"-And the Girl Screamed" by Gil Brewer

Crest Book No. 147, 1956

The story begins with our hero, Cliff,  being denied an opportunity to return to the police force because a panel of cops and prominent citizens decide he can't handle a gun after having his arm permanently injured by an escaped convict.  The chief opposition to his return is mounted by Edward Thayer, with whose wife Cliff has been having an affair.  Cliff is despondent at the panel’s decision, his only solace is the knowledge that he is closer than ever to convincing Eve Thayer to leave her husband.  That night Cliff and Eve are on the beach discussing how they can deal with Edward, who has vowed to destroy both Cliff and Eve if they don’t terminate their affair, when . . .

A girl screamed.  It was the damnedest thing I’d ever heard.  It ripped across the soft night, a crazed shriek of pure helplessness and fear.

Cliff and Eve discover a young blond, dead.  They catch a glimpse of the killer and he, perhaps, sees them.  While trying to figure out how to deal with the situation without making their seaside tryst public knowledge, Cliff makes a mistake that will soon make him the prime suspect in the young girl’s murder. 

While -And The Girl Screamed employs the very common theme of a man wrongly accused trying to clear his name while on the run from the cops, it is relatively original in its approach and highly entertaining.  Brewer was firing on all cylinders and I rank The Girl up there with some of his best.  I found it far superior to So Rich, So Dead, another man wrongly accused story. 

The entertainment value comes primarily from the fact that the killer turns out to be the leader of a vicious gang of high school kids.  Cliff has some violent run-ins with the gang and is nearly seduced by one of the  gang’s 16 year-old female members.  This is the first Brewer novel I’ve come across that incorporates a 50s social scare issue.  If parents don’t pay enough attention to their kids, obviously they will form a hyper-violent and depraved youth gang while hiding it through decent grades and football scholarships.  It's a good thing that all those happy young families in the 50s had novels like this to warn them of the perils lurking in the dark side of suburbia.  I particularly liked the message at the end:

“Something’s got to be done about all those kids.” Andy said.  “Jinny’s dead, and God knows what a jury will do to Roberson.  But maybe if we get the town stirred up enough, get their parents feeling guilty enough, we can help the rest of them. They’re young,” he said “they don’t have to spend their lives this crazy way.”

In all seriousness, -And The Girl Screamed is a damned good read.  It’s not hard-boiled and it has a happy ending, but it is a crime story and those dark noir elements, of which Brewer was a master, show through.  Any fan of 50s pulps should enjoy it, if for nothing more than to learn how important it is to pay attention to the kids.

Stop This Man! by Peter Rabe

Hard Case Crime No. 58

Gold Medal No. k1403

Tony Catell is a professional thief. A buddy tips him off about an easy score - a gold ingot kept in a university lab.  Tony gets the gold, but doesn’t realize that it has been used in an experiment and it is radioactive.  Soon the FBI is on his trail.  He manages to stay one step ahead of the feds, but the radioactive gold he is carrying leaves a trail of sickness and death. 

    This setup seems gimmicky and dated.  Indeed, the novel starts slowly and the radioactive gold angle doesn’t really capture the imagination.  The gold, however, is just a Macguffin and novel really starts to pick up steam after the first few chapters. What sets Stop This Man! apart from similar cops and robber/cross-country chase novels is Rabe’s excellent characterization.  He allows his characters to think and act realistically and the settings are appropriately seedy.  The dialogue is hard-boiled, but doesn’t seem contrived.  Catell is not too bright and easily manipulated.  He is, however, a very talented thief and not a guy you want to corner.  By the end of the novel I liked Catell and wanted to see him avoid his inevitable fate. 

    Rabe switches the story between Catell and the activities of the FBI agent trying to track him down.  The portions dealing with the FBI are shorter and, beyond some amusing cop dialogue, don’t add much to the story.  There are a few events in the story that seem tacked on, like Rabe was just trying to add length.  In particular, a chapter or two deals with Catell being waylaid by a hick Sheriff in small-town Arizona.  This isn’t the first 50s crime novel I’ve read that had the story interrupted by just such an event.  Strange . . . .   

    Peter Rabe cranked out quite a few hardboiled novels for Gold Medal.  Stark House Press has
re-published 8 of his novels.  I’ve read that Stop This Man! is not one of Rabe’s better stories.  I think it stands above many of its peers, absent the slow beginning.  Perhaps some of Rabe’s other novels are consistently good from start to finish and I am anxious to try out another one.

For a moment the thought made him see red.  A thousand acrid hates rose in his throat.  He closed his eyes, trying to control the fine trembling that crept through his body. He took a harsh breath. Watch it Catell. You’re getting like a lophead taking the cold turkey.

"Casino" by Nicholas Pileggi

    I recently was surfing the net and somehow ran across Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal’s website.  Lefty died just about a year ago, but his website is still out there in cyberspace.  For those not in the know, Lefty was long-time handicapper that ran the Stardust Hotel & Casino for the mob in the 70s.  His story was the subject of the Scorcese film Casino, in which he was played by Robert DeNiro, and the book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi.  Although I love the movie, I knew that Pileggi’s novel would probably contain a much more detailed account of Lefty’s fascinating life and times in Las Vegas, so I decided to check it out. 

    Casino may be a “true crime” novel, but it is pure pulp.  As the ads for National Geographic’s Locked Up Abroad proclaim- real life is better than fiction.  It’s all here: money, the high life, and enough criminal scheming to make your head spin.

    Like the movie, the story begins with Lefty narrowly escaping a car bomb planted in his Cadillac outside of Tony Roma’s in Vegas.  From there Pileggi gives us a detailed look at how the mob became “partners” with the hapless Allen Glick and his Argent Corporation in several Vegas casinos.  The various methods by which the mob skimmed millions of dollars from these casinos and the eventual accidental discovery of the skim by the FBI is told in much greater detail than seen in the movie. 

    Of course, that is only the back story.  The novel really focuses on Lefty’s wild ride as he tries to run the casino while dealing with the Nevada Gaming Commission, his whacked-out wife Geri, and his “friend”, mob wild-man Tony “The Ant” Spilotro (played by Joe Pesci in the movie).  On his website, Lefty was always telling his readers that his life in Vegas wasn’t as great as one would think.  It may not have been pleasant or fun, but it sure was crazy. 

    Casino is a fantastic read for any lover of pulp fiction and crime stories.  Even if you have seen the movie too many times to count, like me, Pileggi’s book is well worth a read.

Hard Case Crime Favorites

I owe a debt of gratitude to Hard Case Crime.  I have always loved film noir, crime stories and detective novels, but I was totally ignorant of the vast catalog of pulp fiction produced in the 1950s PBO scene.  I ran across “The Colorado Kid” while looking at some Stephen King novels, found the HCC website and was awakened to what I had been missing.  HCC has now published over 50 novels and recently celebrated its 5th anniversary.  In honor of that milestone, here are my 5 favorite HCC titles:

1.    “The Vengeful Virgin” by Gil Brewer

This is quintessential pulp, it has it all - femme fatales bewitching a hapless dude into committing the “perfect” crime.  Jack Ruxton, tv salesman meets young Shirley Angela who convinces him to help her kill her sickly uncle so that they can make off with his dough.  Throw in two other unpredictable women and Ruxton finds himself in way over his head. To me, this one epitomizes everything that is great about Hard Case Crime and Brewer became my favorite 50s PBO writer and I'm not sure he wrote anything better than The Vengeful Virgin.

2.    “Little Girl Lost” by Richard Aleas

A modern-day pulp detective story set in NYC.  John Blake investigates the death of his ex-girlfriend after she is inexplicably found dead on the roof of a scummy strip club.  Blake is an imperfect investigator that doesn’t always escape from his mistakes. Aleas draws you in deep and then hits you in the gut.  Dark, direct and tough.

3.    “Fright” by Cornell Woolrich

Woolrich is one of the giants of the genre and Fright does not disappoint.  Prescott Marshall makes a mistake on the eve of his wedding to a high society dame. It’s a mistake that infests his mind and grows like
a weed that eventually strangles him and everyone he loves.  One of the few novels in the HCC canon that genuinely made me tense.  Woorich puts you into Prescott’s head and makes you feel the pain.









4.    “Bust” by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr


Noir comedy done right.  The misadventures of Max, a high-living executive in his own mind, and his shameless secretary Angela.  Not only is it funny, but the comedy is interwoven with an inventive and nasty little crime tale.  Max and Angela devolved into self-referential parody in the sequels, but you can’t go wrong with Bust.










5.    “The Peddler” by Richard S. Prather

Picking the fifth and final title for my favorites list was tough.  I settled on The Peddler because it tells an archetypal pulp story incredibly well. 
Tony Romero has dreams of being big.  He enters the organized crime scene in San Francisco and quickly pushes his way to the top.  Along the way we get an unflinching view of Tony’s dirty business.  Eventually, of course, Tony is spectacularly destroyed by his unchecked ambition and hubris.  Prather’s Shell Scott novels may be a bit silly, but the Peddler is in a different league.

Honorable mentions:

“The Girl With the Long Green Heart” by Lawrence Block
“Home Is the Sailor” by Day Keene
“The Last Match” by David Dodge
“The Last Quarry” by Max Allen Collins
“Robbie’s Wife” by Russell Hill

"So Rich, So Dead" by Gil Brewer

Gold Medal No. 196, 1951

“There was this rushing hum . . . Marie reached out toward me, both hands outstretched, her eyes pleading. She was clothed in something silken, diaphanous. Her hair flowed across her shoulders in that soft jet, like the overside of a cloud when the moon is down. She reached toward me, drifted close, yet came no nearer. I tried to tell her to go away, leave me alone.”

So begins the tale of Bill Maddern. Bill is a P.I., running an agency with his brother. He returns from a trip to find his brother dead and a mysterious message regarding a half-million bucks his brother located for a client. He also finds out that his nightmare about Marie came true. She is found dead in his office as well-

"There’s no use going into it. It was sordid and mean and something you have to see sometimes in this business. But you don’t have to think about it if you’re on the outside. You can forget, because it wasn’t you or yours. It was somebody else; somebody your reading about. She had been literally beaten to death. The things that had been done to her probably nobody will ever know except for the killer himself. She’d gone out fighting for her life. She wasn’t Marie now. This wasn’t Marie."

Bill quickly becomes suspect no. 1 in his bro’s murder and goes on the lamb. While hiding out from the police and working to clear his name, Bill meets up with a variety of ne’er-do-wells, including a strange little man named Leander and his babe, Rita. Bill also befriends a sweet young lass that agrees to become his new secretary - after a couple minutes conversation. Suspicious you ask, no, of course not . . .

I’m a huge Gil Brewer fan and have been steadily hunting down and reading his novels. Unfortunately, So Rich, So Dead is my least favorite, so far. Most of the characters, particularly the ladies, are flatly drawn and relatively lifeless. The plot slogs along without too many stand-out scenes or ideas. The nice emotional hook set up with the death of Marie isn’t effectively woven through the plot as Maddern’s driving force. Maddern seems more concerned with making sure the money is secure and clearing his name than he is of getting revenge for Marie's death. You'd never catch Mike Hammer acting that way. The ending, which I gather was supposed to be a surprise, was about as cookie-cutter as you can get for an early 50s P.I. story.

The Leander and Rita characters are the most interesting thing here. Rita’s a blond bombshell that Maddern can’t seem to resist despite knowing she is poison. Brewer informs us, in that subtle 50s kind of way, she “enjoys” the pain Leander dispenses with his cane. Together they put Maddern through the wringer and that is where the book is at its best.

"The Killer" by Wade Miller

Gold Medal Books 1951

Jake Farrow is a hunting guide in Africa that recently had his ticket jerked for helping a client shoot a lion on the Masai preserve. We find him wallowing in boredom when a mysterious man shows up and offers him an exorbitant sum to guide a hunt - location, prey and client undisclosed. Farrow reluctantly takes the job and ends up in New York.

Turns out Farrow's client wants him to track and kill a bank robber, Clel Bocock, who shot his son during a robbery. Farrow’s reservations to that kind of work are overcome by the apparent brutality of Bocock and, of course, the dollars offered by his client. The chase takes Farrow from the swamps of the deep South, to Chicago, Yellowstone, Barstow and points between. Along the way he meets Marget, Bocock’s sweet little swamp babe. Marget catches Farrow’s eye but he thinks he leaves her behind when he leaves swamp country. From there the hunt doesn’t quite play out as Farrow expected.

There is nothing fancy about Wade Miller’s writing. Nothing exceptional in the plot either, but The Killer is a good straightforward story that keeps moving. It’s almost more of an adventure tale than a hardboiled mystery. Miller’s brilliance shines with a couple of particularly memorable scenes and characters. In Chicago, Farrow runs into Bocock’s other dame, Terese Tyler. They have a couple interesting little scenes together. In one she takes a break from attempting to seduce Farrow so that she can sing for him and tell him how she wants to be a star:

She was silent, sipping her champagne sternly. She grumbled, “I need a break, just one break. I need the reputation, that’s what counts.” She sulkily lit a cigaret, and said between puffs of smoke, “I want to be up there. Be somebody. Get my chance at all the money . . . .”

Later, Farrow runs into a small town Sheriff by the name of Loob that mistakes him for one of Bocock’s gang. Sheriff Loob is a dope with real big plans:

"You’ve already asked for trouble” said Loob in his sweet voice, "Just by meeting up with me. Maybe you don’t understand how much Bocock means to me. I’m a fellow with plans, Farrow, big ones. If I can be the one to put the finger on Bocock - no matter where he’s holed up - there’ll be no stopping me. I’m the county official who built the biggest city hall in Iowa, but that’s just the first step for me. When I catch Bocock the whole state and country will know about me. In the political game you got to make a splash. You got to get your name in front of people, no matter how."

For a moment you think the novel is going to take a very strange and very interesting turn. Farrow spends some unpleasant time with Loob, but the story resumes its course. The novel ends with a couple of showdowns, nothing too surprising or fantastic but with credible action and good gunplay.

Wade Miller was a pseudonym for the writing team of Bob Wade and Bill Miller. Together they wrote a pile of pulp novels. Here is a good site summarizing their work. I’ve read some interesting things about their Max Thursday P.I. series. I’ll be reading one of Mr. Thursday’s adventures very soon.

"Sue Me" - A Twist of Noir No. 139

Christopher Grant over at A Twist of Noir was nice enough to publish my first attempt at flash fiction, a piece entitled Sue Me. You may peruse it here. My writing obviously isn't in line with the exceptional talent usually featured on A Twist of Noir and the other flash fiction blogs noted in my blog list, but I really enjoyed putting pen to paper. I appreciate Christopher's feedback and his willingness to throw my work out there.