Davis Dresser
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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.
Edgar Award for Outstanding Mystery Criticism, 1954
Death rides the Pecos : | Die Nacht mit Nora | Geheimnisvoller Mittwoch | Gun smoke on the Mesa | Lady Dynamit = | Lynch-rope law | Mit gezinkten Karten : | Mörder am Morgen | Murder is my business / | Murder on the mesa | Nicht ein Wort von Mord | Nichts als Tatsachen