Cancelled in Red

by Hugh Pentecost

Overview

Max Adrian was the rare stamp broker everyone in the know avoided. It never mattered to the shifty broker, until someone demanded a refund at gunpoint.Soon afterward, a dishy dame convinces Larry Storm, Adrian's rival, to play amateur detective for a hidden cache of priceless stamps. Storm is one step ahead of the tenacious Inspector Luke Bradley, who's one step behind a cold-blooded killer - and Storm had better start running....Cancelled in Red appeared in Argosy magazine, touted as the $10,000 prize winner of the 1939 Dodd Mead Mystery Contest. The novel also grabbed the $1,000 Red Badge Prize Mystery title, and launched the career of "Hugh Pentecost," the pen name to the prolific Judson P. Philips, author of mysteries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781522949374
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	01/25/2016
Series:	Inspector Luke Bradley , #1
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Judson Philips, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award winner, was born in Northfield, Mass. in 1903. He began his writing career in the pulp fiction magazines in 1924, while earning his journalism degree from Columbia University.
In 1939 he won the $10,000 Dodd Mead Mystery Contest, using the pen name Hugh Pentecost, for Cancelled in Red. This marked a turning point in his career, as he created a second body of work for slick magazines and paperbacks as Pentecost.

He continued using both names simultaneously, living between New York and Connecticut, producing more than 500 works. One of his best-known series was The Park Avenue Hunt Club, which appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly.

Philips owned a newspaper, and wrote columns for other newspapers. He owned an equity summer stock theater, "The Sharon Playhouse," where he wrote and produced plays. In the meantime, he wrote radio and film scripts for movies and television. Later he hosted a political and arts program in Connecticut's "Northwest Corner," broadcast out of Torrington.

Philips was married five times and had four children. He died of complications from emphysema in 1989, at age 85, in Canaan, Conn.

Editorial Reviews

04/18/2016
First published in 1939, this reissue marks the debut of NYPD Insp. Luke Bradley. A formulaic whodunit set in the stamp collecting world, it includes an unlikable murder victim, a plethora of suspects, an engaging amateur attempting to aid the police, and a budding romance. Manhattan stamp dealer Larry Storm is consulted by the attractive Lucia Warren, whose late father was a regular customer of his. Crooked auctioneer Max Adrian disposed of Lucia's father's stamp collection, but the sale yielded a much lower amount than she expected. Larry, who knows of Adrian's shady reputation, suspects that he substituted fakes and agrees to help Lucia get justice. But before his effort can make much progress, someone shoots Adrian in his office, and Lucia calls Larry for help after she finds the corpse. His involvement in the case and his attempt to conceal Lucia's role arouse Bradley's curiosity. Since she wasn't the only person the dead man cheated, the inspector has plenty of alibi-checking and interviewing to do. Larry overshadows Bradley, who isn't a particularly colorful sleuth. Still, many readers will enjoy this installment and want to seek out Pentecost's other works. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly