Charles Boeckman's biography often reads like the stuff of pulp fiction. He left home in the early 1940s and became a jazz musician, traveling the country, kicking around from New York City to New Orleans. In between gigs, he purchased a used typewriter and pounded out hardboiled stories. Eventually, the legendary Popular Publications editor Mike Tilden purchased one of his stories for Detective Tales. After that accomplishment, Boeckman's stories...