Steve Conacher
Created by Adam Knight (pseudonym of Lawrence Lariar, 1908-1981; AKA Michael Lawrence and Michael Stark)

STEVE CONACHER is a little guy for a private richard--but a tough one, who appeared in several hard-boiled novels back in the fifties, most of which had him embarking on Hammer-like missions of vengeance.

The blurb for the paperback edition of Murder for Madame reads:

"When he sets out to investigate the murder of one of his best friends (who also happens to run a plush house of ill-repute) he tangles with some of the loosest women and rottenest men in New York."

And Stone Cold Blonde entices readers with this little nugget:

"Mary Ray was the queen of New York's call girls. But Mary had an enemy who dealt in murder and Steve Conacher vowed to trackdown the killer before others died. But he had to slug his way through plenty of slime-and illicit temptation-before he nailed the murderer."

Although he was New York-based, Steve did find time to travel, venturing as far as Paris in Girl Running and Puerto Rico in The Sunburned Corpse.

Journeyman suspense writer also created female P.I. Sugar Shannon.

NOVELS

• Murder for Madame (1951)
• Stone Cold Blonde (1951)
• The Sunburned Corpse (1952)
• Knife at My Back (1952)
• Kiss and Kill (1953)
• I'll Kill You Next! (1954)
• Girl Running (1956)
• Triple Slay (1959)
  

Respectfully submitted by David Pekasky, with some additional info by Kevin Burton Smith.