The information is provided in the hopes that it may spark
some
continued interest in the late Mr. Dennis's work.
The following is from an email to me from Tom Couch.
------------------------------------
Ralph's first book was called Atlanta. It dealt with big
league
basketball, gambling, and city politics.
He then made friends with an editor at popular library. His
agent set
him up with this guy, and out of that association came the
Hardman
series. The adventures of Jim Hardman, an ex Atlanta cop, and
his
sidekick, Hump Evans, a former pro football player. They roam
the
streets of Virginia-Higland, Ponce, all the way to the Stein
Club on
Peachtree, kicking ass and taking no names. It's a fun series
that
sustains itself. It got great reviews in Kirkus and the like.
It was
Spenser for hire before Spenser.
Here's a list, out of print in Popular Library paperbacks.
You can
still find them at used bookstores: Hardman #1, Atlanta
Deathwatch,
#2, The Charleston Knife's Back In Town. (Maybe the best in
the
series. It appears as Hardman #1 in the Danish and
Japanese
translations) #3,The Golden Girl & All. #4, Pimp for the
Dead. #5,
Down Among the Jocks. #6, Murder's Not an Odd Job. #7,
Working for the
Man. #8, The Deadly Cotton Heart. #9, The One-Dollar Rip-Off.
#10,
Hump's First Case. #11, The Last of the Armageddon Wars. and
#12, The
Buy Back Blues.
At the same time Ralph signed a deal with Berkley Medallion
Books in
1975, to come out with a series based on a man named Kane who
had had
his memory errased by the CIA whom he worked for as an
assasin. He was
shot up and suffered some memory loss. His behavior became
erratic,
and rather than cancel his contract, the CIA decided to
errase his
memory and give him an new one. The story picks up when he is
a
private eye in Atlanta, and the past starts breaking in. It
was a fun
idea, but difficult to sustain. Only one book was published
entitled
Deadman's Game. The main character Kane goes on the lamb and
assumes
the name Couch.
Ralph's first and only "big" book was MacTaggart's War. A
very
interesting 350 page hardback novel about an historical event
and a
fictionalized attempted robbery, of the crown jewels and gold
reserve
of England during the Second World War. The book was
published in
1979. The best year for Ralph. His editor left Popular
Library, or
more specifically, it was acquired by CBS, and he was let go.
The new
management team didn't like Ralph's stuff. He has several
novels in
draft form, that may be better than all the rest.
Ralph Dennis died on July 4, 1988.
------------------------
End of Tom Couch's email.
Fred
------------------------------
Down on Ponce by Fred Willard
fwillard@mindspring.com
http://www.mindspring.com/~fwillard
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