Independent Crime

Darwyn Cooke's Parker: The Martini Edition

2011-06-08T15:14:00.003-04:00

I was taking a little Amazon window shopping break when I ran across this, the yet to be released Parker: Martini Edition, which combines the first two of Cooke's Parker graphic novels, along with some new content. It also says it contains a "brand new story," and I'm not sure what that means. I would like to own this, but if I have to buy a deluxe edition to get the next installment in a graphic novel series I already own, I'm not going to be that happy. Hopefully, the new story is something separate from the project of interpreting the first four Parker novels.

Also, I'm not sure why they called it the "Martini Edition." The only thing I can see Parker doing with a martini, is dumping it on the floor, breaking the glass and then stabbing the broken stem into someone's neck.

The Straw Dogs Remake

2011-05-20T17:34:00.003-04:00

To my great horror, I came across the trailer for a remake of Straw Dogs today. I already have my issues with Peckinpah's adaptation of the novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm, upon which his film was based. In a nutshell, I think he sexed it up too much. Somehow, I don't think the remake will tone it down any, or draw on any of the parts of the novel Peckinpah ignored. In short, it looks like shit.

L.A. Noire

2011-05-19T10:47:00.004-04:00

I realize anyone who has followed this blog in the past has probably assumed that I ended up dead in a ditch somewhere long ago, but the truth is much, much worse. It's work. It turns out that writing all day for other people kind of makes logging onto a blog and writing at the end of a long day unappealing. And when I do have good intentions in that regard, I end up falling asleep on the couch or something. I have books I'm working on reading, I promise, but right now it's a slog. Reading is an activity that requires a certain level of alertness and concentration that I've been lacking, and I'm not going to review anyone's work unless I can give it the full attention it deserves.

So, let's start out with something a little more mindless: video games, specifically L.A. Noire. I bought a copy the day it came out, which I have never done for a video game before, but after seeing the previews and reading the reviews I realized it was as if a group of people had sat around and asked themselves "What kind of game would Nathan like to play?" Maybe they did. Maybe they broke into my apartment and realized I like fedoras and murders and adventure games and horrible crimes that expose the sordid underbelly of city life. Maybe.

Anyway, the game, so far is good. Not that I've had much time to play it. Hopefully, I'll be able to say more about it soon. In the meantime, enjoy these stories from a who's who of writers. And check out Charles Ardai's intro to the L.A. Noir short story anthology on BoingBoing. I'm glad to see the world of video games and literature coming together like this. They are, after all, both forms of storytelling, and there's no reason they can't complement one another. And, who knows, maybe these stories will lead video gamers to pick up a Hard Case Crime novel, or a James Ellroy book and see what they've been missing.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2011-02-09T14:08:00.004-05:00

This cover for Hard Case's debut hardcover novel hit me right between the eyes.

New Dashiell Hammett

2011-02-09T07:26:00.001-05:00

Are you ready to read some new short stories by Dashiell Hammett? I hope so, because 15 new stories have been discovered and are set to be published.

Stansberry's Noir Manifesto

2011-02-02T18:08:00.002-05:00

Domenic Stansberry's Noir Manifesto has made it online. I'm not sure if it's really a manifesto. It reads more like an essay, but it's certainly thought provoking, and I'd have to agree with a lot of the points he makes, like that fact that noir used to be, or should be a genre sympathetic to the powerless, as opposed to thrillers, which are more concerned with re-establishing the status quo at the end of the story. There are many definitions of noir, and many writers and aficionados don't agree on what noir is, but there's a lot to think about in this essay. I'm still digesting it, and hopefully I'll have more to say later.

A Post in Which the Author Admits He is Having Trouble Adapting to the Century in Which He Lives

2011-02-01T17:45:00.003-05:00

So, I'm trying to get back on the reviewing and blogging wagon after having taken much needed break. While I've been away, lots of authors I enjoy reading, like Allan Guthrie, Dave Zeltserman, and Anthony Neil Smith have released electronic exclusives. After resisting the e-book trend for a long time, I finally broke down and downloaded Kindle for PC, and bought a couple of books I wanted to read. The problem is, however, that I'm having a hard time reading them. On many days, I spend the better part of eight hours staring a a computer screen, and when I get home I often find myself not wanting to spend another couple hours doing the same thing for recreational purposes.

And when I do fire up the computer, I always end up caught up in myriad distractions (I have four other tabs open in my browser as I write this.) As McLuhan said, the medium is the message, and I fear the Internet has conditioned me to jump around from one thing to the next, never staying in one place, or lavishing too much attention on any one thing. Sitting in front of a computer and trying to do something as straightforward and linear as reading a novel feels unnatural, and I'm having a hard time adapting. I recently read Grimhaven as a PDF, and it took me two weeks to get through. It's a short book, and I should have been able to sit down and read it in an afternoon, but I kept getting distracted, or feeling like I needed a break from staring at the screen. It wasn't easy.

Right now, I'm trying to decide on whether or not to shell out for a Kindle. I think that the portable format may be more book-like, and make me more comfortable with the whole electronic book concept, but I'm afraid it won't work, and I'll have wasted a bunch of money on something I'll never use. So, I'm asking anyone who's got one, how do you like yours? Was it worth the money? Is it similar enough to reading a book that you feel comfortable doing it? Or should I just forget it?

Review of The Dead Women of Juarez

2011-01-30T12:07:00.003-05:00

Debut novelist Sam Hawken's novel The Dead Women of Juarez (Serpent's Tail, 2010) is a surprisingly assured and skilled first novel. First novels are often works where you can see the seams, and watch as an writer shows hints of potential. It's a fairly rare that a first novel doesn't seem like a first novel, and Hawken's novel reads like the work of someone who's been turning out novels for a long time.

The Dead Women of Juarez starts out as the story of washed up boxer Kelly Courter, who has retreated south of the border after making some horrible decisions that torpedoed a once promising career. To get by he picks up the occasional unsanctioned fight and helps his best friend Esteban sell weed. He's also involved with Esteban's sister, Paloma, who works for Mujeres sin Voces, a group dedicated to bringing attention to the hundreds of unsolved murders of women in Juarez.

Hawken takes a rather bold turn when, halfway through the story, he has events sideline Kelly, and switches the story's focus to aging Mexican cop Rafael Sevilla, who struggles with the loss of his daughter and granddaughter, who simply went out one day and then vanished, just two more victims of the senseless crime that thrives in Mexico. While he switches characters, Hawken, doesn't switch stories, however, so the transition is smooth, and works well.

Overall, Hawken's prose is strong, the plot is well thought out, and the characters are well drawn. Kelly and Rafael both have affecting and convincing backstories, that make them seem quite human and explains their motivations. The fact that the story is inspired by the real life murders that plague Juarez (more famously the subject of Roberto Bolano's novel 2666), serves to make the novel even stronger.

Lynn Kostoff Interview

2011-01-17T17:19:00.002-05:00

Lynn Kostoff gets interviewed by South Carolina's NPR station about Late Rain. It's about time someone paid attention to this book. And if you haven't read A Choice of Nightmares, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Let's Read Grimhaven!

2011-01-08T10:22:00.003-05:00

I've had a copy of Charles Willeford's unpublished novel Grimhaven for a while now, but I just got around to reading it recently. It is, without a doubt, one of the biggest Fuck You's that anyone has ever committed to print. It's easy to see why it never made it into proper circulation, and that is a shame. Aside from The Burnt Orange Heresy, it's probably Willeford's most harrowing work, and it has what can only be described as the most twisted happy endings in the history of literature.

Grimhaven isn't really a crime novel in the traditional sense. It bears no similarity to Miami Blues or any of the other subsequent Hoke Mosely novels where broken down old Hoke continues to be an unorthodox, false teeth wearing hero with a badge. It has more in similar with Camus' The Stranger than it does with any contemporary crime novels. That's really not a surprise, as Willeford is nothing if not the rarest of creatures: An American existentialist. Manifest Destiny, American Exceptionalism, the smiling, reassuring God everyone is so sure has some sort of grand plan, despite the fact that there is no evidence for this ridiculous assertion.

Grimhaven finds Hoke living a simple life. He has retired from the police force, works at his father's hardware store and spends his spare time swimming and working on chess problems. He is content until his ex-wife sends his two teenage daughters to live with him while she lives it up with a black baseball player in LA. The story is really about the lengths a man will go to get back what he has lost, and Hoke is willing to go a long, long way. He doesn't want his wife back. He doesn't want his job back. He just wants to go on living as he was, alone and with time to spend working on his chess puzzles without being bothered. The way he sets about doing this is harrowing and, well, grim, but it's also brilliant. I'm reluctant to say anymore because I don't want to give away the ending to a book that many people haven't read, but let's just say the ending made me laugh even though there's nothing funny about it. Hoke, the perpetual loser, turns out to be the winner after all, even though he's the only one who will ever know.

It's a New Year, and I'm back

2011-01-04T23:53:00.002-05:00

It's 2011. The last half of 2010 found me suffering from reading, reviewing and blogging burnout. As anyone who's followed this blog knows, it's been moribund for a while now. I haven't been happy about this, but I did feel I needed the break. When a hobby starts to feel like work it's definitely time to back off for a bit. I do this for fun. I don't do it because I need another job. So, now that I've taken my break, I just want to announce that I'm bringing Independent Crime back for 2011. So, stay tuned for reviews and news about small press crime fiction. I deliberately took myself out of the loop for a while, but I'm getting back into the groove. I've got a couple novels I really want to read and review, and I'm sure I can find some new Wednesday Paperback Covers, as well as other interesting tidbits to post. Stay tuned.

Upside Down Pulp

2010-11-23T17:37:00.001-05:00

Here is a great collection of pulp covers from Australia along with a good essay on the history of pulps down under courtesy of the University of Otago. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

The Return of Hard Case

2010-10-20T12:08:00.002-04:00

Here is the latest news from Charles Ardai regarding the return of Hard Case Crime. I'm just gonna reprint the entire statement in full since I'm sure it's of interest.

We've got some big news to announce today: After a year's hiatus, Hard Case Crime will be returning to bookstores with new titles in 2011, thanks to a deal we just signed with UK-based Titan Publishing.

Titan is a publisher both of fiction and of gorgeous art books focusing on pop culture such as movie poster art, pin-ups, newspaper comic strips, and Golden Age comic books, and has worked with filmmakers such as J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, and George Lucas. Titan has been around for 30 years, has more than 200 employees, and in addition to publishing books also has a magazine division, a retail division (Titan owns the famous Forbidden Planet bookstore in London, and until recently co-owned the Murder One mystery bookstore with Maxim Jakubowski), and a merchandise division that produces items such as t-shirts, sculptures, and accessories.

We look forward to exploring ways we might develop some cool Hard Case Crime products with them! But first things first: books. Hard Case Crime will relaunch in September/October 2011 with four new books, including CHOKE HOLD by Christa Faust (sequel to her Edgar Award-nominated MONEY SHOT), QUARRY'S EX by Max Allan Collins (the latest in the popular series of hit man novels by the author of "Road to Perdition"), and two never-before-published novels by MWA Grand Masters (names to be announced shortly).

Additionally, Titan Publishing plans to acquire all existing stock of Hard Case Crime's backlist from Dorchester Publishing and to resume shipping these titles to booksellers immediately. New books will be published in paperback (possibly some in hardcover as well!); ebook editions will also be released across multiple platforms. Titan is distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Random House. We're very excited about working with Titan (indeed, we had offers from five publishers and chose Titan over several that were much larger and better-known) -- they love pulp fiction as much as we do and appreciate that in books like ours the visual dimension is just as important as the storytelling. It's hard to imagine a better home for Hard Case Crime.

Harwood Rides Again

2010-10-18T18:07:00.002-04:00

In time for the release of his latest novel, Young Junius, Seth Harwood has once again made the news for his innovative internet based self-promotion techniques. It's hard to put a price on the kind of press he's been getting for his work.

New Pulp Press in NYM Again

2010-10-14T19:09:00.002-04:00

New Pulp Press has gotten the attention of the folks at New York Magazine again. First, Bad Juju shows up on the approval matrix, and now Dave Zeltserman's 21 Tales has been singled out.

The Sinners

2010-10-13T17:23:00.004-04:00

I've been on a bit of a graphic novel streak lately, and my most recent read was Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips latest Criminal trade, The Sinners. This one picks up the story of Tracy Lawless, the hardass military deserter who came back to the city to find his little brother's killer, only to discover some ugly truths and end up working as a hitman for the city's chief crime boss. Turns out Tracy's heart isn't in paid killing, so crime boss Sebastian Hyde asks him to look into a string of killings of made men. Tracy is relieved to have some non-homicidal work, but he's also got the military on his tail, and he's been having an affair with Hyde's wife. After the last storyline, Bad Night, and its predecessor, The Dead and the Dying, both of which were innovative, touching and horrifying in their own ways, The Sinners feels a bit rote.

Lawless is your average antihero, the killer with the broken heart of gold who lives by his own moral code, even if society disapproves, and the story was also a bit of a disappointment. The identity of the killers felt like a stretch, and the choice of bad guys is hardly unique.

(Spoiler Alert)

A priest who corrupts youth isn't exactly original, even if sex isn't involved (and really, hasn't the Catholic Church been kicked around enough? I'm no fan of Catholicism. I could expound on my criticisms at length but I won't. This blog is about crime fiction not religion.) Criminal usually tells unusual stories (Coward or Bad Night), or tells more conventional stories in unconventional ways (The Dead and The Dying). This particular story arc did neither. There was no big twist or ending that provoked sympathy for the lost souls Brubaker creates so well. I think this stems from the fact that Lawless just isn't that interesting of a character. His first story arc was saved by the ending, which was quite the punch in the gut for both the character and the reader, but now that he's found out the truth about his brother, and quit romanticizing his past, he's just another big man with a gun and an attitude. Hopefully the next story arc will be a little more engaging.

The Outfit

2010-10-11T11:44:00.004-04:00

Darwyn Cooke's follow-up to his adaptation of Richard Stark's The Hunter, hit shelves this month. The book glosses over much of what happens in The Man With the Getaway Face, the second Parker novel, in favor of the more exciting third novel. While this choice makes artistic and economic sense, it does, however, leave the book feeling a bit stuffed.

The Outfit was a book which had a lot going on, and the book described many different robberies by many different thieves. Cooke cheats a bit when it gets to this bit of the story, which feels like a bit of a gyp, since the description of clever heists is part of the appeal of the Parker stories. At one point, Cooke merely excerpts an account of a crime directly from the novel, disguising it as a newspaper article. This little trick doesn't work because Stark's prose doesn't feel like a newspaper article, and because this is a graphic novel. I've already read the novel. I own it. I can read it any time I want. The entire purpose of a graphic novel is to see as well as read. The other crimes, however, are presented in unique visual styles of their own, separating them from the rest of the book, which is a good trick, even if the entire section feels a bit perfunctory. Fortunately, the book is just as gorgeous as the first one, and is, overall, faithful to Stark's famous character. The three color artwork, and Cooke's obvious attention to period detail make the book a pleasure to read. I just finished it, and I think I'm going to go back and read it again, just to pick up any details I may have missed.

BiblioPulp

2010-10-04T16:09:00.001-04:00

Rare book dealers, The Helfond Book Gallery, have some pretty neat posters based on vintage paperbacks at their website Bibliopulp. You can also search for rare books, if you want to.

Plots with Guns #10

2010-09-20T17:40:00.003-04:00

The latest issue of Plots with Guns, featuring my story "Bugs" is now online. Anthony Neil Smith has done a good job with this one. Not only are the stories of their usual caliber, but he's made the site look good. The pictures of me up there were taken by my colleague and buddy Janssen Robinson. The Glock was generously provided by zombie Charlton Heston. And this issue is dedicated to David Thompson of Busted Flush Press and Murder by the Book. RIP.

Blood Will Out

2010-09-16T23:03:00.001-04:00

Blood Will Out - Book Trailer from Darren McNaney on Vimeo.

The trailer for Allan Guthrie's latest effort.

RIP David Thompson

2010-09-15T17:22:00.002-04:00

I realize it's bad form to be late to a wake, but it wasn't until I checked my email this afternoon that I found out about the death of David Thompson, the publisher behind Busted Flush Press, and assistant manager of Murder by The Book in Houston. I never met David in person, but I've ordered books from Murder by the Book, and I had corresponded with him a few times about crime fiction matters. He always seemed like a nice guy, and, from reading about his life, it seemed like he had everything going his way, which makes his passing all the more depressing.

Thompson had just sold his own indie imprint, Busted Flush Press to Tyrus Books, another good indie publisher. David did a great job of bringing books he believed in back into print. He's been championing underrated writers like Reed Farrell Coleman for a long time, refusing to let Coleman's Moe Prager books go out of print. He was also a tastemaker in his position as a manager at Murder by The Book, and I have no doubt he introduced many readers to many great books over the years.

My heart goes out to his friends and family.

Tyrus and Busted Flush Press Merge

2010-08-26T16:32:00.002-04:00

Tyrus Books has acquired Busted Flush Press. From the press release:

MADISON, WI— August 26, 2010 — Tyrus Books, Inc. today announced the acquisition of Busted Flush Press, LLC., in a move that brings together two of crime fiction’s most recognizable independent presses. “We’re very excited to add the Busted Flush brand to Tyrus Books. David Thompson is a dedicated and tireless advocate of crime fiction and I look forward to seeing the Busted Flush brand continue to grow,” said Benjamin LeRoy, Publisher and President of Tyrus Books.Thompson, Publisher of Busted Flush Press, will continue in his current role, selecting approximately twenty titles a year for publication. The combined companies will have approximately 45 books in print by the end of 2010 with another 20 titles scheduled for spring 2011.

I wonder if Thompson will continue to focus on reprints now that his press has been bought by Tyrus, or whether we'll see more new material.

The Rap Sheet Gets Poetic About Stark

2010-08-24T19:54:00.001-04:00

I've done my share of writing about the Stark reprints from U of Chicago. Now JKP at The Rap Sheet has his thoughts, which are well worth reading.

Hard Case Goes Hardcover

2010-08-11T05:55:00.003-04:00

While Hard Case may be looking for a new publisher for some of its titles, Charles Ardai is still moving forward with other projects, including the first Hard Case title(s) in hardcover. Next year, Subterranean Press will publish a double by Lawrence Block featuring his old titles 69 Barrow Street and Strange Fruit as a hardcover with new Robert McGinnis cover art.

Hard Times for Hard Case

2010-08-10T17:45:00.002-04:00

The title of this post probably isn't accurate. It ought to say tough times for Dorchester, since it's Dorchester publishing, the company that's been putting out Hard Case Crime, that's dropping mass market paperbacks in favor of electronic publishing paired with print on demand for certain titles. "Hard Times for Dorchester" isn't alliterative, though, so screw it.

As a long time member of the Hard Case Crime book club, I was surprised when I read this news last week, as I had just received my copy of Murder Is My Business in the mail along with a new Dorchester catalog, which made no mention of the switch as far as I can remember. (I threw it out, so I can't go back and check). After Hard Case's earlier decision to scale back in the face of the economic difficulties that face us all, I was kind of disappointed. Now the news comes that Dorchester's decision has pushed publication of any further Hard Case Crime titles back until late next year. This is a bummer, and I hope not an ominous portent of things to come.

Publishing is definitely in flux at the moment, and it's hard to tell how I feel about it. On the one hand, the idea of a Kindle or Nook appeals to me. After all, I ran out of space for books in my old place, and then, when it caught fire, I ended up losing about four-fifths of my collection. If I had had an e-reader, insurance would have covered replacing the device, and I would have still had all of my collection. On the other hand, the part of me who likes owning books, the physical object, isn't ready to give them up. The whole point of Hard Case is that they're objects with original artwork that you can collect and keep on a shelf. It wouldn't be the same if they were just e-books. And that doesn't just go for Hard Case. I like having books around, even if they take up too much space, and I don't know that I'm thrilled with where it looks like publishing is going. Perhaps this makes me some sort of old crank, and I'm now in the same category as septuagenarians who get nostalgic for rotary phones, but I guess we all get old eventually, if we're lucky.

Thuglit Folds

2010-08-03T13:19:00.003-04:00

Be sure to check out what may be the final issue of Thuglit, which is going on "indefinite hiatus." This is a bummer because they were the first place to publish a story of mine. On the upside, I guess the T-shirt I've got is now a collector's item.

Review of Johnny Porno

2010-07-31T17:26:00.003-04:00

In the Internet age, it's hard to imagine (at least for those of us of a certain age), that viewing pornography was once a collective experience, done in theaters. It's also hard to believe that one reel of celluloid featuring a rather commonplace sex act could cause a legal uproar, and become a cultural touchstone of sorts. But in 1973 that's exactly what happened in 1973 when a young lady who went by the stage name Linda Lovelace starred in a nasty little film called Deep Throat. Directed by a former hairdresser and financed by the mafia, the film became an unlikely success, ended up the subject of an obscenity case, and made the bad guys an obscene amount of money.

Charlie Stella's novel Johnny Porno (Stark House, 2010) is an entertaining snapshot of this particular period in history, chronicling the tough times of an out of work carpenter who has been reduced to ferrying around illicit copies of the film and collecting money for the mob as a way to pay the child support for his only son and keep his harridan of an ex-wife off his back. Porno suffers a little from having a huge cast of characters, which requires Stella to engage in a lot of setup, but once the book hits its stride, it doesn't fail to deliver.

John (who's last name is Albano, not Porno), has a lot to deal with. In addition to his wife, he has to deal with a loser wiseguy who hates him, the cops, his ex-wife's other ex-husband and a strung out ex-cop who wants him dead. All while trying to hold what's left of his life together and making sure the mob gets its money. Stella has a knack for dialogue, and the influence of The Friends of Eddie Coyle is evident. Stella even manages to work the novel into the book. The entire novel lacks glamor, and has the gritty feel of a 70's crime film with dirt under its nails and nicotine stains on its fingers. In a world where pornography has become mainstream, Stella reminds the reader that things weren't always that way, and that smut isn't pretty, and that sometimes there's no way for a good man to avoid getting his hands dirty.

The Internet and Self Publishing

2010-07-30T10:14:00.003-04:00

I've only been half paying attention to the publishing world lately, but it seems like more established authors are moving toward Seth Harwood's model of releasing their material into the wild on their own. Dave Zeltserman has recently taken a lighter turn by trying to expand on his novella Julius Katz, which originally appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He briefly released the novella as a PDF, although the link now seems broken, and he has even started a blog where he interviews the character.

And yesterday, I found out that Allan Guthrie will be self-publishing his next novella Bye-Bye Baby, which is certainly an interesting turn of events. Are these signs of things to come?

Also, if you haven't read Dennis Tafoya's story "Doe Run Road," you really ought to.

Man out of Prison Sampler

2010-07-20T17:45:00.001-04:00

Almost as good as a seafood sampler, Dave Zeltserman has made sample chapters of his three "man out of prison novels" (Small Crimes, Pariah, and Killer) available in PDF format. If you have yet to check out these novels, head on over and download it. You're missing out.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-07-14T06:01:00.000-04:00

I only see one.

Review of Shoot the President, You Must be Mad

2010-06-29T15:37:00.006-04:00

I know I've been neglecting the blog for quite some time, but the past 12 months have been rather a lesson in how to take a metaphorical beating, and despite the pain, I find I'm coming out all right. Still, it's been a while since I've been jump up and down excited to receive a book in the mail. That all changed when I ordered a copy of Frank McAuliffe's unpublished Augustus Mandrell novel, Shoot the President, You Must be Mad (The Outfit, 2010), a book that has unfairly languished unpublished for decades.

It is the final novel chronicling the humorous exploits of well heeled killer for hire Augustus Mandrell, and it's quite funny and entertaining, even if it doesn't rise to the heights of Of All The Bloody Cheek. This novel, unlike Cheek, is not divided into "Commissions" as the droll Mandrell calls them, but constitutes one long tale of Mandrell setting up and executing a rather involved assassination in America. As such, the book drags a little in places, but it is filled with McAuliffe's singular wit, and his observations about American culture are surprisingly timely for a book that's been moldering in a drawer for years. Mandrell, to accomplish his goal, assumes the identity of one Clifford Waxout, a member of a right-wing group known redundantly as America's Americans. It was no doubt based on the John Birch Society, but it doesn't take much imagination to see a connection between the old right and the new Tea Party's yammering on about socialism. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

The story gets off to a bit of a slow start, with Mandrell putting in a lot of time and effort to seduce and opera singer in order to get an invitation to an event where the President will be present. While amusing, it is a little tedious. The good news, however, is that once the mayhem starts it is outrageous and laugh out loud funny. McCauliffe once again succeeds in bringing some much needed humor to the grim world of the contract killer.

(Let me apologize for a lack of a cover image. I seem to be experiencing technical difficulties in that department.)

OSS 117 Lost in Rio

2010-06-19T14:50:00.003-04:00

Oh, God, there's a sequel to OSS 117 Cairo: Nest of Spies. I know what I'm doing tomorrow. And, this is totally NSFW BTW.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-06-16T07:07:00.000-04:00

Is he holding a paintbrush?

More Good News

2010-06-06T17:13:00.001-04:00

I've been stricken with a summer cold this weekend, so I've been sitting around feeling miserable, but I have had some good news. My story "Blown a Wish" (bonus points if you guess the title reference) has been accepted for publication in Crimefactory, although it won't be showing up for a while.

The Colorado Kid gets turned into something it's not

2010-05-29T20:23:00.005-04:00

Stephen King's supremely shitty entry in the Hard Case Crime lineup has been optioned for a television show for the Syfy (I, know, I know, Syfy. Was there something wrong with Sci-Fi?) network for a TV show called Haven. Here's the show's description:

Syfy's all-new one-hour drama series Haven, starring Emily Rose (Jericho, Brothers and Sisters) is based on the novella The Colorado Kid from renowned author Stephen King. The series follows the shrewd and confident FBI agent Audrey Parker (Rose) who has a lost past, and arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine on a routine case. Before long, her natural curiosity lands her in the epicenter of activity in this curious enclave, which turns out to be a longtime refuge for people that are affected by a range of supernatural afflictions.

As the townspeople's dormant abilities begin to express themselves, Audrey helps keep these forces at bay while discovering the many secrets of Haven — including one surrounding her own surprising connections to this extraordinary place.

Now here's the description of The Colorado Kid:

On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There’s no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues, and it’s more than a year before the man is identified.

And that’s just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...?

No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world’s great storytellers presents a moving and surprising tale whose subject is nothing less than the nature of mystery itself...

Do these two descriptions even seem remotely similar? Call me cynical, but it seems like someone bought the only Stephen King novel not under option just so they could put his name on a new series in hopes of getting people to watch it.

Call me when someone options Money Shot for a television show. I'd watch that.

Review of Late Rain

2010-05-29T08:06:00.006-04:00

It's safe to lump Lynn Kostoff in with Pinckney Benedict and Madison Smartt Bell, which is to say he is a very talented writer who no one will read because they are too busy telling all their friends on Facebook how funny last night's episode of the hit sitcom "Two Bikini Models and an Adorable Puppy" was. This state of affairs does not fill my heart with hope.

Mere months after New Pulp Press resurrected Kostoff's -blink and you missed it- thriller A Choice of Nightmares, he is back with a new novel, Late Rain (Tyrus Books, 2010). The new novel is set in the low country of South Carolina, and centers around the events set in motion by the avaricious Corrine Tedros, when she conspires to have her father-in-law murdered so as to get her hands on his soft drink fortune and leave behind her sordid past forever.

When the murder is witnessed by a man in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, former homicide detective and current beat cop Ben Decovic, who has, like Tedros, moved to the deep south to try and escape his past. It goes without saying that two characters running away from things they can't escape will eventually run right into each other with tragic results.

Late Rain is very different in tone that Nightmares, which was a truly disorienting novel that throbbed with decadence and menace on every page. Rain is more restrained, and more straightforward, in that there are good and bad characters, and its much easier to get comfortable with since you know who you're pulling for early on. It's much more accessible in that respect, but Kostoff still refuses to tie up the story with a nice comforting bow at the end, turning what could have been a by the numbers crime story with a warm fuzzy ending into something better. Yes, the murder gets solved, but the truly evil characters still run free, and there is no real justice, just the rough approximation of justice which we are all forced to settle for in real life all too often, and the good guy gets only the consolation prize of knowing that he did what he could. Not exactly life affirming, but then, very little in life is.

Musical Interlude: The Hold Steady

2010-05-26T21:11:00.003-04:00

If small town cops are like swarms of flies and blackened foil is like boils and hail, then I'm pretty sure I've been through this before.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-05-26T06:21:00.000-04:00

I do believe I found Waldo.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-05-19T06:08:00.001-04:00

Is that a cop or a mailman?

Gutter Books Blog and an Interview with Charlie Stella

2010-05-17T18:34:00.003-04:00

Gutter books has started a blog. The first post is an interview with Matthew Mayo. And I know things have been quiet here, the last week or so, so here's Keith Rawson's interview with Charlie Stella, author of Johnny Porno, Stark House's first original, and a book I hope to read soon.

Your Delayed Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-05-06T18:36:00.005-04:00

Glen Orbik's cover for Christa Faust's forthcoming sequel to Money Shot, Choke Hold. I'd link, but it's not even up on Hard Case's website yet. I have to go smoke a cigarette now.

Cinco de Junius

2010-05-05T06:00:00.001-04:00

Seth Harwood, podcasting fiction pioneer is back with his latest offering Young Junius, which follows a character that those familiar with his Jack Palms novels will already know. Always at the forefront of Internet Age promotion, Harwood started out podcasting his work, and ended up seeing Jack Wakes Up, published after he had released it for free as an audiobook. He's done the same with Young Junius, and he's also teamed up with Tyrus Books to do a limited edition print run of the novel, which you can pre-order here. If you scroll down that page, you'll notice that Independent Crime is listed as an affiliate with a promotion code, so this post can technically be classified as a shill, but I'm being up front about it, and I wouldn't endorse anything I thought sucked. So, consider this my endorsement. Of course, if you don't believe me, you can always listen to the free podcast version and try before you buy.

Gutter Books

2010-05-03T15:25:00.003-04:00

The publishers of Out of the Gutter have gone into the paperback publishing business. Initial offerings include one from John D. MacDonald as well as a collection of the best of the first three issues of Out of The Gutter, which is taking submissions for Issue 7, the US. vs. UK issue.

Let's Psychoanalyze Parker!

2010-04-29T13:53:00.002-04:00

Some time ago, I tried to get at the reason why Donald Westlake's enduring thief Parker, who's been going through a bit of a renaissance recently, is so appealing. I concluded it was his tenacity, and his ability to work through even the most difficult problems to come out on top. I have been recently working my way through the latest set of reprints from the University of Chicago, and, coincidentally, I've been reading up on the Myers-Briggs personality test or the Keirsey Temperament sorter, or whatever they're calling it these days. I'm sure you're probably familiar with the test, which is based on the work of Carl Jung. Psychoanalysis is, at best, a dubious endeavor, and I've always been skeptical of it in general, but I've taken the Myers-Briggs test several times throughout my life, and I've always found it to be uncannily accurate.

I always test as an INTJ. INTJs are long range thinkers and planners, who tend to be pragmatic. They hate small talk, and always (well, almost always) think in pragmatic terms. This often leads to a rather, shall we say, amoral outlook on life. Rules that are good are followed. Rules that aren't are ignored, especially if there's something to be gained.

The more I read the Parker stories, the more I see a lot of myself in him. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cold blooded killer or a thief, but like him, I tend to be cautious and research all the risks before I take action, and I tend to have very little time for small talk, which is one of Parker's defining traits. I also value staying cool under pressure, and if anyone's the embodiment of that quality it's Parker. When things don't go as planned he switches plans, just like that. He never panics. He never stops thinking. He does what has to be done. All of this makes me wonder if Parker isn't so enduring because he's a modern day Jungian Archetype. Jung had story archetypes like the Hero, The Trickster and the Earth Mother, all drawn from myth. Parker isn't exactly believable as a real person, but he does represent something, unique to our culture. He is the ultimate businessman. His work is his life and his life is his work. It's almost like he's some monster representation of the negative elements of American society. He's a myth, just like Chandler's man who walks down the mean streets who is not himself mean.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-04-28T16:10:00.000-04:00

It can't smell good.

New Pulp Press in New York

2010-04-19T18:15:00.003-04:00

New Pulp Press's latest offering, Bad Juju by Jonathan Woods has made New York Magazine's approval matrix. You can't buy that type of publicity (especially if you're a small press. It's cost prohibitive.) This makes me feel bad about not picking up this collection sooner. It's been sitting on my dresser for a while now.

Review of Killer

2010-04-18T09:42:00.005-04:00

Here is my long delayed review of Killer. It's the book I was reading when I had the fire. For some reason, I've been unable to pick it up again until recently.

Dave Zeltserman concludes his "Man out of Prison" trilogy with Killer, a much more subdued take on the story than his previous efforts, Small Crimes and Pariah. Where the first two novels were bloody messes all the way through, Killer is a much subtler affair. Leonard March was a hitman for the Lombard crime family for a long time, but when he finally got caught committing some non-murderous crimes, he managed to cut himself a deal with immunity before confessing to twenty-eight paid killings for crime boss Sal Lombard.

For his deal, March gets fourteen years in prison, and when he walks free, he tells himself he's going to go straight and live a quiet, anonymous life. Of course, it's not easy to live a quiet life when you've got a list of enemies as long as your arm, and March doesn't make it any easier on himself by inviting publicity when he foils a liquor store robbery.

Killer, while an entertaining novel, lacks the punch of Pariah. Pariah was as close to perfect as a novel can get, so comparing the two may be unfair. Still, Killer, feels almost perfunctory when compared to either of his previous studies in evil. March isn't as compelling as either Joe Denton or Kyle Nevin, both of whom were real pieces of work, and the story ends a little abruptly. It feels a bit rushed at the end, which is disappointing because so much of the novel is setup. Zeltserman also picks up a couple of plot threads that never really go anywhere, which isn't like him.

As I said, though, Killer is a letdown only when compared to Zeltserman's previous efforts. As an author, you're in a pretty good shape if the only competition you have is yourself. Taken on its own, Killer is still very good. It's just not great, and not a great introduction to Zeltserman's work. It would be possible for a reader to pick up this novel and wonder what all the fuss has been about. Do yourself a favor and read one of the first two novels in this trilogy before approaching Killer.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-04-14T06:41:00.000-04:00

Which end are we talking about?

Short Fiction For You

2010-04-06T12:52:00.003-04:00

I've been slacking on the posting lately, but it's not because I've been lazy. I've been busy. Work is nuts, I'm still dealing with the aftermath of the fire, and I've been working pretty hard on fiction of my own. In fact, I think I just finished the best story I've ever written. I'm going to give it a couple of weeks and see how I feel about it. In the meantime, Here's some Web short fiction you should be checking out.

Thuglit

Plots with Guns

Crimefactory (the publication I've got my eye on for this next story. They're publishing some intimidating names, like Ray Banks and Dave Zeltserman, but I think I've got a winner here.)

Oh, and in case you're keeping score at home, this year I've had one fire, and now one attempted burglary (which is why I'm at home today. I'm kind of hoping they'll come back and try to finish breaking in. And yeah, I'm beginning to feel a little like Job.) The upside is that I've been experiencing a rather fertile creative period.

Shot to Death Blog March

2010-03-31T12:00:00.000-04:00

So, today I bring you a guest post from Stephen D. Rogers, whose debut book of stories Shot to Death is available from Mainly Murder Press. In this post, he explains how he came up with the opening line for one of the book's stories.

SHOT TO DEATH Blog March They say blondes are dumb but then they also say that crime doesn't pay. - ITCHING FOR SCRATCH So begins one of the 31 stories contained in SHOT TO DEATH (ISBN 978-0982589908). Within that beginning lurks the ending to the story and everything that happens between the beginning and the end. Or at least it seems that way to me. What we have here is bad logic. The assumption seems to be that since people are wrong about crime not paying, they're also wrong about blondes being dumb. While it's been a long time since I studied logic, that reasoning seems faulty. Grid the statements out, and there are four possibilities. Dumb and not paying. Dumb and paying. Not dumb and paying. Not dumb and not paying. And while I know that blondes are not dumb, the particular blonde in the story may well be, just as the typically not-paying crime may in this story pay, or vice versa. Now complicate the matter by going three-dimensional. Is the narrator blonde or not blonde? Complicate the matter even further by throwing in bleached blonde. At least we can be fairly certain the narrator is a woman, since "blonde with an e" is generally used to refer to women and "blond without an e" is generally used to refer to either sex. Unless the narrator is from Britain, where "blonde with an e" is used to refer to both sexes. At this point, I'm scratching my head. Obviously, maybe, this story is going to be driven by wacky logic, the same type of wacky logic that makes people say, "Well, someone has to win the lottery" and "If you don't play, you can't win" as if playing means you're going to win and, anyway, aren't you part of the subset "someone"? So I've got a narrator who is a blonde or non-blonde or bleach-blonde woman or Britain who will commit a crime that may or may not lead to a lottery payoff. All that remains is the writing. For a chance to win a signed copy of SHOT TO DEATH, click on over to http://www.stephendrogers.com/Win.htm and submit your completed entry. Then visit the schedule at http://www.stephendrogers.com/Howto.htm to see how you can march along (backwards). And then come back here to post your comments. Phew.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-03-31T07:28:00.000-04:00

Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?

Book Suggestions

2010-03-26T12:11:00.002-04:00

All right people, I find myself in a situation where I have a large amount of money to spend on books. If I don't spend this money, I lose it for insurance reasons, and I'm turning to you, the Internet, to help me. I have money to spend on 250 paperbacks and 150 large paperbacks. It will be reimbursed by my insurance company up to a point. What I"m asking you to do is make comments on what you think I should buy. I have an opportunity here to build a new library from the ground up, so I just don't want crime fiction suggestions (although I do want crime fiction suggestions). I want to know what you think I should own. If you had 400 books to order off Amazon, or buy at your local bookstore, what would they be? Let me know. I need some help here. I'm a little overwhelmed.

Book Trailer for Dave Zeltserman's Killer

2010-03-25T13:42:00.003-04:00

The trailer for Zeltserman's forthcoming Killer. Look for my review soon.

Review of Hello Kitty Must Die

2010-03-24T18:33:00.001-04:00

Angela Choi's debut novel Hello Kitty Must Die (Tyrus Books, 2010) is a left of center crime story, reminiscent of early Chuck Palanhiuk (You know, the stuff he wrote before Choke, which is the point where he became unreadable). Fiona Yu is a 28-year old corporate attorney. She is intelligent and successful, but still lives at home with her traditional Chinese family, a situation that she finds stifling, to say the least. The book opens with Fiona taking her own virginity with a dildo as a sort of silent rebellion against carrying her family's honor in the form of her hymen. Upon discovering that her hymen is already broken, she seeks out a doctor to reconstruct it so that she can rip it properly. The doctor turns out to be her old friend, Sean, who she hasn't seen since he was sent away to juvie for setting a classmate's hair on fire. Fiona and Sean share a bond borne of mutual alienation, and Sean's behavior hasn't changed much from his school days. Under his influence, Fiona's soon turns her anger outward and begins striking back at those she sees as standing between her and happiness.

The titular Hello Kitty refers to the stereotype of the submissive, quiet Asian woman as personified by the ubiquitous, mouthless Japansese ca t, which has found its way onto every product imaginable. Fiona has been ruthlessly pigeonholed her entire life, and it's warped her more than a little. Having to suppress her actual desires and personality in order to play a character has left her angry and bitter. It's easy to see why she wants to lash out, but a little more difficult to see why she doesn't just, say, move to the east coast, where she would be three thousand miles away from all of these crushing expectations, and would likely not have to murder anybody. Fiona's bloodlust makes her less than likeable at times, even if her motives are understandable. The book is more of a black comedy than it is thriller, or typical serial killer novel. Hello Kitty Must Die has its moments, and Tyrus books has done a good job in snagging a title out of left field, breaking away from their usual fare (not that there's anything wrong with their usual fare), and finding a new voice that's worth a listen.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-03-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

First it was a private nurse, then a "very private" secretary. Now it's a chaueffer.

Breaking Bad

2010-03-21T12:29:00.004-04:00

I lost the lion's share of Saturday to Breaking Bad. I'd been meaning to get around to watching it, but somehow I'd just never gotten around to it. Maybe the fact that the main character is played by Bryan Cranston, a guy I previously knew only as "The Dad from that Annyoing Show on Fox" plays the main character. Well, the show is better than it has any right to be. I went through the first season and part of the second yesterday while cleaning up and doing laundry. Of course, if I'd known it was going to rain today, I'd have spent more time outside yesterday when the sun was out, but I can't really say I regret parking myself in front of the TV. It's something I rarely do, and it's even more rare to feel like it was time well spent, but in this case, I have to say, the show delivered.

Breaking Bad swings wildly between being a hard boiled crime show and a family drama. Every time Walt goes out and gets involved in the drug business he has to take time out to deal with the consequences of his actions. His cancer serves as an effective metaphor for the way his destructive choices affect his family, as well as the nature of the business he's involved in. Cranston's performance as a desperate man looking at the end of his rope, and likely his life, is quite sympathetic. It's hard not to feel for a guy who draws up a pro and con list with "Judeo Christian principles" on one side and "He'll kill your entire family" on the other while contemplating whether or not kill a drug dealer. Even as Walter's decisions become more and more unjustifiable, and his actions start to threaten his family-the people he's ostensibly trying to help with his methamphetamine sideline-you still find yourself rooting for him. This show is way better than AMC's other original series, Mad Men. Why anyone gets all worked up over that one is beyond me. Of course, the fact that Breaking Bad is so good can only mean one thing: No one's watching it.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-03-17T08:31:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year.

Review of A Choice of Nightmares

2010-03-13T09:34:00.000-05:00

Robert Staples is, to put it bluntly, shit out of luck. A washed up B-movie actor he has landed in the sun blasted landscape of South Florida, where he ekes out a living being a generic "celebrity." As Lynn Kostoff's A Choice of Nightmares (New Pulp Press, 2010), opens he has even put that tenuous living at risk by chucking a barking dog into an alligator pit during a mall opening. His agent gives him a chance to redeem himself through the simple task of delivering an envelope, but Staples screws that up, and quickly finds himself pulled into the world of cocaine smuggling, where he bumps up against decadent, dangerous, and depraved characters. And he finds himself loving it. For a man with few options and fading dreams, the world of cocaine and easy sex offers what he needs: Escape.

Escape, however, is something that's not easy to come by. It's easy to run, but no man can hide, and Staples is eventually forced to confront himself, decide who he is, and see if he can the ultimate luxury: a way out alive.

First published in 1991, A Choice of Nightmares, sank without making many ripples in the publishing pond. New Pulp Press has scooped the other reprint houses by scoring the rights to this one. Although Hard Case usually reprints old novels, Charles Ardai ought to be kicking himself for not putting his imprint on this novel. It's certainly more than good enough for that imprint. Kostoff's story takes off from the first line of the first chapter, and his characters are well drawn. His femme fatale, Denise and his psychotic hitman Barry from Palm Springs, who could easily have been cardboard cutouts, turn out to be unexpectedly deep and very disturbing. Denise, in particular, is an enigma that proves resistant to analysis. In the end, it's the ambiguity that Kostoff maintains throughout the story that makes it such a compelling read. He refuses to give in to the temptation to provide simple answers, making the story all that much more satisfying, at least for readers who eschews easy answers and pat endings.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-03-09T21:06:00.003-05:00

Christa Faust's Money Shot in Finnish. Stolen from Juri Nummelin.

Plots With Guns

2010-03-05T20:19:00.003-05:00

It's about goddamn time for some good news around here, so here it is. I finally cracked Plots with Guns. It's up in the air in which issue the story will be published, but it's been accepted. I've been trying to get into PWG for a while now, so I'm pleased. It's a good story, and I may even have a better version ( Anticipating the usual PWG rejection, I went ahead and revised the story before hearing from A.N Smith.) They say write what you know. I wish I knew the things I know less well than I do.

Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

2010-03-03T18:47:00.002-05:00

I'm back. The new laptop came, and it works like a charm. It is a sexy, sexy machine, and while I still need a router and whatnot for wireless access, I've got the basics taken care of right now. Watch this space for much more content soon. I've got three books that need reviewing, and paperback covers that need posting, and even some guest content coming up. Stay tuned,

The New Laptop

2010-03-01T10:52:00.002-05:00

Should be here this week, so Independent Crime will be a going concern again in the not-too-distant future. All six of you who give a damn rejoice.

Review of The Deputy

2010-02-15T13:24:00.003-05:00

With The Deputy (Tyrus Books, 2010), Victor Gischler, who has been experiencing a good deal of success by adding "Go-Go" to the titles of various books, returns to his roots. My best guess is that Gischler has been busy aiming for a screenwriting gig involving a gritty reboot of the Inspector Gadget franchise, but I could be wrong. It could be what sophisticated types call "branding."

Regardless, his "Go-Go" novels have been entertaining, but it’s good to see the man get back to basics with a straightforward crime novel. The Deputy is Gischler’s entry in the "corrupt town" subgenre of hardboiled fiction first pioneered by Hammett in Red Harvest, although Gischler’s novel makes a bit more sense than Harvest did plot wise, and his protagonist, part-time deputy Toby Sawyer, sure as hell isn’t the Continental Op. If he were, the book wouldn’t have gotten past the first chapter where Sawyer is called out late at night by the Sheriff of Coyote Crossing, Oklahoma and given the simple task of babysitting the corpse of a local bad boy who got himself murdered. Sawyer screws it up, turning his back and letting someone get away with the body. From there, it’s not long until Sawyer’s forced to go from hopeless screw up to axe wielding tough guy as he tries to survive the night and the desperate locals who are hell bent on keeping their secrets secret.

Gischler’s prose is deceptively simple. The book is short and to the point, and once it picks up momentum, it doesn’t slow down. Gischler’s been at this novel writing thing for a while now, and it shows. This outing is all muscle and no fat. It’s also a little more sober than Gischler’s earlier crime work. He made his bones with gonzo stories like Gun Monkeys and Pistol Poets. As such, it may disappoint fans who are expecting comedy. Sawyer’s life is pretty sad. He’s stuck in a shit town with no future, a loveless marriage, no hope, and a shitload of people who want his head on a stick. Sawyer’s got true grit, though, the one quality that will get a man through, and allow him to conquer a hostile environment and carve out a new life for himself.

A Brief Update

2010-02-12T11:48:00.003-05:00

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. The blog will be coming back. I've even got a review I've been meaning to post, but not having internet access at home (or a laptop, for that matter), is hampering my ability to update the blog. Add on top of that the fact that I have to spend an inordinate amount of time shopping for stuff I used to own, and that doesn't leave much free time where I have internet access. Hopefully, I will have a sweet new laptop soon, and things will get back to normal. Man, I'm looking forward to that.

update

2010-01-27T18:30:00.002-05:00

112 books survived the fire. i've lost more books than 99 percent of people ever read in a lifetime. also, god is a westlake fan. it's official. now i just have to figure out what's gone.

thanks

2010-01-24T04:56:00.003-05:00

thanks to everyone who has expressed concern.

Fucking Heartbreak

2010-01-22T19:10:00.001-05:00

My fucking books.

A Programming Note

2010-01-22T13:07:00.003-05:00

Last night, my apartment building went up in flames. So, obviously I have some business to attend to. (I have insurance, so things should work out), but the blog is suspended until further notice. Hopefully, the hiatus won't last too long.

Co-founder of Soho Press Dies

2010-01-21T19:37:00.001-05:00

Laura Chapman Hruska, co-founder of Soho Press, has died.

Your Delayed Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-01-21T09:04:00.004-05:00

The first edition of Frank McCauliffe's Of All the Bloody Cheek. I have some good news to go with this cover. JT Lindroos, formerly of Pointblank and currently of The Outfit, has recently let slip that he has just sent a McCauliffe's unpulished Mandrell manuscript, Kill the President? You Must be Mad, to the printer, and it should be available in the not too distant future.

The Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-01-20T15:24:00.001-05:00

is delayed until tomorrow when I can actually scan and crop it. It's worth the wait, though.

Crimefactory

2010-01-19T08:43:00.003-05:00

Noted hack and blogger Keith Rawson has been pimping this mysterious new site Crimefactory on Twitter for a while now. It would appear to be a new 'zine. Obviously, it's still under construction, but I must admit I'm intrigued.

Review of Rage

2010-01-18T11:46:00.004-05:00

The adjective that comes to mind when considering Sergio Bizzio’s novel Rage, (Bitter Lemon Press, 2009), is Ballardian. That may seem like praise, but it’s hard to say. Ballard’s novels are novels of disconnection and alienation, of men and women who are ciphers even to themselves, drifting through the modern world distanced from any real human connections by technology and the strange, solitary, sanitized nature of modern life. In short, Ballard was preoccupied with the death of community, and the great lengths people will go to to feel something, anything. As such, they are often difficult to read. They're certainly not what Graham Greene would have labeled "entertainments."

While, Rage, is a novel of isolation, similar to say, Concrete Island, where a man is stranded in a secret world on an island in the middle of a highway, it is also shot through with a Marxist critique of a decaying society where the gap between the rich and the poor is so large that the poor can, quite literally, disappear in the huge, empty homes of the doomed rich. It is also a novel of strong emotions, as the title implies, and strong emotions are often lacking in Ballard's work.

Jose Maria, a construction worker, falls in love with Rosa, the beautiful, but poor housekeeper of a rich Argentine family. At first, things are going well, as the two find time to be together, but then Jose Maria kills his foreman in a fit of rage and goes into hiding. He picks, as his hiding spot, the huge home of Rosa employers, where he takes up residence in a room no one uses. In his new role as fugitive and voyeur, Jose Maria spies on his former lover as well as the family for whom she works. He learns their secrets, and witnesses their bad behavior. He uses the home’s second line to sneak secret phone calls to Rosa, but will not tell her his whereabouts.

He does adopt a role as her protector and avenger, however. When one family member rapes her, Jose Maria kills him and tries to make it look like an accident. The family quickly covers it up to prevent disgrace. When Rosa’s new boyfriend knocks her up and refuses to take responsibility, Jose Maria sneaks out of the house and murders him as well. From there, he takes up the improbable role of invisible father, forcing a shady relative to deliver money to Rosa, and sneaking time with the baby once he is born.

Of course, Jose Maria can’t hide from Rosa forever. Their reunion, and the end of the book overall, are somewhat puzzling. Without getting into spoilers, it’s a little difficult to decipher Jose Maria’s fate is supposed to mean. Then again, maybe that’s just another way Bizzio is similar to Ballard.

The Disassembled Man Optioned for Film

2010-01-13T12:39:00.005-05:00

Well, damn. I would have never predicted this in a million years. While I liked Nate Flexer's debut, The Disassembled Man, it never entered my head that someone would option the film rights. I ended my review thusly:

The Disassembled Man is remarkable for its ugliness. It's hard to think of a book with a character as despicable as Frankie Avicious. It turns out he has valid reasons for being as twisted as he is, but his unapologetic homicidal mania may be difficult for some to stomach.

It would be very hard to imagine this movie as even a hard R, provided of course it ever gets out of development hell. Still, good on Nate. Hope it works out.

Revisionist Fiction

2010-01-13T12:00:00.001-05:00

I never said much about the whole Harlequin reprint scandal because there wasn't much to say. The entire reprint series was such a transparent bid to cash in on Hard Case Crime's success that the books didn't catch my interest much. When I found out that the published novels were expurgated, I wasn't really surprised. Harlequin is very good a publishing novels for a certain audience, and the overlap between bored housewives and fans of vintage hard boiled fiction is practically nil. It doesn't surprise me that Harlequin decided to make the novels safe for housewives everywhere. The entire reason Hard Case is successful is because Charles Ardai is a huge fan of the genre, and he separates the wheat from the chaff. And once he's collected the wheat he doesn't piss all over it. You know what you're getting, and what you're getting is the real thing.

Well, over at noirboiled, there is an interesting post comparing the new version of I'll Bury My Dead with the Harlequin original. It's well worth reading. A lot of the changes are inexplicable. I mean, why bother?

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-01-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

I didn't know Harlan Ellison wrote rock 'n roll.

Musical Interlude

2010-01-09T12:51:00.001-05:00

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit cover Patterson Hood's song "The Assassin."

The Return of Moe Prager

2010-01-06T14:05:00.002-05:00

If you scroll down to item 8 on this news dump from Tyrus books, you'll get a surprise. It looks like Reed Farrell Coleman is bringing Moe Prager back this year. I'm not sure where Coleman is going with this, since Empty Ever After felt like the natural end of Prager's story to me. Coleman did a superb job with the long, overarching story arc in the first five novels, and now that it's all been cleared up (well cleared up is probably not the term for it, but then neither is resolved), I'm not sure where he's going to take the story now.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2010-01-06T05:57:00.000-05:00

Bidding a belated goodbye to the last decade.

And The Winner Is

2009-12-31T15:23:00.005-05:00

Stephen D. Rogers is the lucky owner of a new copy of Dave Zeltserman's Killer, which I will drop in the mail after the holiday. Thanks to everyone who entered, and Happy New Year.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2009-12-30T06:42:00.000-05:00

Sucklings?

Born That Way on Vimeo

2009-12-28T19:15:00.001-05:00

Born That Way from Tony McNeal on Vimeo.

A pretty good little short film.

Win Dave Zeltserman's Killer

2009-12-22T17:59:00.005-05:00

And lo, it was a Christmas miracle as angels descended from the heavens and provided a humble blogger with an extra copy of Dave Zeltserman's forthcoming novel Killer, and told him that, since he already had one copy, he should spread the wealth. And, lo, the humble blogger, said, "Why the hell not."

So, here's the deal. You send an email to IndieCrimeatgmaildotcom with "Contest" in the subject line. Include your name and address. I will number the entries in the order in which I receive them. Then, on Dec. 31, I will use Random.org to pick a random number. If your number comes up, I drop a brand new copy of what is sure to be one of the best books of the year in the mail to you.

Good luck and Merry Christmas you sons of bitches.

Review of The Corspe Wore Pasties

2009-12-20T07:58:00.004-05:00

Whatever else you can say about burlesque performer Jonny Porkpie's novel, The Corpse Wore Pasties (Hard Case Crime, 2009), it certainly wins the prize for book with the most underwear similes ever. It's all bra straps and g-strings as Porkpie rushes around New York trying to solve a murder in this not quite roman à clef of a novel.

Porkpie is both the detective and the main suspect in the murder of performer Victoria Vice, after handing her what was supposed to be a prop bottle of poison during a performance. The bottle wasn't a prop, and Victoria was a serial thief, ripping off other burlesque performer's acts as a matter of routine, so there is no shortage of suspects.

Porkpie never takes the book, or himself, too seriously, which is good because he makes the debut mystery author mistake of telegraphing the culprit early on in the story to anyone who's paying attention. The novel works better as a ribald comedy than as a murder mystery. Fortunately, Porkpie can be pretty funny, and his sense of showmanship translates pretty well onto the page. He knows how to create and amusing scene and milk it for all its worth.

Best of the Year

2009-12-19T15:49:00.003-05:00

I usually avoid best of the year type lists, because I don't read enough to make a serious assessment, but I've looked back at my reviews for 2009, and I've decided that if you don't read the following books you are a loser and suck.

Allan Guthrie's Slammer is the book of the year. At first, I thought Zeltserman had the top spot locked up, but this one wins out on review. It's a real leap forward for Guthrie. As I said in the review, it's "Guthrie's first grown up novel." In terms of Guthrie's writing and storytelling, it's an improvement on a style that was already worthy. If this is a glimpse of things to come, I can't wait.

Speaking of Zeltserman, Pariah, was great. It was pretty much perfect in every respect. You can't ask for more than perfection, can you?

While, Of All the Bloody Cheek, was published a long time ago, and reprinted many years ago, I just got around to reading it this year. I've never read anything quite like this comic hitman novel, and I doubt I ever will. Augutus Mandrell is quite the creation, and it is a pity he has been forgotten. Murder doesn't have to be serious.

Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard is another novel I came to late, but is still a must read. The story of loser and his friendship with a fake Vietnam vet, it's funny and touching and repulsive all at the same time. A cut above.

And last, but not least, The Big Wake Up by Mark Coggins. The pulpy nature of this one combined with a more realistic element really worked for me. I want to read more August Riordan mysteries, so mission accomplished Mr. Coggins.

Independent Crime on Twitter

2009-12-17T09:13:00.002-05:00

I have, for reasons not yet entirely clear to me, started a twitter account to go with the blog. I haven't decided how I'm going to use it yet, but it will probably involve synergy and leveraging the power of social networking to build an internet brand. Or maybe I'll just screw around. So, be sure to follow me, because if you don't you will probably miss out on life changing information. (Just to be clear, I don't mean to imply that it will change your life for the better. It will just change your life, so you assume some risk.)

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2009-12-16T07:44:00.001-05:00

"A roaring saga of the male animal on the prowl"

Review of Flight to Darkness

2009-12-12T06:06:00.003-05:00

Gil Brewer’s mini-revival (is the prefix even appropriate anymore?) continues with the republication of his 1952 Fawcett novel Flight to Darkness (New Pulp Press, 2009). The book represents the new publisher’s first foray into reprints, and it seems like a worthwhile effort. Brewer’s work usually follows a fairly straightforward formula: A desperate guy meets a bad girl and proceeds to make questionable decisions until bad things happen, and it’s too late to fix them. It’s easy to accuse Brewer of being repetitive, and it’s true, he was, but his books have a certain desperation about them which makes them seem more immediate than the countless other mass market paperbacks of the era that depended on the same basic plot. Brewer’s effortless conjuring of desperate heroes is because his own life was so full of desperation.

Still, he had his faults. His books often seem rushed, probably because he was under duress to crank something out to get paid and because back in those days no one wanted a hundred thousand word manuscript. The fact that he was an alcoholic probably didn't help.

Flight to Darkness aspires to be more than the average Brewer novel, and it sometimes succeeds, but it still suffers from its ending. Darkness is the story of Korean War vet Eric Garth, who has acted heroically in battle, saving an injured man while under heavy fire. The incident took its toll on Garth, though, and he suffers from what would now be called post traumatic stress disorder.

Eric, a sculptor, is constantly haunted by the thought that he murdered his estranged half-brother Frank with a sculpting mallet. As the novel opens, Garth is being released to return to Florida with his fiancee Leda, a nurse he met while hospitalized, to claim his half of the family business from his half-brother Frank. The happy couple's trip is derailed in Alabama when Garth is accused of a hit and run. Garth has no memory of the incident, and when his brother shows up, local law enforcement is only too happy to institutionalize Garth indefinitely.

When he finally escapes, he finds out the charges were dropped long ago, so he sets out for Florida, where he discovers that Leda has married Frank, who has conspired to screw him out of the family business. Matters are further complicated by Eric's old flame, Leda's professed desire for him, and the not insignificant fact that Frank soon turns up dead, his head bashed in with a mallet.

The desperation that pervades Brewer's stories works especially well in this novel, since the protagonist is not merely broke (as is often the case in Brewer novels), but of questionable sanity. It is a little difficult to dismiss some of Eric's actions late in the novel, however. After a good, if a little long setup, Brewer has his hero ignore about ten million red flags as the novel rolls toward its inevitable conclusion, and the conclusion is way too convenient. Flight to Darkness is missing the final part of Brewer's formula. At the end, everything turns out all right, which is just way too pat to be satisfying, especially considering the fact that Eric Garth spends ninety-nine percent of the novel doing his thinking below the waist. As is often the case, it seems like Brewer knew the necessary word count was close, so he just put a bow on it. A little more effort would have served this story well. The book has a rather well done pulp climax, but a little denouement would have fleshed it out just enough to make it have the resonance it should have had. It would have pushed this book from a good example of classic paperback fiction to an excellent one.

Patricia Highsmith's New York in the NYT

2009-12-11T11:54:00.001-05:00

Here's an interesting article on Patricia Highsmith's New York, which should keep you occupied until I get around to posting a review sometime this weekend.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2009-12-09T07:41:00.001-05:00

Cindy changed careers.

Goodbye Baby at A Twist of Noir

2009-11-24T16:13:00.003-05:00

I know I said I was shuttering the blog for a couple weeks during my vacation, but I just wanted to point out that my story "Goodbye Baby," which was available for about 5 minutes in the final issue of Demolition, is up at A Twist of Noir. I am rather fond of this story because it turned out to be something more than what I intended. It ended up being much more quiet than what I originally set out to write, and I think that made it a much better story than it would have been otherwise. I was quite sad when Demolition disappeared from the Web and this one went down the memory hole. Anyway, I hope you like it.

Independent Crime Takes a Holiday

2009-11-22T16:02:00.002-05:00

I'm making it official. I haven't shuttered the blog since I started it, but I'm about to go away for two weeks with limited to no Internet access, so I'm also taking a break from the blog. Have no fear, I'm taking a couple of books with me for review, and I'll be back around the second week of December or so, but I need a break from my life. So, I'm off to the middle of nowhere. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving, and try not to let the world fall into anarchy while I'm away.

Delayed Paperback Cover

2009-11-21T12:27:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay. Anyway, this one's from Hard Case, and I like it.

My Apologies on the Wednesday Paperback Cover

2009-11-19T18:11:00.001-05:00

I've been having technical difficulties. As soon as I get it sorted out, I'll get something up.

The Killer Inside Me: Pushing Buttons

2009-11-14T11:18:00.005-05:00

First off, I'm reposting the trailer for The Killer Inside Me, since YouTube seems to have taken it down. Secondly, prompted by this blog post, and it's concern about the film's depiction of violence against women,I went back and reread Thompson's book, which I had not looked at in many years. My first observation was that the trailer seems to show a film that shows remarkable fidelity to its source material. The story, as far as I can tell, is the same as the book's, and even has a lot of dialogue lifted verbatim from the book. That makes me optimistic about the film, even though Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson aren't exactly the greatest actors in the world.

Now,I'll make a frank assessment: The violence depicted in the trailer isn't the result of some Hollywood desire to tart up Thompson's book with titillating and shocking detail. It comes straight from the novel. The filmmakers seem to have actually toned down the initial meeting between Lou Ford and Joyce (Jessica Alba's character). In the book, Ford beats Joyce until she's unconscious and then revives her. When she comes to, she comes onto him. It's an uncomfortable scene, but not nearly as uncomfortable as the scene where Lou kills her. The trailer is graphic, but so is the book. Lou describes killing Joyce as, "like pounding a pumpkin. Hard, then everything giving away at once." If that imagery weren't disturbing enough, Joyce, who is clearly almost as screwed up in the head as Lou, asks for a goodbye kiss while she is being beaten.

The murder of Amy Stanton (played by Kate Hudson in the upcoming film) in the book is even worse. Lou hits her in the stomach, and "[his] fist went back against her spine, and the flesh closed around it to the wrist. " After that vicious blow, Amy falls and the floor, and Lou sits there and watches her die. Then he kicks her in the head for good measure. I've got to say, this scene, particularly the description of the punch, stayed with me for years. I remembered it long after I had forgotten most of the book's story.

Now, Lou Ford is a complex character. His violence is not just reserved for women. He kills men. He puts cigars out on vagrants for fun. He corners people and repeats corny cliches just to watch them squirm, but the worst violence of the book is reserved for women because Lou Ford has a complex relationship with the opposite sex. Without giving too much away, let's say that what torments Lou, aside from an inherited tendency toward sadism, is his relationship with women. To say more than that would be telling, but Thompson isn't going for misogynistic thrills. He's doing a character study of a man who has an inner life he hides from the world, and a public face at odds with his true self.

The Killer Inside Me was published in 1952, seven years before Robert Bloch's Psycho (another novel that hinges on a killer's complicated relationship with women). You can probably lay a lot of blame at Thompson's feet for the boring and repetitive serial killer fiction that clogs up the crime fiction section of your local bookstore, but it would be a mistake to accuse him of misogyny. It's not a theme that runs throughout his work. Thompson, like Bloch, wrote a lot of novels, and they're quite different, with different types of characters.

Similarly, it would be a mistake to accuse the filmmakers of misogyny for bringing Thompson's disturbing story to the screen. Artists have no obligation to preach, or try to instruct, or to worry about whether their work depicts something that's "dangerous." If you can't depict "dangerous" behaviors or ideas in fiction, then where exactly can you depcit them? I can see how The Killer Inside Me trailer might make the author of that blog post uncomfortable. It's not based on a Little Golden Book. The book is disturbing. It's meant to be. Dismissing The Killer Inside Me, as "no better than a snuff film," however, based on five minutes of footage, an obvious ignorance about the source material and a misplaced sense of self righteousness seems silly, although such controversy will undoubtedly end up helping at the box office.

Bonus video: MC 900 Foot Jesus raps from the POV of Lou Ford in his 1991 song "The Killer Inside Me."

The Killer Inside Me Trailer

2009-11-12T14:35:00.002-05:00

Self explanatory and NSFW.

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2009-11-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

Is Tonking a place or the sound one makes when being choked?

Wednesday Paperback Cover

2009-11-04T06:44:00.000-05:00

Mercury Mysteries specialized in abridged digests of novels. I have a rare short story collection by Woolrich that was reprinted that way, and a Nicholas Blake (father of Daniel Day Lewis) but I had no idea Brewer was one of their reprints. It's hard to abridge a Brewer.

The History Behind The Big Wake Up

2009-11-03T19:36:00.003-05:00

Over at The Rap Sheet Mark Coggins has an interesting post about the history behind his latest novel, The Big Wake Up. I, for one, had no idea how much of the book's story had a historical basis. I assumed he was taking liberties with some of the more outlandish aspects, but no.

Blogging the Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction: Soft Monkey

2009-10-30T13:05:00.004-04:00

It has been quiet around here for a while, mainly because I have been busy reading James Ellroy and Flannery O'Connor. They're two very demanding, but very different, writers who've taken up a lot of my time and energy. (Especially Ellroy. I've been plugging away at Blood's a Rover for a while now, and I'm not sure I'm getting anywhere.)

Nevertheless, I found time to read the next story in The Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction. I've read Harlan Ellison's "Soft Monkey" before, but I'm not sure where. I vividly remember it, and I remember it's preface about scientists who found that orangutans who are greiving the loss of a child will cling to a soft doll, and treat it as if it were alive.

The preface wouldn't be all that problematic if the main character of "Soft Monkey" weren't a mentally ill, homeless black woman. I don't attribute any racist intent to Ellison, but there's a rather long, disturbing history of comparing black people to apes that he should have been aware of or acknowledged. The only racist thoughts are in the characters who are trying to kill Annie, the protagonist, a woman who has had a psychotic break after losing an infant child. Annie is targeted for death after witnessing a mob hit, but there's something about this story that still kind of rubs me the wrong way. I'm not sure what it's getting at. I suspect Ellison was trying to get at the bond between mother and child and animal and beast, but I think he might have found a better way to get at it.