Herbert Brean

Dead Sure Herbert Brean

When two fast-thinking copy shoot it out with Harry Derby and bring him in for the murder of a grandmother, they aren't taking any chances. They "add" a little evidence to help make the charges stick. After all, they both know Harry is guilty. They did a good job. So good that Harry is sure to get the electric chair...even if he's innocent!

Herbert Brean (1907-1973) was an American journalist and crime fiction writer, best known for his recurring series characters William Deacon and Reynold Frame. He was a director and former executive vice president of the Mystery Writers of America, a group for which he also taught a class in mystery writing. Aside from his seven mystery crime novels, he also published non-fiction books and articles, and mystery magazine short stories. Alfred Hitchcock used "A Case of Identity" (1953), one of Brean's many articles for Life, as the basis for Hitchcock's film The Wrong Man (1957).