Monday, April 1, 2013

WANTED: Oliver Quade, the Human Encyclopedia


THE GOOD NEWS: Keith Alan Deutsch is editing a new collection of stories featuring Frank Gruber's Oliver Quade, "The Human Encyclopedia.

THE BAD NEWS: He's still missing four stories. Can you help?

Here's the list of missing adventures:
"Brass Knuckles" (November 1936, Thrilling Detective)
"Murder on the Midway" (January 1937, Thrilling Detective)
"Pictures of Death" (February 1937, Thrilling Detective)
"Trailer Town" (August 1937, Thrilling Detective)


As I mentioned in my review of the 1966 Sherbourne Press collection, Brass Knuckles (that's HERE), Quade was the precursor of Gruber's most famous character, Johnny Fletcher. Like Johnny, Quade is a booksalesman, and like Johnny, has a slightly dimwitted pal/assistant. If you like the Fletcher books, you're sure to like the Quade stories too. My review of the first in the Fletcher series, The French Key, is HERE.


Nine of the ten tales in Brass Knuckles originally appeared in Black Mask, and one of those, "Dog Show Murder," was released as a film in 1939. My review of this one and only Oliver Quade movie is HERE.

I'm hoping Keith finds those Thrilling Detective tales, because I want read them.

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