We want to start by thanking everyone who took advantage of our 25% Sale last month. It was a pleasure to hear from everyone and to spread the books around. And as we continue to bring back these hidden gems, this month kicks off with a new William Ard 2-fer of Shakedown and The Blonde and Johnny Malloy. As Kevin Burton Smith wrote about him in Mystery Scene magazine, “Ard knew how to tell a story, and he knew how to keep things moving. His books were tight and taut; lean but rarely mean blasts of action and character. He was able to create characters that seemed real, and to make readers care about what happened to them.”



Shakedown begins when Johnny Stevens is given a new assignment. “You’re in Miami, Stevens, to protect an innocent man from receiving some very unfortunate publicity about an unavoidable accident.” So Flannagan tells his New York operative, Johnny Stevens, when he sends him on what should be a very safe and simple job. He’s supposed to tail a doctor named Graves. Before Stevens knows it, he finds himself in the middle of a murder scheme involving playboy Randy Prince, whom the doctor might be blackmailing. But before he can figure out what’s really going on, the cops haul Stevens in for bashing the doctor’s head in with a bottle—with 300 witnesses who saw him do it!



The Blonde and Johnny Malloy features another Johnny, this one doing time on a work gang. And while he works, every day a blonde drives by in her red Cadillac. He starts to dream about her. Then his brother-in-law, Frank Trask, gets him released. And he finds out that the blonde, Nelli, is Frank’s girl. And the red Cadillac is Frank’s car. In fact, it’s Frank’s world to which Johnny has been released. Frank’s got big plans for Johnny. Because Frank has got a million-dollar deal riding on an upcoming heavyweight fight, and he wants Johnny to take over his nightclub in the meantime. He gives Johnny a wad of bills, a new car and lots of promises. But what Johnny really wants is Nelli, the blonde in the red Cadillac.



Nicholas Litchfield provides a new introduction, giving us a bit of history of the two books. As he points out Ard died tragically young, only two years after The Blonde was published. But he had a great run during his ten-year career, turning out hardboiled series characters like Timothy Dane, Lou Largo and Danny Fontaine as well as westerns featuring hard-bitten hero Buchanan. A short career, but a strong one.