When we think of hardboiled, noir crime fiction, the mean
streets of urban America of the 20th century come to mind. We do
not imagine mutton chop whiskers, capes, or hansom carriages. The
latter were part of Sherlock Holmes’s Victorian England.
So when Hard Case Crime recently released a book by A. C. Doyle
called THE VALLEY OF FEAR, eyebrows were raised, my dear Watson.
Yes, it contained the trademark lurid cover with the beautiful --
if somewhat terrified --- young lady in a diaphanous gown. But who
was the author? Further inspection revealed that the writer was
indeed Arthur Co