Black Cat Weekly #37

THE CASE OF ADAM TASKER, by Hulbert Footner

THE CASE OF ADAM TASKER,

by Hulbert Footner INTRODUCTIONHulbert Footner (1879–1944) was a Canadian-born American writer best known for his adventure and detective fiction. He was born in Canada, but grew up in New York City, where he attended elementary school—beyond that, he was entirely self educated. He began writing poetry and non-fiction in the earliest days of the 20th century, publishing essays about such topics as canoe trips on the Hudson River. Like most writers, he explored various jobs and genres of fiction, including newspaper reporting and journalism, as well as acting (which allowed him to see much of the United States when he toured in a production of Sherlock Holmes). His early novels were adventures set in the Canadian Northwest, which he had helped explore by canoe and document for publication while working as a reporter in his newspaper days.

His friend Christopher Morley, also a writer of books and poetry, steered him away from northwestern stories into crime stories and romance. Here Footner met his biggest success with the creation of beautiful and brilliant Madame Rosika Storey. The Madame Storey mysteries fit well in the Roaring 1920s. They appeared in leading pulp magazines of the day every year from 1922 through 1935. When reissued as books, the series consisted of:

The Under Dogs

Madame Storey

The Velvet Hand

The Doctor Who Held Hands

Easy to Kill

The Casual Murderer

The Almost Perfect Murder

Dangerous Cargo

The Kidnapping of Madame Storey

This success allowed him to travel, and his family spent a year in Europe in 1932-1933.

His earnings fell fell during the Great Depression, which eventually had a grim effect on the family's time in Europe. It led to Footner having a heart attack during the winter of 1933 while on the Côte d’Azur. He recovered, though, and his subsequent production of novels, non-fiction books, and even a play were prolific, although he would never again travelled far from New York.

His book sales fell as the depression deepened in the 1930s. To try to recapture his place in the mystery field, he introduced a new detective, Amos Lee Mappin, a successful, middle aged mystery writer, whose investigations tended to occur in New York’s café society. He published Mappin stories until his death in 1944, alternating at times with Madame Storey.

A Self-Made Thief, which is more of a romantic crime story than a traditional mystery, originally appeared in 1929.

—Karl Wurf

Rockville, Maryland