Lily in Her Coffin, by Ben Benson (Pennant, 1953)
According to the French version of Wikipedia, Benjamin Benson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 24, 1913. (The Golden Age of Detection Wiki insists he took his first breaths in 1915, instead.) He reportedly died in New York City on April 29, 1959, at age 45. The site goes on to explain that Benson was the son of Russian immigrants, studied law at Boston University, and for a spell worked as a sales representative for Lipton tea.
“During the Second World War,” says Wikipedia, “he enlisted in the American army. Seriously injured at the Battle of the Bulge in 1945, he had to undergo numerous surgical operations for three years before being demobilized in 1948.
As early as 1942, he published a work devoted to hikers, but it was during his long successive hospitalizations,” which reduced his mobility and subjected him to physical rehab, “that he began his real career as a writer.”(Left) The back cover of Lily in Her Coffin. Click to enlarge.
Benson went on to produce 10 mysteries starring Wade Paris, a guy who once dreamed of becoming a doctor but is now an investigator with the Massachusetts State Police. “Deeply human, he abhors corruption and violence,” says Wikipedia. Paris made his initial appearance in 1951’s Alibi at Dusk; Lily in Her Coffin (1952), shown atop this post, was the fourth entry in that series, following Stamped for Murder. Target in Taffeta (1953) and The Blonde in Black (1953) are probably the other two best-known Paris yarns.
In 1953’s The Venus Death (shown below), Benson introduced a second fictional protagonist, again with the Massachusetts State Police: rookie uniformed Trooper Ralph Lindsay. “[J]ust as morally upright as Wade Paris …, he often teams up with veteran Joe Sewell. He considers his work essential,” Wikipedia notes, “because the militia is a kind of shield that protects society.” Lindsay featured in half a dozen more books, concluding with Seven Steps East in 1959.
In addition to his two series, Benson published a couple of other books: The Black Mirror (1957), which built around yet another state trooper, this one being Detective Sergeant Peter Bradford; and The Frightened Ladies (1959), a compilation of two novelettes. The cover at the bottom of this post comes from the 1962 Bantam paperback edition of The Frightened Ladies, with artwork by Hooks.
Ben Benson (not to be confused with O.G. “Ben” Benson, the author of Cain’s Woman) reportedly died of a heart attack.
The Venus Death, by Ben Benson (Bantam, 1954)
The Frightened Ladies, by Ben Benson (Bantam, 1962)
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