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That's still one of my all-time favorite HCC titles. That ending knocked me down and kicked me. Awesome!

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I read this when it came out (the HCC printing, that is ;)). Anyway, it's been a few years and I don't recall the ending (I may have to go back and reread it).

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Hey guys, I love the covers of these books, especially the ones by Glen Orbik. I've been meaning to try these out. I've got a new baby in the house and not much time to read, so can everyone give me their TOP 3 in the series so far?? If there is a concensus of sorts, I can make my first choice that way. I would hate to get a dud on my first read! Thanks!!

Your top 3?

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Money Shot is one of my top picks.

There was also that 2 book run... Little Girl Lost.... what was the other one?

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Thanks! I saw on the Dorchester Publishing site they are having a 50% off Mother's Day sale including all the Hard Case Crime books, from now until May 3rd if anyone needs to pick up some titles.

http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/Genre.cfm?L1=6&L2=0

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1. Money Shot (my first and the one that got me hooked)
2. Grifter's Game
3. Bust

I discovered these about a month and a half or so ago and have already plowed through six of them, with another nine on my reading pile. That's unheard of for me. So beware.

Be sure to check out Big Lots and Dollar Tree. Sometimes you can find a few titles for $2 and $1, respecitvely. (#s 1 and 3 above I found at those stores). It makes paying full price at Amazon kind of hard to do, but I also do that, as well - luckily HCC books qualify for their "buy 4 for the price of 3" promotion. My area Dollar Tree stores seem like they got a recent shipment of titles in, I guess in anticipation for the summer reading season.

Songs of Innocence. I just started Little Girl Lost a couple of days ago.

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Thanks guys!

I read through all 4 threads completely and compiled a list of 7 and then narrowed that down to 4 for now:

MONEY SHOT
LITTLE GIRL LOST
GRIFTER'S GAME
TOUCH OF DEATH

Got the 4 for the price of 3 at Amazon and free super saver shipping for a total of around $21 ... not bad!


I really like the interview someone posted earlier with Charles talking about the covers and the cover artists! Glen Orbik is by far my favorite ...

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My Top 3

Home is the Sailor .....first one I read, very Noir.
Somebody Owes Me Money ....First Westlake I read and now I am a huge fan!
The Last Quarry ...I love all the Quarry Books ,you really can't go wrong with any of them!

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Hard to limit to top 3, but my favorites include:

The Westlake titles (3-4 of them, I think)
The John Lange titles (i.e., Crichton -- 2 of them)
Say It With Bullets (has some great humor)

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Fade to Blonde
The Vengeful Virgin
Lemons Never Lie
The Murderer Vine

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Finished Little Girl Lost and Lucky at Cards and dug both of them. For a minute there I thought the former was going to fall into one of the trappings of the genre...



As for the latter, I loved reading it as a time capsule of a bygone era - that's one of the best things about these books. I think I'm going to go with a "modern/classic/modern/classic" pattern in my reading now, just to shake things up.

Just started Kiss Her Goodbye. Though I'm liking the Scottish setting - a nice change of pace - it hasn't immediately grabbed me like the other HCC books I've read.

Among the books on my reading pile is The Last Quarry and, out of curiosity, I looked up the series on Wikipedia. This is actually the seventh Quarry book. Does it make any difference jumping in with this one without reading any of the previous books? I figured it wouldn't, seeing as how it's the first one HCC published. Just wondering.

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^ No issue reading the HCC Quarry w/o any of the prior ones. I've been meaning to pick those earlier books up since I would like to read them eventually.

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Lemons Never Lie was one of my favorites, too -- you'll never go wrong with Richard Stark.

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Nope. It was the first Quarry I read and I wasn't at all lost.

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Latest from Charles Ardai ...

***************************

Friends,

Back in 2008, we published one of our most popular books (and our first by a female author), Christa Faust's MONEY SHOT. The book was called "an instant pulp classic" by Rolling Stone magazine, was a finalist for the Edgar Award, and is currently in development as a movie. Ever since it came out, people have been asking us if there was a chance they'd someday get to read more about Angel Dare, the former adult film star turned vigilante killer.

I'm happy to report that the answer is yes. There'll be a bit of a wait -- 9 months, give or take, and why shouldn't gestation take about that long? -- but when next February comes to a close you'll see a book called CHOKE HOLD arriving in bookstores. We haven't posted a sample chapter yet (Christa's still putting the finishing touches on the final draft), but the cover's worth a look all by itself...

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books/bk68/cover_big.jpg

Want a great read sooner than 9 months from now? I urge you to visit your favorite local bookseller (or online retailer) and pick up a copy of our latest title, NOBODY'S ANGEL by Jack Clark. It's an extraordinary novel -- written by a Chicago cab driver, about a Chicago cab driver -- and I don't think I've ever read a more passionate, heartbreaking, moving depiction of the Windy City in my life. This is a dark book, a sad book, a noir book through and through...and you'll be kicking yourself if you don't give it a read. The Chicago Sun-Times will shortly be running a profile about the book and the author; Booklist magazine has already given it a starred review, writing "The cynical, melancholy cabbie point of view is perfect for this kind of neon-lit, noir-tinged, saxophone-scored prose poem, and Clark hits all the right notes." Originally, when Jack wrote the book, instead of publishing it the conventional way, he printed up 500 copies himself and sold them to his passengers by hand; the only way you could get a copy of the book was if you were lucky enough to catch a ride in the author's cab. We are incredibly proud to be able to give the book the professional publication it has deserved all along, and I very much hope you'll try it.

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books/bk65/cover_big.jpg

One other bit of news, and it's a big one: Our best-selling title of all time, Stephen King's THE COLORADO KID, is about to become a TV series! The show is called "Haven," and it debuts on July 9 on SyFy (the network formerly known as The Sci-Fi Channel). In New York, it airs at 10PM; not sure what time it's on in other parts of the country, but check your listings. It'll also be shown outside the U.S., so wherever you are, there's a good chance you'll be able to watch it. The series expands on the story of the book, introducing a new main character (an FBI agent with a mysterious past), but you'll see as the series unfolds that the central mysteries of the book are very much at the heart of the TV show as well. There's a brief video up on SyFy's Web site if you want to get a taste of the show: you can find it by going to http://www.syfy.com/haven/ and clicking on the video link on the right side of the screen that's labeled "Haven - Everyone's Hiding Something." I'm fortunate to be working on the show as a writer and producer and am very excited about how it's coming out. There are some terrific stories hidden in the town of Haven, Maine, and week by week we'll do our best to bring them to you.

We've got more big developments in the works that I'm itching to tell you about...but those are still in the works, so we'll save them for a future update. In the meantime, please do grab a copy of NOBODY'S ANGEL -- and when July 9 rolls around, please tune in to SyFy and join me in watching Hard Case Crime's television debut!

Many thanks,
Charles
----------
Charles Ardai
Editor, Hard Case Crime

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Really looking forward to the next Angel Dare book. Money Shot was the first HCC book I'd read and still my favorite.

Also good to hear that it may be turned into a movie. I've been wondering why more HCC books haven't been adapted - The Last Quarry and now The Colorado Kid are the only ones, right? - considering the amount of books they've put out and the length of time some have been around since first being published.

BTW, has anyone seen The Last Lullaby? Thoughts? I haven't seen it, but judging by The Last Quarry's cover art, Tom Sizemore looks the part.

Thanks. I didn't figure HCC would do that with one of their books. After all, I had never heard of the Ms. Tree character before I'd read Deadly Beloved and followed that one just fine.

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This is now out. Picked it up on my lunch break.

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Nine months will be a long wait for that new Christa Faust, but I'm pleased with the announcement!

I'm not digging the cover for "Nobody's Angel" and that's really making me not that interested in the book (yes, I'm judging the book by its cover). However, Ardai makes it sounds pretty intriguing!

I'm interested to see what the TV show of The Colorado Kid is like. The book was good, albeit a little bit off from the normal HCC fare.

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And yet again my book club subscription hasn't gotten it to me.

This is really beginning to frustrate me.

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Well, I just finished my first Hard Case Crime novel. I read Grifter's Game. I can't say I liked the ending that much, but I really liked the book as a whole. The dialog was exactly what I was expecting from this line and it was a lot of fun. Reminded me of film noir like the Maltese Falcon. I liked the mood and the atmosphere and Lawrence Block's way with description. I did figure it all out pretty quickly, but it didn't really ruin it for me. I'm not much of a book reader to be honest, but this was probably the fastest I've ever read a book, and that's because it was interesting and kept the pages turning.

Next up is Money Shot.

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Do yourself a favor and buy it anyway. I started reading it yesterday, and before I knew it I'd read a hundred pages. Its that good.

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That's a pretty strong recommendation. I think I will pick it up. I've been needing to get back to the Hard Case Crime anyway.

I've strayed into other things since getting a Kindle and they don't have many HCC on there (plus, you miss out on the great covers).

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No doubt. Honestly 1/2 the reason i am buying the books (even though my backlog is huge) is due to the art.

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I have all but the last 6 or so books (I have a huge backlog, too. I think I've read probably 70% of the series at this point).

I have a real problem displaying/storing them. Obviously, the art is very important to the series, but the spines are ugly (well, not ugly, I like the vintage feel, but certainly not as cool as the covers). Got any creative storage ideas, anyone?

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Finished it yesterday. It's already one of my favorites.

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I have all of them, although I haven't read a lot of them. But once you start, you just have to keep getting them. It's an addiction! :)

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I dunno I am 70 plus pages in and it just reads as a cab drivers itinerary after a while it gets a little tiring, unless of course you are from Chicago and know the area then I am sure it's a more interesting read.

I will stick with it as I am sure it will pick up
Not as exciting as Somebody Owes Me Money by Westlake (HCC # 044) which also concerned a cab driver.

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So I got a new cell phone this week - a touchscreen one - and, of course, the stock wallpapers are pretty blah. Then I had an epiphany: when shrunk down a bit, the HCC covers from the official site are almost the same resolution as my phone's screen! Right now I'm sporting the cover of Blackmailer as my wallpaper.

Over the weekend I finished The Max. I think I liked it better than Slide, but it still couldn't touch Bust. When Max is in gangsta mode, he's one of the most annoying characters I've ever read. It was left open for possibly another sequel and, who knows, maybe...



Also, the cover would lead you to believe that at least a significant portion of the story would take place in a women's prison, when in fact only a chapter or two did. I wanted more caged heat, dammit! :lol:

I started 361 last night.

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Thank you for talking me into this one. I just finished it up last night. I really loved the way it was written and the culmination.

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I finished 361 last night. Normally, revenge tales are my bread and butter, but this one was just okay.



It held my interest, but wasn't one of the better HCC books I've read.

Up next: probably Gun Work.

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I finished Gun Work last night and LOVED it. From time to time it's nice to read a story that contains a ton of balls to the wall action.



A negative customer review of the book on Amazon likened it to an unfilmed grindhouse script. Of all of the HCC I've read so far, I think I'd like to see this one adapted to film the most. The cover painting's Barney really gave off a Thomas Jane vibe.

Up next: Zero Cool (it is my cell phone wallpaper, after all)

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Zero Cool was fun and fast-paced. The European (mostly Spain) setting was a nice change of pace. I rather enjoyed it. And it has one of the best HCC covers, IMO.

Tonight I'm going to start Home Is The Sailor.

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I really liked the Crichton (John Lange) books. I'd read them before, but it was good to see them in new editions.

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Quarry in the Middle (Kindle Edition) is only $2.99 on Amazon right now. Pretty good deal there, if you're willing to forgo the print edition.

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Just picked this up on my lunch break.

I have to admit to reading a few Hallidays before, and not being impressed, but considering HCC's track record, I'm willing to give him another shot.

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Thanks for the reminder about that one! This more erratic schedule is harder to keep on top of...

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Nice. Just yesterday the book club was showing Nobody's Angel as the current book. Saw your post and went back today and it's updated so I just went ahead and signed up for the book club.

I also just ordered two books the other day that's part of their "Summer Beach Reads" sale - Zero Cool and Home is the Sailor for 2 bucks each. Already had the third one that I got for a buck or two at either Dollar General or Big Lots.


So far I've read about 12 or so HCC books, and the only one I didn't really care for was Kiss her Goodbye.

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Started Westlake's Memory the other day. A nice departure from the typical crime yarn. Am only 150 pages in, but so far so good.

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I just picked up two at the local used book store (Half-Price Books). It was hard to locate them since they don't have them shelved together. Instead, they are shelved by author. So I picked up the Stephen King one (which I've heard is just mediocre) and House Dick by E. Howard Hunt.

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Well, Two weeks later, still haven't received the newest book. Strange since it took less than a week to receive the other two I ordered just days before.