On the strength of having sold only two stories to the legendary Black Mask magazine, Doc Savage creator Lester Dent is today hailed as one of the foremost practitioners of the Hardboiled School of detective fiction fostered by Carroll John Daly, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and others.

On the strength of having sold only two stories to the legendary Black Mask magazine, Doc Savage creator Lester Dent is today hailed as one of the foremost practitioners of the Hardboiled School of detective fiction fostered by Carroll John Daly, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and others.

But what stories they were! Employing his personal experiences treasure hunting in the Caribbean, Lester created Miami's boat-dwelling private detective Oscar Sail, a clear forerunner to John D. MacDonald's Travis Magee and Miami Vice's Sonny Crockett.

This definitive collection brings together both much-anthologized Oscar Sail exploits, as well as a variant draft of "Sail" featuring a strikingly different version of the Florida sleuth.

Also included are related stories featuring similar characters and settings.