Joe Copp
Created by Don Pendleton (1927-1995)

"I never met a man I didn't like, until he takes a whack at me. Then I love the bastard, after I whack him back, for reminding me that life ought to be lovelier than it usually is."
-- Joe Copp gets all mushy in Copp on Fire

Gee, why not just call him Joe Dick?

The creator of the phenomonenially successful Executioner series strikes again with another string of real he-man adventures, full of sex and violence and macho swagger, this one featuring hard-as-nails ex-cop (what else?) turned LA private detective JOE COPP. Like his creator's previous series, Copp is a might-is-right, shoot-first, ask-questions-later kinda guy. And Pendleton gives him plenty to shoot at.

You can trace the pulp roots of this kinda stuff, detouring around all that mamby-pamby Hammett-Chandler-Macdonald stuff, right back through Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer to Carroll John Daly's Race Williams and Three Gun Terry.

Don Pendleton was one prolific dude, if nothing else. A Navy vet who served in WWII and Korea, he wrote mystery, action/adventure, science-fiction, crime fiction, and suspense novels, as well as short stories and non-fiction. he also wrote comics, poetry, screenplays and poetry. But he'll always be remember for creating the Mack Bolan: The Executioner series, which became the definitive Men's Action/Adventure series. But somehow, he also found time in there to create psychic private eye Ashton Ford, and Stewart Mann, who actually was a bit of a dry run for Bolan.

STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE

• "Once, back in the late seventies, I wrote Don Pendleton asking him what crime genre he thought a new writer should try to break into---this was back when I was still trying to get published.  The letter I got back bore his signature and looked like he had typed it out himself; such personal attention from a guy whose books were selling in the millions really impressed me.
  
  Then again, his advice was that police procedurals seemed to be the hottest selling genre.  Go figure."
  (David Nobriga)

NOVELS

• Copp for Hire (1987) ., Buy this book
• Copp on Fire (1988) ., Buy this book
• Copp in Deep (1989) ., Buy this book
• Copp in the Dark (1990) ., Buy this book
• Copp on Ice (1991) ., Buy this book
• Copp in Shock (1992) ., Buy this book

RELATED LINKS

• Don Pendleton: Author
  The official website of Don Pendleton. The guestbook is hosted by his widow, Linda Pendleton.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.