Tokyo Doll

John McPartland (1911-1958) was an American novelist, journalist, screenwriter, and paperback crime writer associated with the hard-boiled and noir tradition of the 1950s. Many of his novels appeared as Fawcett Gold Medal paperback originals, including Big Red's Daughter, Tokyo Doll, Face of Evil, The Wild Party, Danger for Breakfast, and I'll See You in Hell. His fiction often moves through the seamy underworld of urban and suburban America, with plots involving romantic obsession, criminal pressure, drug trafficking, vice, violence, espionage, and social corruption.McPartland's work has remained of interest to readers of vintage paperback originals, classic noir, hard-boiled crime, and mid-century American popular fiction. His better-known mainstream novel No Down Payment was adapted into a 1957 film directed by Martin Ritt, while The Wild Party and other works also reached the screen, reflecting the cinematic energy and social edge that run through his fiction. For readers drawn to Gold Medal crime novels, postwar noir, California crime fiction, and the darker currents of 1950s paperback publishing, McPartland remains a sharp and distinctive voice.