Although I think women often choose to tell different stories from men, I haven't observed any difference in their ability to tell those stories. And that includes the breadth of the genre...although admittedly not many women choose to write noir. (But there are certainly a number of female writers who write dark, violent novels.)

The female noir writer whom I hear mentioned most frequently is Vicki Hendricks. I've never read her, but people I respect say she's good.

Silly me, I've actually read Vicki Hendricks. Thanks for the reminder. I remember liking Miami Purity for its tone, although it definitely had more of a blatant focus on sex and relationships. A different perspective, to be sure. Ah, women and their relationships. :)

Latest news from Hard Case Crime...

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We've put our next new title up on our Web site: THE MURDERER VINE by Shepard Rifkin. It's a powerful book that fictionalizes the same historical events that inspired the movie "Mississippi Burning," with the addition of a really stunning crime fiction twist. The author has an interesting history himself: now 89, Rifkin served on the S. S. Ben Hecht in 1947 and was imprisoned by the British in Acre Prison (a fortress on the northern coast of what is now Israel) after a failed attempt to run the British blockade of Palestine while transporting hundreds of refugees from the Holocaust. Rifkin and his crewmates were released -- but not before smuggling a camera into the prison, enabling what has been called "one of the most spectacular prison breaks in history." None of which has anything to do with THE MURDERER VINE -- but what a great story!

The cover for THE MURDERER VINE is by an artist new to Hard Case Crime, Ken Laager, and it's a doozy. You can see it and find a sample chapter from the book at www.hardcasecrime.com.

In other news, we have reached an agreement with best-selling suspense and horror author John Farris to bring out a new edition -- for the first time in 50 years, and the first time ever under his real name -- of one of his earliest novels, a tight, tough crime story called BABY MOLL. John wrote the book under the pen name "Steve Brackeen" when he was just 21 (two decades before he won fame and fortune as the author of THE FURY), and the book holds up beautifully after all these years. Robert McGinnis is hard at work on the cover.

And after four years of trying -- tracking down leads, exploring dead ends, putting out feelers, wearing out shoe leather -- we have finally succeeded in tracking down the estate of Steve Fisher. Fisher was a popular pulp writer, best known as the author of I WAKE UP SCREAMING. He also wrote countless hours of film and television, including two films for Humphrey Bogart (he and Bogie were friends). In 1958 he published what I think may be his best book, a novel of Las Vegas titled NO HOUSE LIMIT. And we'll be bringing out a new edition of that book next year.

What else is in the cards? Lots of good stuff, none of which I can tell you about yet -- but as soon as I can, I will. In the meantime, you can find SONGS OF INNOCENCE by Richard Aleas and FRIGHT by Cornell Woolrich in stores now, and in just a few weeks you'll be able to get your hands on the very smart and funny KILL NOW, PAY LATER by Robert Terrall, featuring a mouth-watering McGinnis cover. (Why is the girl on the cover undoing her bikini bottom? I couldn't tell you. But far be it for me to tell her not to.)

Then in October it's time for Ken Bruen and Jason Starr's SLIDE, sequel to their very popular first collaboration, BUST...followed a month later by the first new Mickey Spillane novel in years, DEAD STREET. It's going to be a busy fall.

But for now, I hope you enjoy the last days of summer. And remember: Nothing goes better with a tall glass of lemonade than a cool, dark crime novel.

Guys, I was a bit let-down with Songs of Innocence and I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it was simply the very high expectations I had going into it since I loved Aleas' first book.

Currently reading Fright right now...so far, so good.

I didn't care much for <I>Songs of Innocence</I> either. I felt no connection to the characters, and thus didn't care what happened to them. I ended up quitting it about halfway through because the continuation and resolution of the story held no interest for me.

For me, it's the end that's the knockout.

Yes. Very bleak. And not at all what I was expecting.

All right, it's just about time for another Hard Case title to groove its way onto shelves. Keep an eye out for Robert Terrall's Kill Now, Pay Later, the cover of which features another impossibly long-legged Robert McGinnis femme fatale. Anybody ever read Terrall?

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books/bk35/cover_big.jpg

In other news, I just finished re-reading Bust, by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr, in anticipation of their sequel, Slide, which will hit bookstores next month. What a great, vulgar, crazy, wild read Bust is. Hilarious, brutal stuff. Nice echoing cover art here:

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books/bk20/cover_small.jpghttp://www.hardcasecrime.com/books/bk36/cover_small.jpg

You know, on the HCC site, Charles states that the girl is taking off the bottom of her suit. But to me, she's just putting them on. Hmmm....

I still haven't read BUST. It's one of the few books that I don't even have.

See, again, this illustrates that you're more of a pessimist while I'm more of an optimist. I see the glass half full, you see it half empty. I see the bikini bottom coming off, you see it going on.

Hey, I never said what she just got done doing, or what she's planning on next. There's no pessimism associated with Little Mrs. Long Legs over here.


Of course, I am optimistic about the book itself. All the HCC books with covers by Robert McGinnis have been good ones. I know it's illogical to compare the cover with the actual enjoyment of the story, but there you have it.

<I>Bust</I> is good and <I>Slide</I> might even be better. (Jason Starr's <I>The Follower</I>, just out from St. Martin's, is also very good.) Never heard of Terrall.

It looks to me like she's putting it back on, too. Something about the position of her hands, I guess... Or perhaps my sated nature. :)

Picked this up yesterday at Borders, so it's definitely out.

I just finished Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block - first time I've ever read anything by Block and enjoyed it immensely. My favourite two passages:

When talking about Las Vegas:
"Vegas.
I watched men win and I watched them lose. They were playing a straight house. Nothing was loaded. The house took its own little percentage and got rich. Money made in bootlegging and gunrunning and dope smuggling and whoremongering was invested quite properly in an entire town that stood as a monument to human stupidity, a boomtown in the state with the sparsest population and the densest people in the country.
Vegas."

When talking about the performance of the car he just stole:
"The car moved like a retarded child."

Brilliant.

How's the Book of the Month Club working out for you, Reggie? Yeah, the language is one of the big draws of these books. Looking forward to the next Block title.

It's been great having new HCC show up at my door every month, but to be honest, I've been trying to catch up on the older titles mostly (although I did read the new Aleas book after reading the first one). The other bonus to the club is the discount you get on the older titles. Plus, if you buy 5 novels, you get one for free! I ended up ordering 6 older novels right off the bat and paid about $36 or so (including shipping) which is a good deal for us canucks!

How are those monthly books delivered? Any chance that they come in nice condition?

I get my books direct from Dorchester and they're always in nice condition. Granted, they're sent from the publicity department... But in my experience the majority of books make it through the mail quite well.

The HCC books are starting to take up quite a bit of shelf space! And I don't even keep the advanced copies in most cases, just the finished paperbacks.

I posted about this in the last HCC thread. I can't recommend the book club enough. I can't think of a single reason not to join it. I pay only $4.99 each book, you can see by my posts in this thread, I get each month's new book about 3 weeks before it is available in stores (I got Kill Now, Pay Later on August 7th) & when I joined up (I believe it changed now) you get 8 books of choice for free. And I have never had a single book shipped to me damaged at all. Each book comes in a cardboard sleeve. They don't bounce around at all.

I just got through reading a whole load of these....

The Confession- I started and stopped this one at least 4 times before actually finishing it. Kind of bleak and didn't feel like it was part of the HCC series.

Home is the Sailor- Loved it. Loved the dame and the sap that falls for her.

Kiss Her Goodbye- Very good book, went by quickly. I love British writers.

361- Donald Westlake is killer. This book didn't disappoint. Gritty.

Plunder of the Sun- It was ok. Sort of drug on and on and the conclusion was a letdown.

Branded Woman- Not too bad. It just took forever to get through, but the payoff was nice.

Dutch Uncle- I had high expectations for this book. They were let down by a generic plot and somewhat interesting characters. Not really sure why someone would even bother writing a crime story like this...no surprises or anything.

The Colorado Kid- Not bad or good. I think Stephen King was trying too hard put a message across here instead of making an interesting story.

The Girl with the Long Green Heart- Lawrence Block is a helluva writer and this is one of his lesser books, which means it's still better than most crime fiction you'll read, but not the best.

The Gutter and the Grave- Dated as all hell. Lame "cool" lingo is thrown in the mix with a story about a drunk "has been" detective in NYC. I like it though.

Night Walker- The worst book in this series. Period. Bad "red scare" based plot mixed with a bad stereotype of a southern belle. I finished it as quick as I could and was glad when it ended.

So far my favorite book in the series was Two for the Money by Max Allan Collins. He's a great writer. Little Girl Lost was excellent too.

Thanks for the reviews. :thumbsup: I've actually read only two of those, so this gives me something to start with.

On Tony's recommendation, I devoured about half of Home Is the Sailor last night. This is a painful one, the way the narrator just keeps falling and falling, under the sway of this girl. Makes you cringe and laugh at the same time.

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books/bk7/cover_big.jpg

the whole time i read it, i was reading the narrator as Will Ferrell doing his Neil Diamond impression....it made the book a lot more enjoyable

That is surely one of the least-ringing endorsements for a book I've ever heard. :)

I enjoyed the first two-thirds or so, but I didn't like the resolution, which kind of came out of nowhere.