Man on a Rope

George Harmon Coxe

Nov. 2011 · Open Road Media

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An amateur appraiser gets trapped in a chaotic diamond dealAfter years trying to make their fortunes in the Guyanese diamond trade, Barry Dawson and Colin Lambert have crossed paths once too often. The last time Lambert hired Barry as an appraiser, Lambert cheated his old friend out of his share. Soured on the diamond business, Barry wants to return to the States and marry his hometown girl. Desperate for travel money, he takes one last job from Lambert. He will find that there is no safe exit from the diamond trade. For hours Barry sifts through a pile of stones, appraising them for sale to a tough named Hudson. They are the most beautiful diamonds he has ever seen—as a group, worth more than $100,000. The sealed package is pillow-shaped, weighs less than a pound, and will cost the blood of many men.

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George Harmon Coxe (1901–1984) was an early star of hard-boiled crime fiction, best known for characters he created in the seminal pulp magazine Black Mask. Born in upstate New York, he attended Purdue and Cornell Universities before moving to the West Coast to work in newspapers. In 1922 he began publishing short stories in pulp magazines across various genres, including romance and sports. He would find his greatest success, however, writing crime fiction. In 1934 Coxe, relying on his background in journalism, created his most enduring character: Jack “Flashgun” Casey, a crime photographer. First appearing in “Return Engagement,” a Black Mask short, Casey found success on every platform, including radio, television, and film. Coxe’s other well-known characters include Kent Murdock, another photographer, and Jack Fenner, a PI. Always more interested in character development than a clever plot twist, Coxe was at home in novel-writing, producing sixty-three books in his lifetime. Made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1964, Coxe died in 1984.