Pulp Fiction discussion

I finished the second Mike Hammer book


My Gun Is Quick by Mickey Spillane
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading a Cold War thriller


Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean

Reading Iceberg Slim's Story of My Life (1969). He he finds it depressing that after he reformed and married, he could not get a job a salesman despite impressing interviewers. He was a victim of racism. He was right. He was a great salesman. If he wasn’t, he would not have survived. Luck was part of it. He got his moniker because of his cool acceptance of being almost killed by a stray bullet that passed thru his hat.
He was a successful capitalist—of the pariah kind.
All kinds of social conditions made it necessary for him to turn to pimping. There were in fact, not many options for African Americans.
The selling he did was of human flesh. Key was making his women feel only he could take care of them. Connected to that was inciting them to challenge his orders and then beating them grimly, and tying them to a bed in order to show his complete control. This was not a sexual act. The connection between feeling safe and worshiping the leader who can kill you at will was never more terrifyingly depicted.
It was the lack of opportunity to escape poverty, and the need for someone who "cared" for his woman, that Slim exploited. Pulp novels by Jim Thompson, Harlan Ellison, and Hal Ellson are similar. Holloway House, Slim’s publisher, specialized in crime novels written for and by Black writers and readers.
His vivid descriptions may be prurient, and explicit enough to make one queasy. But how else to describe what it was like down there on the streets of Chicago's Black and PR sections? Slim's mastery of the pimp's argot is as fascinating as his narrative.

I finished the Aussie crime thriller


Crimson Lake by Candice Fox
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It started off pretty good but fell apart towards the end.

I finished the last of the three-volume collection of original Conan stories:


The Conquering Sword of Conan by Robert E. Howard
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Not a mystery, but definitely pulpy.

I finished the Cold War thriller


Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the second Jesse Stone book


Trouble In Paradise by Robert B. Parker

Am reading maybe the most noir Western of all--Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times. First published in 1960, when hard boiled crime was at its height, this is the story of a town's destruction by a "Bad Man from Bodie," and its rebuild led by the unofficial mayor and a Russian pimp whose prostitutes attracted thirsty, horny miners and hunters. The mayor stayed because he realized the place flourished due to the humanity of its people. Think how much of that can be the theme of Red Harvest, Pop 1280, The Moving Target, or The Moon in the Gutter.

The Mayor is aptly named Blue. He is self-deprecating, but also decent, aware of the effort needed and how to get what is needed to survive--is needed for the community, not just oneself. That requires relating to other citizens' needs, not simply seeing them as objects to make your own life better.
You learn as much about the perseverance needed on the Great Plains, or The Great American Desert . Doctorow writes about human survival in a wilderness that has much in common with a urban ghetto a century later. Hanging over everything, along with almost insufferable summers and winters, is FATE.

I finished the second book in the Jesse Stone series:


Trouble In Paradise by Robert B. Parker
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started the second book in the hard-boiled Bernie Gunther "Berlin Trilogy":


The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr

I started reading the story of an expectant mother-to-be:


Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

I'm thinking about reading Red Lights as I've had it for awhile and it takes place during Labor Day weekend. It would be my first read of Simenon.

I finished an excellent audiobook - a hard-boiled detective story set in pre-WWII Berlin (very violent, be warned):


March Violets by Philip Kerr
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I also started reading:


The Best American Mystery Stories 2020 edited by C.J. Box and Otto Penzler

I loved Rosemary’s Baby!

Patty wrote: "I loved Rosemary’s Baby!"

It's really good. I'll finish it by this weekend.

I finished the second book in the Bernie Gunther series:


The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


Mr Hire's Engagement by Georges Simenon

I also finished


Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Currently reading:
Zweig, The Burning Secret (one source for Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut)

Steph Post, Holding Smoke. last novel in a trilogy about Sister Tulah, a preacher from hell

The Unbroken Circle: Stories of Cultural Diversity in the South country noir.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "I finished the second book in the Bernie Gunther series:


The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goo..."

I know the phrase "The Pale Criminal" from Nietzsche's _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_. But I have never been able to tell what it means, only that it involves remorse, or the lack of it.

Jay wrote: "I know the phrase "The Pale Criminal" from Nietzsche's _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_. But I have never been able to tell what it means, only that it involves remorse, or the lack of it."

It's only briefly referenced in the book.

Currently reading: three noirs of fatal entrapment
James M Cain, Past All Dishonor (1946, Signet paperback 1948). The hero-narrator, abjectly involved with a prostitute, degenerates from a Confederate loyalist to a hired gun for owners of a Nevada silver mine. His own self-assessment: “A traitor, a killer, and a thief.” His lover covers herself with stolen jewels when the posse tracking them both arrives.

Cain’s The Butterfly (1947) is set in Appalachia. The narrator has been trapped in a relationship he was certain was adulterous and is hunted by a relative of the woman’s father, whom he had murdered. He has been wrong about who the woman’s parents were, and about who was blocking his path to a marriage with her.
Charles Williams’s Hill Girl (paperback original, Fawcett 1951) is set in Texas farm country. Bob and Lee are brothers locked in a love/hate relationship. When Bob marries Angelina, Lee’s desire turns from erotic to monomaniacally possessive. Bob must contend with the fate of the brother and the crushing burden his wife labors under..

I met my 2021 reading goal of 52 by finishing this "roman dur" (hard novel)


Mr Hire's Engagement by Georges Simenon
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the second in the IQ series


Righteous by Joe Ide

I finished the novella


Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished the second book in the Sherlockian "IQ" series:


Righteous by Joe Ide
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the prequel to The Shadow of the Wind:


The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Reading Pete Dexter's Brotherly Love. It is set in Philadelphia in the 1960s, but the consequences of betrayal and retribution extend for a 20 year period. . It is about organized crime and the labor unions which the mob must stifle.

Jay wrote: "Reading Pete Dexter's Brotherly Love. It is set in Philadelphia in the 1960s, but the consequences of betrayal and retribution extend for a 20 year period. . It is about organized crime and the lab..."

Pete Dexter is one of my favourite authors: Deadwood, Paris Trout, Train and God's Pocket-all great. Deadwood is my fave.

He is indeed special. I loved the series "Deadwood," but the Dexter novel is at least its equal.

Jay wrote: "He is indeed special. I loved the series "Deadwood," but the Dexter novel is at least its equal."

The two are not related, apparently, but yes, the TV series was great. Coincidentally, i just finished binge watching the whole series about a week ago. For some reason i'd only watched it sporadically when it was showing here, so it was good watching it in it's entirety.
I even watched the movie, filmed some 10 years after the series. I thought it a little flat and an unnecessary indulgence.

I’ve read a lot of crime novels set in Philadelphia, by Goodis, Shubin, McGivern, Swierzcynski, and others. Pete Dexter's _Brotherly Love_ promises (I’ve read a third of it), to be the equal of any of them. The early chapters, set in the early 1960s, show the total submission of both a cop and a gangster to the all-powerful mob boss. The story is told in the present tense, beginning in 1962, focusing on an 8 year old whose sister is accidentally killed by the cop, next door neighbor to the gangster. The immediacy Dexter creates is remarkable: “He watches her ride through the air, rolling once on her red parka now, her feet apart and disconnected as one of her dolls.”
The gangster is ordered by his boss to make up with the cop, instead of killing him. The cop had been informing for the mob. His own brother carries the message. “You have no choice. Keep what you have.” The grieving father suppresses his rage, until he cannot. He disappears. His son becomes a man who follows in his father’s footsteps, until he can’t. The Philly setting includes notables such as Bandstand’s Dick Clark, Police Chief Frank Rizzo, and Pancho Herrarra, clumsy 2nd baseman.

I finished the award-winning Aussie crime thriller


The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading


The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

I finished the second book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series (the prequel to The Shadow of the Wind):


The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the noir classic:


Laura by Vera Caspary

I finished the 2020 edition of the long-running annual anthology series


The Best American Mystery Stories 2020 edited by C.J. Box and Otto Penzler
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished the charming


The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the second Matt Helm book


The Wrecking Crew by Donald Hamilton

I DNF-ed the awful


The Wrecking Crew by Donald Hamilton

and I started reading the first book in the Lincoln Rhyme series


The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver

I'm reading Heaven's a Lie
It's my first book by Wallace Stroby, and very well written, but I have some reservations about the plot being basically a re-write of No Country For Old Men with a female protagonist and a very cinematic style that is fast-paced yet feels shallow and filled with clyches

I finished the novel that inspired the film classic


Laura by Vera Caspary
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading another novel that inspired another (less) classic film


Get Carter by Ted Lewis

Laura is a great book

Patty wrote: "Laura is a great book"

It didn't do much for me

I finished the first of the Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs books (much better than the film):


The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the sequel to Relic:


Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Also, I finished the basis for the iconic Michael Caine film:


Get Carter by Ted Lewis
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished a book I thought was going to be a horror novel only to find out that it was more of a crime novel with mild Southern Gothic elements that seems to have found some influence from Heart of Darkness:


Gone South by Robert R. McCammon
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Also, I finished the sequel to Relic:


Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the second Lew Archer book:


The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald

I finished the 2nd book in the Lew Archer series, a must read for detective fiction fans:


The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the classic roman noir:


I Married a Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich writing as William Irish

I finished the classic domestic suspense novel


I Married a Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich writing as William Irish
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the first Amelia Peabody mystery


Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

I started reading Dashiell Hammett's final novel, the basis for a popular film series during the Great Depression:


The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

I finished the first Amelia Peabody Victorian-Era Egyptian Archeology mystery:


Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the first Dave Robicheaux novel, starring an alcoholic ex-cop who is obsessed over his dead wife, a character type that I'm not sure has ever been used before...


The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke

I finished the (translated from Spanish) ultra-violent


Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

not purely a crime novel, but will interest those who enjoy crime novels.

Cherry returns to her hometown of Darling; a town to which she had vowed to never return. 2/5 stars

Read my review below


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished the basis for Hitchcock's noted film


Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading the Science-Fiction classic (for our Group Read)


Martians, Go Home by Fredric Brown

Am currently a third of the way through Split Images .

Enjoying it so far.

I finished one of Agatha Christie's most well-known books (I had the odd feeling I had already read this one a long time ago):


And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I also finished an excellent roman dur (noir):


The Snow Was Dirty by Georges Simenon
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver

Just finished reading Split Images . Another excellent Elmore Leonard novel. He seldom if ever disappoints.
My review if anyone cares to read is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm reading a Hakan Nesser book [[book:Berättelse om herr Roos|6334756] before I start on the book of the month. Nesser is is a good addition to my Northern crime collection, with excellent character study and atmosphere. It's also a bit confusing, since it feels like a standalone, yet Goodreads marks it as the third in the Inspector Barbarotti series - a character that hasn't showed up yet [40% done]