Milo March
Created by M.E. Chaber
(pseudo. of Kendall Foster Crossen; other
pseudonyms include Bennett Barlay, Christopher Monig, Richard
Foster & Clay Richards, 1910-1981)
MILO MARCH, a former employee of both the OSS and the CIA before becoming a high-flying, globetrotting investigator for Intercontinental Innsurance, appeared in over twenty books by M.E. Chaber.
The general consensus about the series is that it's fun, if not exactly Chandler. "Lightweight buy enjoyable," is how paperback collector and mystery writer Bill Crider puts it. Crider then goes on to mention that one of the books was probably the first novel to ever use LSD as a plot device (and there's a great needle cover on the paperback).
M.E. Chaber was actually a pseudonym for the incredibly prolific Kendell Foster Crossen who wrote over 400 raio and television dramas, some 300 short stories, 250 non-fiction articles and around forty-five novels. He also found the time to write reviews, edit several science fiction collections, and serve as editor for a while for Detective Fiction Weekly, and was responsible for the creation of such varied private eyes as Brian Brett, Pete Draco and Manning Draco (apparently no relation).
In February 2000, Crossen's literary executor contacted me, revealing that they'd unearthed the last Milo novel, which Holt had refused to publish back in the seventies because it contained an unflattering portrait of then-president, Nixon, and a spy mission to Vietnam. There was some discussion of possibly publishing it, but I've heard nothing since.
NOVELS
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.