EditorStark House Press recently reissued two standout novels by Richard Jessup, a writer who never confined himself to a single genre. Jessup grew up in an orphanage, ran away to sea at thirteen, and worked every tough job imaginable before turning out scripts, TV shows, and more than seventy novels. He sometimes wrote under pseudonyms such as Richard Telfair or Carey Rockwell.
Port Angelique and Wolf Cop each showcase a different side of Jessup’s talent for portraying people on the edge. Port Angelique (1961) transports readers to a fictional Caribbean island teeming with schemers, where nothing stays clean for long. Police Commissioner Stanley Fowler is barely holding things together as he hunts for the slippery criminal Sabo de Chine. The island is packed with hustlers, outsiders, and double-crossers.
Wolf Cop (also 1961) takes place in a battered American city, where Detective Sergeant Anthony Serella—the “wolf cop”—becomes obsessed with solving a murdered teacher’s case. He bulldozes through obstacles, alienating everyone around him. Jessup captures the gritty realities of police work: dead ends, politics, and the daily grind. Anthony Boucher of The New York Times praised it as “one of the strongest American procedurals outside of the 87th Precinct.”
The collection features an introduction by the editor of Lowestoft Chronicle, titled “The Obsessive Cop and the Island’s Buried Secret.” You can pick up this double volume from Stark House Press or your favorite online bookstore.
