You want the skinny on this rag? Here’s the rundown, straight from the source.
This little number, “Gripping Detective Stories”, was stamped out by a crew called Pembertons (of Manchester) Ltd., a British outfit. That’s the first clue, because across the pond, they ran a racket of taking the worn-out American pulps and printing them on the cheap for the local crowd.
It was a skinny volume, just 66 pages of rough-cut wood pulp—the stuff that gave our whole game its dirty name—and it cost nine pennies. A cheap trick for a cheap thrill.
The March 1954 date tells you everything else. The golden age was hitting the bricks. The big, cheap “dime novel” pulps were getting pushed aside by those slick, little digest magazines and pocket-sized paperbacks. It was the last gasp.
Now, about the guts of the book: this was a partial reprint of the October ’53 issue of a stateside rag called “Fifteen Detective Stories.” Over here, the big publishing houses were already running on fumes, folding titles into one another just to keep the lights on.
But that doesn’t change the flavor. It was hardboiled noir. Pure, unfiltered stuff. You got your cynical gumshoes, your dames with legs and lies, and plenty of shadows on wet city streets. No time for teacups and drawing-room puzzles; this was about crime and the consequences, served up with a side of lead. This little British number is just proof that even when the show was closing down in the States, the demand for a little hard truth always found a way to bleed overseas.
- Thrilling Detective Magazine 1953
- Image of Evil 1963 by Paul Russo
- Gripping Detective Stories 1954-03
