Ralph Dennis

Ralph Dennis was a noteworthy novelist hailing from The United States, who was famous for writing suspense, mystery, and detective novels. He was born in North Carolina, U.S., in the year 1931 and passed away in 1988. Author Dennis had completed his academic studies from the North Carolina University. Later, he was involved in teaching television and radio. Author Dennis was particularly well know for writing the Hardman series of novels. This series was first started in 1974 with the book titled Atlanta Deathwatch. Its immense was followed by a few more in the later years and all of them together completed the 12 novel detective series. The chief protagonist depicted by author Dennis in all the books in the form of Jim Hardman, who was shown as a private investigator practicing without a legal license. Jim Hardman was described in each of the books as a former policeman from Atlanta. The other primary character introduced by author Dennis is Hump Evans, who is shown assisting Jim Hardman in his investigative cases. Hump Evans is also a former football player from America, having played the game at the proportional level. Three of the books from the series have been translated and released in the French language in the form of a collection called Black Super. All these translated novels have been regarded as classic hard boiled novels by the literary critic named Claude Mesplede. The style of writing of author Dennis is stated in Mickey Spillane’s continuity and Jim Hardman’s character can be easily compared with the likes of Spenser, who is the fictional detective character created by author Robert B. Parker. In 1976, author Dennis tried to develop a new novel series featuring the main hero named Kane, with the book called Deadman’s Game. In this novel, it is explained that the CIA had erased the memory of Kane. However, the book was not able to gather much of an audience and hence, author Dennis was not successful in carrying the series further. But, he did attempt to write one more book known as Mactaggart’s War. This book was published in 1979.