Morgan Butler
Created by David Anthony (pseud. of William Dale Smith)

In his first book appearance, 1969's The Midnight Lady and the Mourning Man, David Anthony's sleuth MORGAN BUTLER is a campus security officer at Jordan College in Jordan City, Ohio. He investigates a burglary that develops into the murder of a coed. The book was subsequently was made into a Universal film, The Midnight Man (1974), starring Burt Lancaster, who also co-directed, co-wrote and co-produced. By most accounts, the film's not exactly Burt's best. for some reason, Morgan Butler's name was changed to "Jim Slade."

By Morgan's second book, Blood on a Harvest Moon (1972), he has retired to a life of farming, but agrees to take an important case for his ex-wife. Her current husband has been murdered.

Anthony is also the author of another PI, Stan Bass, who we fortunately know a little more about.

NOVELS

• The Midnight Lady and the Mourning Man (1969)
• Blood on a Harvest Moon (1972)
• The Long Hard Cure (1979)

FILM

• THE MIDNIGHT MAN
  (1974, Universal Pictures)
  117 minutes
  Tagline: The Ex-con. The Hippie. The Senator. The Pervert. The Lesbian. The Professor. The Sheriff. The Sadist. One of them is a murderer. All of them make the most fascinating murder mystery in years.
  Based on the novel 'The Midnight Lady and the Mourning Man" by David Anthony
  Screenplay by Roland Kibbee and Burt Lancaster
  Produced by Roland Kibbee and Burt Lancaster
  Starring Burt Lancaster as JIM SLADE
  Also starring Susan Clark, Cameron Mitchell, Morgan Woodward, Harris Yulin, Robert Quarry, Joan Lorring, Lawrence Dobkin, Ed Lauter, Mills Watson, Charles Tyner, Catherine Bach

Report respectfully submitted by David Nobriga, with additional info from Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Big Al Hubin for the well-deserved whack on the head.