Mr. Strang

CARROLL JOHN DALY

Publication: Frederick A Stokes Company, 1936, New York

First edition. Slight offset to spine panel else a bright near fine copy in a bright, near fine dust jacket with expert restoration to the extremities. Strang was not a trigger-happy private eye, but a straight-out vigilante. He even has a secret identity ... he’s mild-mannered antiques dealer Strang Cummings. Because nobody would ever figure that one out. Mr. Strang’s most distinguishing characteristic might have been his unfortunate, Spock-like haircut. We learn he carries a bullet embedded at the base of his skull, a bitter reminder of his murdered parents, and that Strang’s no fan of a parole system that has apparently been taken over by the local crime lord, who uses the prison system as a sort of criminal bullpen, securing early or temporary releases for convicts as required. Strang's sworn mission is “to crush the evils of parole, and to smash the mysterious, sinister figure who uses the parole system to take desperate criminals from jail, to rob and murder helpless citizens!” Strang refuses to have the bullet in his head removed until his mission is accomplished. Mr. Strang’ appeared in seven novelettes in Detective Fiction Weekly, which later formed the basis of two novels, Mr. Strang (1936), and “The Legion of the Living Dead” (1937).

Inventory Number: 48779