Dolph: Odds-On Murder

James “Doc” Connor, back from serving in the War, has settled into his apartment-based practice, doctoring his friends in Midtown (both shady and upstanding) and the occasional horse at the tracks, to the bemusement of his radio star girlfriend, Katie Storm, and his NYPD pal, Lieut. Eddie Marsh. When an anxious man asks him to examine a dead body, Doc smells a rat, but can’t resist. Thrust into a murder investigation, Doc has to navigate an angry cop and a desperate gangster as he tries to identify the killer.

Note

First published in 1948. First in series of five books.

Review

“Another excellent ‘first’ is Jack Dolph’s Odds-On Murder. . . . He writes racily and spiritedly of Broadway, its bookmakers, thugs, radio stars, beautiful girls, and of Doc Connor, whose patients range from bullet-ridden crooks to lame race horses. Though a good fellow and an excellent doctor, generally liked and trusted, Connor gets some exceedingly rough treatment when kidnaped by a soft-spoken head-basher and forced to attend to the wounds of a dying youth wanted by the police for murder. Before he can extricate himself from a wicked snarl of unbridled mischief that nearly costs him his life, Connor sorely tries the patience of his sweetheart, and of Eddie Marsh of the homicide bureau. Recommended reading for those who like them rough-and-ready.” (H. Viggo Andersen, Hartford, CT, Courant, 1948)