Five of top-notch hardboiled author W.T. Ballard's Bill Lennox stories, originally published in Black Mask between 1933 and 1942. Lennox (Ballard's most popular character) was neither a private eye nor a cop, but as the fixer for General-Consolidated, a fictitious Hollywood film studio, he found himself embroiled in the same kinds of situations that Dashiell Hammett and (later) Raymond Chandler wrote their heroes into. There are lots of tough-talking thugs and brassy, dangerous women, but the grumpy Lennox--relying on his wits, his fists and a little luck--manages to outmaneuver them all. There's gunplay, too, though Lennox is usually an observer rather than a participant. (And, true to the time-honored Black Mask cliché, he's always getting sapped and waking up with a lump on his head.)

The earliest stories, not surprisingly, have a somewhat generic '30s detective vibe, but the writing gradually becomes more assured and more distinctly Ballardian. They're all thoroughly enjoyable, fast-paced and often funny, even the ones in which Ballard hadn't quite found his voice; my personal favorites are "A Little Different" and "Scars of Murder." There's also biographical material on the author and a fascinating essay entitled "Writing for the Pulps," penned by Ballard near the close of his long career. ( )