Contraband

by Cleve F. Adams, Carl Bobertz (Illustrator)

"Reed Smith was a hard-boiled Federal Narcotics agent who had tangled with the toughest crooks and crimes, in his time, but when he was assigned to track down a gang of international dope smugglers, he met the most brutal killers of his career."

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

The missing link between Dashiell Hammett and James Ellroy, Cleve F. Adams wrote rambunctious, violent, corrosively cynical private eye fiction from the mid-1930s until his untimely death from pneumonia in 1949 at the age of 54. He also wrote as Franklin Charles and John Spain.

Reviews

[Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written much in the same way as something out of a classic ‘30s or ‘40s detective pulp magazine. In fact, dedicated to Robert Leslie Bellem! One of the granddaddies of hardboiled detective writers for the pulps, creator of the “Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective” series.

FBI agent named Smith works undercover to find the source of drugs being smuggled in from just across the border, gets embroiled in romantic chicanery involving at least two women.

He gets knocked out a lot and mentions how tall and lanky he is more.
Not as lurid as I’d hoped. A few references to heroin and cocaine here and there.

This book was originally published in 1951. My beat up edition is the 3rd printing, 1956. Signet 1298.