Carroll John Daly 
I’ll Tell the World [EPUB ebook] 
Race Williams #9 (Black Mask)

Race Williams was as free from money as an old maid from a pleasant thought. And the sweltering heat of the city only added to his anger, like a raging bull on a chain. So when he discovers and decodes a secret and ambiguous message in the newspaper, he follows the lead and the smell of cash. But Race Williams gets more than he bargained for, much more. A young, slip of a girl is kidnapped in the dead of night, with only Race Williams on her trail. He must trail them through the dark and dismal city before she, and the prospect of money, is gone forever. Story #9 in the Race Williams series.

Carroll John Daly (1889–1958) was the creator of the first hard-boiled private eye story, predating Dashiell Hammett’s first Continental Op story by several months. Daly’s classic character, Race Williams, was one of the most popular fiction characters of the pulps, and the direct inspiration for Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.