The Red Finger Series

Ford Duane runs a dusty secondhand bookshop on Fourth Avenue, but behind that drowsy facade he is Red Finger, a lone-wolf operative waging secret war against spies, saboteurs, and criminal masterminds. Published in Secret Service Operator #5 between 1934 and 1938, these twelve novelettes by Arthur Leo Zagat blend espionage, mystery, and two-fisted action at breakneck pulp pace. Each story is a self-contained mission: caged horrors smuggled through customs, death dealers lurking on moonlit beaches, toy shops that conceal instruments of murder. Zagat’s Red Finger is part detective, part spy, all nerve—a Depression-era hero for readers who wanted their thrills served fast and dangerous.