Genuinely juicy pulp noir from 60 years ago.
In a sinful city, an aspiring actress teams up with a crime columnist to clear her boyfriend of a murder charge.
At sleazy Carrol’s Bar & Grill on South Main Street, world-weary police detective Brady commiserates with Gazette columnist Ned Lowry—who writes a column called “The Seamy Side”—about the unsolved murder of Doris Blair, as they watch barfly bandleader Bob McKay, who’s recently fallen on hard times, get in a fight while bemoaning Doris' fate. Silverberg’s storyline veers in surprising directions, recalling the classic noir of Hammett and especially Chandler, with colorful, hard-bitten characters lurking in every dark cranny and plot detour. At the Dumas, a marginally classier nightspot, rugged, charming Jack Colin flirts with lovely B-girl Terry Stafford, who’s dancing with male customers while hoping for an acting career. Terry’s fallen hard for the wounded McKay, and a romance is blossoming. After McKay is arrested and aggressively questioned for the murder of Doris, who worked alongside Terry at the Dumas but kept to herself, Lowry returns, following the story to assess McKay’s guilt, and Brady returns as one of the cops on the case. When Terry reads Lowry’s column about the case, she senses a sympathetic ear and tells him about her subtle plan to investigate, and they decide to work together. Gathering pieces of the puzzle will require interviews and wrangles with a colorful collection of tenderloin lowlifes. Previously published in 1960 under a pseudonym, Silverberg’s novel isn’t a modern homage but the real thing; he brings the same vigor and imagination to noir that characterizes his award-winning science fiction. Bonus: three additional Silverberg detective stories from the same era.
Genuinely juicy pulp noir from 60 years ago.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-78909-992-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Hard Case Crime
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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