RARA-AVIS: Re: Westlake

From: Curt Purcell ( curtpurcell@hotmail.com)
Date: 08 Oct 2007


--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@... wrote:
>
> I set those aside for two reasons, because some of those names were
> house names and I'm not an expert on which specific titles were by
> Westlake (though a very interesting article on just that was recently
> mentioned here, a link can be found in the archives), or which ones are
> hardboiled/noir.

Yeah, good points in both cases! The tangle of house names is confounding and in many cases probably insoluble. And there's usually little indication of what a story's tone or even content will be until you actually read it.

> Indeed, Hard Case Crime recently reprinted one of these by Lawrence
> Block, Lucky at Cards, which was originally The Sex Shuffle by Sheldon
> Lord.

Ah!--I didn't realize that was one of those. I'll have to check it out.

> So which sleaze pbs do you recommend?

Here are reviews of a few I would recommend as decent reads of hardboiled interest (some spoilers, and some of these reviews predate my current interest in hardboiled/noir):

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2005/06/lust-ring-by-don-holliday-nightstand.html

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2007/08/street-by-jed-bennett-magenta-1965.html

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2005/06/pay-devil-by-peter-willow-after-hours.html

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2005/07/night-train-to-sodom-by-tony-calvano.html

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2006/06/swap-fiend-by-richard-kyle-companion.html

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2006/12/sin-search-by-dean-hudson-nightstand.html

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-prowl-by-night-by-orrie-hitt-beacon.html

I still consider myself very much the newbie as far as this stuff is concerned, but I'm gaining ground as fast as I can afford to!



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