Cities of Angels and Saints

Los Angeles and SoCal Eyes

"I used to like this town. A long time ago."

-- Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister (1949)

Southern California, and Los Angeles in particular, is ground zero for private eyes. From Raoul Whitfield and Raymond Chandler to Robert Crais, John Shannon and Walter Mosley, private eyes have made the City of Angels their home. In fact, given the number of P.I.s going down these mean streets, you have to wonder just mean they could actually be.

Fortunately, Robert Crais can tell us. Check out his opening remarks from the 2003 edition of Left Coast Crime...

• Lew Archer by Ross Macdonald (Santa Theresa)
• Otis Beagle and Joe Peel by Frank Gruber
• David Brandstetter by Joseph Hansen
• Brock Callahan by William Campbell Gault
• Edmond Clive by Leigh Brackett
• Elvis Cole by Robert Crais
• Bertha Cool and Donald Lam by A.A. Fair
• Jack Liffey by John Shannon
• Ivan Monk by Gary Phillips
• Meg Gillis C.J. Songer
• Joe Puma by William Campbell Gault
• Mike Faraday by Basil Cooper
• Aaron Gunner by Gar Anthony Haywood
• Gene Burk by John Kaye
• Sam Hunter by L.A. Morse
• Simon Lash and Eddie Slocum by Frank Gruber
• Vincent Rubio by Eric Garcia
• Easy Rawlins by Walter Mosley
• Jake Asch by Arthur Lyons
• Moses Wine by Roger Simon
• Vince Slader by Ovid Demaris
• Rex McBride by Cleve F. Adams
• Saxon by Les Roberts
• Regan Reilly by Carol Higgins Clark
• Fergus O'Breen by Anthony Boucher
• Perry Mason by Erle Stanley Gardner
• Atticus Wynn & Rosemary Sanchez by Carlyle Clark (San Diego)

Hollywood Dicks

"A dreary industrial town controlled by hoodlums of enormous wealth, the ethical sense of a pack of jackals and taste so degraded that it befouled everything it touched."

-- noted Dan Turmer fan S. J. Perelman, "On Hollywood"

• Philip Marlowe by Raymond Chandler
• Dan Turner by Robert Leslie Bellem
• Shell Scott by Richard S. Prather
• Gene Burk by John Kaye
• Joe Copp by Don Pendleton
• Scott Elliott by Terence Faherty
• Rick Holman by Carter Brown
• Ben Jardinn by Raoul Whitfield
• Brian Kane by Jack Bludis
• Thomas Kyd by Timothy Harris
• Bill Lennox by W.T. Ballard
• Jake Axminster by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell
• Whistler by Robert Campbell
• Toby Peters by Stuart Kaminsky