HANK JANSON addicts (minimum dosage: Two 'H.J.' novels per month) need not be told that the man is a crime reporter with a flair for mixing it with super-criminals and superb women.

Born in London, Hank moved off around the world in search of action and adventure, and found his real talent as a writer after being washed up in Chicago. When he eventually quit full-time reportage to become one of the most prolific story-writers in the English language, he had lived through enough excitement to fill a thousand books.

His present whereabouts are never disclosed.

SECURITY, you know.

© Roberts & Vintner Ltd 1960

WHAT THIS STORY IS ABOUT

When a man of high position, enjoying public confidence, seeks to abuse that confidence by using it as a cover for criminal activities, the unearthing of proof to end his nefarious practices is ten times more difficult than bringing an ordinary criminal to justice.

This, then, was the task Hank Janson set himself in the case of the notorious Judge Pearson, whose dossier of dark streaks in the lives of people who went to him in confidence for help enabled him to amass a fortune by blackmail.

But, as so often happens, a honey of a dame was his final undoing. The ingenious plot through which Hank gets the judge involved in a phoney blackmail attempt on no other than the District Attorney himself makes thrilling reading. The compromising situation deliberately built up for the judge's downfall is a delicious denouement.

© Roberts & Vintner Ltd 1960