I'm in Beat to a Pulp Webzine

Broken Down on the Bonneville Flats will appear in June at Beat to a Pulp magazine. A trio of amateurs try to rip off not just a casino but each other.

Hard Case Crime Review #5: The Girl with the Long Green Heart

I'll say this for the Hard Case Crime series, it introduced me to Lawrence Block. Or maybe I'd been familiar with Block's work for a long time but never known it. (He did write under pseudonyms at times.) At any rate, I started reading through everything I could get my hands on that had his name on it.

Once again, what brought me in was the great over work by Robert McKinnon. Never mind that the girl on the cover of this paperback looked like a certain girl I dated in college. (This particular vixen seems to appear on other covers, so I wonder if McKinnon knew her as well?)

A pair of anti-heroes come together to pull off a master grift against a real estate tycoon. In order to get it to work, they need someone on the inside. They have to look no further than the man's secretary. Evelyn Stone is more than willing to help bring down her lecherous boss, but it will come with a price that Johnny Hayden and Doug Rance will pay before they realize it.

To me, this is classic Block. We quickly identify with these two grifters and not because we're behind their plan but because we all know people like Hayden and Rance, and we've all worked for scumbags like Gunderman.

And we've all known the power of a woman like Evelyn Stone.

The grift is complex and involves twists on intricate levels. But it doesn't lose you in its complexity. It brings you along and it adds suspense. The final twist is well worth the journey through the actual con.

Four out of five bullets.

Hard Case Review #4: The Vengeful Virgin

Simple and direct. Gil Brewer delivers a passionate, early erotic tale of an appliance store owner who uses his skills to help an eighteen year-old ward murder her benefactor to reap a hefty inheritance.

You can't help but feel bad for Jack, the palooka with a talent for wiring what passed as home-entertainment systems in the 50's. From the minute he answers the call and lays eyes on Shirley Angela, the red-head vixen, you know there is going to be trouble. Is she dumb or is she playing him? Even at the end after all she's done with Jack to get the money, I still wonder if she had it all worked out in her head. I might have believed that if not for Brewer's dark ending.

One thing I've always enjoyed about reading and even writing if leaving the audience with a lingering image or two. Brewer delivers on this too when Jack lies in a hospital bed with his ex-girl glaring at him for his stupidity. Excellent moment.

Where the book weakens is in Jack. you have to really want to care about a bozo like Jack who instantly gets a hard-on for an eighteen year old girl and quickly begins to develop a plan on how to seduce her and then take the sick old man she cares for all his money. You're hoping he gets caught and maybe that's why you'll continue to read: To see if he gets away with it or if he gets his comeuppance.

Three and a quarter bullets out of five.

Hard Case Review #3: Little Girl Lost

Look, I would be lying if I didn't admit one of the things that draws me into the Hard Case series is the cover art, especially when the art is done by Robert McGinnis. Google the guy; you've been looking at his work for years but probably didn't know it. When I saw the cover of Little Girl Lost, I knew I'd be in for some fun reading.

Yes, I'm judging the books by the cover because in the case of Hard Case Crime, it works.

I hated putting the book down. Richard Aleas (which is an alias) crafted a real fine tale of strippers, thugs, and PIs. He puts an updated twist on the good twin-bad twin plot line and reveals it earlier enough that I don't think it really needs a spoiler alert. Miranda Sugarman is as sultry and sexy as femme fatale's come and after a while, you can almost feel the heat of PI John Blake rising up out of the pages.

As far as private eyes go, Aleas' Blake is an intriguing detective. I thought he was worthy of more than a single follow up (Songs of Innocence to be reviewed later.) unless, of course, there are other Blake stories I haven't discovered. In Little Girl Lost, Blake has a pesky mother to deal with as he digs into his ex-girlfriend's life as a stripper. The deeper he digs, the darker her life becomes.

If I had any reservations before reading it, this book hooked me into wanting to delve into hard-boiled crime fiction.

Four and a half bullets out of five.

Disclaimer

No one gives anythng free for doing my reviews.

Hard Case Crime Review #2: 3 6 1

The second in the reading series for me. It was a much better hard-boiled crime read, which is what I had been looking for, than The Colorado Kid. Donald E. Westlake was new to me, although years ago I happened upon the Lee Marvin tough guy movie Point Blank which turned out to be written by Westlake as well.

361 is a hard hitting revenge story that sends its young protagonist, Ray Kelly, out after the men that gunned down his father and the man who hired them to do it. Kelly works his way into the organization by being as tough as the men he has sworn to kill, never letting on what his plans are.

It's a quick, entertaining ride. It's like a left hook before the right upper cut, knocking you almost out as you come into the final round. Good stuff.

Four out of five bullets.

Hard Case Review #1: The Colorado Kid

The Colorado Kid was the first Hard Case Crime novel I read. I didn't realize it was going to launch me on a journey through nearly the entire run of the Hard Case line. I remember seeing it at a mall bookstore, amazed that King's name was on the spine. I took a chance on it and while I didn't think it was the greatest mystery novel ever, there were elements of it I found intriguing.

King pulls a fast one on the reader, even going so far as to point it out in the Afterword. He warns us we'll either go along with him for it or hate him for it. I went along with him. Look, some of King's best work is not in the horror genre. He has a great ability to make a reader feel like he is eavesdropping on the people in the story. The characterization is rich, the settings quaint with just the right amount of dread creeping in like a Maine fog. Plus, the cover artists for this line of books know just how to play a lady's curves.

So while the mystery is thin, the story is engaging through its three main characters- a couple of crusty old timers and a young cub reporter who could be either's great-granddaughter.

Three out of five bullets.