Ed Lacy (August 25, 1911 - January 7, 1968), born Leonard S. Zinberg, was an American writer of crime and

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

. Lacy, who was

Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

, is credited with creating "the first credible African American PI" character in fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore. ''Room to Swing'', his 1957 novel that introduced Touie Moore, received the 1958

Edgar Award for Best Novel The Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel was established in 1954. Only hardcover novels written by a published American author are eligible. Paperback original novels are eligible for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original. Debut nove ...

Biography

Lacy was born in New York City. He was a member of the League of American writers, and served on its Keep America Out of War Committee in January 1940 during the period of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. He died of a heart attack in Harlem in 1968, at the age of 56.

Bibliography

*''Walk Hard, Talk Loud (1940) *''The Woman Aroused'' (1951) *''Sin in Their Blood'' (1952) *''Strip for Violence'' (1953) *''Enter Without Desire'' (1954) *''Go for the Body'' (1954) *''The Best That Ever Did It'' (also issued as ''Visa to Death'') (1955) *''The Men from the Boys'' (1956) *''Lead with Your Left'' (1957) *''Room to Swing'' (1957) *''Breathe No More, My Lady'' (1958) *''Shakedown for Murder'' (1958) *''Be Careful How You Live'' (1959) *''Blonde Bait'' (1959) *''The Big Fix'' (1960) *''A Deadly Affair'' (1960) *''Bugged for Murder'' (1961) *''The Freeloaders'' (1961) *''South Pacific Affair'' (1961) *''The Sex Castle'' (also issued as ''Shoot It Again'') (1963) *''Two Hot to Handle'' (two novellas: ''The Coin of Adventure'' and ''Murder in Paradise'') (1963) *''Moment of Untruth'' (1964) *''Harlem Underground'' (1965) *''Pity the Honest'' (1965) *''The Hotel Dwellers'' (1966) *''Double Trouble'' (1967) *''In Black & Whitey'' (1967) *''The Napalm Bugle'' (1968) *''The Big Bust'' (1969)

References

1911 births 1968 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American mystery writers Edgar Award winners Writers from New York City Jewish American novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American Jews {{US-novelist-1910s-stub