AMASTER OF THE PRIVATE-EYE TALE!! Dennis Lynds (1924-2005), who was best known for his work under the pseudonym "Michael Collins," was probably the most important and influential writer of private-eye stories to emerge in the past forty years. His series about one-armed detective, Dan Fortune, which began with the Edgar-winning Act of Fear (1967), is filled with the sense of pace, setting, and characterization of a master stylist, and the social consciousness of a committed human being. As Robert J. Randisi says in his introduction, "His work not only entertains, it informs and provokes."

Slot-Machine Kelly contains Dennis Lynds' earliest P.I. tales, published between 1962 and 1966, and never previously in bookform. Dennis Lynds added prefaces to each story, explaining their significance in his development as a writer. He checked the final proofs a week before his untimely death, so this collection has become a memorial to the extraordinary writer who was Dennis Lynds and Michael Collins.

Slot-Machine Kelly is the 18th in Crippen & Landru's series of Lost Classics.