Thomas B. Dewey (1915–1981)

Run Brother Run could use a snazzier pulpier title, but that's really the only complaint with it. It is a terrific fifties-era pulp story that is easy to read and hard to put down. The pacing is terrific and the action relentless.

Dewey gives us a tale about a prison break, a group of ex-cons holed
up together with no one trusting each other and for good reason,
nightclubs, strippers, knife-wielding hoods, and a fortune in jewels.

It's much much more than your average prison break story and show more it's filled with terrific characters that really come alive visually. Reminded me a little of westlake's Parker novels.

Nothing -absolutely nothing not to like here show less

If you like classic hardboiled detective fiction with mobsters, beautiful dames, nightclubs, murder, and Fistfights, you will find no better detective series than Dewey's Mac series. Between 1947 and 1970, Dewey published sixteen books in this series and every single one of them is top-notch. Draw the Curtain Close is the first book in the series and it took Dewey six years to return to the series and give us a second one.

Draw The Curtain is tough and hardboiled. It features a world where show more there's little sunlight and there's all kinds of nefarious double crossing characters and crooked entanglements. Like mid classic Private eyes, Mac works by himself and has one pal on the police force, Donovan. The story is a typical tangle of double crossing crooks and, in typical classic PI fashion, leaves the reader in the dark as to what everyone's after till nearly the end.

What really works about this book is the nonstop pace that never lets up. If you've read lots of PI fiction, you've read other stories with the mobster asking the PI to work for him, the mobster's dazzling dame who has to be hidden from both the mob and the law, the frame up, and the chases through the town, but few can tell this story better than Dewey. This is simply the good stuff. show less

This one falls about in the middle of the Mac series (8 of 16) and is just about everything you want in a PI novel. It is well written and easy to read. It starts out with quite a merciless bang and has you, as well as Mac looking for answers about who killed his friend and his friend's wife a year later. Mac has little to go in but hunches, but in typical hardboiled fashion, it includes rich dames, hardened hoods, nightclubs, and things that go boom. Although some of these plot lines can be show more found elsewhere, Dewey manages to keep a few surprises under wraps for much of the book. This was a terrific read and stands up well against any of the fifties-era private eye novels. Leaves me ready to dig into more of this sixteen book series. show less

The Girl With The Sweet Plump Knees is a terrific old-style paperback private eye novel. You might think this one was a soft, cozy take at first with all the light banter and hanky panky between Pete Schofield and his sexy redheaded wife Jeannie. However, there's much more to this novel including a full-on boxing tale, an active riding ranch, a pair of hoods, a blonde babe in a fast car, gambling, strip clubs, and murder. This is a fast-moving and well-written tale and just an all around top show more notch read. Dewey knows how to tell a story and how to tell it well. Even the lighthearted portions of the story are good. Recommended read. show less