Robert Campbell enjoyed a long career as a writer of novels, screenplays, and television plays. His screenplay for The Man of a Thousand Faces was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1986 his In La-La Land We Trust was chosen by the Washington Post as the best crime novel of the year. His novel The Junkyard Dog, Jimmy Flannery's debut, won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. … read more
The Junkyard Dog
***Edgar Award Winner*** – The Junkyard Dog — Chicago is Jimmy Flannery’s kind of town. A tough Irishman with street smarts, he’s part of a political machine that runs on favors and friendships. Flannery’s particular piece of the patronage is the 27th Ward, and anything that happens there is his business. Even murder. So when […]
The 600 Pound Gorilla
Even from the outset it promised to be an extraordinary assignment for Jimmy Flannery — Chicago tough-guy and precinct captain of the 27th ward. Freezing winter temperatures had overloaded the generator at Lincoln Zoo and now Baby — the city’s favorite gorilla — needs a place to stay. Flannery thinks he’s found the perfect sanctuary, […]
Hip-Deep in Alligators
Lots of strange things get washed up in Chicago’s sewers, and even tough Irishman Jimmy Flannery feels jumpy when he is sent to to inspect old tunnels. He keeps thinking about those stories of kids flushing down baby alligators that grow up into the big man-eating monsters alive down in the dark. And it doesn’t […]
Thinning The Turkey Herd
When it comes to Chicago politics, Jimmy Flannery knows where the bodies are buried. Sleuthing has definitely become part of Flannery’s job, and he does it with the same tough-nosed, hard-fisted elan that he exhibits in his battles with machine-made bureaucrats down at City Hall. Now, someone is thinning the “turkey herd” – that’s modeling […]
The Cat’s Meow
Ignatius, Father Mulrooney’s, has been found dead in the church and buried by the aging priest in the graveyard. Dead cats tell no tales, but the howls of Ignatius–according to the good father–startle him from a deep sleep the next night and send him to the church to investigate. On the sanctuary floor is a […]
Plugged Nickel
The night was pitch black, filled with driving rain when the California Zephyr jolted to a stop on a desolate stretch outside McCook, Nebraska. Somebody pulled the emergency brake, catapulting Jake Hatch out of the train — and onto a severed corpse. He stumbled over the trousered bottom half. Someone else found the torso, neatly […]
Nibbled to Death by Ducks
Jimmy returns from a vacation down in New Orleans and finds that old Mrs. Banjo is dead and his chinaman Chips Devlin is in big trouble. Jimmy cashes in favors all over town and discovers the seemy side of Chicago politics and nursing home corruption. Late night phone calls and multiple murders lead Jimmy to […]