Tip your hat and meet everyman detective, Charlie Bradshaw, hero of Saratoga Springs. It's 1975, and shy, gentle small-town cop Charlie Bradshaw celebrates an unwelcome 41st birthday with a trip to New York to search Sam Cheney, the son of his high school sweetheart and a small-time drug dealer. What begins as an intriguing mystery spirals out of control as rumpled Charlie quickly finds out that Sam is out of his depth - and he's not the only one.

Morally flexible sidekick Victor Plotz takes centre stage in the eighth mystery for everyman detective Charlie Bradshaw in Saratoga Springs. Wealthy stable owner Bernard Logan comes to Charlie and Victor for help, believing his young wife is trying to kill him. Three days later, a horse kicks him to death. With Charlie away, Victor throws himself into solving the case himself, finding all manner of rats coming out of the woodwork who wanted Bernard dead. The question is, who did it?

Everyman detective Charlie Bradshaw and sidekick Victor Plotz dice with death in their fifth mystery in Saratoga Springs. Gambling, an art heist and dog fighting collide in Charlie's latest case, which once more lands on his doorstep when his pal Victor's gambling party is robbed at the Bradshaw family hotel. It's Super Bowl Sunday, and one of the five gamblers present at the party has an agenda beyond mere money - but who? And are they willing to kill to get what they want?

Morally flexible sidekick Victor Plotz takes on the ninth mystery for everyman detective Charlie Bradshaw. Now working at the Horse Pavillion at the Saratoga Springs racetrack, Victor finds himself being followed as a badly behaved horse named Fleshpot begins to make waves. Several murders and a breath-taking car chase see Victor himself come under suspicion while Charlie faces up to his own commitment issues - a fate worse than death.

Three short adventures set in New York and Saratoga.

Everyman detective Charlie Bradshaw lands deep trouble in his third mystery in Saratoga Springs. Private eye Charlie, ever the outsider, finds himself in hot water when a former jockey due to testify in court on a race-fixing scam is found decapitated, apparently given up to the mob by Charlie himself. Now Charlie must hunt down the killers and clear his name, all while staying alive and keeping his scheming companion Victor Plotz on a leash. But both are easier said than done...

"Ever since the cops revoked his private investigator's license, Charlie Bradshaw has been adjusting to life as a regular senior citizen. But reading, sitting around the house, and making amateur home repairs is a far cry from his past life as Saratoga Springs' most successful everyman detective. So when Charlie discovers the sprawled corpse of Saratoga Springs' biggest nuisance on his sidewalk, the ex-P.I. is torn. Should he risk asking questions of his own, knowing he could easily be prosecuted for doing P.I. work without a license? Or should he avoid the trouble and spend his twilight years in peace?"--

Everyman detective Charlie Bradshaw returns for his second mystery. Having left behind his career as a cop for a job as a security guard at a Saratoga stable, middle-aged, divorced Charlie thinks his life has finally calmed down. Until, that is, his boss is shot while swimming. As Charlie digs deeper into the murder and the murky world of Saratoga Spring's racing scene, fighting the bumbling local police at every turn, he discovers a conspiracy that reaches right to the top.

Everyman detective Charlie Bradshaw returns with sidekick Victor Plotz for a fourth mystery in Saratoga Springs. In search of an easy buck, Victor has found a sideline taking photos of tourists, but his new career nearly kills him when he is the subject of a hit and run and his camera in snatched. Meanwhile, Charlie has his own problems when a maid is apparently murdered in the hotel owned by his mother and a waiter suspiciously vanishes. The two cases come together as a spate of robberies suggests something else is going on.

The hard-boiled private detective is among the most recognizable characters in popular fiction since the 1920s--a tough product of a violent world, in which police forces are inadequate and people with money can choose private help when facing threatening circumstances. Though a relatively recent arrival, the hard-boiled detective has undergone steady development and assumed diverse forms. This critical study analyzes the character of the hard-boiled detective, from literary antecedents through the early 21st century. It follows change in the novels through three main periods: the Early (roughly 1927-1955), during which the character was defined by such writers as Carroll John Daly, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; the Transitional, evident by 1964 in the works of John D. MacDonald and Michael Collins, and continuing to around 1977 via Joseph Hansen, Bill Pronzini and others; and the Modern, since the late 1970s, during which such writers as Loren D. Estleman, Liza Cody, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton and many others have expanded the genre and the detective character. Themes such as violence, love and sexuality, friendship, space and place, and work are examined throughout the text. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.