Batman's Helpers

I began writing about Matthew Scudder in the mid-1970s. The first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, appeared in 1975, and A Drop of the Hard Stuff—the 17th and most recent—was published in 2011. Over the years Scudder has also been featured in 11 short works of fiction; Batman's Helpers is the fourth, first published in Robert J. Randisi's anthology, Justice for Hire, in 1990.

A friend, one Jim Thompson, had switched professions, moving from academia to private investigation. His experiences with street-level trademark enforcement gave rise to this story. Batman's Helpers is included in THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC, my collection of all 11 Matthew Scudder short stories, available from Barnes & Noble as a Nook eBook or in handsome trade paperback form.