The Icepick Artists

By Frank Kane and John Betancourt

There was only one trouble with the case when Johnny Liddell took it. The guy he replaced had just been murdered.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Nov 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667601656

Frank Kane

Frank Kane (1912–1968) was the author of the Johnny Liddell mystery series, including Dead Weight, Trigger Mortis, Poisons Unknown, and many more. 

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Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION, by John Betancourt

THE ICEPICK ARTISTS, by Frank Kane

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2022 by Wildside Press LLC.

Originally published in Manhunt, December 1953.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

INTRODUCTION,

by John Betancourt

Frank Kane (1912-1968) was an American mystery writer most famous for his Johnny Liddell series of hardboiled detective novels. He also worked in radio and television, but his contributions were less notable there, since he dealt with series characters that were not his own creations. His television work included writing for Special Agent 7, The Investigators, and Mike Hammer.

Kane was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended law school, but quit before graduation because he was starting a family and needed to support them. Like most writers, he held a number of different jobs before settling in for his true calling: he worked as an editor, a public relations flack for the liquor industry, a columnist publicizing movie stars visiting New York, among other things. Between these jobs and his legal schooling, he had plenty of material to draw on for his publishing career.

He began by writing dramatic scripts for radio crime shows (notably for The Shadow for six years). In the 1940s, he turned his attention to fiction, and in 1947, he published his first crime novel—About Face, featuring his trademark private eye, Johnny Liddell. (About Face would later be reprinted in paperback as The Fearsome Foursome and Death About Face.)

Some 40 Johnny Liddell novels and many Liddell short stories for the pulps followed—as well as numerous non-series stories and books. Kane published frequently in leading mystery magazines of the day, most especially in Manhunt, where his hardboiled style found a welcoming home, alongside many similar authors.

Johnny Liddell has been described as an enjoyably hardboiled detective who did not age with time but rather changed with the tastes of his readers. The Thrilling Detective web site calls him arguably the quintessential fifties private eye.

Frank Kane died