Max Latin
Created by Norbert Davis (1909-49)

One of the best of the pulp PI's, MAX LATIN is one slippery character, and he doesn't care who knows it. He works out of Guitterez' restaurant, which he secretly owns.

Max made five memorable appearances in Dime Detective in the early forties, each one a polished comic gem. And there's the rub.

Norbert Davis was a relatively successful pulpster whose "fatal flaw" was, according to Jack Adrain, in Hard-Boiled, "a sense of humour...that was ultimately responsible for keeping him from being published more frequently." Even now, a lot of people just "don't get" Davis' whacky blend of hard-boiled humour.

Definitely their loss. Also responsible for the dog and dick team of Doan and Carstairs and Bail Bond Dodd. He also wrote about trust company investigator "Just Plain" Jones, as well as several other eyes for the pulps, including Max Clark, Mark Hull, Simeon Saxon and Ben Shaley.

SHORT STORIES

• "Watch Me Kill You" (July 1941, Dime Detective)
• "Don't Give Your Right Name" (December 1941, Dime Detective: also The Hardboiled Dicks)
• "Give the Devil His Due" (May 1942, Dime Detective)
• "You Can Die Every Day" (December 1942, Dime Detective)
• "Charity Begins at Homicide" (October 1943, Dime Detective)

COLLECTIONS

• The Adventures of Max Latin (1988)...Buy this book
  Collects all five stories.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.