Category Archives: Crime fiction

Pulp Friday: Syndicate Girl

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

“She was tough as the hoods she worked with – until she met a man who made her feel like a woman.”

I’m feeling like some classic pulp today. And they don’t come any more classic or pulpier than this 1958 first edition paperback by Dell Publishing, Syndicate Girl, by Frank Kane.

Kane was a New York based pulp writer who wrote nearly 40 pulp novels in a career spanning from 1947 to the late sixties. This included numerous short stories, 29 novels featuring the Big Apple private eye Johnny Liddell and numerous stand alone books, including Syndicate Girl.

If you want to know more, the Thrilling Detective website has a great post on Kane.

I don’t really need to say anything else, except the back cover blurb is as classic as the front cover.

“Network of corruption.

‘That was a nice job, Mary. Real nice.’

She smiled. ‘They always are, when I do them.’

The fat man shrugged. ‘This wasn’t an easy one. He was a smart cop.’

‘Not so smart,’ she said. ‘He’s dead.’

Mary Lister would do anything for a price. Kill a man, love him, whatever paid the most money. She didn’t know the meaning of fear-or passion. And then she met Mal Waters…”… Read more

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

Who Is Gary Chance? Buy Dark Pages, Volume One, and find out

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Andrew Nette| 6 Comments

On-line publisher Trestle Press released the first of a series of international noir and hard-boiled anthologies over the weekend.

Dark Pages: Volume One tries to answer the question: What is noir/hard-boiled like all over the world? What does it mean in your country and how does it read?

The anthology contains twelve stories from authors in USA, England, Ireland, Poland, New Zealand and Canada. There’s a few contributors whose work I’m familiar with, including pulp hack Paul D Brazill (and Paul, if you’re reading this, that’s a compliment) and Julia Madeleine, and a whole lot who I’m looking forward to reading for the first time.

I’m one of two Australian contributors.

My story, ‘One Ashore in Singapore’, is the second tale of mine to find its way into print featuring the character of Gary Chance. Chance is a tough as nails ex-Australian army veteran who now makes a living pulling heists for anyone who’ll pay.

My first Chance story ‘Two Men and a Car’, appeared in Crime Factory: The First Shift, published earlier this year by indie US crime publisher, New Pulp Press. You can order Crime Factory: The First Shift here at Barns and Noble and Amazon.

Chance will also appear in early 2012 in an anthology of local crime fiction by a new Australian publisher, Dark Prints Press.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Noir fiction

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Pulp Friday: Trouble Is My Name by Stephen Marlowe

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

“Instead of bourbon in the file I keep the savage ghost of murder.”

As front cover blurbs go, that’s a pretty good one.

Today’s Pulp Friday offering is Trouble is My Name by Stephen Marlowe, published by Five Star Paperbacks.

There’s no publication date on this book.

Through the wonder of the Internet, I discovered that Five Star Paperbacks was the pulp in-print of Mayflower paperbacks.

It did produced a range of crime, horror, Gothic romance and science fiction books in the late sixties and early seventies. I found a nice little selection of some of their titles at an interesting site called Vault of Evil, if you want to check them out

Five Star Paperbacks also licensed a number of hardboiled mysteries and thrillers from the famous US pulp publisher, Gold Medal Books, including Trouble is My Name.

Marlowe was a US crime writer, best known for creating Chester Drum in 1955. He wrote science fiction and crime under at least five pseudonyms that I have been able to find.

Trouble is My Name featured Drum and was originally published in 1957.

I’d be curious to know whether the back cover blurb on the original was as salacious as that on the Five Star Paperback version:

“My Code?… Read more

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

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Falling hard for Adrian McKinty

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Andrew Nette| 6 Comments

Falling Glass by Adrian McKinty is one of my best reads for 2011.

How much did I like it?

About thirty pages in, I put it down, went onto The Book Depository website (sorry bookshop purists) and bought myself two of McKinty’s earlier books

That’s how much.

I’m a late convert to McKinty’s work, but am now a keen follower. I’ve just finished Dead I May Well Be, his debut book, which showed the promise which led to a book like Breaking Glass.

I’m also very excited to discover that he has a new novel coming out early next year, The Cold Cold Ground. As the publisher’s blurb describes it:

“Belfast. Spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts … and a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera. Sergeant Duffy really is in a no-win situation. As a Catholic policemen, it doesn’t matter which side he’s on, because neither side trust him. The first book of a new fast-paced, gripping trilogy laced with dark humour, Cold, Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles—and a cop treading a thin, thin line.”

The central character of Falling Glass is Killian, a tough as nails Tinker criminal. His ambition to go straight has been derailed by the Irish economic crisis and, reluctantly, he’s back to doing other people’s illegal dirty work.… Read more

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Posted in Adrian McKinty, Book Reviews, Crime fiction, Noir fiction

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Pulp Friday: The Brat by Gil Brewer

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Andrew Nette| 1 Comment

This week’s Pulp Friday offering is for all the hardcore noir fans out there, Gil Brewer’s The Brat.

Brewer really is the aspiring pulp writer’s pulp writer. The author of dozens of sleazy sex/crime/psychological thrillers, he began his career writing for Gold Medal Books in the early fifties, also wrote under the Ellery Queen by-line, as well as using the pseudonyms Eric Fitzgerald, Bailey Morgan and Elaine Evans.

He kept up a punishing work schedule, once writing a book in three days. Between books he churned out hundreds of short stories for mystery and pulp magazines.

He died in 1983, after years of alcoholism, mental health problems and financial stress. Like most of the most accomplished pulp novelists, he only gained critical attention well after his death.

There’s a great site about Brewer, done by his estate, which includes full listings of his work, bio details and some great photographs. It’s called Gil Brewer, Noir Fiction Writer.

The Brat was first published in 1957. The edition above is 1958 and appears to be an overseas in-print judging from the currency denomination on the top right of the cover.

The Brat features femme fatale Evis Helling. The narrator, Lee Sullivan, is in for one hell of a surprise when marries Evis.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Fawcett Gold Medal Books, Gil Brewer, Pulp Friday, Pulp paperback cover art, Vintage pulp paperback covers

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