Johnny Fletcher & Sam Cragg
Created by Frank Gruber

JOHNNY FLETCHER and SAM CRAGG may claim to be private eyes or even book salesmen, but what they really are are scam artists supreme, always one step from the poorhouse or jail, it seems.

Johnny's the "brains" of the two, the one with the gift of gab, the one who comes up with the con, the scheme, the play that will make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Or at least enough to get a meal or a room for the night. Sam is the the muscle, and then some, a musclebound galoot whose bicep flexing is more than enough to help Johnny sell multiple copies of Every Man a Samson which, in the normal scheme of things, would be enough to earn the boys bed and board. But the boys have bigger dreams than just some food in their stomachs and a place to crash.

Alas, nothing ever seems to go quite right for the pair -- they usually end up gaining and losing a fortune a couple of times a book. And then someone ends up dead, and they have to track down the real killer.

It may have been a formula, but it was sturdy enough to last fourteen books, and every one I've read has been a fast-paced, entertaining romp.

Author Frank Gruber is one of the most prolific of the great pulpsters, and recouted his experiences in The Pulp Jungle, a critical study. He also found the time to write several different private eye series. Beside Simon and Eddie, he wrote about cantankerous private eye Simon Lash, as well as dicks Otis Beagle and Joe Peel, and came up with TV hybrid P.I./cowboy Shotgun Slade.

UNDER OATH

• "... my favorite Vegas-based mystery is The Honest Dealer... Like 90% of Frank Gruber's generous mystery fiction legacy, it's lean, shrewdly plotted and very very funny."
  (Dick Lochte, from MysInDepth, October 2003)
  .
• "I always wonder when reading older books if certain somewhat transparent plot points were as obvious back then or I have just seen them used too often since. For instance, there's a minor bit in The French Key about getting back a rare coin slipped into a coin slot that was used on last week's episode of Monk. Still, Gruber largely lives up to his goal of mixing the plotting of Gardner with the humor of Latimer, especially the latter. Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg are great characters. I often found myself laughing out loud. I've often stated how much I like con job novels. This is not one of those, but Fletcher is definitely a scam artist. Much of the humor comes from his ability to talk himself out of trouble. I will definitely be reading more books in this series."
  (Mark Sullivan)
  

NOVELS

• The French Key (1940)
• The Laughing Fox (1940) ,. Buy this book
• The Hungry Dog (1941)
• The Navy Colt (1941)
• The Talking Clock (1941),. Buy this book
• The Gift Horse (1942)
• The Mighty Blockhead (1942)
• The Silver Tombstone (1945)
• The Honest Dealer (1947)
• The Whispering Master (1947)
• The Scarlet Feather (1948)
• The Leather Duke (1949)
• The Limping Goose (1954)
• Swing Low Swing Dead (1964)

FILMS

• THE FRENCH KEY
  (1946, Republic)
  Based on the novel by Frank Gruber
  Screenplay by Frank Gruber
  Directed by Walter Colmes
  Starring Albert Dekker as JOHNNY FLETCHER
  and Mike Mazurki as SAM CRAGG
  Also starring Evelyn Ankers, John Elderedge, Frank Fenton, Richard Arlen, Byron Foulger

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Walt from Switzerland for the well-deserved smack upside the head.