A few of these are:
Henry Kane:
_Don't Just Die There_
_Death of a Hooker_
_Who Dies There?_
_Better Wed than Dead_
_The Moonlighter_
Frank Kane:
_Stacked deck_
Frank Gruber:
_Johnny Vengeance_
John D. MacDonald:
_The House Guests_
_The Price of Murder_
Goerge Harmon Coxe:
_Uninvited Guest_
Thomas B. Dewey:
_Every Bet's a Sure Thing_
Richard Prather:
_The Shell Scott Sampler_
Wade Miller:
_Uneasy Street_
Charles Williams:
_Go Home Stranger_
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The Dewey book (Simon & Schuster, 1953) is probably the
best one in the
entire lot. A sad, tense P.I. story featuring Mac, told in
Dewey's usual
unadorned, direct, and precise prose - with the expected
excellent
characterization and sense of place (California and
Chicago).
The books by Wade Miller and Charles Williams are wonderful,
and I
highly recommend them even to those allergic to oldies. Who
can resist
Max Thursday? And Charles Williams's sure-footed way of
spinning a
complicated yarn in an utterly natural way while maintaining
suspense
throughout?
Henry Kane wrote explosively and with an eye to exploitation
of sex and
violence. These novels, featuring P.I. Peter Chambers (except
for _The
Moonlighter_), resemble Richard Prather's brand of hardboiled
action,
but are also heavily influenced by the atmosphere of the
sixties, which
Prather never really accepted. I was particularly impressed
by _The
Moonlighter_, a Fawcett Crest from 1971, an ambitious tale
of
corruption.
The two by MacDonald I had already read, though I plan to
re-read them
in the near future. I recall being impressed by _The Price of
Murder_, a
hard-as-nails 1957 Gold Medal.
Gruber may well have been a hack, but he was a thorough
professional.
His 1954 _Johnny Vengeance_ (Bantam, 1955) is a good example
of the
ultrahardboiled Western and of Gruber's craft. This violent
story of
revenge starts thus:
<<There were four of the hardcases, but they had only
three horses among
them, so two were compelled to ride double. All were
whiskered and
incredibly dirty. One of them wore a faded, torn Union
cavalryman's
blouse and a second wore trousers that had once been
Confederate gray,
but were now just filthy. All carried revolvers and the
cleanest of the
four - which wasn't saying much - had a repeating Winchester
rifle.>>
If someone ever gives Gruber his due (aside from his
outstanding work as
a screenwriter), I suspect it will be because of his
Westerns. His
_Peace Marshal_ is a true classic, and every one of the ten
novels or so
I've read by him is a worthy example of the hardboiled.
Given Captain Bill's recently promulgated mission statement,
I
absolutely cannot talk about Frank Gruber's unforgettable
stories
featuring Oliver Quade, "The Human Encyclopedia" - surely one
of the
most bizarre and funniest characters from the pulps.
According to
Gruber, Captain Shaw rejected every single one of his
submissions to
Black Mask, while simultaneously showering him with kindness
and giving
him lots of encouragement...I cannot help but feel that Shaw
was too
harsh on Gruber.
Regards,
Mario Taboada
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