Mystery and Crime Blood, Matthew: The Avenger, v1, 12 March 2008.

[Dr. Drib]

This title was released under a Creative Commons License, with additional acknowledgement placed at the end of the book. Book was acquired from Munseys, BUT REFORMATED BY ME TO MY SPECIFICATIONS.
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Great original paperback pulp mysteries from the 40s, 50s and early 60s are enjoying renewed interest, not only in academic circles, but also among readers who just want a good story. Yes, the events in these stories are often corny and the characters too often one-dimensional, but they also provide happy escapist reading.

I'm a person who likes to put aside my Trollope occasionally, or to take a break from reading Claude Simon or Jose Saramago, and just spend a few hours reading fun nonsense.

Here's some information I gathered from different sources on the net about Matthew Blood:

Matthew Blood was a joint pseudonym of Davis Dresser and Ryerson Johnson. Davis created the character Michael Shayne in 1939 and who first appeared in the 1939 novel, Dividend on Death, published under the pseudonym Brett Halliday.

As a teenager, I read a good dozen Powder Valley Westerns written by Peter Field, another pseudonym of Dresser. Below is a list of other pseudonyms used by Davis Dresser. According to one source, he wrote about 50 Shayne novels.

Asa Baker
Matthew Blood
Kathryn Culver
Don Davis
Hal Debrett
Peter Field
Brett Halliday
Anthony Scott
Anderson Wayne
Francis Bickerstaffe

I don’t have much information on [W.] Ryerson Johnson, but apparently he wrote a number of Doc Savage novels under the house name of Kenneth Robeson. He also wrote a number of westerns.

I hope you enjoy it.

Don