Sunday 24 August 2008

Cark Dekker.


Carter Brown's success engendered a host of imitation detective series. Larry Kent (to be discussed later) was rival publisher Cleveland; but Horwitz was eager to sell more crime fiction. About 40 Carl Dekker digests were published in the 1950s. Dekker was another “house” name; his stories written by a number of writers: Keith Hetherington, John Laffin and possibly Gene James (according to Graeme Flanagan).


According to the back blurb

Carl Dekker…is a rebel. The Army was glad to get rid of him in 1945, because he’s always done what he wanted to do, and not what he was told. As a commando, Dekker got himself into many A tough spot; twice he was the only one to get out….
Dekker still loves tough spots. Always on the move, is passport reads like an atlas index—Egypt, Italy, Corsica, Lebanon, China, Singapore. He haunts the bazaars OF Beirut, the taverns of Tripoli, the Cazbah [SIC] of Cairo, the ruins of Rome—he believes, and so do we, that the best stories are written on the spot.
Dekker and danger are a natural double—he buys himself a deck of trouble wherever he goes—and deals it out! A newspaperman from ‘way back, police roundsman, undercover investigator, Dekker knows his way ‘round, and can handle a heater and a highball as well as any of his story characters.
There’s nothing synthetic about the Dekker dames, his rackets and roughhouse—he’s seen his characters alive—and sometimes dead.
Dekker is………ON THE SPOT


Each adventure took place in a different location

A Flip of the Coin, Singapore
A Step into Fire, Salerno
A Wink from a Witch, Damascus
Beckoning Idol, Mexico
Blood on the Sand,
Madrid
Casino Minx, Florida
Cherie You Slay Me, Paris
Counterfeit Doll, Venice
Cute Cargo, Majorca
Cutie Cursed, Egypt
Danger Doll, Hong Kong
Dark Angel of Fire, San Antonio
Don’t Bother to Knock ,Rome
Double or Nothing, Los Angeles
E as in evil, London
Fate Chose this Number, unknown
Femme Fatale, Santiago
Flight into Fear, Italy
Gallows of gold,
Singapore
Grieve for me, Gorgeous, unknown
Kiss from a Killer, Naples
Lay Low My Lovely, Port Said
Miss Deadly, Colombo
Murder Rides Express, Berlin
Nightmare at Noon, No specific location!
Not for the Hangman, Latin America
Paper Doll, San Francisco
Pin it on the Doll, Cuba
Run for Your Life, Shanghai
Silence So Deadly, Cairo
Slay Belle, Paris
Stab in the Dark, Tangier
Tearful Tigress, unknown
The Fall, Changi
The Wax Model, Glasgow
Venice
Had Claws, Athens (!)
Walk the Knife Edge, unknown.



The series is the usual light hearted fare filled with mysterious foreigners, sexy and available women and some pretty ordinary wisecracks. The back blurb for Silence so Deadly (Cairo):

Where everyone stick out his hand, but never his neck. Dekker hit Cairo just before the Canal dust-up, looking for two wild American dolls who just disappeared out there. Like the Sphinx, nobody talks—though some of those dames don’t need to talk. Silence in a dame is a wonderful thing—But silence, and come-on eyes? In Cairo, that silence is so deadly.

Finding Carl Dekkers is quite a challenge so if anyone has any, please contact me.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Really enjoying this blog plus your book on Pulp fiction in Australia. Best, Don.