Felix Riesenberg, Jr., Waterfront reporter (1950) 222 pp.
Publisher’s description: “The telephone jangles at dawn. It’s the city editor calling. No routine assignment, this. It’ll be page one—if Bill [Everett, waterfront reporter for the San Francisco Globe,] can handle it. The big ship Aurora is steaming up the bay from China, ready to dock. There’s a tip that she is carrying smuggled opium. And there’s a famous scientist on board, an international figure for whose services several governments are bidding. Keep tabs on the scientist and watch for any sign of opium. Those are Bill’s orders. Matching wits with the gang of dope smugglers is a short cut to danger, but Bill and his pal Freddie Lamp take it in one jump. There are hidden narcotics, sure enough, and by a clever ruse the smugglers get the stuff ashore. An old man is hustled off the ship into a waiting truck—kidnapped! Could he be the scientist? Bill and Freddie make it their business to find out, and the trail leads them into head-on conflict with some of the toughest characters on the waterfront ...”