Jason Bovberg

Welcome to part 2 of the Hard Case Crime discussion. Before you go any further, you might want to read through all 9 pages of Part 1.

Anyway, Hard Case Crime is an ultracool paperback imprint that's been putting out some consistently fantastic throwback noir from new, established, and classic authors. At the Hard Case Crime Web site, you can check out the latest news about upcoming titles and get early glimpses of forthcoming cover art.

The latest title (June 2007) is Songs of Innocence, by the publisher himself, Charles Ardai, working under the clever anagram pseudonym Richard Aleas. Let's hear what everybody thought of it!

bishop2knight

Just finished his first book, Little Girl Lost. Liked it quite a bit, despite the ending being a little expected. Loved the modern spin. Plus, a story about strippers ain't a bad thing. I'm totally ready to dive in to Songs.

Jason Bovberg

Finished Songs of Innocence last night. Once again, John Blake has a very personal mystery to solve, and that makes the story quite involving. The ending is a stunner. This is a book that creeps up on you. Very nice work.

bishop2knight

New, 2-in-1 book announced:



TWO COMPLETE NOVELS, PUBLISHED IN THE CLASSIC BACK-TO-BACK "DOUBLE" FORMAT!

SHOOTING STAR: A famous movie star found dead on the set of his latest picture...drugs hastily disposed of at the scene of the crime...it’s the stuff of Tinseltown scandal and could ruin the investment Harry Bannock made in the dead man’s library of films. For help, Bannock turns to Mark Clayburn, a one-eyed private eye with his own history of scandals. But can Clayburn uncover the truth about Dick Ryan’s murder before time runs out for Ryan’s co-stars... and for Clayburn himself?

SPIDERWEB: Eddie Haines came to Hollywood to work in television, not to become a phony self-help guru, collecting secrets from his wealthy clients in order to blackmail them. But that’s what Eddie has become, under the tutelage of Professor Otto Hermann, Ph.D., a vicious little man with dollar signs where his soul should be. It’s a lucrative set-up for both of them—until the day the professor pushes Eddie too far...

Two complete novels—published for the first time in 50 years!
Bloch is the legendary author of PSYCHO and of numerous scripts for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Boris Karloff’s Thriller, and the original Star Trek TV series
Bloch won the Hugo Award for "That Hell-Bound Train"

Acclaim for Robert Bloch...

"Perhaps the finest psychological horror writer."
— Stephen King

"Robert Bloch is one of the all-time masters."
— Peter Straub

Jason Bovberg

Excellent! We got the "rumor" about it earlier this year, but it's nice to see the artwork. Here's some more information about the book (from Charles Ardai), taken from Part 1 of this thread.

"I'm very excited to announce that we'll be adding a book by Robert Bloch to our list -- and not just any book, a very special book. Bloch became famous, of course, as the author of PSYCHO, the novel that introduced Norman Bates to the world and made a generation afraid to take a shower. But back in the 1950s, when he was starting out, Bloch also wrote a number of crime novels, mostly for the "ACE Doubles" line of books. These were volumes that bound two books together, back to back: You'd read one book first, right-side-up, and then you'd flip the book upside down and have a whole other story to read. Double the fun! Well, two of Bloch's best crime novels -- SHOOTING STAR and SPIDERWEB -- have been out of print since their first appearance, as halves of two different ACE Doubles, back in the '50s. And we're going to be bringing them back...as halves of the first-ever Hard Case Crime Double. That's right -- two painted covers, two complete novels, bound back to back in one volume, all for the low, low price of...well, the same price we always charge, $6.99."

Geofferson

Awesome news!

bishop2knight

Finished reading Songs of Innocence last night. Loved it. That ending rocked! Oh man oh man. Not sure I liked the anticlimax portion of the ending, but the climax was totally unexpected and powerful in the extreme.

And my nitpick complaint of the year goes to the fact that Aleas used the word "grateful" about 100 times. Blake was grateful for one thing or another at every step. I kept thinking, "Are you going to kill someone or thank them for being so wonderful?"

Jason Bovberg

Didn't even notice that. Huh. You must be an editor or something.

djmont

I'm supposed to meet with Charles this weekend, so I'll tell him how grateful I am to see him again.

It's funny how those tics can creep into your writing without you even noticing it. Then, as soon as it's pointed out, it's so damn obvious you want to bang your head against the keyboard.

djmont

I told Charles about the message board, so he stopped by to read some of the entries. He was a bit chagrined about the grateful usage.

I finished Slide, the next Jason Starr/Ken Bruen book (sequel to Bust) over the weekend. Excellent book. At least as good as the first, if not better.

Geofferson

Wow, that's pretty neat David.

Nth Power

I just finished Songs of Innocence and didn't notice excessive gratefuls. Another excellent story that was a real page turner until the end.

Sessa17

Woo Hooo!!!!

Got the newest HCC gem yesterday & I'm about 50 pages into it so far. . .



This is the first time in over 50 years this long lost Cornell Woolrich gem has been available.

Jason Bovberg

Picked this one up last week, hot to get started on it. After I finish the final word of the Harry Potter saga--probably this weekend (somewhat slow because I'm reading it aloud to my daughter)--I'm divin' in.

bishop2knight

Just got back from the San Diego Comic Con. There was an art gallery Glen Orbik's art from Blackmailer. I was totally thinking of buying it, but I was roughly $6000 short of the selling price.

But for the record, the piece is absolutely gorgeous. If I had more money and a bigger house with a huge library, it'd be the centerpiece.

djmont

It's been a flood of Hard Case Crime around here lately! In the past week, I not only got my copy of the new (old) Cornell Woolrich book, but advanced copies of the new Mickey Spillane and Max Collins as well.

I've actually never read Spillane, so I think I'll try to read this one. (I don't know if it counts, since Max Collins finished it... but what the hell.)

Has anyone read the Woolrich book yet?

bishop2knight

The monthly updates at the HCC site get me giddy:



BECAUSE OLD TIMES THERE ARE NOT FORGOTTEN...

On their summer off from college, three boys went to Mississippi to work for civil rights. They were never seen again.

That’s why the father of one of the boys hired New York private eye Joe Dunne. His assignment: Find the men responsible, and don’t come home until they’re dead...


First publication in 35 years!
From the author of Desire Island


Acclaim for THE MURDERER VINE...


"Savagery and insight, in full-color dimensions."
— The New York Times


"Rifkin’s writing is so engaging, and his characters so appealing, you will be unprepared for the shock ending."
— Chicago Tribune


"Thoroughly engrossing."
— Saturday Review

Jason Bovberg

Mmmm, nice cover. And another author I've never heard of. (Bit of trivia: The Murderer Vine is the original title of Scott Smith's The Ruins. Yeah, just kidding.)

I have Fright on my nightstand, ready for consumption.

lukewarmwater

This isn't a hard case crime label, but I saw the cover of this and started reading it. It's pretty good, so far.

Anyone else read it?

Jason Bovberg

Looks like someone's got Hard Case Crime envy. There's something I don't like about that cover--probably the hot pink and the young Michael Jackson in the background--although the up-front illustrtation is fine. Overall, makes you appreciate the Hard Case artists/designers all the more.

djmont

Megan's supposed to be good, although I haven't read her stuff.

lukewarmwater

But the legs on the girl are anatomically correct. I think the cover looks good, like a cross between a romance novel and detective story.

And that's a chick with a fro, not michael jackson.

Anyways as much as I like this cover, and the hard case crime cover, it's the stories that count.

So I finished this today. Really awesome, loved that there were two female protagnists. I liked it more then grifters game and bust. Still liked little girl lost the most though. It's worth checking out.


And would you like the cover better if it looked like this?

Jason Bovberg

Aw, I was just kiddin' about Michael Jackson.

Glad to hear the book satisfies, but this brings up a (possibly sexist) point. How many of us are wary of pulp/noir/detective stories written by women? I have to admit I haven't read any, and my motivations are possibly sexist. I don't know. Maybe part of me doesn't think women are hard-wired to do these kinds of stories justice. There's definitely a masculinity to the prose, don't you think? For a similar reason, you see very few men writing romances.

Please don't think I'm entirely sexist. I read many women authors outside this genre. In fact, a woman wrote my favorite book of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird. I even named my daughter Harper. I'm just sayin', is all.

I picked up this Megan Abbot book at the store yesterday, and read the first couple pages. It felt a bit false to me, a little forced. But maybe I'm bringing in my own prejudices there. I'd love to hear other thoughts on the matter.

This is also a good discussion to have as we approach the first female-authored title in the line, Christa Faust's Money Shot.

Jason Bovberg

Nice photoshop, by the way. And I do like that mock cover better. In my original message, I did say the actual illustration is fine--in fact, I like it quite a bit. It's just the background that turns me off.

bishop2knight

I'm new to the genre, so I'm not going to be much help, but for me, in this instance, I'd fall back on trusting the publisher. For HCC, I trust that Charles will only pick the best, so I won't care what names on the cover.

But you bring up an interesting question. I'm interested to see what others think.