Gil Vine
Created by Stewart Sterling (pseud. of Prentice Winchell)

GIL VINE's a real smoothie, a real charmer, but he's not afraid to put the boot in if he has to. He's the fast-moving hotel security chief at New York's swanky Plaza Royale, a troubleshooter in a suit. He's tough, shrewd, and conscientious as hell, actually living at the hotel so he can always be on call, to keep the peace and protect the hotel's good name.

The hotel background seems authentic enough, and in fact, Sterling went on to co-author (with Dev Collans) I Was a House Detective, a 1954 scoop on ""Lawbreakers and c-girls, walk-in men and walk-up ladies -- a startling expose of big city hotels."

Gil shares his dedication to his job with such other series sorta-P.I.s as department store dick Don Cadee, also by Sterling, under the pen name of Spencer Dean, back in the 1950's or the more recent TV network snoop Matt Cobb by William L. DeAndrea.

SHORT STORIES

• "Murder by Television" (July 1950, Popular Detective)
• "The Corpse in 1214" (Fall 1953, Popular Detective)

NOVELS

• Dead Wrong (1947)
• Dead Sure (1949; aka "The Affair of the California Cutie")
• Dead of Night (1950)
• Alibi Baby (1955)
• Dead Right (1956; aka "The Hotel Murders")
• Dead To The World (1958; aka "The Blond in Suite 14")
• The Body In The Bed (1959)
• Dead Certain (1960; two novelettes)

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.