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Reviews May 20, 2023

Take Me as I Am by Darwin Teilhet is Black Gat 46

The latest Gold Medal reprint from Black Gat Books opens with a bang. In this case, a bazooka wielded by Monk Anzeiger, a dead-stop can opener against an armored truck hauling dough destined for a branch bank in Boone. An easy-money assault devised by the bossman, Gramma, who’d get half the take for his impeccable scheme. Only things don’t pan out as per the blueprint. The half-a-million payload tip fell way short of its promises, and Monk and his crony Pinkie have to settle for a measly cut of a hundred grand. A high price for what was now a multiple murder scene. The two crooks split with Monk headed for a rendezvous with Alma, his blonde bombshell, who’s brought a change of clothes and a blue Plymouth.

While the couple drives away, a radio newsflash reports the fourth guard didn’t die at the scene. He survived long enough to get to the hospital where he told the cops he’d heard the name Monk yelled out during the robbery. The cops quickly identify a known gangster named Monk Anzeiger, often seen lately with a blonde woman driving a blue Plymouth. Now too hot to be seen in public, Monk bails to hoof it into the wilderness, instructing Alma to take the loot to Gramma in Atlanta. He promises she’ll be less likely stopped if she’s driving alone.

Nervous as hell, Alma decides to pick-up a young hitchhiker on her route, figuring she’s less likely to be stopped with a companion who in no way matches the description of Monk. She even gets the eighteen-year-old Bill Evans to claim she’s his sister when they run into a roadblock a few miles down the road. Luckily, the cop in charge remembers Bill from high school football and lets them pass without a care.

Ever the manipulator, Alma gets Bill to scope out the shabby grocery store where she’s to hand off the loot to Gramma. Bill enters the place behind a young blonde girl and looks around for Alma’s ploy, her grandmother. He’s about to leave when some guy in a blue suit whips out a pistol and threatens the blonde girl. Acting on pure adrenaline, Bill whacks the guy who is finished off with the blunt end of meat cleaver swung by the girl’s father, who also happens to be the butcher working the meat counter. Bill hightails it back to Alma who recognizes trouble even if she can’t fully understand what went wrong based on Bill’s recount of events.

Now she’s on the lam with a satchel of hot money and an innocent bystander; and isn’t quite sure what’s coming next or what happened to Monk. Over the course of the novel, Alma and Bill slowly get to know each other better, and a romance blooms. But trouble hangs continuously in the background, and is slowly revealed to Bill, either through his own deductions or in confidence as Alma slowly opens up to him.

Darwin Teilhet, who wrote as William H. Fielding, delivers a tense, defective romance driven by dread and pursuit from every glimpse into the light. A top-flight noir, with brilliant character depth and clever plotting.

Reviews April 2, 2023

Murders in Silk by Asa Bordages

Murders in Silk boasts an intricate plot, masterfully meted out by a terrific author. In a short bio at the rear of the volume we learn the author wrote only four novels; two under his real name and a second pair under the pseudonym Mike Teagle. This one is so good, it’d be worth searching out the others—or maybe we’ll get lucky and Stark House will reprint them a little farther down the road.

The opening pages of the novel catapult us into a murder mystery when our protagonist Tiberius Bixby (aka Tie) observes a alluring fellow traveler who proceeds to stumble upon a man with his throat cut in the women’s rest room. The cops rush to the scene and question everyone in the vicinity of the murder, but unfortunately don’t learning much.

Tie however, learns the name of the femme fatale, Gretchen Jones, who discovered the body. He’s so smitten with her, he irrationally wants to minimize any exposure she has—he saw her and the victim together earlier on the train. Thus, he plays things cagey with the lead investigating officer of the murder, detective Rafe Conner, whom he knows from their days growing up.

The story takes place in 1948, and it those days, believe it or not, the train toilets flushed out onto the tracks. Obviously, there were enough issues with this practice that as trains became more common in urban areas, a containment solution was implemented. But in terms of our story, detective Conner is savvy enough to search the tracks for the murder weapon in case the killer had flushed it. And sure enough they had. It’s a unique knife that Tie fails to mention looks familiar.

As the initial investigation begins, it isn’t long until a second murder breaks and leaves Conner with more questions than he started with. Tie is a clever amateur, who is drawn into the case due to his infatuation with Gretchen. But as good as he his, his sleuthing skills pale in comparison to his old man, Zeb Bixby.

The first 170 pages are told first person by Tie, but when the case finally beats him, and he’s forced to the sidelines, papa takes over the proceedings—and the narrative—to wrap things up in a bow.

One quirk of Teagle/Bordages storytelling. He loves to give his characters multiple monikers. Most times it’s only two, like Zebediah and Zeb, but in some cases it’s more, like with Rat Face aka Salvatore Fiore aka Sal aka Sally. I guess it’s intended to add character depth, but it sometimes gave me pause to wonder who he’s talking about.

The novel includes two love-at-first-sight romances. Tie and Gretchen (mutual), and Tie and the daughter of the second murdered man, Paula Wannerman (one-sided). This second infatuation isn’t really developed, and seems to exist only as motivation for her character to protect Tie from danger.

Despite these minor ticks, the narrative is rich, steeped in period phrases and practices that make the mystery a joy to read. Both thumbs up on this one!

Reviews March 5, 2023

Dr. Gatskill’s Blue Shoes by Paul Conant

Soon to be reprinted as Black Gat Book No. 44 by Stark House Press.

Paul Eugene Conant (1906–1968) wrote only three novels. This was the lone entry under his real name, the other two were as by Gene Paul. Gatskill’s presents a swell premise: Lieutenant Peter Hanley finds himself at the Whitman-Bourne Clinic, unable to remember how beautiful Narcissa Maidstone was killed. Did he do it, as several of the higher-ups in the force believe, or is he innocent as his boss, Inspector Battle, presumes?

Dr. Gatskill, her boss, Dr. Holmka, and a few nurses are tasked with prompting Hanley’s memory for the truth. Hanley was at the murder scene, he either did it himself or witnessed who did. Gatskill administer’s successively larger doses of sodium amytal that leave Hanley sedate and dreamy. Sometimes he’s talking to the docs, sometimes he thinks he’s talking aloud, but it’s all internal narrative. Conant handles the transitions in and out of Hanley’s dazed consciousness with aplomb. The Lieutenant’s memories creep slowly back from his subconscious mind as he relives snippets of the past; the big mystery and the reader’s need to know driving the story forward. The struggle inches ahead over the first 100 pages or so. Some of it is a bit repetitive, but Conant does a good job of keeping things as fresh as possible. As Hanley’s memories return, the pace quickens, the twists turn, and the final chapters bring a satisfying wind-up to an unusual mystery story.

Reviews January 28, 2023

Object of Lust by Charles Runyon

Object of Lust by Charles Runyon (alias Mark West)
Black Gat No. 43

Bombshell, Marian Morgan is bored with her husband, Dewitt Morgan, who works too much and pays her too little attention. She copes with liquor until the day she nearly dies. The close-call that rocks her world, and has her looking at her rescuer, Lewis Leland, in more than gratitude. That is, until his inner psychopath starts showing.

It’s a character-driven story, and the characters are all driven by sex. Thinking about it, engaging in it, and then reflecting on it. That gets pretty tedious in other sex books I’ve read, but Runyon does an admirable job of giving his original publisher exactly what they ordered along with highly readable prose, tucked inside a terrific crime story.

If I had to shelve this novel in a bookstore, I’d reluctantly forego the crime section and place in firmly in erotica. It’s 75% sex and 25% crime. The final chapters are particularly gripping as all that bedsheet steam finally gives way to different kinds of excitement and tension.

The final pages include a Runyon bibliography and a short bio. Black Gat No. 43 will be widely available February 20, 2023.

Reviews January 22, 2023

Room Service by Alan Williams

Staccato Crime SC-007

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.

Reviews January 15, 2023

Awake and Die by Robert Ames

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.

Reviews December 18, 2022

The Best of Manhunt 4: Jack Ritchie

A fourth edition of The Best of Manhunt arrived as a complete surprise. Instead of the variety of the previous three, this one features only short stories by Jack Ritchie; mostly from Manhunt, with the added bonus of five more from ancillary titles. As laid out in editor Jeff Vorzimmer’s introduction, Ritchie was a consummate short story scribe. His openings grab, his prose sizzles, his characters jump off the page into your mind, and his stories transport you into a world of gamblers, crooks, killers, fatales, wiseguys, and all seven sins.

So authentic, Ritchie’s stories could be dramatized versions of true crimes. The prose is terse, at times brutal; the voice is street savvy, hard-hearted, and true to his downtrodden cast of deeply flawed misfits. Whether you’re a reader or writer of crime fiction, this volume is exemplary.

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.

Uncategorized July 24, 2022

Blood Alley by A.S. Fleischman

A prolific author, Albert Sidney Fleischman wrote novels as A.S. Feischman and Sid Fleischman. Blood Alley was his eighth novel and draws from the cultural and geographic sides of his experiences in the Far East during WWII. Later in his career, Fleischman wrote primarily children’s stories. Blood Alley is unique in that he wrote both the novel and the screenplay for the Batjac film production starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall.

American Merchant Mariner, Tom Wilder, is taken prisoner by Chinese Communists after they seize his ship. He is sprung from prison through a carefully planned escape bought and paid for by the town of Chiku Shan, whose residents need a ship’s captain familiar with the waters off the coast to aid their to Hong Kong. The only ship they have access to is a wood-burning, stern wheeler, capable of a top speed of about eight knots.

The story is rich with intrigue, dangerous scrapes with discovery throughout Communist territory, and steeped in local customs and topographic detail. Although the part of the movie Tom Wilder was originally cast with Robert Mitchum, Wayne eventually got the part; and reading the book, it’s far easier to imagine Wayne as the nearly one-dimensional, macho-man Captain Wilder than Mitchum.

Stark House does fans of Gold Medal’s 1950s PBOs a real service by bringing this one back to print. It’s a thrill-packed adventure with a terrific introduction by David Lawrence Wilson, who knew the author prior to Fleischman’s death in 2010 at age 90.

Stark House provided the novel for review. Publication release: August 2022

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.