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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.

Reviews April 1, 2022

A Sherlock Holmes Notebook

Stark House Press will release Gary Lovisi’s A Sherlock Holmes Notebook: A Cornucopia of Sherlockania in May 2022. This nearly 200 page trade paperback is packed full of essays, trivia, and collective treasures sure to please and enlighten fans and followers of the great detective’s adventures. Like many, I was introduced to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes and Watson while still in school. I read many of Doyle’s stories and watched quite a few of the movies and TV series produced over the years, but I had no idea of the extent to which the creation inspired first pastiches, and later new adventures, once the Canon fell into the public domain.

Lovisi shares the fruits of his lifelong pursuit of all kinds of Sherlockania with readers. Whether you’re a die-hard fanatic or a casual fan, there is plenty to delight in here through his series of over 20 articles and reviews, complemented with dozens of cover images of collectable first editions, paperbacks, translated volumes, card sets, plays, films, and even Doyle’s correspondence with Robert Louis Stevenson. Although Holmes is the center of all the attention, Lovisi does include a bit on Doyle’s other fan favorite, Professor Challenger, of The Lost World, The Poison Belt, and The Land of Mist.

A Sherlock Holmes Notebook by Gary Lovisi is a joy to read from first page to last. Whether you’re a serious collector of Sherlockania or a casual fan, you’ll find numerous leads to pursue in secondary markets out of curiosity or to satisfy a newly-stoked fervor.

News March 10, 2022

Killer by Robert Silverberg

Coming soon: Black Gat No. 37.

Originally published as Passion Killer by Don Elliott for Sundown Reader in 1965, this sleaze paperback seems like an odd choice for the Black Gat imprint. Maybe it’s an experiment to test the waters. Weighing in at 163 pages, I’d guess well over three quarters of this is one boring soft-core sex scene after another. Marie and Dolores’ cups runneth over explicitly above the waist, but anything below is a mere hint and a wink other than their rear ends that are described a lot like their tatas sans nipples.

The plot that moves intermittently forward as interludes between all the sex scenes ain’t bad. It could’ve easily been the basis for a good crime novel about a rich dude who hires a hit man to snuff his wife so he can marry his much younger, voluptuous girlfriend. Obviously, Silverberg can write. Unfortunately, the soft porn dominates too many pages and I couldn’t wait to finish unfulfilled.

Collectors will want this volume to keep their Black Gat runs complete, but I hope if Stark House continues with this genre they’ll spin it off in a line of its own.

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.