Odd Jobs, Inc

Series · 4 books · 1978-1985

By Ron Goulart

Books in series

Calling Dr. Patchwork

1978

1st DAW edition paperback, vg+ Josh Kirby cover

Hail Hibbler

1980

His name was Adolph Hibbler and he had escaped the doom of Hitler's Reich by inventing the cryogenic deep freeze long before the rest of the world. As a human icicle he had been just a circus sideshow for many decades until he finally thawed out—in the 21st Century. The trouble began with a series of mysterious events and the government had to call in Odd Jobs, Inc. But when Jake and Hildy Pace started uncovering the clues they found an odder job than any previous capers. There were the lost cassettes of the world's greatest sex fiend to locate. There were model planes that fired real bullets. There was the army of baby-doll killers. And there were the revolutionary gas station attendants and the Arabian shiek who had ignited them. Only Odd Jobs, Inc. could have connected all these cockeyed clues and come up with Hibbler. When they did it sure looked as if they—and the world—were on a spinoff orbit into infinite disaster!

Big Bang

1982

His brain scrambled, Jake tries to clear himself of a murder charge. Jake Pace comes to on the floor of a dungeon, where a robot jailer is killing rats. The last 24 hours are a blank; he doesn’t remember anything since he stepped into his skycar, chasing a tip on the Big Bang murders. For weeks the killings have stumped every officer in the government - costing six of them their lives - but a soprano named Palsy Hatchbacker told Jake she knew something that could break open the case. Before he met Miss Hatchbacker, a carnation-wearing goon spritzed Jake with a memory-wiping spray. When the police found him, he was sleeping peacefully next to Palsy’s corpse, a laser pistol in his hand. While he rots in jail, the Big Bang killer continues his rampage. Only Jake can bring him to justice, but first he must break out of an inescapable jail.

Brainz, Inc.

1985

Sylvie Kirkyard was co-owner of Brainz, Inc., makers of the world's finest androids. So when she was murdered, she came directly to Odd Jobbs, Inc. to find out who had done it. It seems that her firm had perfected a personality chip that guaranteed immortality and her own android was now her.

Author

Ron Goulart

Author · 64 books

Pseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner. Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award. In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).