RARA-AVIS: Hardman by Ralph Dennis
DiePool@aol.com
Mon, 4 Jan 1999 18:41:14 EST
While flipping through some old fanzines (can't remember which)
I came across
a piece on a men's adventure series, published by Popular
Library in the
mid-70s, called Hardman, written by Ralph Dennis. The author
wrote that Dennis
had died in relative obscurity, working at a used bookstore the
last years of
his life. The synopsis of the series intrigued me and went on a
hunt for some
copies. After a long search I was able to come up with the
first book in the
series, ATLANTA DEATHWATCH. Halfway through this one, I gotta
say this is some
of the best writing I've seen in the genre (men's adventure,
mystery,
whatever). Tough marketed as MA, this is very much an
action/suspenser.
Hardman is a disgraced ex-cop who becomes a P.I. who'll "take
on just about
any case, especially the nasty ones." The writing and
characters (Hardman's
sidekick is an ex-football player named Hump) very much remind
me of Joe
Lansdale. Anyone else out there have any run-ins with Hardman?
Does the
writing stay this consistent throughout the series? How many
volumes in the
series? I also ran across a reprinting of one of the later
volumes, CHARLESTON
KNIFE'S BACK IN TOWN, reprinted by Pinnacle in the early 1980s.
Anybody know
how many were reprinted?
Peter Enfantino (the completist)
Deadline Press
bare*bones
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