Some thoughts on Spike Morelli

I got the two books I ordered by Spike Morelli today. When I got home from work I read the first four chapters of This Way For Hell. It's nothing spectacular, but I wasn't really expecting it to be. It's a private eye story where the dead bodies pile up ( 3 in four chapters), and every woman is a "dame." Every one. Always. It's pretty sordid stuff, and by the fourth chapter the main character is beating the hell out of some poor woman to make her talk. Oh, and her dress comes off in the process. This woman gets shot by a mysterious assailant while being interrogated, which sets you up for this very funny bit of writing;

"I put my right hand down inside the brassiere and felt her breasts. The flesh was firm and under other circumstances I would have enjoyed myself, but right then it didn't mean a thing. She was deader than yesterday's front page."

Because checking her wrist for a pulse wouldn't have afforded a cheap thrill.


There's also jacket copy on the inside back cover promoting other books from the Leisure Library. See if you can resist:

White Slave Racket
by Roland Vane

From Britain to France to Spain vicious vice ring lures innocent girls to evil life in the foulest dens of iniquity. This tale is woven around the horror and sordidness one group of girls went through before they were rescued.


Hot Dames on Cold Slabs
by Michael Storm

Three hot dames from the sticks hit Chicago looking for suckers to support them in ways to which they were never accustomed. How they got their suckers and what happened to them among the tough guys of the underworld makes good reading.

No Prude
by Jules-Jean Morac

Parisian photographer's model can never be a prude--at least not for long. Embroiled with dope and stolen gems, young model leads life of luxury, sensualism and vice. Vicious sadism finally blows the top off racket. Real excitement on every page.