, John Creasey, and Frank Kane, as well as his illustrations for Gothic, western, and war novels. As a fun addition, there’s a link to YouTube, where you can watch a 1981 General Electric TV commercial in which Victor Kalin himself is seen painting a portrait.

I’m very pleased to see Victor Kalin being honored in this way. Check out the site when you have a chance. You’ll be glad you did.

Mourning After

Having become a big fan of Thomas B. Dewey’s detective fiction--both his series about compassionate Chicago private eye Mac, and the other one featuring happily married Pete Schofield--I have to mention that today would have been Dewey’s 85th birthday. Unfortunately, the Indiana-born author died in Arizona in 1981.

Go, Dewey!

Whew! It seems as if I’ve been working on this for weeks, but I finally completed an essay for my Killer Covers blog about the underappreciated 20th-century American detective novelist, Thomas B. Dewey.

Although that article focuses to a large extent on this author’s 1962 detective Pete Schofield novel, the screwballish Go, Honeylou, I was curious enough about Dewey to investigate his entire fiction-writing career. Not only did he compose the Schofield books, the action in which takes place mostly in California, but he’s probably best known for a somewhat more serious (and also longer) series of books featuring the single-monikered Mac, a former Chicago cop who, after being forced out of the department for being too honest, remakes himself as a private eye in the Lew Archer mold. Before he created those characters, however, Dewey developed stories around a bibliophilic amateur sleuth named Singer Batts, a sort of underfed and Midwestern Nero Wolfe.

I’ve tried to cover all of these protagonists, plus the exquisite work of Victor Kalin, one of Dewey’s book illustrators, in Killer Covers. Click here to read the results.