Eye Witness

By George Harmon Coxe

Doing a favor for an old friend gets Kent Murdock involved in a murder. Newspaper photographer Kent Murdock goes to Union City for the sake of Helen Farnsley, an old friend whose marriage is in trouble. Long ago he warned her against marrying Lee, and now that their life together has turned sour he wants to help her escape it. But the trouble in Union City starts as soon as he gets to his hotel room.

Behind the mirror, Murdock finds a diamond bracelet belonging to the room's previous resident, a talent agent named Harry who returns a few minutes later to collect it. That night, Murdock sits down with Helen's husband, who asks for a few hours alone in the room to think. When Murdock returns, Lee has been murdered, and the police are looking for the room's owner. Kent doesn't stop to talk to the cops. It would be much easier to find the killer himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784083915

George Harmon Coxe

George Harmon Coxe (1901–1984) was an early star of hard-boiled crime fiction, best known for characters he created in the seminal pulp magazine Black Mask. Born in upstate New York, he attended Purdue and Cornell Universities before moving to the West Coast to work in newspapers. In 1922 he began publishing short stories in pulp magazines across various genres, including romance and sports. He would find his greatest success, however, writing crime fiction. In 1934 Coxe, relying on his background in journalism, created his most enduring character: Jack “Flashgun” Casey, a crime photographer. First appearing in “Return Engagement,” a Black Mask short, Casey found success on every platform, including radio, television, and film. Coxe’s other well-known characters include Kent Murdock, another photographer, and Jack Fenner, a PI. Always more interested in character development than a clever plot twist, Coxe was at home in novel-writing, producing sixty-three books in his lifetime. Made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1964, Coxe died in 1984. 

Reviews for Eye Witness

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like Coxe's stories about tough news photographer Kent Murdock, in this case investigating what seems to be his own murder (it is actually somebody else)