Staccato Crime – Larque Press | The Digest Enthusiast

Reviews October 1, 2024

Each Dawn I Die by Jerome Odlum

Present day prison novels and memoirs are loaded with violence and assault. The convicts must band together for survival against rival gangs and their keepers. So I was particularly interested to read Odlum’s novel, first published in 1936, for comparison. It presents a somewhat more charitable view of life inside, at least as far as an ever-present threat of sexual assault. But hold on. As revealed in David Rachels’ well researched introduction, the novel went through several heavy rewrites over its development. “The publisher told Odlum to remove all ‘obscenity’ and ‘perversion,’ which included references to sex criminals and homosexuality.”

Odlum had served several stints in Minnesota State Prison for writing bad checks and other swindling offensives, so he knew all about prison life first-hand. In his novel, the convicts are the heroes and the screws and management are the sadistic villains.

Newspaperman Frank Ross is set-up to take a bum rap by a powerful political machine. He is deemed responsible for a fatale car wreck while driving dead-drunk. His trial is swift, and he finds himself facing up to twenty years in Stoney Point prison.

His struggle to gain a new trial to prove his innocence is the main thread of the story, pursued by his wife and other colleagues at the Mountain Record newspaper where he worked, and by fellow-inmate Stacey, a powerful gangster with plenty of pull on the outside.

Much of the novel depicts the daily prison life, its harsh conditions, and man’s inhumanity to man. The controlling rules are nearly intolerable and the slightest infraction triggers a suspension of all “privileges” or worse—solitary confinement in the hole, where a man subsides on bread and water with no cot and only a bucket for his latrine.

If you’ve a fascination of prison life, Each Dawn I Die presents an unforgettable deep-dive into doing time, where men are so desperate for a piece of reality they adopt cockroaches as pets and long for escapes that can’t possibly succeed.

In real life, Odlum lost more than he won, but his debut novel rose above this failings and delivers a high-stakes mystery loaded with atmosphere, tension, and action.

Reviews April 26, 2024

SC 010: Hacking New York by Robert Hazard

A novel in vignettes. Street savant Hazard shares jazz-age memories of the daily grind of a hackman in the heart of the Big Apple. It’s his own (and a few compadres’) street savvy view of the intersection of customers, cops, and cab fare. His urban urbane names names and paves the route on when to stick it to ‘em and when to take the high road. Remarkably candid, this is the real inside deal, out of print for over 90 years.

It’s bookended by a deep-dive intro by Staccato Crime co-editor Jeff Vorzimmer who unearths the mystery of the man behind the wheel and a quartet of short stories. “Old Bill” delivers the same folksy tone as the main event, but this time the setting is rural; in a passionate memoir about an earlier mode of transport—the horse. “Brothers” shifts our perspective from horses to a couple of farm dogs, and “The Cops Got Their Men—Including the Taxi Driver” fictionalizes a robbery where the astonishing getaway car is a taxicab!

The volume’s final entry is a reprint from Scribner’s Nov-Dec 1929. And it’s a reprint here as well, as every vignette is pulled from the earlier mother lode. Kind of a “best of” the vignettes that came before. They read faster the second time, and provide a satisfying end cap to a fascinating slice of history from the big city.

Reviews June 2, 2023

Stealing Through Life by Ernest Booth

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Long out of print, Stealing Through Life is the perfect complement to the earlier Staccato reprint, Grimhaven by Robert Joyce Tasker. Tasker and Booth were both inmates in San Quentin and became friends through Tasker’s writing group. They agreed Tasker would write about life inside, and Booth about the criminal life outside. As good as Grimhaven is, Booth’s detailed account of his criminal life deserves as much, or even more, praise.

First off, Booth can write. His early fascination with reading paid off later with his fluency and skill when expressing himself in prose. He freely shares his feeling and emotions regarding his partners in crime, victims, bystanders, and the events of his life.

He either has an exceptional memory or he’s taken a conman’s flair for artistic license as he traces his life of crime from its earliest beginnings as a teen into adulthood, culminating in his memoir’s climactic event; a bank robbery he commits with a number of accomplices.

Most of the book is a first-person account, but occasionally Booth lapses into a sort of trance and describes his actions as if he’s viewing himself from afar. It’s this strange perception of the world that provides a possible explanation as to how he’s able to do what he does without guilt or regret. His humanity does show through at times, but he often comes off as callous and unrepentant.

He travels around the country throughout his story—either to elude authorities or to break into fresh territory. His detailed references about his locations, and his use of jazz-era jargon, enhance the realism of his narrative.

It is quite likely he’s an unreliable narrator. Like everyone else, he’s the hero of his own story, so his perception and prowess are likely stilted, but he does an excellent job selling his version of events.

True crime fans will relish this candid look into a criminal mind and its methods.

Reviews January 22, 2023

Room Service by Alan Williams

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Successful businessman Miles Farrington is a moderately likable fugitive on the lam after he murders a young woman he picked up during an insensible drinking binge. A psychologist would suggest he imagined strangling his blatantly adulterous wife after the unusually cruel incident (even for her), that triggered the binge. After that setup, much of the novel explores milquetoast Farrington’s track as he eludes justice and hooks up with a short succession of hard-drinking harlots.

Room Service delivers a solid plot, but its hypnotic pull is its enthralling characterization, painted with smoldering prose and scintillating dialogue. You can put it down between readings if you want, but it won’t be easy.

Peripheral elements of Williams’ own life experiences abound in Room Service as its pages fly by. They’re illuminated through Bill Pronzini’s excellent backgrounder on this talented lost author, and this story in particular. If your hunger for classic crime novels needs sating, the Room Service revival begins in February 2023.

Uncategorized August 9, 2022

Grimhaven

A sobering account of the author’s time in San Quentin in the 1920s. Much of Tasker’s prison life was closely controlled and passed almost entirely in the company of other inmates. Tasker’s memoir delves into the effects of such a punishing existence, where boredom and forced participation are monotonously thrust upon the entire population. How does one remain civil—or sane—under such conditions?

Tasker’s rare outlet became writing, which he pursued along with a small group of fellow convicts. It eventually led to this brutal, insightful account, and upon his early release to a modest career as a screenwriter in Hollywood.

For fans of true crime stories, Grimhaven provides a riveting, inside account of what happened to criminals after conviction in 1920s America. Plus, the paperback volume includes a fascinating bio of Robert Joyce Tasker by Woody Haut.

Out of print for decades, the Stark House imprint Staccato Crime brings Grimhaven back into print this September. Available for pre-order now.

Reviews April 24, 2022

How to Commit a Murder

First published about 1930, How to Commit a Murder provides Danny Ahearn’s (1901–1960) first-hand account of a slew of criminal activities, divided into chapters on jewelry stores, fur joints, straight stickups, car theft, politicking, protection, rackets, crap games, defending yourself after a pinch—and the crowning jewel of the title: murder—and how to get away with it. A fascinating account of the author’s life as a hardcore criminal.

Ahearn didn’t exactly write this baby, he narrated it. His editor, John S. Clapp—who wrote the original introduction for the first edition (which is reprinted here)—actually recorded Ahearn’s sometimes rambling account of this “how to” textbook and then painstakingly transcribed the whole thing. What you get is Ahearn’s authentic voice, oozing in big city street-savvy vernacular, and informed by his in-depth knowledge of that which he speaks. You can tell in short order, he knows exactly what he’s talking about. It’s captivating, immersive, and richly embellished. The only minor annoyance is Ahearn’s penchant to ramble. He doesn’t always connect the dots in his stream-of-consciousness revelations and sometimes jumps from one thought to another—all relevant to the chapter at hand—but not always sewn up tight with no loose ends.

That said, if you’re a fan of true crime exposés, this book’s hefty convictions far outweigh any petty offenses. Staccato Crime series co-editor Jeff Vorzimmer provides a short Preface to Gary Lovisi’s engaging 21st Century introduction to this Stark House Press jazz-age nonfiction gem.

Advance Review Copy provided by Stark House Press.
Release Date: June 2022. Available for pre-order from Stark House and amazon.

News March 4, 2022

Staccato Crime SC-003: Criss-Cross

Johnny Thompson is all in over femme fetale Anna Krebak, whose main interest in a man is the size of his bankroll. Johnny’s desire to win Anna’s love lures him into bad business with Slim Parsons, a hood with big ideas. Slim cooks up the perfect scheme to knock over an armored car full of payroll cash with Johnny behind the wheel.

With a title like Criss-Cross, you know they’ll be plenty of overlapping double-crosses, and you won’t be disappointed. A tour de force of noir magic. Filmed in 1949 with Burt Lancaster and Yvonne De Carlo, with direction by Robert Siodmak.

One caution: both Round Trip and Criss-Cross include the original jazz-age era racial slurs.

Round Trip/Criss-Cross is Staccato Crime SC-003 coming soon from Stark House Press.

News February 24, 2022

Round Trip by Don Tracy

Kudos to the Stark House Press imprint Staccato Crime, Greg Shepard, Jeff Vorzimmer, and David Rachels for bringing back the novel Round Trip by Don Tracy, first published in 1934. Eddie Magruder is a borderline criminal with a rough, suspicious demeanor. His path could have easily pulled a hefty term in prison, but he meets a reporter at the newspaper where he works as a photographer, and is shown a better life, a better version of himself.

The plot dances close to the edge of crime, but the story is all about its characters. Tracy’s prose is simple, but loaded with nuance and detail. It captivates and pulls you along like an action-packed thriller, only the action here is more subtle—at times almost mundane. But somehow it’s magic and impossible to put down, because you want to know what’s next in this unpredictable, first person narrative about the lives of a cast of characters as real as vivid imagination gets.

David Rachels’ well-researched introduction provides a welcome glimpse into Tracy’s life, success, and renown.

Next up: Criss-Cross, the second half of this two-fer.

Round Trip/Criss-Cross is Staccato Crime SC-003 coming soon from Stark House Press.