Brett Halliday

Mike Shayne Books
Movies
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It's not often that one man becomes an industry, but that's what happened with Mike Shayne, the redheaded, two-fisted, Miami-based PI. The first Shayne book, Dividend On Death, appeared in 1939, the same year as Raymond Chandler'sThe Big Sleep. Written by David Dresser under the pseudonym Brett Halliday, this and other early Shayne books featured good mystery along with plenty of laughs and plenty of action (mostly fisticuffs; Shayne was a bit less lethal than some of his contemporaries).

The Miami setting was different, as was Shayne's (mostly) sunny demeanor. Like many other detectives, Shayne and his secretary Phyllis had a special, ahem, chemistry. Unlike the rest, they did something about it, getting married early in the series. Sadly, Phyllis met her end in Blood On The Black Market. Phyllis was later replaced as secretary (and more??) by Lucy Hamilton, in Michael Shayne's Long Chance.

As the books turned into a franchise, however, the Shayne series lost much of it's idiosyncratic appeal and became more and more standardized. After Dresser's retirement in 1958, Brett Halliday became a "house name", with the series continued by other writers, both in the novels and in the pages of Michael Shayne's Mystery Magazine. Still, Shayne is one of the classic private eyes, and the series is worth a look even today.