Day Keene Explained

Gunard Hjertstedt
Pseudonym:	Day Keene
Birth Date:	March 28, 1904
Birth Place:	Chicago, Illinois
Death Place:	Los Angeles, California
Occupation:	Novelist, Short Story Writer
Nationality:	American
Genre:	Crime fiction, Mystery fiction
Notableworks:	Framed in Guilt (1949), Home Is the Sailor (1952)

Gunard Hjertstedt (March 28, 1904 - January 9, 1969), better known by pen name Day Keene, was an American novelist, short story writer and radio and television scriptwriter. Keene wrote over 50 novels and was the head writer for radio soap operas Little Orphan Annie and Kitty Keene, Inc. Several of his novels were adapted into movies, including Joy House (MGM, 1964) and Chautauqua, released as The Trouble with Girls (MGM, 1969).^[1]

Bibliography

Novels

• Framed in Guilt (aka Evidence Most Blind), 1949
• Farewell to Passion (aka The Passion Murders), 1951
• My Flesh Is Sweet, 1951
• Love Me and Die, 1951
• To Kiss or Kill, 1951
• Hunt the Killer, 1952
• About Doctor Ferrel, 1952
• Home Is the Sailor, 1952
• If the Coffin Fits, 1952
• Naked Fury, 1952
• Wake Up to Murder, 1952
• Mrs. Homicide, 1953
• Strange Witness, 1953
• The Big Kiss-Off, 1954
• There Was A Crooked Man, 1954
• Death House Doll, 1954
• His Father's Wife, 1954
• Homicidal Lady, 1954
• Joy House, 1954
• Notorious, 1954
• Sleep with the Devil, 1954
• Who Has Wilma Lathrop?, 1955
• The Dangling Carrot, 1955
• Murder on the Side, 1956
• Bring Him Back Dead, 1956
• It's a Sin to Kill, 1958
• Passage to Samoa, 1958
• Dead Dolls Don't Talk, 1959
• Dead in Bed, 1959
• Moran's Woman, 1959
• So Dead My Lovely, 1959
• Take a Step to Murder, 1959
• Too Black for Heaven, 1959
• Too Hot to Hold, 1959
• The Brimstone Bed, 1960
• Chautauqua, 1960
• Payola, 1960
• World Without Women (with Leonard Pruyn), 1960
• Seed of Doubt, 1961
• Bye, Baby Bunting, 1963
• LA 46, 1964
• Carnival of Death, 1965
• Miami 59, 1965
• Chicago 11, 1966
• Acapulco Gpo, 1967
• Guns Along the Brazos, 1967
• Southern Daughter, 1967
• Live Again, Love Again, 1970
• Wild Girl, 1970

Collections

• This is Murder, Mr. Herbert, and Other Stories, 1948
• League of the Grateful Dead and Other Stories, 2010^[2]

External links

• "Becoming Day Keene: The Pre-Pulp Career of Gunard Hjertstedt" by Cullen Gallagher, at the Los Angeles Review of Books

Notes and References

1. Book: Ellroy, James. Penzler, Otto . The Best American Noir of the Century . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . Boston . 2010 . 978-0-547-57744-9 .
2. Kevin Burton Smith, "Day Keene," The Thrilling Detective Website, retrieved February 5, 2018.