Category Archives: Crime fiction

Book review: Missing in Rangoon

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

Missing in RangoonFor well over twenty years Canadian lawyer turned crime writer Christopher G Moore has chronicled change in Thailand and the surrounding region through the character of Bangkok-based American private investigator, Vincent Calvino.

Moore has penned thirteen Calvino books. Most of them are set in Thailand, although Moore has also taken his character to Vietnam and Cambodia. In the latest instalment, Missing in Rangoon, Calvino heads to Burma or, as it is now officially known, Myanmar.

The opening pages find Calvino standing in the shell of the Lonesome Hawk Bar, one of the establishments that used to form part of Washington Square, a well known and down at heel part of expat Bangkok, recently demolished to make way for yet another of the condominiums that mark the city’s skyline. Calvino suggests to the former owner that he should consider starting over in Rangoon, a city on the make and welcoming all comers, much like Bangkok was decades ago.

Not that Calvino particularly wants to make the journey himself. He’s being pressured to travel to Burma by a disagreeable English brothel owner, who wants to hire him to find his son. The son has disappeared in country’s capital along with his Burmese girlfriend, a real head turner and the lead singer in the band the son plays in.… Read more

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Posted in Asian noir, Book Reviews, Christopher G Moore, Crime fiction, Crime fiction and film from Thailand, Noir fiction

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Pulp Friday: What Now My Love and the Tao of counter cultural pulp fiction

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 2 Comments

What Now My LoveThe counter culture and protest politics of the late sixties and early seventies resulted in some fascinating pulp fiction.

A good example is What Now My Love by Floyd Salas, published by Grove Press in 1969.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how one defines ‘pulp fiction’. As a general rule, pulp is understood to be anything that involves fast writing and that was not meant to last. The transitory nature of pulp can be seen in a literary sense, books not deemed part of our literary heritage, as well as the physical nature of the product, the cheap paper it was printed on, the often poor binding, etc.

I have a number of problems with this definition, not least of which is a suspicion of how ‘literature’ is defined by mainstream critics.

But that’s for another post.

The ‘what is pulp’ discussion is particularly interesting in the context of the sixties and early seventies. It was a time when publishers embraced subjects relating to the counter cultural and radical politics, and the distinction between high and low brow culture began to fragment.

Most obvious pulp books about the counter culture were produced by writers trying to cash in on the salacious headlines and mainstream angst generated by bikers, beats, hippies, drug use, ‘free love’, etc.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Pulp fiction, Pulp Friday, Pulp paperback cover art, Vintage pulp paperback covers

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X-rated reviews: Miami Purity, London Blues

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 2 Comments

Miami PurityX-rated reviews?

Now that that title hopefully got your attention, this week I’m reviewing two books, both of which are heavily focused on sex, Miami Purity by US writer Vicki Hendricks and Anthony Frewin’s London Blues.

Some Pulp Curry readers may not have heard of the Miami-based crime writer Vicki Hendricks. That’s a great pity because along with women like Megan Abbott, Christa Faust and others, she is dead set proof a women can knock out a noir tale every bit as feral and fucked up as their male counterparts. I should stress I personally don’t need any proof about this, but I suspect some others do.

Hendrick’s book, Cruel Poetry was reviewed on this site last year. Miami Purity was her debut novel and it’s good. You can tell just from the opening line: “Hank was drunk and he slugged me – it wasn’t the first time – and I picked up the radio and caught him across the forehead with it.”

The character who utters those words is Sheri Parley, a tough as nails stripper in her late thirties, with few life prospects who has come out of a string of terrible relationships, the last one of which led to the death of her last man (Hank) and a terrible alcohol fuelled binge.… Read more

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Posted in Book Reviews, Crime fiction, Noir fiction, Vicki Hendricks

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The books that hooked me on crime fiction

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 15 Comments

The Neon rainDo you remember what books got you into crime fiction?

When it all comes down to it, I have to credit my late father. Dad loved writers like Carter Brown, Mickey Spillane and Ian Fleming. He passed on his readings tastes to me, particularly his love of dark, pulp influenced crime fiction.

Here are the five books that began my love affair with crime fiction.

What are yours?

From Russia With Love – Ian Fleming I still have my father’s collection of James Bond novels published by Pan Books in the late fifties and sixties, which I saved from my mother’s frequent op shop culls. Published in 1957, From Russia With Love was the fifth Bond book but the first one I read.

It involves a complex plot by Soviet counter intelligence, SMERSH, to kill Bond and discredit British intelligence, using a beautiful Russian cipher clerk and a secret decoding machine as bait. Lashings of action and intrigue, evocative settings such as Istanbul and the Orient Express, characters including the SMERSH executioner, ‘Red Grant’, and the diabolical Colonel Rosa Klebb.

I can still remember reading this in my late teens and my mind going whoooosh with the possibilities.

The Neon Rain – James Lee Burke

The Neon Rain was another of my father’s books.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Ian Fleming, James Crumley, James Ellroy, Noir fiction, Peter Corris

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In conversation with Scottish crime writer Stuart MacBride

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

close-to-the-bone

Hot on the heels of last weekend’s Tartan noir panel at the Melbourne Writers Festival, comes news another Scottish crime writer will be visiting our city.

Best selling author Stuart MacBride will be in Melbourne next week.

MacBride is the author of several books featuring DS Logan McRae, as well as a number of stand-alone novels. His latest McRae novel, Close to the Bone has been released.

I’ll be in conversation with MacBride at Reader’s Feast Bookstore next Tuesday, September 3 at 6.30pm. Readers Feast is located at 162 Collins Street, Melbourne.

It’ll be MacBride’s only Melbourne appearance. Tickets are $6 and bookings are essential. E-mail readers@readersfeast.com.au

Hope to see you there.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Tartan Noir

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