Hard Case Crime is a new imprint devoted to the classic hard-boiled or noir crime genre. You know, murky morals, bad women, greed and murder. Writers like James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett created a style that bled onto the movie screen in classics such as Double Indemnity and The Maltese Falcon. Launched this month, the books feature original cover art in the pulp fiction style, featuring busty dames, gun-toting thugs and lots of bright color. Two of the six titles out this fall hit bookstore shelves yesterday.
Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block
Block is the grand master of the detective genre, literally. He is the author of the Manhattan-based Matthew Scudder detective series. In this reprint of a 1967 title (originally published as Mona), a career gigolo is looking to score big time by marrying a rich widow. He strikes out and flees to Atlantic City (back when it was seedy) to disappear for a while. Things start to get complicated when he steals some luggage and discovers a hoard of heroine inside one of the bags. Then he meets a beautiful woman and it all goes rivetingly down hill from there. Block writes with a hard edge while plumbing the depths of human behavior. The ending of this one is still shocking today.
Fade to Blonde by Max Phillips explores another theme of hard boiled fiction, the inevitability of evil. Ray Corson is a former boxer and would be screenwriter who is working as a roofer when a tall blonde walks up to him and states "I need to have a man killed." Who she is, who the man is and why she wants him dead is a twisted story indeed. Corson is no angel, but he's not a fool either; he's a tough guy with brains. Swaggering his way through the lies, porn, the mob and murder may just sink him. But maybe not.
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