You'll Get Yours

by William Ard

YOU’LL GET YOURS “A dark room…a warm woman…a cold knife…” It begins at the end of the line—with a killing. But it had started simply enough when press agent Archie St. George hires private investigator, Barney Glines, to retrieve some missing jewels stolen from his beautiful client, Kyle Shannon. Glines knows he’s being set-up for something but he goes along with the exchange out of curiosity more than anything. That—and Kyle Shannon. Turns out that the real “jewels” are a cache of nude photos of Miss Shannon, who is now being blackmailed. Soon Glines finds himself in a dead woman’s room—who’s been shot with his own gun—and the police are jumping to conclusions. It’s beginning to look like whoever’s behind the blackmail wants to make sure that Glines is the fall guy. Unless Glines can find him first.

158 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 18, 2019

About the author

aka Ben Kerr, Mike Moran, Jonas Ward, Thomas Wills.

William Thomas Ard has been one of the most elusive writers in the collecting world.

Odd for a man who was one of the most popular hardboiled writers of the 1950s. He was praised by critics from the St. Louis Dispatch to the New York Times.

Few imagined the dark side of the city and the entertainment business better than William Ard. When he turned his gaze west, he gave life to one of the genre's most enduring heroes.

Today his name is all but forgotten. His hardboiled titles are scarce. His paperback titles in fine condition are nearly impossible to find.

While he went by many names, he is essentially a man of two faces. Ard was the creator of hard-hitting detective Timothy Dane of New York and an even harder living and loving detective, Lou Largo, of Florida.

Reviews

[Dave]

Vintage Pulp

You’ll Get Yours is one of two books in William Ard’s Barney Glines series ( are 2 books still considered a series?).

Ard was a popular writer in the fifties, who died at the young age of 37 in 1960 after a battle with cancer.

You’ll Get Yours is a great piece of vintage pulp with all the usual elements of blackmail, jealousy, a love triangle, and getting set up to take the fall. It is filled with hoodlums, bodies, a ravishing red headed movie star, and one slightly disheveled Private eye.

The narrative flows smoothly and this short novel is not more than a few hours read. Ard begins this novel with the conclusion-or almost the conclusion- and then spends the next hundred pages explaining how these people — Barney, Kyle, and Archie — ended up in a rundown hotel in Mexico and at each other’s throats. It’s dark, gritty, and nasty. Would definitely be worth picking up another Ard if I can find one.

[Still]

William Ard was an incredibly prolific author who died at a very young age.
He’s probably known more for his “Buchanan” Western paperback originals but if this is an example of his crime thrillers, I’ve gotta have more.

This is a Black Gat reprint of a Lion Paperback Original from 1952 and it’s terrific. Honest private eye Barney Glines with a good working relationship with the police department is hired by a “talent agent” to help a beautiful and sexy client retrieve a box of jewels stolen from her hotel room.
The “agent” is basically a glorified pimp, dealing in narcotics.
His “talent” are low level tv and movie actresses, most of whom earn their livelihood as strippers for the higher end Burly-ques.

Lots of down-low druggie usage and colorful descriptions of girls getting introduced to heroin through mild marijuana usage, eventually becoming heroin addicts our villain can better manipulate.

Occasional stripper routines described along with numerous murders, a few beatings, and fun fifties dope slang.
The author can tell a story, move it along, and get the hell out.
Very little handwringing is done by our lead character and narrator. This is nice, hardboiled business that’s a fast, enjoyable read.

One of my favorite Black Gat reissues.

[Joe Nicholl]

You'll Get Yours by William Ard (1952, 156 pgs, Kindle, $4.99) is about NYC P.I. Barney who is hired by acting talent agent Archie to recover some jewels & nude photos that were heisted from new starlet Kyle. No great shakes and it was kind of by the numbers but it was a pretty good read...P.I. Barney is likeable and the location stretches from NYC to Mexico and I swear writer Ard emulates Hemingway here & there through-out the story. William Ard has a unique back-round worth researching...he came from a wealthy background but took his writing seriously publishing 34 books between the ages of 30 to 39 when he passed of cancer....over-all I liked You'll Get Yours and I recommend...3.0 outta 5.0.....

[Charles]

The first book I ever read by William Ard was a western written under the name Jonas Ward, for the Buchanan series. I picked this one up on the strength of my enjoyment of that one and it was a really well done noir/harboiled mystery. I found, to my sadness, that Ard died at the age of just 37. He had a lot of talent as a writer and I wonder what great tales he would have written had he lived.