- I was looking over my stack of unread books the other day after finishing Gun Work. Quite a tall stack due to my overindulgence at the LA Times Festival of Books. I read over all the titles, trying to decide on how to decide what I should read next. After a couple minutes of that, I said, "Screw this. I just need some Lawrence Block." So I pulled Hard Case Crime release number one from the pile, Grifter's Game.
- The novel starts as con man Joe Marlin finds he has to run out on his most recent con. Things haven't gone as he expected, so he takes off to Atlantic City for a new start. He skips out on a hotel bill, purloins a suitcase, is ready to take some time off when he runs into Mona. They instantly fall for each other which would be perfect if she we're already married. What follows is a tale of crime, lust, and greed.
- As I suspected, I was not disappointed with the book. It's a fun story, though it is not one of Block's best. The ending in particular takes a strange turn I would not have expected, but it doesn't detract from the story. If you're a fan of Lawrence Block or crime fiction in general, Grifter's Game is not a bad choice.
© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
- Gun Work was one of those Hard Case Crime books I had to track down because I missed it in the book club. I'm glad I made the effort. David J. Schow knows his noir, updating the genre deftly to the modern world.
- Barney knows guns. He knows guns better than just about anything else. It's because of his expertise that he gets a frantic phone call from an old war buddy, Carl Ledbetter. Carl's fiancée has been kidnapped in Mexico and he needs help to get her back. And who better to help out in a desperate situation than Barney. Of course, not all is what it seems.
- Schow knows what he's doing when he turns up the tension. An extended torture sequence was so horrifically realized I had trouble getting through it. But it effectively set up the rest of the novel and was important to the characters.
- I'm sort of on this fence about this one, but I'm more likely to recommend it than not. It's a good book with some great stuff in it, but it's not for the squeamish.
© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
- I wasn't really sure what to expect when I picked up Fake I.D. by Jason Starr. It was the Hard Case Crime Book Club release for June, so I had appropriately high hopes. But the back cover text and title don't really prepare you for the story inside. That's fine in this case because the book is hilarious. Not because it's funny but because of how audacious the writing is. I'm sure there are great literary novels that do the same thing, but I doubt that they are this much fun.
- Tommy Russo is a wannabe actor working as a bouncer to make ends meet. But what we really likes to do is gamble. He gambles a lot. Horse racing seems to be his preferred sport. So when he's approached to join a horse owners' syndicate, he seriously considers coming up with the ten thousand dollars he needs for membership. His only problem is that he gambles away every cent he has, so saving up that much money is out of the question.
- What follows is a tale of escalating madness. Tommy portrays himself, in this first person account, as a sympathetic character on a streak of bad luck. What we as the readers see is a man out of control. And it only gets worse as every bad decision he makes impedes his progress further.
- Jason Starr amazed me with his ability to present this delusional character so well. Fake I.D. is a great addition to anyone's crime fiction library. Just don't try to figure out the title. I never did.
- I think some books are too long. I don't mean those authors that fall in love with their words and forget to edit themselves. I'm referring to this requirement to put out a three hundred page novel even with a story that would be better paced at two hundred. Casino Moon is one of those books.
- The main character, Anthony Russo, is the son of New Jersey mafioso. Vincent, his adoptive father, wants Anthony to get into the family business, but Anthony would do anything to get away from that life. His ticket out comes in the form of a retired boxer who it looking to make a comeback. But his mafia ties and his family problems keep getting in Anthony's way.
- It's obvious to me that Peter Blauner can write. My problem is that, even though the final fifty pages really picked up some steam, it is not enough to redeem the novel. Cutting about a hundred pages could have turned it into a lean, tightly paced story. As it was, I had trouble staying interested until the end. That said, I finally got into it once I hit the last few chapters. In fact, I read the last two pages twice because they were so well written.
- My assumption here is that, since this is only his second book and the only one I've read, Blauner has grown as a writer in the intervening years. This is not a book I would recommend to a casual reader. However there is a promise in these pages that he's got better books out there if you look.
© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
- For the last few years, my wife and I have attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. While we go primarily to see the authors' panels, there is no avoiding the large number of bookstore tents scattered around the UCLA campus. I take a large courier bag with me because I know she will find several books that are too good to pass up. I sigh and roll my eyes and carry that bag around until the end of the day. This year though, I was the one with the giant stack of books, and all but one were from Hard Case Crime. My very understanding wife did not roll her eyes once.
- From that stack, I first dove into Two For The Money by Max Allan Collins. I read his The First Quarry previously and knew I wanted more. Actually, Two For The Money is a compilation of two prior books, Bait Money and Blood Money. As the second book is the sequel to the first, they fit well together, though there is a noticeable style difference between the two. Collins' prose is spare in both cases. The words hurry to get out of the plot's way, which is fitting for this type of novel. That is not a bad thing since the plot is a lot of fun.
- Two For The Money is a story about an thief name Nolan who is getting on in years. They have been long years too since he's been avoided the Chicago mobster who has it in for him. As Bait Money begins, Nolan's cover has been blown and he needs to make one large score to even things with the Mafia. Only since no one will work with him anymore, Nolan has to pull the job with three inexperienced youngsters from another generation. And because Blood Money picks up right after, there's not a lot I can say about it.
- Nolan, an admitted pastiche of Richard Stark's Parker, is a lot more likable than that description would imply. He's might have been a tough guy before, the circumstances at the beginning of the book have set him on his heels. He can't just push around people like the comic book collecting Jon, his new criminal partner. Since they are from different generations, Jon and Nolan don't have much in common. But Nolan becomes an unconventional father figure for the younger man, an act that softens the tough guy even more.
- While I enjoyed his later novel more, there is a lot to like in Two For The Money. Max Allan Collins' work here is enjoyable and I look forward to more.
© 2009 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
If you're reading this on a site other than Bullet Points, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
- I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up House Dick by E. Howard Hunt. The book came to me automatically as part of the Hard Case Crime Book Club. The back cover talks more about the author's notoriety instead of the details of the novel. I was happy to discover that Hunt knows how to tell a story.
- Pete Novak, security head for the Tilden Hotel in Washington D.C., is having a normal day until the beautiful Paula Norton checked in. What follows is a tale of theft, blackmail, and murder, all within the confines of the hotel. The pace is quick, all the way until the final showdown.
- I was not captured by the book as I have been with others in the line. Hunt's prose is serviceable, without flair, but not overreaching. His main character, Novak, is a likable protagonist. He is hard driven, flawed, but morally centered. House Dick won't be remembered as a great in the field, but it was a pleasant way to spend a few hours.
- When I recently posted a comment about Hard Case Crime to the Fly From Evil group, game designer S. John Ross responded with "I believe they've published at least one Donald Westlake, so that makes 'em okay in my book." After reading The Cutie, I understand where he's coming from.
- The Cutie introduces us to Clay, a hitman tasked to track down a murderer, the afore mentioned cutie. When a drug addict with very high connections is set up with that murder, Clay needs to find out who really did it and take the heat off his mafia bosses. Of course, no self respecting murderer is going to go down without a fight, so action and suspense follow.
- Evidently, this was the book published by Westlake, which is amazing to me. I can only assume that he did a lot of polishing of his prose before this first book. I hope so because this book is already vintage Donald Westlake, hitting all the right notes, smoothly and cleanly written. Anyone interested in the crime genre will find great addition to their reading list here.
- Roger Zelanzy may be better known for his fantasy and science fiction novels, but The Dead Man's Brother proves that he was apt at writing any genre he wanted. When this came up as the monthly release from Hard Case Crime, I was apprehensive about the selection. From what I know of the publisher, I should not have been.
- The book starts with a murder. I feel comfortable telling you this since it happens on the first page and it is not what the book is really about. The Dead Man's Brother is the story of how that murder propels Ovid Wiley, an art thief turned art dealer, to investigate the theft of millions of dollars from the Vatican. If you're wondering those two things connect, you start to understand Zelanzy's take on the genre.
- The novel's prose has the standard clipped noir overtones that, thankfully, never devolve into parody. The writing is so spare that some passages almost read not like an outline. While this shook me the first couple times he employed the technique, I quickly got into his style and the effect he was striving for. Zelanzy does a good job of making Wiley an interesting and likable character. Since he is the protagonist, he is the most fully realized, but the surrounding characters are not neglected.
- When I finished the book, I knew that I enjoyed it. However, it is plain to see why it was never published in the author's lifetime. It is the good work, but I suspect it did not meet with his personal high standard.
- The January 2009 release from Hard Case Crime was Killing Castro by Lawrence Block. This is the fourth book by him I have read and it is very different from the others. Originally published under a pseudonym he never used before or since, it is an odd little book that had me wondering straight till the end.
- Killing Castro is the story of five men hired by Cuban dissidents to murder Fidel Castro. Instead of a single mission, the group splits into three and make their way to Cuba. As we follow these separate tracks through the book, we learn about where these men came from and how they ended up as assassins. Since the novel is the standard pulp length (in this case, 204 pages), we do not delve all that deeply into their pasts. We also don't get much build up as each thread only gets a few scenes to build toward the climax. And those scenes only take up half the book!
- The other half of the novel, and likely its saving grace, is taken up by a history of Fidel Castro's rise to power as a revolutionary figure. It begins by describing his seeming noble intentions and leads to his eventual despotism. While it would not serve as a biography of the man, these chapters help ground us and help explain why we should be cheering for five potential killers.
- By the end, I could see this was not a novel about action or violence, but a tale of the extremes to which people will go. Unfortunately, the turns of conscience and emotional revelations don't have much room to grow in this short book. There is so much going on, though, that it is hard to argue about the depth of the novel when there is so much variety between the plot lines.
- Lawrence Block is still an author I enjoy following even if Killing Castro was not a masterpiece. It was fun and light and I enjoyed reading it.
- For Hard Case Crime's fiftieth novel, publisher Charles Ardai wanted to do something special. What he came up with was a novel based on the premise that Hard Case Crime had been around for 50 years instead of 50 books. This book would have 50 chapters and each chapter would be named after each of the published books, in order. All he had to do was figure out a story to tell around all of those names. It sounds crazy, but somehow it works.
- Fifty-To-One is the story of Tricia Heverstadt, a small town girl who moves to New York City to follow in her sister's seemingly glamourous footsteps. When events conspire against her, she ends up working as a dancer in a mob run night club and writing about it for the fictional Hard Case Crime. Of course, writing about the mob has its problems, even when you're making it all up. Before long, the mob, the law, and various real life authors are drawn into the escalating danger.
- I've been jealous of Charles Ardai's writing ability ever since I read his prior novel, Songs of Innocence, written under the pen anagram Richard Aleas. He has a wicked way of description that does more than tell you what's going on; it also makes you feel it. With the compact nature of pulp fiction, there is no room for purple prose. Ardai's spare but evocative writing style sell his story and characters without giving up a lot of page real estate.
- As one would expect from a crime novel, Fifty-To-One starts at a run and doesn't really slow down. However, Ardai has to add several more twists and turns due to the fifty chapter structure. While some could see this as a problem, the story is light hearted and, therefore, is easier to forgive.
- So long as you don't demand deathly serious fiction, any fan of the crime genre should find something to enjoy here. Charles Ardai has proven himself an excellent writer as well as the curator of the Hard Case Crime publishing line. He did not disappoint with this novel and I look forward to anything else he cares to write.
