Black Gat Books No. 42

Will Peters fought in the Korean War and took home some shrapnel in his head. The docs told him it’s nothing to worry about, they just want him to check in every so often to ensure everything’s jake. Peters is our narrator, so we take his cavalier attitude at face value and move on. We dive into his simple life as a clam digger and fisherman, doing odds jobs here and there to supplement his income. He never drinks because the doctors told him not to. But he takes up with the wife of a low-life and she drinks enough for both of them. Peters puts up with her for her other charms. But as the months roll by Mae gets the idea they’ve been together long enough that in the eyes of the law they’re as good as man and wife.

Right about then, Peters catches a glimpse Claire Grace and he’s smitten like never before in his life. Now he wants Mae gone, and now ain’t soon enough. He also meets one of Mae’s cronies, Chris, a younger, prettier version of Mae. By the time the first killing enters his brain, we start to wonder about that shrapnel and the nil effects our narrator claims. Too late. The noir spiral is fully loaded and beginning to fray.

Awake and Die is a top-drawer crime novel filled with complex characters, unexpected incidents, and reeling emotions. And let’s not forget, Masek, Peters’ reclusive neighbor who only talks through his cat, his dog, and a well-fed seagull that seems happy to stick around most times. Or Rogers, the flawed, but relentless cop with a chip on his shoulder and spit in his eye.

Charles Lee Clifford (1890–1991)was a career Army Officer who served in WWII. He wrote as Robert Ames for Gold Medal and under his given name as author of four other novels. This Black Gat Books edition from Stark House Press includes his bibliography and a short biography.