84 replies to this topic

[Michael Miko]

I agree with you Deuce. Hmm... perhaps a new genre... Boiled & Broads or Hard Boiled & Hot Broads, LoL.

[deuce]

Ipicked up 8 "Hard Case Crime" novels from Dollar General on Father's Day for $1.25 apiece. Here's what Emerald had to say:

Awesome, Deuce! I'm missing only a couple Hard Case titles.
Which ones did you read? Any stand out from the pack?

Here's the HCC site:

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/

Here are ALL the HCC novels I've bought at Dollar General:

• 361 by Donald E. Westlake
• BABY MOLL by John Farris
• THE COLORADO KID by Stephen King
• DUTCH UNCLE by Peter Pavia
• FRIGHT by Cornell Woolrich
• GUN WORK by David J. Schow
• THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
• LOSERS LIVE LONGER by Russell Atwood
• THE PEDDLER by Richard S. Prather
• PLUNDER OF THE SUN by David Dodge
• SAY IT WITH BULLETS by Richard Powell
• ZERO COOL by John Lange

In addition, I know I've got Deadly Beloved and a couple others. All for $1.25 apiece.

Got Starr's Fake I.D. from DG awhile back. My least favorite HCC so far/ever. Basically, "Vinnie Barbarino" as a degenerate gambler/bouncer/lover of fat chicks. I don't mind gettin' "down in the dirt", but this is just tawdry. If it was about a KY "pillbilly", this would've never been published. Thing is, Starr isn't a bad writer. I just could not give a crap about the "protagonist" or plot. Pavia's Dutch Uncle was roughly similar and MUCH better.

Just picked up Stop This Man! and Lucky at Cards from DG. Should be better.

[emerald]

Yeah, sometimes the Noir factor can get heavy enough to wear a reader out.
There's some good stuff on your list, though.

Westlake's 361 is good. A nice, fast, pared down tale of a simple guy veering into obsessive vengeance.

Zero Cool was written by Michael Crichton while he was a medical student. Yeah, that makes sense. Med school offering such a sprawling amount of free time to write fiction, you know. Light thriller that might be pretty silly but reads so fast I couldn't even begin to think critically of it until I was done. Good fun and leaves you with respect for the multi-talented author.

The Quarry book by Collins might be the pick of that litter. All of the Quarry titles are like little confections. Like shots of great bourbon that you want to savor but just slam down anyway.

There's a lot of good reading in Hard Case Crime, but I don't reccommend pounding through too many in a row. You can get Noir Fatigue.

[Haemogoblin]

Ran across this opening to an introduction Raymond Chandler wrote for a collection of his stories. His analysis works for more than just detective fiction:

Some literary antiquarian of a rather special type may one day think it worthwhile to run through the files of the pulp detective magazines which flourished during the late twenties and early thirties, and determine just how and when and by what steps the popular mystery story shed its refined good manners and went native. He will need sharp eyes and an open mind. Pulp paper never dreamed of posterity and most of it must be a dirty brown color by now. And it takes a very open mind indeed to look beyond the unnecessarily gaudy covers, trashy titles and barely acceptable advertisements and recognize the authentic power of a kind of writing that, even at its most mannered and artificial, made most of the fiction of the time taste like a cup of lukewarm consomme at a spinsterish tea-room.

Full essay here: http://www.chipublib...t_of_murder.php

Edited by Haemogoblin, 07 January 2013 - 04:52 AM.

[deuce]

Don Herron talks about the latest Hammett tours in Frisco:

 

 

http://www.donherron.com/?p=5368