The Dark Side

Carver Bascombe Mysteries #1

by Kenn Davis, John Stanley (Contributor), Charles Moll (Illustrator)

Take a walk down the dark side of life with Carver Bascombe, turned-off vet and turned-on private detective, and meet his girlfriend Gwen Norris, the senator's daughter and bestower of the kinds of gifts most people don't know exist. It was a perfect relationship until young Ralphie Hart was brutalized and murdered, and Carver was pitched into the bizarre and colorful world of San Francisco's art scene where certain paintings are sketches for death and portraits of destruction.

204 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Kenn Davis, born Kenneth Allan Schmoker, was a surrealist painter and mystery novelist associated with the Beat Generation writers and artists in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco in the 1950s and 60s. He spent 20 years working for the San Francisco Chronicle, and was a frequent collaborator with John Stanley and Richard Brautigan. He was twice nominated for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, in 1977 for The Dark Side, and in 1985 for Words Can Kill.