Ed Noon Books In Order

Publication Order of Ed Noon Books

Ed Noon Series by Michael Avallone
Author Michael Avallone wrote the “Ed Noon” series of mystery novels. The books span over thirty novels and over ninety short stories that were written between 1953 and 1990.

Ed Noon begins the series dirt poor with just a tiny office in Midtown Manhattan (which is his “Mouse Auditorium”). However, his success moves him to some better digs, gets him a lovely secretary (named Melissa Mercer) and, eventually, he lands the most important client of all: the President of the United States.

After working for the president, the books fluctuate between Spy and Private Investigator adventures.

The series wraps up with a rather daring turn toward science fiction in its final two novels. Through all of it, wisecracking Noon is consistent: a baseball and movie-obsessed romantic that is always fighting the good fight. And he more often than not wins.

Ed is quick with his fist, fast with his brain, and is accurate with his favored .45 which he carries in a shoulder holster. He is an old hand at the detective and with dealing with trouble. He got his first taste of danger during his service in WWII in Europe, where he would rise to the rank of Sergeant. Upon his discharge, he just sorta fell into the investigation game and then kinda had to fight on a frequent basis in order to survive.

During the mid-fifties there was a thirteen episode radio serial titled “The Windup” that starred Chester Morris as Noon.

The last and unpublished Noon adventure, called “Since Noon Yesterday”, was filmed and released as a seven part webcast by David Avallone, the son of the author in the year 1999.

“High Noon at Midnight”, the final novel of the series, was nominated for the Anthony Award in the Best Paperback Original category in 1989.

“The Tall Dolores” is the first novel in the “Ed Noon” series and was released in the year 1953. Ed Noon enters the world scene. The tallest burlesque queen, who stands well over six feet, hires Ed Noon to locate her even taller lover, who disappeared under odd circumstances.

Her lover ends up stabbed and dead on the steps of the Museum of Natural History, and puts Noon on a twisting murderous missing diamond-studded trail that ultimately takes him to the Statue of Liberty. He meets Lt. Mike Monks of New York’s Homicide Department that will become not jut a Captain, but Noon’s greatest friend and ally over the following four decades.

“The Spitting Image” is the second novel in the “Ed Noon” series and was released in the year 1953. Which of the very gorgeous and famous Wexler twins is attempting to murder the other to collect the million bucks on the oddest last will and testament?

Noon is caught in the middle of two wonderful suspects and multiple murder attempts to make this will’s odd demands come true. The novel’s explosive solution occurs at a burning factory out in the Bronx before the shocking showdown in the Mouse Auditorium.

“Dead Game” is the third novel in the “Ed Noon” series and was released in the year 1954. A brunette, an undiscovered Poe journal, a redhead, and a murdered third baseman in a game with the New York Giants. These things all make for the strange ingredients for the crazy behavior of Mr. Arongio, the antique dealer that is going to stop at nothing to get his hands on a rare find.

This one’s studded with bloody collisions and violence. Two unforgettable heroines, Kitty Arongio and Mimi Tango, merely cats’ paws in the game of death.

“Violence in Velvet” is the fourth novel in the “Ed Noon” series and was released in the year 1956. The wife of a Broadway star’s murdered, and the Small Lucille, her daughter, hires Noon to find the killer. Who might be her own dad.

One intimate look at Times Square and Broadway and all the backstage environs, where Noon falls for the actor’s lovely agent, named Helen Tucker. The roof of the biggest Broadway theatre is the setting for one incredibly surprising but poignant romantic finish.

“The Case of the Bouncing Betty” is the fifth novel in the “Ed Noon” series and was released in the year 1956. Ed gets caught up with a gangster, a four hundred pound mattress tester, and a pile of corpses in one of his strangest cases.

How many sorts of trouble could a girl get into on just a mattress? Plenty. Ed believed he knew all of them until he met Betty. Betty was a mattress tester and she had just bounced herself into one situation that sent bullets whizzing about her ears and some strangers haunting her footsteps. And that is the sort of trouble that called for a PI like Ed Noon.

But before he could bounce her out of any of it, he would need to help her test a double bed that’s made for the morgue.

“The Alarming Clock” is the sixth novel in the “Ed Noon” series and was released in the year 1957. Ed gets a strange alarm clock in the mail with a puzzling note that leads to one showdown with some murderous ex-Nazis and a diabolical plot to sabotage America’s most crucial A-bomb test.

Noon gets reunited with the very lovely Alma Wheeler. He also has his first contact with the White House. It is a contact that’s ultimately lead to future employment as a spy for Mr. President in many years and capers to come.

“The Case of the Violent Virgin” is the seventh novel in the “Ed Noon” series and was released in the year 1957. One deluxe express off to Chicago is the setting for a rare objet d’art that has vanished. It is the legendary statue known as the Violent Virgin and the Blue Green, a diamond that is equally fabulous.

Noon mixes with a rich redhead with a dachshund, a lovely lost blonde, a polysyllabic bigwig, and one venomous pair of remorseless killers. The novel is Avallone’s tribute to “The Maltese Falcon” and “The Lady Vanishes”.