Stakeout on Page Street and Other DKA Files

Penzler Pick, March 2001: Joe Gores is a mystery writer's mystery writer. For more than 30 years he's been writing novels and short stories, many of them DKA files. DKA stands for Daniel Kearny Associates, a fictitious agency specializing in repo work, which is very closely based on the agency Gores worked for while honing his craft as a writer. In a fascinating introduction to the 12 DKA files in Stakeout on Page Street, Gores describes his life as a repo man, his relationship with the real and fictitious characters at DKA, and the encouragement he received from Anthony Boucher, who suggested he make contact with Fred Dannay, who eventually published all of these stories in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Although Gores has written other short stories and full length novels, it is those about the men and women at DKA that most capture the imagination. These stories are procedural, telling of the day-to-day grunt work of the repo man. There are no guns, no flashy showdowns, no huge body counts, because, as Gores explains, nobody wants to kill or get killed over the repossession of a car for the bank. But the stories are gripping nonetheless. How can a simple repossession drive a woman to suicide? In File #1 the answer is: all too easily when you're young and you've picked the wrong man to love.

Gores's sixth full-length DKA novel will be published in 2001, and we owe a lot to the small publishing company of Crippen & Landru for reintroducing us, after a hiatus of several years, to Larry Ballard, Kathy Onoda, Dan Kearny, and all the hard-working folks at DKA. If you haven't met them before, this is the perfect introduction. --Otto Penzler