Author Description

Ellery Queen wrote: "Whitfield is a much too neglected member of the Hammett-Chandler hardboiled school." Dashiell Hammett himself praised the Whitfield stories for their "naked action pounded into tough compactness by staccato, hammerlike writing." Previously announced but long delayed (as we searched for more stories) Jo Gar's Casebook is the first collection of Whitfield's extraordinary tales. In the February 1930 issue of Black Mask, a new character was introduced to the American detective story. Jo Gar was both a classic "thinking" sleuth and a tough man of action who inhabited an exotic noir world on the Philippines, facing a rogue's gallery of colorful villains from mixed-race Chinese to upper-crust American exiles. "The Little Island Detective" lived in a vivid world of pre-war Asia where typhoons threatened the harbor, criminals escaped from the local prison, and the waterfront was home to cut-throats from all countries. Throughout the 1930's, Raoul Whitfield was a star contributor to Black Mask – only Erle Stanley Gardner appeared more often. The cover and design are by neo-pulp artist Tom Roberts. Crippen & Landru is pleased to work with Black Mask Press on this new series, Tales From the Black Mask Morgue, to bring to a new generation the best uncollected stories from the greatest of all hardboiled magazine. Future publications will include books by Norbert Davis, Paul Cain, Frederic Nebel, and others.