While on holiday I've been browsing some second-hand
bookstores, and made some interesting finds:
Whit Masterson (Wade Miller) - A HAMMER IN HIS HAND, MAN ON A
NYLON STRING, A SHADOW IN THE WILD. I really liked the recent
reprint of BRANDED WOMAN, so I'm looking forward to these
three.
Dan J. Marlowe - OPERATION FLASHPOINT. The fourth in the Earl
Drake series, by which time the series had changed from crime
to espionage.
Day Keene - TAKE A STEP TO MURDER. I've been wanting to read
more by Keene; at the moment the only one I've read by him is
PASSAGE TO SAMOA.
Howard Browne - PORK CITY. An author that I've read a lot of
praise for, but I've previously only read a couple of short
stories by him. Great opening line: "On the last morning of
his life, Jake awoke at 9:33."
William P. McGivern - THE BIG HEAT, THE CROOKED FRAME. I've
read one McGivern novel before - the excellent THE DARKEST
HOUR (WATERFRONT COP), so I was glad to find these,
particularly in the case of THE BIG HEAT, which I've been
wanting to read since seeing the movie a few years ago.
Stephen Marlowe - JEOPARDY IS MY JOB
Jonathan Valin - THE MUSIC LOVERS, NATURAL CAUSES. I've read
THE MUSIC LOVERS before, and it's a good PI novel.
Then there's this one, which is by an author I've never heard
of. It's a Gold Medal from the 50s. I'm often tempted to try
some unheralded PBOs from the time, and see if there are any
lost gems amongst them:
Walt Grove - HELL-BENT FOR DANGER. Great cover - glass of
alcohol in the foreground, undressing woman in the
background.
There's also a couple of novels that I bought because I
recognised them as ones which will be reprinted by Hard Case
Crime this year:
Shepard Rifkin - THE MURDERER VINE Steve Brackeen (John
Farris) - BABY MOLL
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 10 Jan 2008 EST