Cancelled in Red

To some, the postage stamps were colored bits of paper, worth mere pennies. Other people coveted them, preserved them, spent thousands of dollars to acquire them. One person in New York City was driven to commit murder.... Max Adrian was the rare stamp broker everyone in the know avoided — and those unfortunate enough to do business with him harbored grudges. It never mattered to the shifty broker, until someone demanded a refund at the point of a gun. Soon, Adrian’s rival Larry Storm plays amateur detective for the benefit of a dishy dame, searching for a hidden cache of priceless stamps. Storm is one step ahead of the tenacious Inspector Luke Bradley, who’s one step behind a cold-blooded killer — and Storm had better start running....

Cancelled in Red was the $1,000 Red Badge Prize Mystery winner. It walked away with the $10,000 prize for the 1939 Dodd Mead Mystery Contest. Dodd, Mead & Company issued the story in paperback and hardcover that same year.

Hugh Pentecost was the pen name of Judson P. Philips, a prolific author who created hundreds of pulp magazine stories and serials. Under the Pentecost pen name, he simultaneously sold to slick-paper magazines and the burgeoning paperback market. (More about that in Audrey Parente's book Once a Pulp Man, the Secret Life of Judson Philips as Hugh Pentecost).

Inspector Bradley appeared in four original novels, the last of which (The Brass Chills) finds him working undercover for the war effort. Bold Venture Press is proud to reissue these mystery classics for a new generation of readers.