Stark House – Larque Press | The Digest Enthusiast

Reviews May 28, 2026

BG83: A Rage of Desire by Clayton Matthews

Mitch Sutton has—if not everything—most of the American dream a 1960-era everyman would want: beautiful wife, two lovely children, a solid job, and a home of his own. But lately, there’s no spark between him and Claire, so he ain’t happy. She doesn’t think much of his drinking, so he’s tried to curtail the habit. But one fateful night he overindulges and hooks up with Jane, a self-assured, brazen, sugar plum. They crawl the pubs into the wee hours, and she leaves him flat-footed and smoldering. That should’ve been that, a high wire dance that ended safely, but Mitch is smitten and can’t get her off his mind.

Now, it’s an obsession, and his compulsion twists into something far more complicated when Jane turns up at the dealership where he works as sales manager. Soon the flames of desire overcome the heat of the danger of discovery, and Mitch is headlong into a full-blown illicit affair. Many steamy paragraphs and pages ensue.

Just when you start to wonder if this is a torrid romance novel or a crime book, Mitch finds himself behind bars in the fight of his life.

A Rage of Desire was Clayton Matthews’ (1918–2004) first novel, published in 1960. His commitment to writing is proven by an impressive bibliography of more than 35 novels. He also penned shorts for crime digests like Mike Shayne, Alfred Hitchcock, and Man from U.N.C.L.E. He married Patricia (Brisco) in 1972 and the couple wrote five novels featuring series character Casey Farrell.

Reviews May 6, 2026

BG82: Green Ice by Raoul Whitfield

Raoul Whitfield (1896–1945) was a pal of Dashiell Hammett, who weighed in on Green Ice for the New York Evening Post. “The plot doesn’t matter. What matters is that here are 280 pages of naked action pounded into tough compactness by staccato, hammer-like writing.” It’s an impressive blurb, and now that I’ve read the novel it’s easier to unpack.

Perhaps Hammett dismissed the plot rather than try to explain it. It’s complicated. Green Ice, which was Whitfield’s first novel, is packed with a large cast even for a mystery novel. It was intentional because there’s a high body count and many of the yeggs and fatales only live to see their end rather than The End.

Mal Ourney is a newshound sucked into the charms of bad girl Dot Ellis. So much so, he takes a rap on her behalf and serves of two-year bit without remorse. Green Ice opens with a bang as the two are reunited upon Ourney’s release, and plunges him head-first into a confusing and complicated mystery littered with bullets, bodies, and booty. Dot is the first casualty of this rapid-fire fracas.

Ourney’s been out of circulation so it takes him a considerable chunk of pages to figure the potential angles and motives of a dynamic cast that enters and exits as he attempts to unravel the shreds of information he extracts or extorts. His opponents and allies shift throughout. And there’s more than one crook who knows more than our hero. Plus, there’s the cops. Somehow, Ourney prods or plops himself into the middle of every single thing and is repeatedly duped, dumped, or detained for interrogation.

The plot is important, but not so important that readers need keep every detail and actor in mind. The plot is the framework upon which Whitfield showcases his command of action, 1920’s slang, and descriptive magic. This is one rocket-powered street race, drenched in a shower of hardboiled prose.

Reviews April 10, 2026

BG81: Brenda by Sam S. Taylor

All the elements of a classic rural noir are present here, including solid prose. Still, Brenda just didn’t do it for me. When characters behave so illogically it breaks the suspension of disbelief and leaves you disconnected from the action and its intended emotional response, it’s too much. That’s Brenda, Boyce, Conrad, Frances, and even several of the secondary characters.

Conrad returns home from Korea to the farm where his Uncle Boyce and now deceased Aunt Norma, raised him. Boyce is blindly infatuated with the decades-younger, hottie, Brenda, who is adamant to prove she can seduce and scorch any man she chooses—even if it requires wedlock. Boyce is exasperatingly old school, and somehow believes he can return to eking out an existence via dawn-to-dusk farm work with city babe Brenda transformed from playgirl into hard-working farmer’s wife overnight. Brenda breaks that mold in a New York minute, and even turns her seductive sonar onto Conrad. Oh, what a tangled mess she weaves!

Originally, written under the pen name Lehi Zane, Brenda, was first published by Gold Medal in 1952. Taylor also wrote three detective novels, all featuring PI Neal Cotton, for Dutton/Signet from 1950 to 1953.

Reviews February 28, 2026

BG80: The Dropouts by Robert Goodney

The lives of two battered down-and-outers cross paths mid the shadowed streets of NYC. Both protagonists are wrought from dubious roots; and despite good intentions, and some desire to “straighten” themselves out, both are unable to overcome their baggage. Shaker returns to the scene of the Houston Hotel where he previously lived, scraping by as a substitute desk clerk at odd hours. He longs for Mexico, where he imagines life will be golden. Meanwhile, Cass lives in a similar dive and works a dead end job far below her potential. The two connect, and subconsciously attempt to complete each other. But their primary commitment remains in their broken identities, and they seem unable to overcome their scars to embrace a better reality. Shaker in particular.

The Dropouts is a fine character study of the struggling class and the lost souls it produces. Goodney, whom we learn from Tom Cantrell’s informative introduction, died at the age of 29. This was his only novel and includes several unusual narrative techniques and copious descriptors of setting. Like the novel itself, readers are left hoping there was more his story to be told.

Reviews January 21, 2026

BG79: Walk the Dark Streets by William Krasner

Joe Marco looks more like a jockey than a gangster. He role-plays a law-abiding club owner, but Detective Captain Sam Birge can see beneath the veneer. Marco is careful to cover his tracks, but Birge recognizes the hood’s hidden ventures encourage exactly the sort of crimes that the detective faces every day. This time, it’s the murder of one of the Club Trinidad’s hostesses—stage named Janice Morel. Knifed in her twin-size at the fleabag Marne while comatose from a night inscribed with cheap liquor.

Birge and his partner, Charley Hagen are opposites. Birge is older, wiser, and measured. Hagen is young, ambitious, and overly aggressive. Birge is a likable character, while Hagen is more the stereotypical tough cop who beats out a confession to speed up a conviction. That’s where Harry Chapel comes in, a low-life with baggage; and intimate of Ms. Morel. Initially, Chapel is merely a person of interest, but Hagen’s threatening accusations transform him into suspect number one when he flees the scene immediately following his browbeating.

Noir excellence, rife in character depth and engaging prose, this Edgar-nominated first novel by Krasner (1917–2003), was originally published in 1949. Detective Birge would go on to appear in four additional novels, although one saw print only in Germany.

Reviews December 25, 2025

BG78: One Foot in Hell by Wilene Shaw

The fact that Larry Crenshaw is a successful accountant, model husband, and a solid citizen of his native burg, fictitious Hadsville, Kentucky, located on the banks of the Ohio River, belies his reliability as a narrator. He juggles a few quirks, but generally hides his massive psychological dysfunction pretty well. He successfully deludes himself as he denudes nearly every female he encounters—her age notwithstanding. Readers witness the slow boil of his undoing as his alternate reality rises into a deadly hallucination of sanity.

Crenshaw is obsessed with sex, and it becomes obvious as pages accumulate that it’s the driving force of his existence; even if he can’t seem to recognize this fatalistic fact himself. His psychosis grew out of a brutal childhood past, fed by early promiscuity-interruptus and a tragic marriage, Crenshaw spirals into a sex-starved, booze-infused frenzy that leads to one crippling consequence after another.

Originally published by Ace in 1961 under Virginia M. Harrison’s pseudonym, Wilene Shaw. Although it was written long after the jazz age, its kilter would seem to fit comfortably within Stark House’s Staccato Crime series. Stark House previously published Shaw’s Heat Lightning in their first collection of Ace paperbacks: Three Aces (May 2023)

Reviews November 25, 2025

BG77: The Grave’s in the Meadow by Manning Lee Stokes

Imagine writing three novels a year for 30 years. When Stokes launched his impressive bibliography in 1946 with the publication of The Wolf Howls “Murder” he went on to write 87 more before his death in 1976. Of course, sometimes, like in 1967 his credits include a staggering nine titles, but if you take his active years 29 (he died in early January, so we won’t count 1976), and divide by 88, it comes out to three books a year. Many were written under pseudonyms, and this Black Gat edition includes a four-page bibliography of Stokes’ storied career.

The Grave’s in the Meadow originally came out in 1959 from Arcadia House and was reprinted by Dell two years later. (The cover on this BG edition reprints the one from Dell.) The novel opens moments after Richard (Dick) Ludwell witnesses the murder of Kid Gonzales an up-and-coming middleweight who refused to take a dive in his last fight for the benefit of mobster Al Alonzo. The Kid paid dearly and Ludwell, who can identify the shooter Tuffy Sikes, knows he must disappear or face erasure by Sikes. Ludwell’s childhood chum is about his only trusted friend and has an ideal hideout buried in some tiny burg 100 miles from his troubles in Lake City.

Ludwell’s getaway is fast and smooth, and upon arrival in his new home he immediately begins to leverage every lucrative opportunity he can exploit. But nearby Shadeland is already packed with its own raft of savvy operators, and Ludwell is soon entwined in the local power plays. The novel is packed with unexpected twists and plenty of action as Ludwell sprints headlong from one hot mess to the next. It’s a mind-bender!

Reviews October 29, 2025

BG76: Run, Killer, Run by Lionel White

Lionel White (1905–1985) leveraged his real-world experiences as a police reporter and true crime magazine editor when he turned to writing crime fiction. This novel was originally released as Seven Hungry Men in 1952 by Rainbow Books. White reworked things for its 1959 edition as Run, Killer, Run for Avon. Both titles are appropriate. Indeed, the caper masterminded by crime financier Mordecai Borgman, assembles seven hungry men to pull an armored car robbery, led by Rand Coleman, whom Borgman helped finagle for an early release. Coleman ain’t swayed by the favor, but when Borgman presents his latest venture along with Coleman’s cut, the ex-con agrees to lead the misfit crew onto easy street.

A couple of guys Coleman picks himself. He knows they’ll do what he says and do it well. The rest of the gang are less than optimal, but he’s forced to accept them because the clock is ticking. His doubts are confirmed and re-confirmed as the robbery unfurls and bodies fold. Coleman ain’t the one who did the killing, but with his record and the heat the hijack triggers, the revised title fits like a tight angora on a stacked twenty-something personal assistant. And that’s an apt description of Pam, Borgman’s new squeeze who likes life on the edge and loves complicating every situation she thrusts herself into.

The action and errs never stop as Coleman and his dubious partners in crime bolt from one bare escape to the next. The novel would make a terrific crime film, and in fact, Kubrick’s The Killing was adapted by White’s Clean Break, written in 1955.

Kudos to Stark House for bringing back the mystery via their Black Gat Books imprint!

Reviews August 25, 2025

BG74: Roadside Night by Erwin S. Nistler & Gerry P. Broderick

Buck Randall is a relatively nice guy. He owns a bar and a few cabins. He’s making a little money, with plans to make some more. There’s a nice girl nearby that adores him and doesn’t hide her feelings. Joyce is a little younger, a little greener than Buck, but she’s grown up right and she’s easy on the eyes. Her Daddy likes Buck too, and could be a real asset for the young man’s plans.

Maybe Buck’s military stint had him seeing and doing things that buckled his psyche just a little too sharply. When he catches his first glimpse of Sylvia Landon, things turn noir.

Sylvia is a knockout. She’s whip-smart, and she’s got big plans for Buck. In-between sheet sessions she slowly uncovers those plans. She’s got the perfect robbery lined up, and Buck’s just the man to make it happen.

Over the middle fast-paced pages of this short novel, while Buck follows her lead, he also begins to learn all about his lover’s past. It’s not good, and he can’t help but wonder what it portends for him.

Nistler and Broderick wrangle elements of classic noir, taking them in surprising directions; driving hard toward an unexpectedly deadly climax.

Reviews July 21, 2025

BG73: The Joy Wheel by Paul W. Fairman

A beautifully metered coming of rage story. Eddie Kiley is on the cusp of manhood, flirting with vice, sex, and moonshine in old Chicago. His role model is his father, a successful salesman who travels frequently and hasn’t always been around to provide guidance to the teen. His mother is devout, a barricade that keeps the family’s skeleton closet shuttered to keep the uglies at bay. Like most older sisters, Eddie’s is further ahead in maturity and overall savvy than her years might attest.

An excellent character study, this fascinating story carefully unravels each person’s flaws over the course of their lives during Eddie’s most critical formative years. The most obvious is his Uncle Frank, who fights a losing battle with moon, stumbling from one self-inflicted crisis to the next. The novel is categorized as a crime book; it certainly skirts the borderline. It could also be cast as noir, but even there it defies expectations. In the end, what matters is Fairman has crafted a beguiling glimpse into the inner lives of one depression-era Chi-town patriarchy with all its heart and hedonism.

Paul Warren Fairman (1909–1977) was the founding editor of the If digest, and also served for a time as editor for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Amazing Stories, and Fantastic. He wrote a raft of short stories and novels across multiple genres under his own name and several pseudonyms. Several movies and television episodes were based on his stories.