Bruno Fischer (1908-1992) was an American pulp writer and journalist who also wrote short stories (and one novel) under the name of Russell Gray. He was born in Germany but emigrated the US with his family in 1913. He was educated at the Rand School of Social Sciences, and married Ruth Miller in 1934. The first short story he ever sold was of the horror genre... "The Cat Woman" (1936). He produced detective short stories from 1940 to 1962, then switched to a continuing series of novels.
Mike Grost on Bruno Fischer
Fischer was a prolific pulp writer and 1950's paperback novelist. His "I'll Slay You in My Dreams" (1944) is a terrific mystery-suspense tale, somewhat in the tradition of the series of later Woolrich stories that began with "You'll Never See Me Again" (1939). The protagonist's situation is genuinely mystifying, and full of unexpected twists and turns. The treatment of the police in this story is especially Woolrich-like. Among his other tales, "The Dog Died First" (1949) has something of the same approach, but is more conventional and less creative. It is unusual in that it has a woman who is framed for the crime, something Woolrich didn't do in his series. It also has the domestic, couples in the suburbs setting that became popular in the 1940's. "My Aunt Celia" (1946) shows some nice plotting and light hearted characterizations. His series characters were Rick Train and Ben Helm.
House of Flesh, which sold 1,800,000 copies, is available free as a Blackmask eBook.
Bibliography
So Much Blood (1939) aka Stairway to Death
The Hornet's Nest (1944)
Quoth the Raven (1944) aka Croaked the Raven, The Fingered Man
The Dead Man Grin (1945)
Kill to Fit (1946)
The Pigskin Bag (1946)
The Spider Lily (1946)
More Deaths Than One (1947)
The Bleeding Scissors (1948) aka The Scarlet Scissors
The Restless Hands (1949)
The Angels Fell (1950) aka The Flesh Was Cold
House of Flesh (1950)
The Silent Dust (1950)
Fools Walk In (1951)
The Lady Kills (1951)
The Paper Circle (1951) aka Stripped For Murder
The Fast Buck (1952)
Run for Your Life (1953)
So Wicked My Love (1954)
Knee-Deep in Death (1956)
Murder in the Raw (1957)
Second-Hand Nude (1959)
The Girl Between (1960)
The Evil Days (1974)
As Russell Gray
The Lustful Ape (1950)
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