[Timothy Dane 04] • A Private Party

When Timothy Dane is hired by a ruthless gang of hoodlums to find the killer of their chief, the tough private eye finds himself caught in a crossfire between vicious mobsters, gun-happy cops, and men living by the jungle law of the waterfront—plus a luscious show-girl whose specialty is a certain kind of “private party.” Dane, as usual, does a swift, tidy job of unraveling the case with some boudoir assistance from Stanzyck’s ex-moll, Roxy Garde. Roxy was down on the police blotter as “profession unknown,” but Dane knew how the beautiful redhead earned her living. When mobster Al Stanzyck was rubbed out, Roxy decided she’d had enough of hoodlums. So she made a desperate play for Dane. But the night Stanzyck’s toughest henchman turned up at her apartment, ready to take up where the boss left off, Roxy knew she’d have to meet violence with the only weapon a woman has.

About Vintage Paperback Pulp Fiction

A new revolution was underway at the start of the 1940s in America—a paperback revolution that would change the way publishers would produce and distribute books and the reading public would consume them. In 1939 a new publishing company—Pocket Books—stormed onto the scene with the publication of its first paperbound book. Unlike hardback books, these pulp paperbacks were available in drugstores, newsstands, bus and train stations, and cigar shops. The American public could not get enough of them. The popular pulp genres reflected the tastes of Americans during the 1930s and 1940s—mysteries, thrillers, and "hardboiled detective" stories were all the rage.

In the early 1950s new pulp fiction sub-genres emerged—science fiction, lesbian fiction, juvenile delinquent and sleaze, for instance—that would tantalize readers with gritty, realistic and lurid stories never seen before. Publishers had come to realize that sex sells. In a competitive frenzy for readers, they turned to alluring covers that often featured a sexy woman in some form of undress, along with a suggestive tag line that promised sex and violence within. To this day, the pulp cover art of these vintage paperback books are just as sought after as the books themselves were sixty years ago.

We are excited to make these wonderful pulp fiction stories available in ebook format to new generations of readers, as a new revolution—the ebook revolution—is in full swing. We hope you will enjoy this nostalgic look back at a period in American history when dames were dangerous, tough-guys were deadly and dolls were downright delicious.