Master of the Impossible! Joseph Commings (1914-1992) created one of the greatest investigators of locked rooms, impossible disappearances and other "miracle crimes" - the gargantuan, harrumphing Senator Brooks U. Banner. During his long career (Banner first appeared in the pulps in 1947), he investigated such crimes as murder at a s�ance where everyone is holding hands, a strange spectre causing death in the middle of a lake, a killing in a sealed glass case, and a murder by a sword which must have been wielded by a giant. The most extraordinary story of all is "The X Street Murders," in which the victim is shot in a guarded room and the smoking-gun is delivered, a few seconds later, in a sealed envelope next door.
This first collection of Senator Banner stories contains 14 cases solved by the buffalo-sized sleuth, including one co-written with Edward D. Hoch and another published for the first time. Banner Deadlines is the 12th in the Crippen & Landru "Lost Classics" series, which is dedicated to preserving stories in the classic detective tradition. The collection is edited by locked-room expert Robert Adey and includes an Afterword by Ed Hoch.
