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Davis Dresser

Born: July 31, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois
Died: February 4, 1977 in Santa Barbara, California

Pen Name: Brett Halliday, Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne

Connection to Illinois: Halliday was born in Chicago, Illinois.

Biography: Dresser was best known for his long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels written under the pen name of Brett Halliday but in 1958 he ceased publishing novels under the pen name. Ghost writers penned the Brett Halliday books after that. The Shayne series went on to be highly successful and twelve motion pictures were made, seven of them featuring Lloyd Nolan as Shayne. Five of the Nolan films, which were produced by 20th Century Fox, have been released on DVD: ''Michael Shayne, Private Detective''; ''Sleepers West''; ''Dressed to Kill''; ''Blue, White and Perfect''; and ''The Man Who Wouldn't Die''. After the Fox series ended, five more Shayne films were made by PRC which featured Hugh Beaumont as the detective. There was also a TV series in 1960, starring Richard Denning. The 2005 film ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' is based partly on Halliday's novel ''Bodies Are Where You Find Them''. Dresser also wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the pen names Asa Baker, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Anthony Scott, Peter Field and Anderson Wayne. He wrote under the joint pen names of Hal Debrett with his wife Kathleen Rollins and Matthew Blood with Ryerson Johnson. He edited several books including: ''Big Time Mysteries'', ''Murder in Miami'', ''Best Detective Stories of the Year, 16th and 17th Annual Collections'', Dutton, 2 vols. With his wife Helen McCloy, Dresser also edited: ''20 Great Tales of Murder'' and ''Murder, Murder, Murder: 10 Tales from 20 Great Tales of Murder''. A founding member of the Mystery Writers of America, Dresser was presented with an Edgar Award for Outstanding Mystery Criticism in 1954. He lived in Santa Barbara, California, until his death at the age of 72.


Awards:
  • Edgar Award for Outstanding Mystery Criticism, 1954

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction; Mysteries

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Brett Halliday on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=brett++halliday
Asa Baker on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=asa++baker
Matthew Blood on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=matthew++blood
Kathryn Culver on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=karthryn++culver
Don Davis on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=don++davis
Hal Debrett on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=hal++debrett
Anthony Scott on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=anthony++scott
Peter Field on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=peter++field
Anderson Wayne on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=anderson++wayne


Selected Titles

Death rides the Pecos :
ISBN: 9781504025348 OCLC: 928763213

Open Road Integrated Media, New York, NY : 2015.

On the road to easy living, Twister and Chuckaluck ride straight into a heapin' mess of mystery and intrigue. Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson can't catch a break. These two wisecracking friends--the first lean and clever, the second stout and tough--have ridden together from the Rocky Mountains to the deserts of West Texas. All they want is a trail to follow straight through to Mexico, where a ranching job offers honest work, peace, and quiet. But no matter how fast they ride, trouble keeps hot on their heels. A gunshot breaks the silence of the lonely wagon road. By the time Twister and Chuckaluck reach the corpse, the killer is long gone. In the victim's pocket they find a letter from a woman begging for help, a woman whose savior now lies dead in the alkali dust. Twister and Chuckaluck have no choice but to take up his mission--even if it means facing down the quickest draw they've ever been up against. Death Rides the Pecos is the 2nd book in the Twister and Chuckaluck Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

  Die Nacht mit Nora
ISBN: 3442040949 OCLC: 73703962

Goldmann München 1971

  Geheimnisvoller Mittwoch
ISBN: 3442259258 OCLC: 74152905

Goldmann München 1974, [1974]

Gun smoke on the Mesa
ISBN: 1504025385 OCLC: 925284883

Open Road Integrated Media, New York : 2015.

Ten years after taking vengeance on his tormentor, a wanted man returns home. The outlaws of West Texas know every twist and turn of the renegade trail. Carved into the rugged landscape of the Big Bend region by the hoofs of galloping horses bearing desperate men, it crosses the muddy waters of the Rio Grande into Mexico, where freedom--of a kind--can be found. Ten years ago, Jim Markle rode the trail south, fleeing for his life. Now he's coming home with a new name: Stormy Knight. For years, young Jim had chafed under his stepfather's whip. Everything changed the night he gunned down the evil old man. Now a battle-tested gunslinger with a stern countenance, Stormy Knight is unrecognizable to all who knew him as a boy. He forfeited his inheritance the night he rode across the border. Now he's ready claim it--even if it means killing once more.

  Lady Dynamit =
ISBN: 3442043514 OCLC: 74172800

Goldmann München 1974, [1974]

  Lynch-rope law
ISBN: 9781520036274 OCLC: 951763933

Dreamscape Media, Holland, Ohio : 2016.

Twister and Chuckaluck spring into action to keep an elderly widow from being run off her land.

  Mit gezinkten Karten :
ISBN: 344204233X OCLC: 82001271

Wilhelm Goldmann ; München : [1973]

  Mörder am Morgen
ISBN: 3442043190 OCLC: 74136864

Goldmann München 1973, [1973]

  Murder is my business /
ISBN: 0857683470 OCLC: 652557685

Hard Case Crime, New York, NY : 2010, ©1945.

Legendary private eye Mike Shayne travels to Texas to investigate a hit-and-run killing that's been laid at the feet of one of El Paso's richest businessmen.

  Murder on the mesa
ISBN: 9781520036335 OCLC: 951764049

Dreamscape Media, Holland, Ohio : 2016.

At first, Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson think it must be a mirage. If real, the willow trees they see on the horizon mean that water is nearby, and in this dusty stretch of the Southwest, water is rarer than gold. They rub the grit from their eyes, yet the sight remains. There really is water up ahead, and death just around the corner. Someone has opened a sluicegate, allowing all the precious liquid to drain into the dirt. When Twister and Chuckaluck close the gate and the roaring stops, a woman screams, Don't let him get away! He was going to kill me! The wandering cowpokes are on the trail of a mystery so dark and twisted it might be beyond their powers to solve.

  Nicht ein Wort von Mord
ISBN: 344204216X OCLC: 74165616

Goldmann München 1972, [1972]

  Nichts als Tatsachen
ISBN: 3442041031 OCLC: 73704001

Goldmann München 1971

 

 

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