Hardboiled Cthulhu: Two-Fisted Tales of Tentacled Terror

Hardboiled Cthulhu: Two-Fisted Tales of Tentacled Terror
Average customer rating:

Just bad....

yuck

Gats & Gun-molls

A Fair Collection

Brilliant! This book is terrific fun for fans of Lovecraft's mythos.
Hardboiled Cthulhu: Two-Fisted Tales of Tentacled Terror
James Ambuehl
Manufacturer: Elder Signs Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0975922971
Release Date: 2006-07-15

Book Description

Hard hitting, hard edged, hardboiled stories that take Lovecraftian Mythos to places where only the toughest P.I.s, gangsters, and creatures dwell. Venture into the urban sprawl and the dark places of the world. Here the big sleep ends and the nightmares begin! This anthology contains over 20 tales blending the hardboiled genre with the Lovecraftian.

Customer Reviews:

Just bad...........2007-07-27

This mixing of genres seemed like a good idea, but it did not work. The only reason that it rates two stars is that there are some stories that pass: "A Little Job in Arkham" and "Unfinished Business" come to mind. And the best story in the entire collection, "The Watcher From the Grave", the piece that made me glad to have waded through the swamp of all the rest. Of course, that story was not really in the theme, but it was good.

Most of these stories, however, are just not good. A few do not even belong in this themed collection. Others are just too cliched to be believed. "Eldrich Fellas" deserves special scorn, as stuffing Old Ones into human skins to play out every cliche of the gangster genre just made me want to toss the book aside.

This is not a book a "mythos" fan needs or should want. I am hoping my local used book store will give me some credit for turning it in. $1 would be enough.

yuck.......2007-03-27

Maybe some short stories in this book are worth reading, but I couldn't get to them - I tried the first 5 or 6, and they were very amateur and cliche. Just because an author uses the word "Cthulhu" doesn't mean it's good - the stories still need to work as stories.

Gats & Gun-molls.......2007-02-08

The concept is brilliant, though drawing from the film _Cast a Deadly Spell_ in the idea of 1930s detectives and Cthulhu Mythos. Some of the stories work well, others are forced. I do hope others write more stories in this vein! Especially set in NYC. (Recently I stopped by HPL's old residence at 169 Clinton St., Brooklyn.)

A Fair Collection.......2007-01-12

Ambeuhl's collection of "noir mythos" stories is worth the money you will lay down, but several of the stories are somewhat weak. Considering the resurgence in popularity of the 'supernatural detective' it is not surprising that Ambuehl has a large field of material to choose from, although truly well written fiction in this sub-subgenre is hard to come by. Few of the stories collected here effectively meld the tone of Chandler and Hammet with the atmosphere and world of Lovecraft.
Despite my above misgivings, there are some gems that make this collection well worth puchasing. "The Devil In You" by Eric Millar is Arkham as Frank Miller's Sin City, and Tim Curran's "Eldritch-Fellas" is a delight. Bucher-Jones offers up a scary and somehow frightening real American Theocracy in "Some Thoughts on the Problem of Order", and "Outside, Looking In" by David Conyers is almost worth the price of admission on its own. "The White Mountains" by Johnathan Sharp is a great hair raiser story of bootlegging gone awry and Ambuehl's own "The Pisces Club" is almost Chandleresque. Over all, there is more to like than dislike in this collection, and no serious Mythos fan should do without.

Brilliant! This book is terrific fun for fans of Lovecraft's mythos........2006-08-05

Hardboiled Cthulhu is the latest jewel in Elder Sign Press' splendored crown. I wish there was an editor's introduction explaining the history of this title, who thought of it, how the stories were selected and the publication history, because this book is fabulous. So many mythos collections have workman-like slogs through common mythos tropes that are really burdensome to read. I bought a very expensive copy of Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth and I am still working my way through it months later. Working is the operative word. I devoured Hardboiled Cthulhu in two sleep deprived evenings, chortling to myself the whole time. Dang it, this collection was just plain fun to read! In just about every title I can almost feel the author's sheer enjoyment writing their story, how much they relished the concept and how they probably typed with break neck enthusiasm. Although most of the critters, creatures and books are tried and true for the mythos, these authors are all confident and brimming with talent; the stories are marvelously original.

Some housekeeping: The book is a handsome trade paperback, well up to Elder Sign Press' usual excellent standards. No autographed collector edition signed by the authors, more's the pity! The wonderfully evocative cover art is by David Senecal and is perfectly in tune with the collection's theme: world weary private eyes and HPL's mythos, kind of Raymond Chandler and extradimensional tentacles. Price is $11.67 at Amazon, with free shipping available if you buy at least $25 worth of stuff. This is heavily discounted from list $17.95. Page count is a generous 330, just about all devoted to the stories and counting a few pages of mini-bios of the authors at the end. Production qualities are high; I can't recall any typos. Only five of the stories were published in any forum prior to this book, mostly obscure mythos magazines that only the most assiduous collector would have. The exception is Jeffery Thomas' Pazuzu's Children that was just released in Unholy Dimensions by Mythos Books. Heck, it was a great story in that book and it's still a great story. Many kudos to James Ambuehl, the editor. I think this was his first solo editing effort and it is a smashing triumph. OK, so there are a few things that did not win me over, but they were all minor!

Here are the contents:

Sleeping with the Fishes (Poem) -- James Ambuehl
The Pisces Club -- James Ambuehl
A Change of Life -- William Jones
Ache -- David Witteveen
A Dangerous High -- E. P. Berglund
A Little Job in Arkham -- John Sunseri
Day of Iniquity -- Steven L. Shrewbury
Eldritch Fellas -- Tim Curran
Outside Looking In -- David Conyers
Pazuzu's Children -- Jeffrey Thomas
The Devil In You -- Eric J. Millar
The Mouth -- William Meikle
The Questioning of the Azathonthian Priest -- C. J. Henderson
Some Thought on the Problem of Order -- Simon Bucher-Jones
The White Mountains -- Jonathan Sharp
The Terror Came -- Patrick Thomas
The Prying Investigations of Edwin M. Lillibridge -- Robert M. Price
The Roaches in the Walls -- James Chambers
To Skin a Dead Man -- Cody Goodfellow
Unfinished Business -- Ron Shiflet
The Watcher From the Grave -- J. F. Gonzalez
Dreams.biz -- Richard A. Lupoff

Spoilers may follow so stop reading now if that bothers you*******

Sleeping with the Fishes (Poem) -- James Ambuehl - You know, I just never much enjoy mythos poetry. I think really fine poetry is incredibly difficult to write.

The Pisces Club -- James Ambuehl - Mr. Ambuehl's writing career is a long love letter to HPL, so thoroughly does he delight in the mythos and his own contributions to it. Much of his stories are pastiches in the best sense. But The Pisces Club is his highest achievement and his best prose. It is savory detective story laced equally with horror and humor. The name Professor Phil Craft is probably a tip of the hat to the master. I kept laughing out loud as I read it.

A Change of Life -- William Jones - William Jones is a bigwig at Elder Signs Press, where his editorial skills are very much in evidence. This prose shows a deft touch also. The Great Race? Bah! The Noir Race!

Ache -- David Witteveen - This is my first encounter with Mr. Witteveen, another writer in a wave of Australian talent cresting on our shores. This hardbitten tale features a mob enforcer who brushes up against the wearer of the Pallid Mask.

A Dangerous High -- E. P. Berglund - Mr. Berglund has done many great things for the mythos as an editor, a compiler and an author. Alas, out of all the stories in this book, A Dangerous High was the one that did not really grab me. I don't know why. I like Berglund's style and it was a good concept of illicit narcotics associated with the Hounds of Tindalos tracked down by a PI. Maybe it was just the prose.

A Little Job in Arkham -- John Sunseri - I don't recall reading anything by Mr. Sunseri before. I hope he is writing more mythos stories. If you want to steal and ancient tome from good ole Miskatonic U, hire a pack of thieves.

Day of Iniquity -- Steven L. Shrewbury - Mr. Shrewbury (who should change his middle name to Laban...) is becoming more overtly active on the mythos writing scene, which is our good fortune. The thing is, this story, while a great read, seemed out of place. It was like a good Sword & Sorcery yarn, not really a detective type story. Maybe it was meant for Eldritch Steel? A barbarian follower of Wotan leads his tribe to achieve vengeance on a dark cult.

Eldritch Fellas -- Tim Curran - Tim Curran is a terrific writer, widely published. This story was a hoot! I think diet coke came out of my nose while I was trying to read it. The title says it all.

Outside Looking In -- David Conyers - I have sung the praises of Mr. Conyers, another gifted Aussie, before. This story was great! Like in Dark City, the world is not what it seems. Do you really want to know the truth?

Pazuzu's Children -- Jeffrey Thomas - Not really a noir story, but a terrific read. A pilot in Desert Storm is captured after a bombing run by followers of an unspeakable cult.

The Devil In You -- Eric J. Millar - A no good drunk in a bar tries to do a good deed by helping a pretty girl in a gin joint. Complications ensue. Mr. Millar is a young author, new to me and he can write a mean mythos tale. I hope to see more of his stories in the future.

The Mouth -- William Meikle - Willie Meikle established his noir credentials in The Midnight Eye Files. Alas this is not a new Derek Adams story. No matter, this is a tightly written page turner about a cop who employs a medium to track a vicious murderer.

The Questioning of the Azathonthian Priest -- C. J. Henderson - You can't have a noir mythos collection about hardened PIs without having a CJ Henderson story! This one is an all new great Anton Zarnack yarn.

Some Thought on the Problem of Order -- Simon Bucher-Jones - Mr. Bucher-Jones is famous for his Dr. Who work. Can we have some more mythos please? Gosh, this was nifty story, turning things around sort of like Gaimen in A Study In Emerald.

The White Mountains -- Jonathan Sharp - This is Mr. Sharp's first published story. Great! Keep `em coming. If you can help it, never help someone go buy bootleg moonshine. If you go to buy bootleg moonshine, do not make eyes at the misshapen entrepreneur's wife.

The Terror Came -- Patrick Thomas - Eldritch detectives detect better when they are eldritch themselves.

The Prying Investigations of Edwin M. Lillibridge -- Robert M. Price - I confess it. I am not a Price fan. Usually his prose is leaden and derivative. But this was a nice conventional mythos story about a nosy reporter trying to solve some kidnappings.

The Roaches in the Walls -- James Chambers - I previously read The Tale of the Spanish Prisoner by Mr. Chambers in Warfear. It was OK. This one blew me away! It was brilliant. What a concept! What an ending! Man those Elder Gods are crafty.

To Skin a Dead Man -- Cody Goodfellow - Whatever else Mr. Goodfellow does I will be forever in his debt for his novel Radiant Dawn, an absolute bravura performance. This ghoulish story of love and betrayal and zombies and stuff defies ready description. I loved it!

Unfinished Business -- Ron Shiflet - Mr. Shiflet moves from strength to strength as a mythos writer. Pickman's ghouls are, um, alive and, um, well. You can hire a big mook to guard your highly collectible art but art groupies live in a dog eat dog world. Nicely done, Mr. Shiflet!

The Watcher From the Grave -- J. F. Gonzalez - I never read anything by Mr. Gonzalez before. I will have to remedy that soon! Literary estate executor is not a healthy profession in a Lovecraftian collection.

Dreams.biz -- Richard A. Lupoff - And finally, hats off to the accomplished Mr. Lupoff. I wish he would write more mythos. This is a cross between Total Recall and Netflix. Gosh it was good!

So in summary, a masterful collection. Bargain priced, bristling with vitality, most of the big names in mythos fiction. What else do you need? Urgently recommend!

Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Average customer rating:

(3.5): Classic Murakami, but not without faults
Wow
A Wonderful Tale of Wonderland
Entering a dream sequence
Japanese lit. at its best...

Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Haruki Murakami
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0099448785

Customer Reviews:

(3.5): Classic Murakami, but not without faults.......2007-10-09

I have read most of Murakami's work and continue to believe that he is one of the best and most imaginative writers today. His storylines are always inventive and have a way of sucking you in. "Hard-Boiled..." is no different in that respect. Here we have a story shrouded in mystery about a narrator who works as a Calcutec, a computer programmer of sorts, for the System, a government-type organization that controls computers and the exchange of information. The Protagonist finds himself at the center of a war between the System and the Factory, a second organization trying to gain control of the way information is transferred. The plotline alternates back and forth between the protagnoist's search to figure out his own importance in this information and technological war and an alternate universe (so to speak) where people are separated from their shadows and live in a place only referred to as The Town. As the story drives forward, the two plotlines converge and eventually blend into one another. As is the case with all of his work, he draws you in with such ease and you read the book as effortlessly as you would the newspaper, only with much more urgency and excitement.

My major problem with the text was the vagueness of the world he sets out. I understood that the mystery surrounding the characters was necessary given the unknown frontiers of the mind that the book aims to explore, but the world and the war between factions doesn't have enough meat to it to grip you as some of the other worlds Murakami has created have been able to. There was something missing, a visual element, that made it very hard to feel some of the tension and suspense he was building.

So this is a good book, but not Murakami's best. I would say that anyone could read it and enjoy it, but there are better things out there if you have a limited time and/or budget to spend on fiction.

Wow.......2007-09-10

This was my first Murakami book and it was the one that got me hooked on this amazing author. The story is simply amazing. The way he managed to tie everything together in the end was masterful.

I love the way his characters are all quirky and a little strange in their own right. Each of their own little quirkiness that adds such color to their characters.

I still have not finished all his books, but you can be sure I will!

A Wonderful Tale of Wonderland.......2007-08-30

I loved this novel, the third by Murakami that I have read. Since marrying my wife, I have discovered that there is a lot to be treasured in modern literature, and that such a genre exists with much greater depth and breadth than I had thought. It is nice to see that I was wrong.

While this novel is not as cerebral as Norweigan Wood and Kafka on the Shore, it was a very nice book and well worth reading.

I will not go into unnecessary detail about the plot; others have. I will merely comment upon my thoughts.

For example, I found certain aspects of this novel somewhat frustrating. There is too much of a "That's just the way it is" feel about the book. This can work, if the author lays the groundwork and then ties together the threads, such that the end result is such a beautiful and overwhelming conclusion that you have no other recourse but amazement and awe.

I was pleasantly surprised at the end of the novel, but not amazed or awed. So, it was somewhat disheartening to finish the book. Not that it was, in any way, a disappointing ending. Rather, it was sobering and sad. It was not a book that I wanted to end so soon.

The end was good, but I disliked the choice of the unnamed narrator. My wife and I actually had a long discussion about this. My personal interpretation was that his choice was selfish and that he was choosing to void his responsibilities and choose hedonism. My wife thought that he was doing completely the opposite. It is only when you read a novel that you can discuss that you realize that there is such a sparse landscape of rich and bounteous literature out there.

When asked what this novel was like, I compared it to snow falling all around you while you walk through a silent town on a holiday evening, alone, and somber. The wonder of the feeling and the solitude of that feeling and experience.

Purchase it, read it, relish it, and pass it on. It is well worth the time and the cost. I know that I am going to be purchasing more Murakami books. If you are like me, you read a lot of books of varying quality. I have resolved to keep a fresh Murakami on hand, so that when I get disillusioned I can recall the beauty of modern literature. If you are like me, grab this. It's worth it.

Harkius

Entering a dream sequence.......2007-08-02

This book put me in one of those beautiful places were you can feel the connectivity of everything. After the first 3 chapters I couldn't put it down. I've read alot of Murakami since but this is still my favorite.

Japanese lit. at its best..........2007-08-02

You have to take your time with this and all of Murakami's stuff. This had a lot of different elements blended in together (sci-fi, kappas- which are rarely written about anymore, and most of all good ole detective work by the character and the reader) and it works pretty well. I wonder if anyone else noticed the correlation between the city and town chapters and the use of the left and right side of the brain. The map in the front of the book also looks like a brain...

Captain Babyface: The Complete Adventures

Average customer rating:

Captain Babyface: The Complete Adventures
Steve Fisher
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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$The Adventures of the Three Mosquitoes: \"The Wizard Ace\"$ The Adventures of the Three Mosquitoes: \"The Wizard Ace\"

ASIN: 0979409209
Release Date: 2007-03-23

Book Description

Journey back to an Age of Aces! For Jed Garrett, “Captain Babyface” of the American Special Agent's Corps, his orders are simple: Kill Mr. Death! But who is Mr. Death? One of Germany's brightest chemists and inventors, he had grown weary of life and entered a monastery near Alsace-Lorraine. But war came and the monastery was bombed. Severely injured, German surgeons patched him back together, though he was left horribly disfigured. And now, sworn to vengeance against the Americans, he uses his evil genius for Germany in the “War to End All War.” Author Steve Fisher is best known for his hardboiled work in Black Mask Magazine and in novels like “I Wake Up Screaming”. In Popular Publications long-running aviation pulp Dare-Devil Aces, he created the ten titanic tales of Captain Babyface. For the first time, they are presented together in one volume. This is the first in a series from Age of Aces Books that will feature some of the greatest aviation pulp heroes of the 1930's.

Average customer rating:

Bananamania continues
Of Stone and Fruit
When death comes along
I Was Hoping For More

Hardboiled and Hard Luck
Banana Yoshimoto
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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NP

ASIN: 0802142621

Book Description

In cherished novels such as Kitchen and Goodbye Tsugumi, Banana Yoshimoto’s warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and best-seller status. Her insightful, spare vision returns in two novellas possessed by the ghosts of love found and lost. In Hardboiled, the unnamed narrator is hiking in the mountains on an anniversary she has forgotten about, the anniversary of her ex-lover’s death. As she nears her hotel—stopping on the way at a hillside shrine and a strange soba shop—a sense of haunting falls over her. Perhaps these eerie events will help her make peace with her loss. Hard Luck is about another young woman, whose sister is dying and lies in a coma. Kuni’s fiancé left her after the accident, but his brother Sakai continues to visit, and the two of them gradually grow closer as they make peace with the impending loss of their loved one. Yoshimoto’s voice is clear, assured, and deeply moving, displaying again why she is one of Japan’s, and the world’s, most beloved writers.

Customer Reviews:

Bananamania continues.......2005-09-09

I can only say that these two stories are up to par with Banana's older books like Kitchen. Just read it.

Of Stone and Fruit.......2005-08-29

I have been a fan of Yoshimoto's body of work since 2001. After reading her debut novella Kitchen, I read her other translated works: N.P., Lizard, Amrita, Asleep, and Goodbye Tsugumi. While by far not my favorite Yoshimoto work, Hardboiled and Hard Luck is a decent work that includes a number of themes that are present in almost every Yoshimoto novel: memory, death, and the precious moments of life which deeply root themselves into our hearts.

The narrator of Hardboiled is a young woman traveling on her own through Japan's countryside. One day while walking upon a little used road the young woman comes across an old, dilapidated shrine where ten black stones are placed in a circle. Feeling an ominous air emanating from the stones, the young woman hurries back to town. However, inside an Udon noodle shop the woman finds one of the stones in one of her pockets. Later, she discovers that another one of the stones was used to build the bath within the inn in which she is staying for the night. At first she is unsure of why such odd things are happening to her, but soon it dawns on her that on the same date a year ago her friend and ex-lover Chizuru had died. Similar to the works of Murakami Haruki, it is not impossible to make amends with the dead in Yoshimoto's literary world.

Hard Luck details the final days that the nameless narrator spends with both her brain dead sister and her fiancé's older brother. In my opinion the more powerful of the two short novellas, Yoshimoto creates a gentle, delicate work that details not only the emotions of losing someone close, but the healing process one goes through when a family member who has suffered long is about to die.

Yoshimoto has often been criticized as a writer of fluff fiction, however, while she may not be in the same realm as Oe Kenzaburo or Takahashi Takako it does not mean that she does not bring something important to the world of Japanese Literature. Through her simple words, Yoshimoto can touch the hearts of readers. Something that a number of more literary writers are unable to do.

When death comes along.......2005-08-21

Yoshitmoto's new book (actually composed of two short stories) is about the human reaction when death comes along. It reveals our weakness to reject it and the urge for bravery and perspective to deal with it, as a living human being.

In the first short story, 'Hardboiled', the narrator went to stay in a country hotel on the anniversary of her ex-girlfriend's death. The narrative is interesting as the living and the dead are all woven together in the plot. Perhaps, it is really hard to distinguish who is living, or non-living (dead and non-living are different, in a metaphorical sense). There's a particularly interesting, which is about that it is not the dead that we should be afraid of, but the living. The story talks about the pain of losing a partner and the nostalgia of their romance.

In the second story, 'Hard Luck', another narrator has a sister who is going to die of a brain damage. This story is not as gothic as the first one and the suspense created by the notion of death is absent. Instead, it gives you a sweet account of the sisterhood between the living and the dead-to-be. There is also a romantic subplot in the story, between the narrator and the brother of her sister's fiance. The last chapter on the relationship between musical enlightenment and death sounds familiar in Haruki Murakami's fiction, especially in Kafka on the Shore and Dance Dance Dance.

The stories are written in plain English. There's no fancy description on the setting and the psychology of the characters. But the plainness works effectively in order to bring out the theme, death. There are a few regrets upon reading the book. First, I was expecting Yoshimoto to explore the theme of lesbianism or sexuality a bit more in the first story, as she did in Kitchen. I was trying to compare it with Murakami's Spunik Sweetheart. Second, I was looking for a more substantial work since her last publication. The stories are just too short to satisfy her readers. Perhaps, she might have published more in Japanese. I always don't know why the English version needs to take so long. Or are they not translating all her works?

I Was Hoping For More.......2005-07-19

I am a big fan of Ms. Yoshimoto's work. Her ability to evoke a spiritualism in a modern Asian context is fascinating to me. And her prose has a gentleness even in the face of stories of tragedy that I find soothing.

So it is with the two stories in this volume. In "Hardboiled" we have a young woman hiking and spending the night in a hotel on the anniversary of a friend/former lover's death. In the hotel she dreams of her friend and encounters the ghost of another woman who has committed suicide in the hotel. In "Hard Luck" we have a young woman whose sister is dying in a hospital because of an embolism and she is about to be taken off life support. In the course of the vigil and through the funeral she encounters the brother of her dead sister's fiancé and feels the first stirrings of love--the realization that life must go on.

Of course, my summaries do not do these stories justice. As always, Ms. Yoshimoto has produced simple, yet beautiful and truthful stories. My complaint is the dearth of text here. Almost all of Ms. Yoshimoto's books are brief but it amazes me the publishers had the nerve to put these two stories between hardcovers and price them what they did. Another couple stories of this caliber would have made it much more worthwhile. It's difficult not to feel you're getting a bit cheated.

Hardboiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories

Average customer rating:

great commentary, mediocre stories...
Another Good Anthology from Oxford University Press
Top Notch Hard-Boiled Anthology
A great anthology
These Guys Aren't Wimps!

Hardboiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 019510353X

Book Description

What are the ingredients of a hard-boiled detective story? "Savagery, style, sophistication, sleuthing and sex," said Ellery Queen. Often a desperate blond, a jealous husband, and, of course, a tough-but-tender P.I. the likes of Sam Spade or Philop Marlowe. Perhaps Raymond Chandler summed it up best in his description of Dashiell Hammett's style: "Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it....He put these people down on paper as they were, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used for these purposes." Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories is the largest and most comprehensive collection of its kind, with over half of the stories never published before in book form. Included are thirty-six sublimely suspenseful stories that chronicle the evolutiuon of this quintessentially American art form, from its earliest beginnings during the Golden Age of the legendary pulp magazine Black Mask in the 1920s, to the arrival of the tough digest Manhunt in the 1950s, and finally leading up to present-day hard-boiled stories by such writers as James Ellroy. Here are eight decades worth of the best writing about betrayal, murder, and mayhem: from Hammett's 1925 tour de force "The Scorched Face," in which the disappearance of two sisters leads Hammett's never-named detective, the Continental Op, straight into a web of sexual blackmail amidst the West Coast elite, to Ed Gorman's 1992 "The Long Silence After," a gripping and powerful rendezvous involving a middle class insurance executive, a Chicago streetwalker, and a loaded .38. Other delectable contributions include "Brush Fire" by James M. Cain, author of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Raymond Chandler's "I'll Be Waiting," where, for once, the femme fatale is not blond but a redhead, a Ross Macdonald mystery starring Macdonald's most famous creation, the cryptic Lew Archer, and "The Screen Test of Mike Hammer" by the one and only Micky Spillane. The hard-boiled cult has more in common with the legendary lawmen of the Wild West than with the gentleman and lady sleuths of traditional drawing room mysteries, and this direct line of descent is on brilliant display in two of the most subtle and tautly written stories in the collection, Elmore Leonard's "3:10 to Yuma" and John D. MacDonald's "Nor Iron Bars." Other contributors include Evan Hunter (better known as Ed McBain), Jim Thompson, Helen Nielsen, Margaret Maron, Andrew Vachss, Faye Kellerman, and Lawrence Block. Compellingly and compulsively readable, Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories is a page-turner no mystery lover will want to be without. Containing many notable rarities, it celebrates a genre that has profoundly shaped not only American literature and film, but how we see our heroes and oursleves.

Customer Reviews:

great commentary, mediocre stories..........2004-09-29

'Hard-Boiled', an anthology of twentieth-century "hard-boiled" short stories compiled by Pronzini and Adrian, should have been great. Unfortunately out of the thousands of stories to choose from they picked the dregs from some of the best writers (Ellroy, Goodis, Thompson, ..), and the best from a great many (deservedly) unknown writers. It took me a long time to slog through the dozens of stories contained in this volume.

However the only positve aspect of the book are the commentaries before each story, giving a bit of background on each author and their placement in the history of 'hard-boiled' short fiction. Clearly Pronzini/Adrian have done their homework in this regard. But this only made me more frustrated with the all the mediocre stories they amassed.

Bottom line: a missed opportunity. Very disappointing.

Another Good Anthology from Oxford University Press.......2004-05-06

Hard-Boiled American crime fiction is Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, John D. MacDonald, Ross Macdonald, Mickey Spillane, and many less familiar authors. The hard-boiled American crime fiction never really took root in Great Britain. Sam Spade was popular on the screen, but less so in the London bookstore. I was surprised to discover that the prestigious Oxford University Press had published this anthology of American crime fiction.

What is hard-boiled crime fiction? According to the editors Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian, hard-boiled crime stories deal with disorder, disaffection, and dissatisfaction. The reader encounters a jaundiced view of government, power, and the law. The protagonist, sometimes a woman, is a social misfit, a loner. Most stories are reflective of their times, windows into history that offer the perspective of individuals that inhabited a particular, often unsavory locale.

Some of the stories in this remarkable collection appear in other anthologies, but others are rarely encountered. Pronzini and Adrian have arranged these short stories chronologically, beginning with Hammett's The Scorched Face (1926).

Each story is introduced by a thoughtful preface. I gradually developed an understanding and appreciation for this uniquely American genre. Many of these entries qualify as pulp fiction; most are without any literary pedigree. And yet, this collection makes good reading. Entertainment, suspense, riveting characters, and a little cultural history are blended together. I highly recommend this anthology.

Top Notch Hard-Boiled Anthology.......2002-01-12

"Hard Boiled" is an absolutely first rate collection of short stories by some of the best AND least known writers of the genre. One of its two editors, Bill Pronzini, is an avid collector of the old Pulp magazines as well as being one of the best hard-boiled writers working today (he's the author of the excellent "Nameless" detective series). He and co-editor Jack Adrian really know their stuff, as they show with an extensive introduction that explains in detail the history of the genre. They also provide good introductions for each individual writer, both the famous and the not-so famous, to give the reader a good perspective of where each author was coming from.

The stories themselves are grouped by the decade in which they were published. The 1930s and 1950s are the most heavily represented because, the editors explain, they were the peak decades for hard-boiled fiction in terms of both poularity and quality. The book covers the 1920s to the 1990s.

Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone who enjoys good crime stories.

A great anthology.......2001-02-15

Hard Boiled is the greatest crime anthology that I have read. It's full to the brim with great stories and has writers from every decade some well kown some not. Some great stories are Dashiell Hammet's The Scorched Face, Roul Whitfield's Misteral, James M Cain's Brush Fire, Chester Himes Marijuana and a Pistol and Jim Thompson's Forever After. It also has a great introduction. I seriously suggest you buy this book

These Guys Aren't Wimps!.......2000-07-25

In an era of widespread cynicism it's good to know that there are still idealists out there. They may not be saints, but they're usually on the good side. And in this fantastic collection of crime stories you won't be bored. Many of these authors have appeared elsewhere, such as Ellery Queen or Hitchcock. But Pronzini & Adrian selected stories that have an edge to them. Like San Francisco in the early days...Worth it to own, because you'll read it again!

Hardboiled Mystery Writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, Ross Macdonald: A Literary Reference

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Hardboiled Mystery Writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, Ross Macdonald: A Literary Reference

Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Reference | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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Raymond Chandler: A Literary Reference
Ross Macdonald : A Biography
The Moving Target
The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction 1909-1959
The Goodbye Look

ASIN: 0786710292

Book Description

The action is violent, the characters are tough, the atmosphere’s dark, the tone impersonal, the speech colloquial, and the voice of the author, whatever his origins or background, authentically American. Hard-boiled crime fiction, which captured the national imagination in the bitter, hard-bitten 1930s and flourished for many decades after, is a leading example of endemically American literary prose. Certainly, in the work of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross Macdonald, which featured maverick, independent-minded private eyes like Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Lew Archer, emerges a distinctively American kind of hero. Amply illustrated with personal photographs and with reproductions of manuscript pages, letters, print ads, movie promotions, dust jackets, and paperback covers, this volume provides a documentary chronicle of the life beyond and the work behind the creation of some of the most masterly detective novels in popular American literature. Correspondence and interviews record the literary tastes and intents of Chandler, Hammett, and Macdonald as well as their responses to judgments of their work in reviews of their books and the movies based on them. A generous selection of the reviews themselves conjure the larger literary climate of the times and provide the evaluations of influential contemporary critics—among them, the distinguished writer Eudora Welty, who initiated a reappraisal of the entire Macdonald canon. In all, this engaging, informative look at Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross Macdonald and their hard-boiled detective novels offers in a single volume a wide variety of resources by which to view afresh a singularly American literary accomplishment.

Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir

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Rip Off Version - Buyer Beware!
A great book is back in print
Superb review of the genre by an excellent writer.

Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir
Geoffrey O'Brien
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War
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ASIN: 0306807734

Customer Reviews:

Rip Off Version - Buyer Beware!.......2006-07-31

I'm Pi$$ed off coz I like this book but my friend's copy (which came out the printing b/f this one) has the exact same cover, etc. but has a section filled w/ Color Renditions off all the pulp covers! THIS RIP OFF version has those pages in Lame B&W and is even MORE EXPENSIVE! What the hell? Refund me.

A great book is back in print.......2001-11-09

Hardboiled America is a key book for both mystery fans and paperback collectors. As a collector I first purchased the book for its reproductions of classic paperback covers. Hardboiled America's strong point, though, is its provocative and detailed coverage of niche authors. I credit O'Brian for introducing me to many of my favorite books and writers.

When first published, few of the authors discussed in O'Brien's book were in print. Thankfully, with the resergence of interest in noir fiction in the past decade and a half, books by the likes of Jim Thompson, David Goodis, and many others are easy to find. This is a relief, as readers of Hardboiled America will be inspired to seek out the work of numerous authors discussed within.

Superb review of the genre by an excellent writer........1998-11-11

I first read O'Brien's book several years ago (in an earlier edition) on the recommendation from a collector who is also a fan of Jim Thompson. O'Brien is insightful, informative, engaging and right on in his assessment of an era of paperbacks and pulp noir that will never be truly recreated. What a wonderful work of literary criticism, beautifully illustrated and classically rendered. A treasure for the noir lover! I have it right next to my first edition original of The Killer Inside Me.

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Short Fast Stories in Brooklyn

Hardboiled Brooklyn

Manufacturer: Bleak House Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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Walking the Perfect Square
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Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics
Soul Patch (Moe Prager Mysteries)
Manhattan Noir

ASIN: 1932557172

Book Description

Bagels, bullies, and bad girls ... An anthology of slash and burn short stories set in the County of Kings, this collection boasts an all-star line up of today's hottest crime fiction writers.

Customer Reviews:

Short Fast Stories in Brooklyn.......2007-07-21

I live in Brooklyn so the locations were the best part. They mention specific stuff and it helped me get into the story better. If you don't know anything about Brooklyn this book can still entertain. The stories aren't all "Brooklyn" stories as much as they are just good stories. Some of them made me think of Brooklyn but most of them were good stories that took place in Brooklyn. Easy and quick to read. Modern and old stories.

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Out There in the Dark
Must review later
Recommended
Outstanding Novel of Hollywood
1942 vs 2006

Out There in the Dark
Wesley Strick
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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Suite Francaise
The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

ASIN: 0312343817
Release Date: 2006-02-07

Book Description

A proud, distinguished German emigre director named Dieter Seife has had to content himself cranking out B-movies for Superior Pictures, until finally, Superiors founder, Arthur Lustig, gives Seife the opportunity to prove himself on a larger-budget picture titled The Big Betrayal. Its also a break for a young actor on the rise, Harley Hayden, whos been signed to star. Seife is unhappy with the casting of Hayden and aware of Seifes displeasure, Hayden takes the defensive step of hiring a disgraced LA cop named Roarke to look into Seifes background and see whether Siefe may be hiding something. Out There in the Dark brings to life the corrupt side of wartime Hollywood.

Customer Reviews:

Out There in the Dark.......2007-04-03

The review I read for this book was quite positive, and since I am a fan of "old Hollywood," I ordered the book. It was most disappointing. Not very well written, cardboard characters, dull plot, tended to ramble. I did finish it, but felt it was a waste of time and money.

Must review later.......2007-03-19

I haven't started the book yet. I am taking it to read on my trip to new york

Recommended.......2006-08-01

I bought this book on a whim and didn't regret it. Strick pinpoints a particular time and place and puts you right smack in the middle of it. I found it a quick, enjoyable read, but engrossing all the way through. For fans of "Old Hollywood" the name dropping of figures of the era is fun (love the titles of the movies starring Harley Hayden!) and the atmosphere is vividly re-created. What's next on the horizon, Mr. Strick?

Outstanding Novel of Hollywood.......2006-05-29

It doesn't seem to me that in 1940 the private eye might be speculating on which luscious movie star was causing Harley Hayden to cheat on his girlfriend--"But who? Rita, Greta, Ingrid, Lana?" Of these names only Greta Garbo was a great star in 1940--and would a savvy eye like Roarke seriously suspect her of having a back street affair with a man? The other names seem of a later date, say 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, when all had achieved superstardom. (Each had made movies by 1940 of course, but none were yet at Garbo's level.) Outside of that one little error I congratulate Wesley Strick on having everything right, the most difficult thing of all.

I shouldn't say that, because he has done something incomparably different, he has selected a pair of humans who seem between them to balance out between them, like the scales of Scorpio, all that is good and bad in Hollywood. We might compare his allegory to the famous Hollywood novel by Christopher Isherwood, PRATER VIOLET, and I think we would say the laurels go to Strick. I wasn't one hundred percent convinced by the implacable anti-Semitism of the detective, Roarke, which doesn't go any place and just provides for innumerable scornful and offensive putdowns of Hollywood Jews. And yet perhaps the storytelling needed him as a fulcrum from which we get to view the mysterious boy actor, Harley Hayden, and the tragic German director-meister Deiter Seife. Beyond the fireworks of the plot, we see in miniature the ways in which the escapees from the Third Reich who made their way to Los Angeles in the 1930s changed the movie capital forever, providing, if not a moral corrective as has sometimes been assumed, but a cracked lens that skewed all vision into a personal, ethical darkness--an aesthetic choice Strick seems to understand beautifully. This novel is so much better than the scripts Strick has written for Hollywood (FINAL ANALYSIS, WOLF, THE SAINT) one feels that maybe he went there as a spy--a chiel among them. OUT THERE IN THE DARK feels like one of the books we'll be reading in 100 years.

1942 vs 2006.......2006-04-10

On the surface, "Out There in the Dark," Wesley Strick's debut novel, is a well-written, concisely researched, mystery novel that is sure to delight fans of 1940 Hollywood drama. As a result of the subject matter, some readers may want to compare Wesley's book to works by Chandler, but this is somewhat unfair (albeit flattering); Mr. Strick's contemporary, fresh, straightforward writing style enhances the storyline with its clean approach to everyday language. Additionally, and most importantly, strip away the references to the 1940's and here lies a treatise on today's "glorious" world of Tinsel Town.

The Street Was Mine: White Masculinity in Hardboiled Fiction and Film Noir

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The Street Was Mine: White Masculinity in Hardboiled Fiction and Film Noir
Megan E. Abbott
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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Queenpin: A Novel

ASIN: 0312294816

Book Description

This book considers a recurrent figure in American literature: the solitary white man moving through urban space. The descendent of 19th-century frontier and western heroes, the figure reemerges in 1930s-'50s America as the "tough guy." The Street Was Mine looks to the tough guy in the works of hardboiled novelists Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) and James M. Cain (Double Indemnity) and their popular film noir adaptations. Focusing on the way he negotiates racial and gender "otherness," this study argues that the tough guy embodies the promise of an impervious white masculinity amidst the turmoil of the Depression through the beginnings of the Cold War. The book concludes with an analysis of Chester Himes, whose Harlem crime novels (For Love of Imabelle) unleash a ferocious revisionary critique of the tough guy tradition.

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