Kevin MacInnes
Created by Eugene Franklin Bandy
KEVIN MacINNES isn't a psychologist, but a retired US Army officer who, assigned to intelligence and criminal investigation duties, specializes in giving lie detector tests. After his retirement, he opens MacInnes Security (so he "is" a PI). MacInnes Security provides a whole range of security and investigative services.
MacInnes himself is "the world's most expert operator of the Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE)." The PSE is a voice stress indicator, different from the more bulky Polygraph Machine, in that the person doesn;t even have to be present to be tested, just a good recording of his voice. The Polygraph require that the person be present, be strapped into a chair, and plugged into three different devices that read the level of inhalatin, the rate of heartbeat, and the level of perspiration. The PSE is more convenient, and, as it was a fairly new device when the Edgar-winning Deceit and Deadly Lies was published in 1978, just the gimmick on which to hinge a new PI series. In a way, Bandy's use of then brand-new technology anticipates the "techno-thrillers" of writers like Tom Clancy.
Author Eugene Franklin Bandy also writes about the private eye team Berkeley Barnes abd Larry Howe.
NOVELS
Contributed by Jim Doherty.