#hardboiledfiction — Public Fediverse posts

Leave Her To Hell, a 1958 thriller by Fletcher Flora, an often overlooked US pulp writer. A fine slightly hardboiled PI murder mystery with just a tinge of noir. A woman about to marry a rich man wants to know what became of his previous wife.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/10/fletcher-floras-leave-her-to-hell.html

#hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #noir #noirfiction #crimefiction #FletcherFlora #privateeyes

Lawrence Block’s 1965 crime novel The Girl with the Long Green Heart is about a con and I’m inordinately fond of that crime sub-genre. Block describes the grift in great detail and it’s a delight to read. Very noir and wildly enjoyable.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/10/lawrence-blocks-girl-with-long-green.html

#hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #noir #noirfiction #crimefiction #LawrenceBlock

The Hunter (AKA Point Blank, 1962), the first hardboiled novel featuring his anti-hero Parker written by Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark. A very hard-edged roller-coaster ride with cold-blooded disturbingly casual violence. A great book.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/09/richard-starks-point-blank-aka-hunter.html

#hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #noir #noirfiction #crimefiction #antiheroes #DonaldEWestlake #RichardStark

Mickey Spillane’s 1964 novel The Snake is a sequel to The Girl Hunters and you absolutely must read The Girl Hunters first. This is a very different Mike Hammer - older, wiser and sadder. Both books are great, but read the earlier books first.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/06/mickey-spillanes-snake.html

#crimenovel #crimenovels #crimefiction #vintagecrime #vintagemysteries #vintagemystery #MickeySpillane #MikeHammer #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #privateeyes

W.R. Burnett's High Sierra, a great noir novel by a great writer. A bank robber just out of jail gets mixed up in a heist with a bunch of amateurs and a girl. He used to be a big shot. Now he's tired and fatalistic. The book packs a real punch.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/05/wr-burnetts-high-sierra.html

#crimenovels #crimenovel #crimefiction #noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #WRBurnett

The Girl With No Place To Hide (1959), a Marvin H. Albert Jake Barrow PI thriller written under the name Nick Quarry. Rescuing a girl leads Jake into the worlds of high fashion and photography and high-stakes gambling.

Good noirish stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/03/nick-quarrys-girl-with-no-place-to-hide.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1950scrime #crimefiction #privateeyes #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #MarvinHAlbert #NickQuarry #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

The Girl With No Place To Hide (1959), a Marvin H. Albert Jake Barrow PI thriller written under the name Nick Quarry. Rescuing a girl leads Jake into the worlds of high fashion and photography and high-stakes gambling.

Good noirish stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/03/nick-quarrys-girl-with-no-place-to-hide.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1950scrime #crimefiction #privateeyes #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #MarvinHAlbert #NickQuarry #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

The Girl With No Place To Hide (1959), a Marvin H. Albert Jake Barrow PI thriller written under the name Nick Quarry. Rescuing a girl leads Jake into the worlds of high fashion and photography and high-stakes gambling.

Good noirish stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/03/nick-quarrys-girl-with-no-place-to-hide.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1950scrime #crimefiction #privateeyes #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #MarvinHAlbert #NickQuarry #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

The Girl With No Place To Hide (1959), a Marvin H. Albert Jake Barrow PI thriller written under the name Nick Quarry. Rescuing a girl leads Jake into the worlds of high fashion and photography and high-stakes gambling.

Good noirish stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/03/nick-quarrys-girl-with-no-place-to-hide.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1950scrime #crimefiction #privateeyes #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #MarvinHAlbert #NickQuarry #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

The Girl With No Place To Hide (1959), a Marvin H. Albert Jake Barrow PI thriller written under the name Nick Quarry. Rescuing a girl leads Jake into the worlds of high fashion and photography and high-stakes gambling.

Good noirish stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/03/nick-quarrys-girl-with-no-place-to-hide.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1950scrime #crimefiction #privateeyes #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #MarvinHAlbert #NickQuarry #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

Day Keene's Joy House was published 1954. A man loses five weeks of his life in an alcoholic haze. All he remembers is that he was a successful but unethical trial lawyer. And he does remember shooting his wife.

A nasty little erotic noir masterpiece.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/03/day-keenes-joy-house.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1950scrime #crimefiction #DayKeene #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries

Leigh Brackett's 1944 novel No Good from a Corpse is fine hardboiled stuff. A PI takes a case for a client he hates. There's a rich assortment of crooked PIs, deranged alcoholics, insane ex-cons and as many no-good dames as you could wish for.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2013/07/no-good-from-corpse.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1940scrime #crimefiction #privateeyes #LeighBrackett

Charles Williams' novel Nothing in Her Way (1953) deals with a whole series of fascinating confidence tricks.

Intricate and skilful plotting, ingenious confidence tricks, characters with some depth, taut suspense, an ambiguous hero and a femme fatale - what more could you want? Highly recommended.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/01/charles-williams-nothing-in-her-way.html

#CharlesWilliams #noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1950scrime #crimefiction #pulpfiction

Time To Prey, an enjoyable 1960 entry in Frank Kane’s long-running Johnny Liddell PI thriller series. A pretty girl passes a letter to Johnny and then gets murdered.

Johnny Liddell is a Mike Hammer clone, but more cold-blooded and less ethical. But Kane is just not in Spillane's league as a writer.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/01/frank-kanes-time-to-prey.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1960scrime #crimefiction #FrankKane #MickeySpillane #MikeHammer #privateeyes

The Three-Way Split is a 1960 pulp noir title by Gil Brewer. It concerns a treasure hunt.

The protagonist is a genuine noir hero. He’s a good man but with weaknesses. He’s a decent guy but he’s desperate. He needs that treasure. What will a man do for that sort of money?

This is fast-moving action, perhaps more adventure noir than straightforward crime noir. Recommended.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2021/06/gil-brewers-three-way-split.html

#GilBrewer #noirfiction #noir #hardboiledfiction #hardboiled #vintagecrime

Borderline (AKA Border Lust) is an early (1962) Lawrence Block crime novel.

It's either a sleaze novel with significant noir overtones or a noir novel with significant sleaze overtones.

The border is the US-Mexico border, but also the border between sanity and madness, between self-control and debauchery, between order and chaos.

Good, but very nihilistic.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2021/04/lawrence-blocks-borderline.html

#LawrenceBlock #noirfiction #hardboiledfiction #crimefiction #sleazefiction #serialkillers