Carroll John Daly (1889 - January 16, 1958) was a writer of crime fiction. He has been credited with creating the first hard-boiled detective story in 1923 with 'Knights of the Open Palm,' published June 1, 1923 in Black Mask magazine, featuring private detective Race Williams; the first appearance of Williams predated the debut of Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op character by several months. During that era, Daly was considered the leader of the naturalistic school of crime writers. Daly's Wil