Isaac Bell series by Clive Cussler

[warrenpeace]

Just finished reading "The Spy" and "The Race", a couple of Clive Cussler's Isaac Bell detective series. These are set in the early 20th Century, starting before WW1, and they are very pulpy. The hero, Isaac Bell, is a top investigator for the national, soon to be international, Van Dorn detective agency. He, his partners at the Van Dorn agency, and his allies have to ferret out and deal with major conspiracies involving assassination, sabotage, spying, gang activity, and crime. The villains are formidable, and sometimes are backed by powerful networks of their own. If you're looking for some inspiration for pulp games, this series seems to fit the bill.

Here's a link to the series on Clive Cussler's site:

http://www.clive-cussler-books.com/html/IsaacBell_DetectiveSeries.htm

[FramFramson]

Oh Clive... I remember reading far too many trashy Dirk Pitt novels in my younger days.

[Commander Roj]

Oh Clive... I remember reading far too many trashy Dirk Pitt novels in my younger days.

...and some were really quite enjoyable. Did he write these or was it his "stable"?

[oabee]

...and some were really quite enjoyable. Did he write these or was it his "stable"?

Unfortunately, they're written by his "stable:" a guy named Justin Scott, who's listed as a "co-author." I have read the first five, and the series is enjoyable enough, but the characters are definitely on the one-dimensional side of the spectrum. And yes, they would be fine for a pulp league if you move them and their equipment into the 20s/30s/40s or whatever pulp is to you.

The Bell series actually was the basis for my very first effort at authoring an In Her Majesty's Name company (where I moved them back a couple decades), found here:

http://wrgmr.com/van%20dorn%20detective%20agency.pdf

The descriptions of the characters in my IHMN company PDF are right out of the books, except for some minor details (note the disclaimer at the end).

The only truly recurrent characters are Isaac Bell and his true love Marion Morgan; the rest come and go, and some are simply killed off.

Great idea for pulp, though, warrenbruhn, one that hadn't occurred to me!     Isaac the Leader, Marion the Sidekick, the other named Characters as Allies, the nameless detectives as Followers.....should work well!

[Capitan Diavolo]

Very enjoyable, indeed.

I have all books of the Isaac Bell serie, and really like them.

In fact, Isaac Bell is my favorite character of all Cussler's ones, even more than Dirk Pitt...

I can see great potential for the Isaac Bell character's development, as time will go on for him...