The Complete Cases of the Rambler, Volume 1

Meet the “Rambler”: peripatetic newspaper reporter Addison Francis Murphy. A tall, rangy redhead, the Rambler behaves like a tramp, wandering from city to city, often arriving on a railroad boxcar, never taking root. Renowned for his reporting skills and deductive abilities, Frank Murphy never has any difficulty landing a job with the local newspaper; wherever he winds up, he finds that his reputation has preceded him. The Rambler has a knack for getting into trouble, and every search for a front-page scoop puts him in jeopardy sooner or later. He seems to have a genius for running afoul of violent gangsters, wealthy businessmen, corrupt politicians, crooked cops, and the occasional double-crossing dame. Created by Fred MacIsaac, at one time a redheaded journalist himself, Frank Murphy rambled through 19 terse, tough yarns published between 1933 and 1940 mainly in the pages of Dime Detective, the prestigious crime pulp second only to the legendary Black Mask in its impact on the genre.