Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America)

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The best American crime novels deserve their place in the pantheon of American literature, but they hold special interest for cinema enthusiasts, who can both compare them to the movies they became and can roll imaginary films of the stories in their minds. Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s is the second of Library of America's two-volume anthology of underground U.S. fiction. The first anthology featured works from the 1930s and '40s that had been made into classic films noir. This volume focuses on fiction written after the crime genre had acquired conventions that younger writers toyed with and sometimes broke. The movies made from such stories were equally radical.

Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is the source for René Clément's bristling Purple Noon, a movie that features Alain Delon's quintessential performance. David Goodis's Down There inspired François Truffaut's neo-noir masterpiece Shoot the Piano Player. Jim Thompson, the brilliant author who scripted The Killing and Paths of Glory for Stanley Kubrick, wrote several novels that have been turned into movies, including The Grifters and The Getaway. He is represented here by one of his most uncompromising works, The Killer Inside Me, which was filmed by Burt Kennedy in 1976. Charles Willeford's Pick-Up and Chester Himes's The Real Cool Killers have not yet been made into movies, but the blistering prose and nihilistic worlds of these authors, and of all the writers represented in this volume, is astonishingly cinematic. This lovely hardcover edition contains biographical, textual, and explanatory notes.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent compilation.......2007-01-07

The other reviewers misunderstand "Pick Up", (****warning -- spoiler****) which is a fascinating novel because the narrator is mentally disturbed and completely unreliable. This fact explains the "twist" ending, a number of apparent editing errors and the unlikely events that occur throughout.

The Final Volume on the "Crime Novels" Series.......2005-11-03

"Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950's" is the second and last volume of the hardboiled anthology published by the Library of America starting with the volume devoted to the genre in the 30's and 40's. This follow-up continues the saga of run-down characters hardened by experience and tough luck. The familiar cast of roguish males, femme fatales, and temperamental and violent detectives set the stage for a diverse and entertaining ride into the depths of the underworld.

"The Killer Inside Me" - Jim Thompson's most popular work is a memorable tale of a Texas law enforcer with a sinister past whose dark and psychotic nature is cunningly veiled behind a genial facade that barely contains "the sickness" which the main character has successfully concealed. A sudden turn of events unleashes the beast inside leading to a tragic odyssey of disillusion, violence, and murder. Pioneering in it's time for revealing the inner mind of the serial killer, the bracing prose and chilling character development makes this work one of the best in the genre.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" - Tom Ripley is a con artist successfully making ends meet through one of the most reprehensible professions in New York City. A drifter and social outcast, one night in a bar he comes across a parent of an old acquaintance he barely recalls and is asked to do a favor. When he consents, his true nature unfolds in this story of murder, sexuality, and identity. Made into film in 1999 starring Matt Damon in the leading role, this cosmopolitan travelogue with a Decadent touch in the end introduced the world to one of the most oddly sympathetic and diabolical characters in Literature.

"Pick-Up" - Charles Willeford's winning style successfully conveys the sad and tragic tale of two lost alcoholics in the skid row section of San Francisco in the 1950's. Scene by depressing scene the author chronicles the faith, hope, and disillusionment of a couple whose time revolve around the contents of a bottle. The engrossing prose is marred unfortunately with an unbelievable twist and dissapointing ending.

"Down There" - The best selection of the entire series, "Down There" is an unforgettable account of a barroom piano man whose days of glory were ended by tragedy. Rendered indifferent to life by his soul-breaking experiences, he meets an equally lost soul and together they encounter adversity supporting each other as only similarly dark-fated individuals can. The heartbreaking ending still haunts me whenever I think about it.

"The Real Cool Killers" - Blaxploitation on speed! The talented Chester Himes vividly conjures this adrenaline yarn of two black detectives taking on the streets of Harlem in no holds barred action. Race, violence, and loathsome scenemakers feverishly grapple in this heat-inducing neon nocturne of urban society. Black humor at one of it's very finest.

Flawed but highly readable, these long forgotten and out of print works have been handsomely restored and given ample tribute by the laudable Library of America. Wanting to familiarize myself with the enduring genre, reading the two vols. of the "Crime Novels" series has been a pleasant introduction and reading experience to me.

More Noir.......2002-01-15

This book is the second volume in the Library of America set on American crime noir. I enjoyed the first volume so much that I decided to read the second one during Christmas break. Once again, the LOA has done a nice job of collecting a fine series of stories. These stories were written during the 1950's and 1960's. The book is nice to look at too; it's covered in red cloth with a cloth bookmark.

The first story is from the demented mind of Jim Thompson. This story, called The Killer Inside Me, is much better than The Grifters, a book by Thompson that I read some time ago. The Grifters seemed to be pretty one-dimensional with respect to its characters. This story is the exact opposite. A deputy sheriff in a Texas city has a terrible secret. He plays dumb on the outside, but inside he is a cunning sociopath. A long simmering resentment leads to a terrible revenge. Bodies quickly stack up as a result. This seems to be the story that Thompson is best known for and it's no surprise why. This is a dark, twisted tale with a grim ending.

Patricia Highsmith wrote a whole series of stories concerning Tom Ripley. The one included here is The Talented Mr. Ripley, probably better known due to the recent film with Matt Damon. This tale isn't as noir as I would have liked, but it still has enough twists and turns to keep anybody in suspense. Ripley is a low class conniver who ingratiates himself into a wealthy family who wants him to go to Italy and bring back their son. Ripley sees the potential for bucks and meets up with the kid and his lady friend. Of course, things take a turn for the worse and the bodies start stacking up. This story was probably my least favorite out of the entire collection.

The next story, Pick-Up, by Charles Willeford, is a depressing tale about two alcoholics who go bump in the night. The story follows the adventures of this alcoholic couple as they attempt suicide, check themselves into a mental hospital, and drink themselves into a stupor. After the female half of the couple dies in another suicide pact, the story switches to a prison tale. The end is somewhat of a twist, but really doesn't impact the story that much, in my opinion. Again, not really noir as noir can be, but still a fine story that can stand by itself.

Down There, by David Goodis, is a wild ride of a tale. Full of suspense and death, this is a great story that deserves to be included here. A family of ne'er-do-wells drags their talented piano-playing brother into their personal problems. The background information on Eddie, the piano player, is phenomenal. The tragedy that has struck him once is bound to repeat itself again. This story has great bit characters that really liven up the background.

The final story, by Chester Himes, is The Real Cool Killers. This is noir on acid: pornographic violence, massive doses of grim reality, and characters you're glad to see get killed. The story is set in Harlem and involves two tough cops named Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Someone kills a white guy in Harlem and the cops try and track them down. This story contains one of the funniest descriptions of a person falling off a balcony that I've ever read (and I've read a few, disturbingly enough). The writing has enough similes and metaphors to give Raymond Chandler an apoplectic fit. A cool story that certainly deserves a place in this book.

If you like noir, read these two LOA novels. They are long (together they're almost 2000 pages) but it is definitely worth the effort. These kinds of stories are just a great way to while away some free time and relieve stress.

This is a Great Collection.......2001-05-09

I usually don't like genre fiction, but this book is a great collection of "Noir" novels. Film buffs will be particularly interested in reading the novel on which "Shoot the Piano Player" was based, as well as the first "Mr. Ripley" novel (much nastier and darker than the recent film). Most highly recommended.

Great Collection, Attractively Packaged.......2000-07-08

This is a fine collection of crime novels in a durable, easy to read format. It starts off great with "The Killer Inside Me", the all time best trip through a killer's mind. The selections by Highsmith and Goodis, while not as intense as "Killer", are just as good in their own quieter ways. The only novel I would have left out is "Pickup"; while I like Willeford I think this is one of his more leaden performances. I also have a quibble with the volume's title, as the word "noir" has been beaten to death and doesn't tell us much about most of these books. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" owes more to Henry James than to Raymond Chandler, and "Killer" doesn't feature any dark city streets. Quibbles aside, however, the book is well worth buying.

Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

Splendid Read
Crime Novels -- 30s/40s
Thank God for the 1930's and 1940's/
The Dark Underbelly of the American Dream
A Real Discovery: 4 or 5 of these make amazing reading

Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)
Horace McCoy , Kenneth Fearing , William Lindsay Gresham , Cornell Woolrich , James M. Cain , and Edward Anderson
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1883011469

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Literature and film buffs will be delighted by this collection of pulp novels, most of which were made into important films. James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice is a literary masterpiece with its spare prose invoking a savage, sexy, desperate world. It inspired no less than three great movies: Luchino Visconti's classic Ossessione, in 1942; the 1946 remake, starring John Garfield and Lana Turner and directed by the extraordinary Tay Garnett; and Bob Rafelson's underrated 1981 version with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. When you read the magnificent source for these movies, you'll be astonished at how three different incarnations could all, in their own ways, be faithful to the novel.

Cornell Woolrich's I Married a Dead Man also became three movies: No Man of Her Own, with Barbara Stanwyk; the French I Married a Shadow; and the American comedy, Mrs. Winterborne, which starred Shirley MacLaine and Ricki Lake. Edward Anderson's vivid Thieves Like Us was transformed into They Live by Night, Nicholas Ray's first important movie and one of the seminal noir films of the 1940s. It was brilliantly remade in 1974 by the great revisionist director Robert Altman. Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock was transformed into a marvelous film starring Charles Laughton; 40 years later, the same source, retitled No Way Out, brought Kevin Costner to stardom. William Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley was the source for Tyrone Power's best movie; Horace McCoy's experimental They Shoot Horses, Don't They? became one of the seminal films of the 1960s.

These dark, evocative novels, when taken together, are a fascinating study of how words can inspire a magnificent variety of cinematic images and styles.

Customer Reviews:

Splendid Read.......2007-06-04

This collection of novels from the 30s and 40s was terrific fun and an outstanding introduction to the genre. You can debate whether they're all noir (at least what I expected noir to be); but nonetheless they each convey a distinct impression and view of the time. Without getting into lengthy reviews, I enjoyed Woolrich's "I Married a Dead Man" the most--from his eloquent style to the actual story-line. You know you're reading a master story-teller. Second was Gresham's "Nightmare Alley;" although sometimes I thought he could have expanded on some aspects of the story and shortened other passages (i.e., a little bit of editing would help). But each novel was distinct and enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Crime Novels -- 30s/40s.......2006-11-07

Ha! Just skimmed some other reviews and I wanna add my two cents. Yes, this volume is definitely something. Some impressions follow.

The Postman Always Rings Twice: Indeed, Cain knew how to make the reader keep turning pages. Short, sweet, and fascinating. After I discovered the significance of the title (which is a bit of a "trick"), I liked the whole effort all the more.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?: A bit monotonous to read; a bit dark. That was the point. All told, a fascinating novel. Among all literature named in the world, *this* is one of few titles inspired by God: so memorable and unique, so perfect. It turns out to impart chilling meaning, as well, on several levels.

Thieves Like Us: My least favorite. This was a subjective reaction, however. I wanted the story to take turns it didn't take. Moreover, Anderson as an author took note of things I found not-so-interesting; apparently, the book's status to this day speaks otherwise on behalf of many other readers, however.

The Big Clock: Short, sweet and sterile. Almost machine-like in its plotting and execution -- if so written intentionally, a fascinating stylistic choice given its title -- but, notably, full of interesting and colorful characterizations. Possibly my favorite.

Nightmare Alley: Relentlessly grim and ugly. I'm not so sure there is a single character to root for in this story. That was probably very much intended. Fascinating but, again, very grim. Literary nihilists of today would do well to take a lesson from Gresham's characterization, plot and style.

I Married A Dead Man: Although the novels were presented chronologically, this was a nice way to end the volume. A very simple, linear, domestic story, without hard-boiled criminality or complication, which unfolds with some plot which stretches credibility, but lies ultimately within the realm of the possible. Notable among noir novels for Woolrich's ability to evoke two unexpected emotions at the end: a sense of deep and abiding love between two of the main characters -- before the real and final ending -- and a sense of genuine sadness.

Worth owning. Might take the reader a while to get through. This is, in effect, six books in one, running to nearly a thousand pages. But it was definitely fun; and as another reviewer implied, it's surprising how little has changed.

Thank God for the 1930's and 1940's/ .......2006-07-11

First of all, the Library Of America collection provides the reader with some of the most beautiful hardcover editions available today. That said, the selections chosesn for this edition are all first class; for someone just getting into hard-boiled fiction, this is the ideal place to start. If you're like me and have been reading this genre for many years, this is a perfect volume to add to one's collection.

The Dark Underbelly of the American Dream.......2005-09-29

Noir emerged in the early 20th-Century from Pulp paperbacks published for mass consumption. Highlighting in gritty and sensationalistic detail the sordid undercurrents of Western society, Noir became an artistic force that became the medium for the representation of the down and out segment of the populace. Whether set in the impersonal grime of urban reality or at the deceptive simplicity of rural picturesqueness, Noir in Film and Literature revealed the odyssey and travails of lost souls whose misguided characters bore too much of the weight of their selves and their pasts to break from the shackles of their present.

"Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930's and 40's" is the American equivalent in prose of the influential and enduring genre. The grim and unforgiving tales of the dejected cast of mid 20th-Century American life are openly depicted ("The Postman Always Rings Twice"; "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"; "Thieves Like Us"; "Nightmare Alley"); vicissitudes of fate ("The Big Clock"; "I Married a Dead Man"). Whether set in scenic California, the vast and open Midwest, or a high-rise office in Manhattan, these novels uniformly render a panorama of blighted dreams, twisted turns of fate, and the sad recurrence of misfortune in desperate individuals doomed to tragedy.

None too substantial in content but highly readable, this edition is the first of a handsome 2-Volume anthology on American Noir fiction published by the venerable Library of America. Edited by Robert Polito (Poet, writer, anthologist on Noir Lit. and author of a biography on Jim Thompson), these stories enduring relevance are seen in various forms of contemporary society: from the writings of James Ellroy, Brett Easton Ellis, Lawrence Block, and Robert Bloch; in films like "Scarface", "Pulp Fiction", "Fight Club"; and in everyday life.

A Real Discovery: 4 or 5 of these make amazing reading.......2005-01-23

This is an impressive collection of early and now scarce Noir novels. "The Big Clock" and "Nightmare Alley" are particularly hard to find outside of this volume.

Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice" was probably the first crime novel I ever really got into, and it's a stunning departure from Agatha Christie-style mysteries. So much happens in this short book (as turns of plot, but also development of character) that it compares favorably to the first half Camus' "The Stranger." The drifter plumbs the depths of his desperation in a brutal attachment to another man's wife: it's not greed or lust that drives him, but a base need for someone to whom he can anchor himself. A raw and amazing experience, unmatched by anything else of Cain's.

McCoy's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is impressively vivid. I had no idea these dance-hall marathons took place before reading this story. This circus of exploitation of young and apparently desperate people certainly makes for excellent Noir. One of these benefits of reading these novels is the unearthing of buried episodes in America's past.

"Thieves Like Us" has been reviewed here as the weaker end of the collection, and I have to agree. It's still a very capable story of outlaws; and the stoicism of the young people caught up in the criminal's lives is admirably depicted here. I recommend reading Andersen's novel before the others (it's still definitive Noir), so one can more easily avoid expectations built up by the Cain and McCoy.

"The Big Clock" is interesting in the depiction of power relationships between employer and employee, and the shifting first-person style of telling the story works here. I never heard of Fearing before reading this novel, but he evidently had a deep understanding of the motivations of very different kinds of people. This novel has the most suspense of the collection, and is a great and sophisticated read.

The most surprising and bizzare novel is "Nightmare Alley," a strange and memorable journey of an aspiring carnival charlatan. It defines Sleaze. The longest and most complex novel, it feels like a long-lost classic that's been hidden away because of its disturbing content. Some may think of it as too long, but the twisting journey through sweaty farming towns, railroad stations and addled big-city martiarchs required time to establish some crediblity: by the end, I was convinced that such a grotesque collection of stunts actually belonged in the story of this country. "Nightmare Alley" alone is worth the price of the book. Fans of Tarot might be a little offended, but this is especially recommended for understanding fans of Ray Bradbury.

Finally, "I Married a Dead Man" by Woolrich is a suspense novel set up by a tragic accident. The protagonist, literally and figuratively hungry, siezes the opportunity to substitute herself into a more fortunate woman's life. Excellently done, and more grounded in comparison to "Nightmare Alley."

Overall, there's no legitimately weak entry in this collection. The variety of content in these novels is enormous, and acquiring this book will allow the reader to experience the different flavors of American Noir. Most modern crime/suspense movies will seem ridiculous by comparison.

Average customer rating:

Mosley is a literary treasure. This could be his finest.
Dead Heat
A Book Drenched In History
The finest of the Easy Rawlins stories?
A Multi-layered Mystery

Black Betty (Easy Rawlins Mysteries)
Walter Mosley
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393036448

Book Description

Los Angeles, 1961. Kennedy is in the White House and King is marching down South. It's a new day for many blacks in America - but not for Easy Rawlins.Easy's small real estate empire is in trouble and he is facing bankruptcy when Saul Lynx, an oily white private eye, offers him $200 to track down on Elizabeth Eady, a.k.a. "Black Betty." The sensuous Betty was a housekeeper for an immensely wealthy Beverly Hills family - but now has mysteriously disappeared.Easy takes the job, but he also has to deal with his murderous sidekick Mouse, who's just been released from Chino prison. Mouse was sent up for manslaughter, and he wants Easy to help him find the ones who gave him up to the police.Finding Betty seems a simple enough task, but nothing about this woman is as simple as it appears to be. Easy soon finds out her trail is paved with blood - and he might be the next victim of her deadly charms.

Customer Reviews:

Mosley is a literary treasure. This could be his finest........2005-10-16

Mosley's Easy Rawlins series of crime novels are collectively a great read. Novel by novel Mosley takes us from the optimistic, sunny post-war LA toward a bleaker, jaded experience - so by the time we get to Black Betty in the early 1960s, Rawlins has worked for 15 hard year trying to better his family, and yet still he keeps getting dragged back into his past - this time to earn a couple of hundred dollars to find the whereabouts of a housemaid whom he once knew as Black Betty.

This time the tension is ratcheted up a notch because of the risk to Rawlins' family of adopted kids, and because of the return of his violent friend Mouse, just out of jail and eager to blow the heads off the people who put him there.

But where Mosley scores is in his faithful recall of the events of the early 1960s - there is mounting Black Anger, the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening and the news bulletins feature a fiery Martin Luther King and...later in the novel, the death of JFK. I've seen many noverls where history is wheeled in to lend gravitas to the narrative, but nobody does it better than Mosley. Seen from the tired, indignant viewpoint of Ezekiel Rawlins, our modern history weighs heavily. I loved this novel and this next summer I'm going to re-read the Rawlins series once more. Five stars? Not enough. Mosley is a literary treasure and Black Betty rates as one of his finest.

Dead Heat.......2003-05-25

Raymond Chandler made the definitive statement about L.A.'s Santa Ana Winds at the beginning of his short story "Red Wind." In Easy Rawlins' L.A., the hot, dry winds that fill the lungs with cactus dust and make the skin peel around the fingernails never seem to stop.

Easy is in search of an erotic dream woman from his childhood who is being sought by one of those rich white families who have more skeletons than clothes in their closets. Around the same time, the very dangerous Raymond "Mouse" Alexander is released from the pen; and Easy's attempt to make a killing in the real estate market run up against a brick wall.

There are plot threads aplenty, and enough characters to fill a passenger liner. Mosley is too good a writer to leave any threads untied, but I do get lost at times with some of the characters. One bad dude is not heard from for a hundred pages when he commits a particularly heinous murder at the very end. "Oh, yeah, wasn't he the guy that ...?" Sometimes, I would have welcomed the list of characters, complete with nicknames, that occasionally accompanies an 800-page Russian novel.

What makes this a minor complaint is that Mosley has such a great sense of place and so much feeling for his characters. We don't meet the character he calls "Black Betty" until the end of the novel, but we keep seeing vignettes from Easy's past that keep building up the suspense, and any expectations are more than fulfilled by an ending that is bloodier than the last act of Hamlet.

A Book Drenched In History.......2003-01-10

Walter Mosley doesn't just write mysteries. He creates a historical landscape peopled with vibrant and authentic characters who like most of us are flawed and lacking in some way. "Black Betty" is Mosley at his best. The mystery is enthralling and many layered, the atmosphere electric, and the villains exquisitely evil.

The time is 1961 the era of Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, and the beginning of The Civil rights movement. Easy Rawlings is raising two adopted children on his own, and his secret real-estate empire is sinking. He has no idea how to solve his financial problems until a sleazy private eye Saul Lynx approaches him with a job. Lynx offers Easy $200 to track down a former acquaintance of his, Elizabeth Eady, aka Black Betty. Betty a beautiful and sensual woman has vanished from her wealthy employer's home in Beverly Hills.

Easy's search for Betty will uncover a trail of chaos and murder. To make matters worse, Easy's psychopathic best friend Mouse is also out of prison determined to find and execute the man who betrayed him. However, this book is much more than a murder mystery; it is a journey into the heart of racial bigotry and the paradox that is the human race. The language is vibrant and moving:

On the bus there were mainly old people and young mothers and teenagers coming in late to school. Most of them were black people. Dark-skinned with generous features. Women with eyes so deep that most men can never know them. Women like Betty who'd lost too much to be silly or kind. And there were the children, like Spider and Terry T once were, with futures so bleak it could make you cry just to hear them laugh. Because behind the music of their laughing you knew there was the rattle of chains. Chains we wore for no crime; chains we wore for so long that they melded with our bones. We all carry them but nobody can see it-not even most of us. All the way home I thought about freedom coming for us at last. But what about all those centuries in chains? Where do they go when you get free?

This is not merely a fast paced and gripping mystery but a powerful story of one of the saddest aspects of American life. Mosley does not preach nor condemn, he merely presents us with a historically accurate account of an era in which this mystery story unfolds. I highly recommend this story.

The finest of the Easy Rawlins stories?.......2002-04-10

I don't generally like crime fiction. There's a sentence to alienate most of the people reading this review! However for some writers - the great ones - the genre they write in is irrelevent. It cannot be denied that Mosley is a great writer, who has shown equal facility in tough but politically and socially literate crime writing and also in witty and wise post-modern science-fiction.

Black Betty is a fine demonstration of his craft. His particular skill is in weaving the world into his tales. The mystery is well-constructed and satisfyingly tangled, featuring multiple murders, corruption and racial and class divisions. However the central plot is framed both by the atmosphere of early 1960s America with the rise of the civil rights movement confronting old prejudices, and by the dense web of family and social life within the families of ordinary, mainly (but not entirely) black, working class Americans.

In theory Easy Rawlins' role in the investigations in which he is involved is limited to where white men fear to tread - the black community. However the networks of corruption and deceit he uncovers inevitably take him outside this world, in this case into the bizarre and emtionally-stunted world of white land-owners and their complicated relationships with their black and latino servants, as well as a corrupt and racist police force and legal system.

Easy is also personally involved - Elizabeth Eady AKA Black Betty - the woman whose disappearance he is hired to investigate was a teenage crush of his, a woman who inspires obsession in many, which turns out to be her tragedy. At the same time, Easy has to contend with several other difficulties: the release of his psychotic - but often useful - friend, Mouse, from prison, bristling with anger and the need to revenge himself on the man who sent him down; the ongoing silence of his eldest adopted child Jesus, who has chosen not to speak as a result of the trauma and abuse from which Easy rescued him; the suspicious collapse of the real estate businesses in which he has invested his occasional earnings; and various other ongoing personal and social difficulties. Easy Rawlins has a well described and believable, if unconventional, family and a life beyond the crimes he is occasionally employed to solve. He is a fascinating character who has grown with successive novels; full of desire and anger but compassionate, wise and often painfully self-aware.

I would rate Black Betty as the best of the Easy Rawlins tales. What is particularly great about it is Easy's story of personal survival and compromise in an unfair world where a black man cannot sit back and enjoy what he has without someone trying to destroy it. Easy does get to the bottom of things, but it is at immense cost to all those involved including himself, and in the case of Mouse - well, as those who know the character will be aware that there is very little in the world that will stop him doing what he has set his mind on.

This is ultimately a tale cut about with sadness and rage, and a mighty fine and and jolting read it is too.

A Multi-layered Mystery.......2000-10-24

After reading (or rereading) many of the classic detective novels in the past few months, I have come to two conclusions. First, I read way too many detective novels. Secondly (and more importantly), in all truly great hardboiled detective stories, the actual mystery is secondary. Granted, a labyrinth plot that keeps one guessing is always a plus. But all the true greats of crime fiction (Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy et al.) have realized early one what has taken me some time to understand: It is not the plot, it is the world the story occurs in that is important. The finest mystery plot in the world means nothing if the reader does not believe the world presented actually exists, at least on the page.

I state this merely as a preamble to my main topic, the novel BLACK BETTY, by Walter Mosley. It is a good mystery. It has intrigue, deception, betrayal, racism, and murder. It is complex enough to demand a second visit. But, more important than the plot, Mosley has created the world of 1950's Los Angeles in such vivid and believable detail that you'd read the novel even if it were a mere travelogue.

BLACK BETTY marks the fourth appearance of Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, an unwilling investigator who is more concerned with providing his children with a good home than he is with solving a case. It is to this end that he accepts an offer of two hundred dollars to track down Elizabeth Eady, a sultress from his past who has gone missing. As Easy once again delves into the lives of others, he visits worlds he wishes to escape from, and worlds he wishes to join. He also realizes that there is no real difference between them.

Easy ranks up with Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade as one of the finest literary detectives. He is tough, resourceful, intelligent, and oddly eloquent. It's also good to see the return of Mouse, Easy's childhood friend/nightmare. Mouse is a killer, and is all the more terrifying for his believability. Like all of Mosley's characters, you get the impression that they have lives beyond the page, that they do not exist merely as foils for Easy.

But that is true of Easy's entire world. In a few simple, elegent sentences, Mosley can describe a character more vividly than most authors can do with pages of exposition. Their manners of speech, their beliefs, their dreams. Mosley can size up an individual like almost no one else can. Even minor characters, such as Ortiz and Jackson Blue, linger in the memory far longer than many lead characters of other novels.

Mosley's Easy stories, despite their being lumped into the sometimes simpleminded detective genre, are always more than they appear. Mosley embues his writings with a palpable sense of rage. The common, almost routine racism that Easy encounters every day gives the stories a compelling weight that his literary predecessor's sometimes lacked. It is a viewpoint that could overwhelm the story, but Mosley is far too skilled to let it happen. Even as Easy muses about Martin Luther King and "the young Irish president", he understands the difference between political rhetoric and day-to-day reality. Easy's world may be fictional on the surface, but it exists, and continues to exist all around us.

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Penzler Pick, April 2001: What seems a long overdue volume is finally making its appearance. (After all, The Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler was published 20 years ago.) Here, in more than 600 pages crammed with important as well as intimate letters, is a view into the mind of the most important American mystery writer of the 20th century. While I don't believe Hammett could carry Chandler's pen when it came to literary excellence, it's fair to say that Chandler couldn't have published much had Hammett not made the private eye novel both popular and acceptable in the world of American letters.

While I don't recommend starting at the beginning and reading straight through to the end, you can dip into virtually any letter and find an interesting sentence, a fresh way of looking at something seemingly familiar, or learn something you didn't know about Hammett and the people he knew. Take, for example, this brief note to his publisher, Alfred Knopf, in October 1934. The Thin Man had been published in January of that year and was by far Hammett's most successful book. Knopf wanted to capitalize on that success and attempted to get a sixth novel out of his author. Hammett wrote back: "Dear Alfred--So I'm a bum--so what's done of the book looks terrible--so I'm out here (Beverly Hills) drowning my shame in M-G-M money for 10 weeks."

And isn't this interesting? Hammett was stationed in Alaska during World War II and had an active correspondence with Lillian Hellman but also with Prudence Whitfield, the wife of Raoul Whitfield, a fellow Black Mask writer and one of Hammett's closest friends. So Hammett writes to Hellman on May 6, then again on June 3, saying "I know I'm a lowdown bastard not to have written you in all this time..." Well, he was probably right. In the interim, he'd written to Prudence, signing off with "Good night, darling, and much love..." Is there anyone out there who doesn't believe there may have been a bit of hanky-panky with his best friend's wife while darling Lillie remained sublimely unaware?

There's so much more here I could quote for pages. Nice letters to his daughters, Josephine (who wrote an introduction to this book) and Mary; correspondence with other famous writers, his publisher, the editor of Black Mask, etc. There is also a splendid editing job by Richard Layman, probably the country's leading authority on Hammett. His expertise as Hammett's biographer and bibliographer has made his footnotes useful in putting into context the references that may be obscure to some readers.

Here is a book worthy to stand right next to The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, Red Harvest,The Dain Curse, and The Thin Man on your bookshelf. --Otto Penzler

Book Description

A literary event: the letters, both private and professional, of Dashiell Hammett, creator of Sam Spade and father of the hardboiled crime novel.

In his five great crime novels, all of them written in a magnificent burst of creativity between 1927 and 1935, Dashiell Hammett gave America a cast of immortal characters-Sam Spade, the Continental Op, and Nick and Nora Charles, mold-breaking, red-blooded alternatives to Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey. In the words of Raymond Chandler, Hammett "gave murder back to the kind of people who commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not with hand-wrought dueling pistols." A popular writer from the start, he aspired to a higher goal. As he was working on his classic The Maltese Falcon, he wrote a letter to his publisher about the potential of the detective-story form: "Someday somebody's going to make 'literature' out of it...and I'm selfish enough to have my hopes."

Though Hammett's work is admired by millions, the man himself has always been an enigma. Now, at last, comes a volume of his letters, revealing not only the private man but also the hard-working-and hard-living-professional. Yes, he was part cynical tough guy, like Sam Spade; he was part sophisticated inebriate, like Nick Charles. But the character of Dashiell Hammett was too complex to be easily categorized. His letters to his family, lovers, and colleagues show his personal warmth, his political commitment, his wide-ranging intellectual curiosity. With wit, intelligence, and style, these letters further confirm Hammett's extraordinary talent as writer and observer.

Customer Reviews:

Hammett's Interests & Values in His Own Words. An Excellent Supplement to a Biography........2006-08-22

"Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett" includes 950 letters that Dashiell Hammett wrote between 1921 and 1960, spanning most of his adult life, from before his marriage to Josephine Dolan to just months before his death in 1961 -though the meaty correspondence stops a few years before that. Daughter Josephine Hammett Marshall started the project, and she nicely summarizes what these letters say about her father in the book's foreword. Editor (and Hammett biographer) Richard Layman discusses the sources in the preface. The letters were addressed to at least 17 different people plus some miscellaneous correspondence, but the most frequent recipients, in descending order, are: Hammett's friend and companion, the playwright Lillian Hellman; daughter Mary Hammett; daughter Josephine Hammett; wife Josephine Dolan Hammett; girlfriend Pru Whitfield; and Hellman's secretary Nancy Bragdon. End notes identify people and other references in each letter where needed.

The letters are organized chronologically into 5 sections, each introduced by an explanation of the circumstances of Hammett's life during the relevant time period. Part 1 (1921-1930), entitled "Writer", spans Hammett's married life, often strained by his tuberculosis and efforts to make ends meet, and the bulk of his literary achievement, beginning with early Black Mask magazine correspondence and ending with editing frustrations at Knopf. Part 2 (1931-1942), entitled "Celebrity", introduces paramour Lillian Hellman, to whom Hammett wrote longer, more formal letters than he did to his wife, discussing literature, career, and mutual friends. Teenaged daughter Mary engaged her father by asking him about the Spanish Civil War and emerging Nazi power, subjects for which he held passionate opinions, so Hammett's letters to Mary reveal his politics and values.

Part 3 (1942-1945), entitled "Soldier", is the longest section but spans the shortest period of time. Dashiell Hammett enlisted in the Army at the age of 48, eager to serve his country in its fight against fascism. He was stationed in the Aleutian islands, where he edited "The Adakian", a camp newspaper with distribution of 3,000-5,000. Perhaps due to Army discipline or the scarcity of alcohol, Hammett was a prolific correspondent during this time. He writes mostly of daily camp life and most frequently to Lillian Hellman, whose secretary provided Hammett with material for his newspaper. Part 4 (1945-1951), entitled "Activist", finds Hammett with a new sense of purpose after the War. He taught mystery writing at the Jefferson School for Social Science in Manhattan, campaigned for civil rights, and became active in communist organizations. Daughter Josephine Marshall was married by this time and a frequent correspondent -also during the 5 months Hammett spent in jail for contempt of court in connection with the Civil Rights Congress bail fund.

Part 5 (1952-1960), entitled "Survivor", is a miscellany of letters that reveal a man with diminishing vigor. He seems to have little strength left for discussions or details but always a warm, supportive word for his family. In the back of the book, there is a list of the books to which Hammett refers and an index (mostly people and titles). I have read 2 Dashiell Hammett biographies. These letters don't change my impression of Hammett, but reinforce it. They flesh out his personality a good deal. He was a talented writer, a loving but absent father, a man of strong convictions (some naive), who never complained through his share of hardships. Constant financial difficulties and frequent talk of writing projects that never materialize may seem pitiful. But they are reminders of Hammett's nagging faults, the sort that every life has.

Looking over the Thin Man's Shoulder.......2001-08-27

Reading this collection of letters by the author of "The Maltese Falcon" and other great mystery novels provides a revealing insight to the thoughts and feelings of this intensely private man. Peppered with delightful sides of humor it is easily readable. One can dip into one or another of the phases of his life: the early short story years, his service in World War I, fame and fortune in books, radio, and film; marriage, fatherhood, divorce, romances, chiefly with Lillian Hellman, service in Alaska in WWII, his jailing for defying the anti-communism of the 50's, his final illness, poverty, and death. In letters to Hellman, and his own daughters, Mary and Josephine he comments with a a few words on hundreds of books he read. A compendium of the books fills five and one-half pages at the end of the book. There is no explicit explanation of why his voice fell silent after his brilliant novels, but the perceptive reader is given clues in the man's own words, written with no intention to have them preserved for history but fortunately available to us now.

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Worth Every Penny!
Great Just-Before-Halloween Read
Recommended
Read this in one sitting.......
Good Young Adult Read, Too

Promise Not to Tell: A Novel
Jennifer Mcmahon
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0061143316
Release Date: 2007-04-10

Book Description

Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered—a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del—shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl"—was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems . . . and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten.

More than just a murder mystery, Jennifer McMahon's extraordinary debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, is a story of friendship and family, devotion and betrayal—tautly written, deeply insightful, beautifully evocative, and utterly unforgettable.

Customer Reviews:

Worth Every Penny!.......2007-10-22

This book was absolutely worth every penny! I adored it!
Its a great read and would be suitable for teens 15 and up.
Its not a terribly long book but I honestly could not put it down.

Basically what occurs is there a young girl murdered and no one has been found guilty but many amoung the community are suspected. When Kate returns home and the past creeps up again - she finds herself digging up memories of her murdered friend; "the potatoe girl"
Shortly after her homecoming another young girl is murdered and the plot thickens!
In an attempt to solve this old murder as well as the new one she finds herself back in time with things shed rather forget.

Cannot say enough good things about this one!

Great Just-Before-Halloween Read.......2007-10-21

I just finished PROMISE NOT TO TELL by Jennifer McMahon. A fast read, it was creepy, ghostly, disturbing and yet compelling. Forty-one-year-old Kate Cypher returns to rural Vermont to take care of her Altheimer afflicted mother. The night she returns, two twelve-year-old girls, Tori and Opal, are sitting around a campfire with a couple of boys telling ghost stories about the "The Potato Girl." Thirty years ago "The Potato Girl," Kate's friend Del Griswold, was murdered. The crime was never solved, but stories of young Del live on.

Tori leaves the fire to relieve herself and is murdered in a crime horribly similar to Del's murder. This new murder causes Kate's past and present to collide in eerie ways. PROMISE NOT TO TELL is fast-paced and memorable. I read it in two sittings.

Recommended.......2007-09-21

My wife read this first then passed it on to me. This was really a spooker all the up to the last paragraph. I loved the ending and the way she kept the story moving along. I finished this in record time. It was such a page turner. I hope she does more like this one.

Read this in one sitting..............2007-09-16

I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down. What a fantastic debut novel. I am really looking foward to more books from Jennifer McMahon. I was on the edge of my seat until the end. This is one of the top thrillers in my personal "favorites" list.

Good Young Adult Read, Too.......2007-09-05

Since this book was originally issued in trade paper edition, not hardcover, I doubt it will get the young adult professional book reviews it deserves. I would consider it a cross-over adult/young adult title. It has all the hallmarks of good young adult fiction; coming of age characters, contemporary issues (bullying, sexual abuse), and a highly engaging genre. To all the high school library media specialists reading this, don't skip this one for your paperback ghost story collection. It will fly off the shelves.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. (Norton Paperback)

Average customer rating:

Super Reader
A good book to bring on vacation
Elementary?
The Game 's Afoot
Cent percent entertainment!

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. (Norton Paperback)
Nicholas Meyer
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393311198

Customer Reviews:

Super Reader.......2007-08-30

For a non-canon story, this one is quite good. At the begin Holmes is in one of his cocaine fuelled bouts of depression he gets when inactive. Watson has to someone manage to get him to Sigmund Freud, who restores his state of mind. Then, they have to team up to stop a serious problem of the super villain variety.

A good book to bring on vacation.......2007-06-14

Very clever--good, smart fun. An enjoyable, easy read.

Elementary?.......2007-02-04

This novel wasn't quite the knockout its cover blurbs promised, but it remains a fairly entertaining bit of literary ledgerdemain.

Dr. John Watson, now established and married, is visited by his erstwhile companion in crime-solving, Sherlock Holmes, who rants and raves about being stalked by his old math teacher. Moriarity. Watson soon discovers that Holmes is delusional due to his cocaine addiction. Eventually he enlists the aid of famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. However, Holmes's addiction is the least of their problems. The trio fall into a mystery whose ramifications could mean the very destruction of the world itself.

I think it is the artificially antique prose style that prevented me from falling in love with this novel. It sounds too much like one author aping the voice of another, and the result is a little less than convincing. It is all too earnest. Had Meyer taken Watson's voice in a slightly different direction, then this might truly have been special and memorable.

The Game 's Afoot.......2006-08-02

I was quite pleased with the book, being an actual reprint of the original one published in the 70's, which I had read before purchasing this copy. However, my feelings are kind of mixed, because Meyer 'edited' Watson's original work of the ending, matching it up to one of the plot devices that was used in the movie of the same name. I don't really know what to think of it, as it makes it clearer than the original version, but still - why make it coincide with the movie?
Besides that, I love the journey of Sherlock Holmes through his rehab period, and the interaction between Freud and Holmes is entertaining and, despite Holmes's behavior in the original canon, quite human. Even if you have never read any Sherlock Holmes, here is a good springboard to get you started into the adventures of the world's greatest consulting detective.

Cent percent entertainment!.......2006-05-23

The extant reviews describe the story to an extent slightly short of uploading an e-version of this classic. This forces me to refrain from saying anything but the following:
1. Meyer's writing is superb and way better than some other "writers" who defile Doyle by writing Holmesian adventures in ghastly language & style;
2. The story is taut and very exciting;
3. Somehow, the end evokes the image of the wisest and the best man walking into the sunset all alone.
Please read this work, if you like to see Sherlock Holmes as a human being who rose to become the immortal archetype of everything logical. Also read it if you want to immerse yourself in a story that explains a lot and yet, leaves a lot to imagine about.

The Perfect Murder: Five Great Mystery Writers Create the Perfect Crime

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The Perfect Murder: Five Great Mystery Writers Create the Perfect Crime
Jack Hitt , Lawrence Block , and Sarah Caudwell
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060163402

The Cutting Edge: Best and Brightest Mystery Writers of the 90's

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The Cutting Edge: Best and Brightest Mystery Writers of the 90's
Janet Hutchings
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786705264

The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

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The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521008719

Book Description

In addition to covering the "detective" fiction of writers like Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, this collection of British and American crime fiction considers other kinds of fiction where crime plays a substantial part, such as the thriller and spy fiction. Ranging over the last three centuries, it includes chapters on the analysis of crime in eighteenth-century literature; French and Victorian fiction; women and black detectives; crime on film and TV; and police fiction and postmodernist uses of the detective form.

Murder in the Rough: Original Tales of Bad Shots, Terrible Lies, and Other Deadly Handicaps from Today's Great Writers

Average customer rating:

Good, Wicked Fun!
Fun but they are writers, not golfers!
Thank you, Otto Penzler!

Murder in the Rough: Original Tales of Bad Shots, Terrible Lies, and Other Deadly Handicaps from Today's Great Writers
Otto Penzler
Manufacturer: Mysterious Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0892960175

Book Description

Lawrence Block, Simon Brett, Ken Bruen, Christopher Coake, Stephen Collins, Tom Franklin, Jonathan Gash, Steve Hamilton, H.R.F. Keating, Laura Lippman, Bradford Morrow, Ian Rankin, John Sandford, William G. Tapply, and John Westermann, along with introductory comments by Otto Penzler, deliver up an ace anthology of original short stories that mix murder and mystery on the fairway. This collection is sure to appeal to sports fans and those eager to read stories by the most celebrated authors in the mystery genre.

Customer Reviews:

Good, Wicked Fun!.......2006-07-21

When you assemble a group of the world's foremost writers of any genre, you're bound to have a winner, and Otto Penzler has one in Murder in the Rough. Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master, Lawrence Block, shows the dangers of routing a curmudgeon out of his rut in "Welcome to the Real World." Pulitzer Prize winner, John Sandford gives us a glimpse inside the head of a highly determined young woman who redefines "goal oriented" with his "Lucy Had a List." Ken Bruen's "Spittin Iron" is a tad dark, even for my morbid taste. "The Man Who Didn't Play Golf" by Simon Brett will amuse golf widows. (Buy your golfer hubby the book and stick the bookmark there.)
But my personal favorite is "The Secret" by John Westermann. Former cop, turned author, Westermann is known for his comic novels about the seedy side of law enforcement on Long Island. The chuckle-per-paragraph, the quirky characters, and the quality of Westermann's writing will delight the non-golfer, as well as the fairway-obsessed.
In his story, the membership of the luxurious, expensive Le Club Fantastique consists of "the normally deplored" nouveau riche of the Hampton set, "...dot com billionaires...and a Pakistani newsstand operator who won Powerball," who "pay dearly to feel good about themselves." And while these wildly wealthy outcasts are impressing themselves on a course built for ease, bragging about their new-found fortunes, swilling booze, and swapping wives, one of their least illustrious members goes missing. He turns up, of course, in the...well...you'll see. And laugh.
Told from the point of view of an assistant pro named Jay, who is up to no good himself, the story moves quickly and keeps you guessing. Oh...and the "Secret?" The one tip that pros take to their graves, the one that will change your game forever? Well, I ain't tellin'. This story alone is worth the price of the book.
G.A. McKevett
(author of the Savannah Reid Mysteries)

Fun but they are writers, not golfers!.......2006-07-07

This book is for murder mystery lovers who like golf--but don't take it all that seriously. Fifteen authors, who are better at writing murder mysteries than golf stories, each contribute a short story: a murder mystery with golf in it somewhere.

To say that golf has to be found in it somewhere is a stretch, because one murder is built around miniature golf. The real golf enthusiasts will wince at some of the obvious violations of the rules of golf that make the murder impossible--or at least highly unlikely. However the average golfer may never even notice the difference.

I am a passionate golfer who likes murder mysteries, so for me this was a march through each story, thinking that the next would be better. Sometimes it was--the best in the book in my opinion was "Lucy Has a List" by John Sandford. Often it wasn't.

I really liked Stephen Collins' (of Seventh Heaven fame) contribution, "Water Hazard," right until the end. The suspense was good, plenty of red herrings to throw you off and keep you guessing, plus a last-minute switch that you don't see coming. But then if you're a keen golfer, there's a breech of the rules that just couldn't have happened in the fictional round of a woman's major...and still have the protagonist win. But for most readers it will be a small thing.

Armchair Interviews says: If you like a murder with golf somewhere in the mix, this book will be a good distraction. Just suspend judgment and enjoy the entertainment, because that's why the stories were written.

Thank you, Otto Penzler!.......2006-06-26

This volume is as much fun as you'd expect, with contributions from favorites like Lawrence Block and Bradford Morrow ,but the real gem here is the novella "His Mission," by Christopher Coake, a writer we're lucky to have.

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