Sid Ames and Johnny Knight
Created by H.W. Roden (1895-1963)

SID AMES is a rye-swilling New York City gumshoe with a distaste for the cops and a rather unusual occasional sidekick, public relations consultant JOHNNY KNIGHT, who "knows all the angles and rarely misses a trick," and might have served as the brains of the bunch -- if only he had been any smarter than Sid. He wasn't.

Unfortunately, when Johnny popped in to get Sid out of a jam, he often made it worse. And the fact neither could hold their liquor didn't help. This was hot stuff in the forties -- one review tagged Roden a "frisky" writer, but some modern readers may find the intended screwball humour dated.

Sid (and Johnny) appeared in four novels in the 40's, all of which were eventually published by Dell -- including a couple of Mapbacks with spectacular covers.

The author was, at least according to Hubin, a wealthy corporate executive in the food industry. Writing mysteries was a hobby.

UNDER OATH

  • "Top tempo and some pretty fine lowdown lingo in the genre."
    -- Kirkus, 1944 on Too Busy to Die.
  • "(You Only Hang Once) would be funny if it were only humorous."
    -- William Deeck, The MYSTERY FANcier, Summer 1992.

NOVELS

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

Remember, your comments, suggestions, corrections and contributions are always welcome.
At the tone, leave your name and number and I'll get back to you...