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Say It With Bullets
Ever Wonder Why They Call It The Wild West?
Bill Wayne told his beautiful tour guide that he took the bus trip through the West to relax. But who can relax with dead bodies turning up at every stop?
From Cheyenne to Salt Lake City, from Reno to Yosemite, Bill’s secretly on a mission to discover which of his former army buddies shot him and left him for dead four years earlier. But with all the lead that’s flying around, Bill will be lucky to make it to the end of the tour in one piece…
Bill Wayne told his beautiful tour guide that he took the bus trip through the West to relax. But who can relax with dead bodies turning up at every stop?
From Cheyenne to Salt Lake City, from Reno to Yosemite, Bill’s secretly on a mission to discover which of his former army buddies shot him and left him for dead four years earlier. But with all the lead that’s flying around, Bill will be lucky to make it to the end of the tour in one piece…
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
April 1, 2024
08/2019
From 1953
Very effective mystery involving post WWII China and stolen gold. Excellent action scenes, particularly driving on coiling, cliff side, mountain roads (good scary suspense).
From 1953
Very effective mystery involving post WWII China and stolen gold. Excellent action scenes, particularly driving on coiling, cliff side, mountain roads (good scary suspense).
May 30, 2012
Bill Wayne is touring the country, conveniently stopping at cities where old partners of his live, trying to find out which of them shot him in the back years ago in China and took a shot at him in front of his house weeks before. His tour guide is a girl that had a crush on him when he was in high school. His old partners keep turning up dead and a sheriff named Carson Smith keeps showing up at inappropriate times.
The title of this book is what caught my interest a couple years ago. While it was good, I didn't love it. The action was good and parts were pretty funny but I'm not sure if the humor was intentional or not. Wayne's partners getting whacked got repetitive after the second one. The ending was a little predictable but only because there weren't very many other possibilites.
So, Say It With Bullets was an entertaining read but not one of my favorite Hard Case books by a long shot. Still, love the title.
The title of this book is what caught my interest a couple years ago. While it was good, I didn't love it. The action was good and parts were pretty funny but I'm not sure if the humor was intentional or not. Wayne's partners getting whacked got repetitive after the second one. The ending was a little predictable but only because there weren't very many other possibilites.
So, Say It With Bullets was an entertaining read but not one of my favorite Hard Case books by a long shot. Still, love the title.
July 24, 2022
Powell writes good fistfights and footchases, but he ruined everything with his nonstop wisecracking. It made the story too playful and sapped all the suspense out of it.
I had started reading Pioneer, Go Home! but quit at 20%. I was expecting Erskine Caldwell but got Gilligan's Island instead. So I switched to Say it with Bullets hoping to get something more malevolent. I'm done with Powell.
"His right arm didn’t move. It hung at his side, numbed by the blow of the tire iron. Sorry, bud. Our right hooks are out of stock at the moment."I prefer murder sprees to murder romps, beatdowns to cut-ups, and rye to wry.
I had started reading Pioneer, Go Home! but quit at 20%. I was expecting Erskine Caldwell but got Gilligan's Island instead. So I switched to Say it with Bullets hoping to get something more malevolent. I'm done with Powell.
July 26, 2012
Bill Wayne, crossed by his army buddies and left for dead returns to US soil following a tour in China to redeem the wrongs inflicted upon him. Under the cover of a cross country tour he plots the downfall of his 5 marked men at each stop hoping to get satisfaction and answers of the betrayal that nearly cost him his life.
'Say It With Bullets' is a well plotted pulp that encompasses enough intrigue and mystery to hold the readers attention despite a rather heartless and overly chauvinistic protagonist. While at times displaying cold blooded hatred and an apatite for violence, Bill Wayne is mostly talk unless the situation causes for something more. His overtly adolescent attitude towards tour guide Holly Clarke did get tiresome yet Holly's evolution from puppy in love to a stand-by-your-man-of-sorts overshadowed this annoyance.
As far as the plot progression goes, author Richard Powell does a good job at hinting at who the killer is without giving up the goods. 'Say It With Bullets' incorporated a few tasty twists which made me think twice, not only about Bill's capacity the kill but also the roll of his 5 former bothers in arms, their motives, and overall direction of the novel. This is certainly one of the better Hard Case Crime novels and something a little different to the traditional whodunit capers of the pulp era. 4 stars.
'Say It With Bullets' is a well plotted pulp that encompasses enough intrigue and mystery to hold the readers attention despite a rather heartless and overly chauvinistic protagonist. While at times displaying cold blooded hatred and an apatite for violence, Bill Wayne is mostly talk unless the situation causes for something more. His overtly adolescent attitude towards tour guide Holly Clarke did get tiresome yet Holly's evolution from puppy in love to a stand-by-your-man-of-sorts overshadowed this annoyance.
As far as the plot progression goes, author Richard Powell does a good job at hinting at who the killer is without giving up the goods. 'Say It With Bullets' incorporated a few tasty twists which made me think twice, not only about Bill's capacity the kill but also the roll of his 5 former bothers in arms, their motives, and overall direction of the novel. This is certainly one of the better Hard Case Crime novels and something a little different to the traditional whodunit capers of the pulp era. 4 stars.
April 9, 2022
“Definitely a dame to worry about….” Silly fun with a putz of a hero who fires off some rather nice drawling asides while getting outwitted at every turn. Bill Not Bruce Wayne has good reason for huntin’ down his erstwhile army chums, it’s just that the big old world won’t play ball.
I went into “Bullets” expecting your standard soft-boiled revenge yarn and was blindsided by its light comedy. Wayne’s early misanthropic reveries on the “Treasure Trippers” coach tour are amusingly interrupted by a queue of well-meaning busy bodies; the tour guide Holly Clarke is – Mad-Crazy Coincidence Alert – an ex who inconveniently sees through all his plans and when Wayne needs to get beaten up to cover some bruises everyone in town just slaps him on the back and buys him a drink (“What did you have to do in this town to start a fight?”). This is a novel which features a preposterous run of luck at a casino which spells terrible trouble for the winner. Nothing goes right for Bill Wayne the moment he goes revengin’ and certainly it makes for an amusing screwball read. There’s some adventure fic bobbins about a sunken plane full of gold and Wayne is prevented from walking out of the novel by being trailed by an actually successful assassin so this reads as very much the sort of thing Hitchcock would have smoothed the edges off, ramped up the cinematics and cast Cary Grant.
Even more hilariously for a while it looks like Powell Has An Agenda and is wiring in some cockamamie masculinity in crisis nonsense. Loser Wayne is contrasted with the six foot four rack of Texan man-meat Carson Smith (“Everything about the guy was king-size included the revolver in a hand-tooled holster on his hip”) who as Deputy Sheriff and suitor to Holly is a legal and romantic threat to Wayne, necessitating him trying to separate the two by throwing evils and epic snark within ear shot. The guy is robbed even of his potential as a romantic hero. Plus he’s got a nervous condition which won’t let him fire his gun. Paging Dr Freud. All this amounts to not much by the end and the novel has characters dancing wilfully between sympathetic and hateful (Wayne), smart or dumb (Holly) with Powell risking our sympathy with Wayne’s whole shot in the back by his mates thing by having him attempt to alienate Holly physically which read as very 1950s (“He released her at last when she began to cry”). Carson Smith’s involvement in proceedings also had me puzzled by the end.
Nevertheless it’s a fun road trip with the sort of elements ITC would end up using for many of their shows and Powell’s facility with the one-liners (“there had been a sign in his head announcing: Quiet, please. Brain at rest”) made for a frothy read. Was Powell really having a pop at masculinity or was he just having a hella good time? Dunno. Ask him. I just stayed for the zingers. “It didn’t take much to make people laugh: look at television”.
I went into “Bullets” expecting your standard soft-boiled revenge yarn and was blindsided by its light comedy. Wayne’s early misanthropic reveries on the “Treasure Trippers” coach tour are amusingly interrupted by a queue of well-meaning busy bodies; the tour guide Holly Clarke is – Mad-Crazy Coincidence Alert – an ex who inconveniently sees through all his plans and when Wayne needs to get beaten up to cover some bruises everyone in town just slaps him on the back and buys him a drink (“What did you have to do in this town to start a fight?”). This is a novel which features a preposterous run of luck at a casino which spells terrible trouble for the winner. Nothing goes right for Bill Wayne the moment he goes revengin’ and certainly it makes for an amusing screwball read. There’s some adventure fic bobbins about a sunken plane full of gold and Wayne is prevented from walking out of the novel by being trailed by an actually successful assassin so this reads as very much the sort of thing Hitchcock would have smoothed the edges off, ramped up the cinematics and cast Cary Grant.
Even more hilariously for a while it looks like Powell Has An Agenda and is wiring in some cockamamie masculinity in crisis nonsense. Loser Wayne is contrasted with the six foot four rack of Texan man-meat Carson Smith (“Everything about the guy was king-size included the revolver in a hand-tooled holster on his hip”) who as Deputy Sheriff and suitor to Holly is a legal and romantic threat to Wayne, necessitating him trying to separate the two by throwing evils and epic snark within ear shot. The guy is robbed even of his potential as a romantic hero. Plus he’s got a nervous condition which won’t let him fire his gun. Paging Dr Freud. All this amounts to not much by the end and the novel has characters dancing wilfully between sympathetic and hateful (Wayne), smart or dumb (Holly) with Powell risking our sympathy with Wayne’s whole shot in the back by his mates thing by having him attempt to alienate Holly physically which read as very 1950s (“He released her at last when she began to cry”). Carson Smith’s involvement in proceedings also had me puzzled by the end.
Nevertheless it’s a fun road trip with the sort of elements ITC would end up using for many of their shows and Powell’s facility with the one-liners (“there had been a sign in his head announcing: Quiet, please. Brain at rest”) made for a frothy read. Was Powell really having a pop at masculinity or was he just having a hella good time? Dunno. Ask him. I just stayed for the zingers. “It didn’t take much to make people laugh: look at television”.
October 23, 2014
Another from the same era as "Night Walker", the Hamilton book I just read. Instead of the communist menace, this one was a war time holdover from a bunch that worked in China after WWII.
The plot was pretty straight forward, but there were a lot of twists & turns getting there. The basis for them was a little contrived, but all in all it was a good book. There were some coincidences that stained the fabric a bit, but nothing too terrible.
Another fun read from HCC.
The plot was pretty straight forward, but there were a lot of twists & turns getting there. The basis for them was a little contrived, but all in all it was a good book. There were some coincidences that stained the fabric a bit, but nothing too terrible.
Another fun read from HCC.
May 22, 2024
A perfect noir
June 10, 2017
It only takes a few notes to know if you'll like a song, just a few frames to know if it's your kind of movie, just a glance to know if you are going to be nuts about a gal. Powell sold me on this book before I
finished page one and I stayed sold until I reached the conclusion the very same evening. This book takes you on a high speed journey and there simply aren't any brakes.
In this case, the publisher's blurb on the cover gets it right. Bill and five buddies were doing business in China when the war ended. The Reds were taking over in 1949 and they had to scram but someone,
one of his buddies, put a bullet in Bill's back and they left him for dead as the Communists took over. Four years later, Bill recovers from his wounds and returns to the States. Immediately, someone shoots him. Someone, someone he thought was his buddy, is out to knock him off.
Bill decides he'll look his buddies up in Cheyenne, in Salt Lake, in Reno, in San Fran, and in LA. He's got a .45 and if he doesn't get answers he likes someone else is gonna take a bullet and be left for
dead. He signs on with a western bus tour that stops in these cities. He's got an alibi now -- just a crazy tourist. He's too bent on revenge to notice the hot blonde tour guide is someone from his childhood, too crazy with anger to convince her he
belongs with the middle aged slobs on the bus trip. Maybe he's getting paranoid. Wouldn't you if someone kept trying to kill you?
Powell writes like someone's hot on his heels. A fantastic piece of
literature. Wow!
finished page one and I stayed sold until I reached the conclusion the very same evening. This book takes you on a high speed journey and there simply aren't any brakes.
In this case, the publisher's blurb on the cover gets it right. Bill and five buddies were doing business in China when the war ended. The Reds were taking over in 1949 and they had to scram but someone,
one of his buddies, put a bullet in Bill's back and they left him for dead as the Communists took over. Four years later, Bill recovers from his wounds and returns to the States. Immediately, someone shoots him. Someone, someone he thought was his buddy, is out to knock him off.
Bill decides he'll look his buddies up in Cheyenne, in Salt Lake, in Reno, in San Fran, and in LA. He's got a .45 and if he doesn't get answers he likes someone else is gonna take a bullet and be left for
dead. He signs on with a western bus tour that stops in these cities. He's got an alibi now -- just a crazy tourist. He's too bent on revenge to notice the hot blonde tour guide is someone from his childhood, too crazy with anger to convince her he
belongs with the middle aged slobs on the bus trip. Maybe he's getting paranoid. Wouldn't you if someone kept trying to kill you?
Powell writes like someone's hot on his heels. A fantastic piece of
literature. Wow!
May 1, 2013
I've been making my way through the Hard Case Crime backlog, and I'll admit I had my doubts about this one. The title sounded like a bad Sylvester Stallone movie, and the premise could be charitably called preposterous: WWII vet Bill Wayne takes a bus tour across the American West, ostensibly to relax, but he is really tracking down his former Army buddies to find out which one shot him and left him for dead.
But this book turned out to be a lot of fun. Like a good Quentin Tarantino movie, this book revels in the over-the-top excesses of the noir genre, but it's mostly tongue-in-cheek. The author writes against many of the typical stereotypes. Bill Wayne is not the usual brooding, intelligent, self-reliant archetype that you normally see.
He mopes, stumbles, and bumbles through much of the action, and it is clear to the reader (if not always to the protagonist himself) that Bill has started something he cannot control. Meanwhile, his love-struck dame proves time and again to be faster, smarter, and more resourceful than the man she moons after.
The book suffers somewhat from an abrupt and predictable ending, but it all adds up to a few entertaining hours of reading, at least.
But this book turned out to be a lot of fun. Like a good Quentin Tarantino movie, this book revels in the over-the-top excesses of the noir genre, but it's mostly tongue-in-cheek. The author writes against many of the typical stereotypes. Bill Wayne is not the usual brooding, intelligent, self-reliant archetype that you normally see.
He mopes, stumbles, and bumbles through much of the action, and it is clear to the reader (if not always to the protagonist himself) that Bill has started something he cannot control. Meanwhile, his love-struck dame proves time and again to be faster, smarter, and more resourceful than the man she moons after.
The book suffers somewhat from an abrupt and predictable ending, but it all adds up to a few entertaining hours of reading, at least.
November 5, 2025
Meh, tre appena appena. Troppo humor e poco sangue per un Pulp. Protagonista poco noir ma super dame raramente intelligente per il genere. La storia ha troppe parti che richiedono sospensione dell'incredulità ma la costruzione e i dialoghi non sono male alla fin fine
July 23, 2010
Nothing profound, just good for what it is: a fast-paced, noir adventure with a tough guy who does a lot of talking in his head, a smarter-than-your average dame, and a lot of dead bodies and hot lead. Loved the setting and atmosphere (post war, tracking down old USAAF buddies across the scenic Western States, trying to figure out who shot him in the back and left him for dead). I breezed through this one in all of three sittings (which is fast for me). Perfect summer pulp.
August 23, 2014
A fun little chase novel in some respects, with some snappy metaphors and interesting settings (I had never heard of the Yosemite firefall before reading this and it sounds pretty fascinating, though it no longer happens), but with a couple of idiotically stupid protagonists. It is the nature of some crime novel characters to be stubborn, but it doesn't even really make sense here the way it plays out, which kind of drags on the overall enjoyment factor of the novel.
August 10, 2025
When you need a fast, pulpy, action-packed read, Hard Case Crime never fails to satisfy. This book is a perfect example; while nothing groundbreaking, it tells a fast-moving story that grips a reader's attention.
Bill Wayne has recently returned home from China after service in World War II. The book is set around the time of its original publication date, 1953, so where has he been. Having discovered his army buddies involved in smuggling, he gets shot in the back when he tries to stop them. After a recent newspaper article tells of his return home to Philadelphia, he gets shot at again. To protect himself (and gets some revenge), he signs up for a Western bus tour. His former buddies now live in towns where the tour will pass through (Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Reno, San Francisco and Los Angeles). Bill is determined to find out who shot him and kill that person before he can be rubbed out. While he travels his vengeance trail, he also has to deal with the nosy tour guide and a dogged lawman.
As I said, none of this is very new or original. This kind of story only works if it moves. There cannot be time for deep thinking about the human condition; it needs a hero with a grudge and a gun. While Bill can sometimes seem a little naive, his quest is involving. His dealings with the (female) tour guide are fun and even have a tough guy's version of sexual tension. These elements make for a fun and exciting read.
Bill Wayne has recently returned home from China after service in World War II. The book is set around the time of its original publication date, 1953, so where has he been. Having discovered his army buddies involved in smuggling, he gets shot in the back when he tries to stop them. After a recent newspaper article tells of his return home to Philadelphia, he gets shot at again. To protect himself (and gets some revenge), he signs up for a Western bus tour. His former buddies now live in towns where the tour will pass through (Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Reno, San Francisco and Los Angeles). Bill is determined to find out who shot him and kill that person before he can be rubbed out. While he travels his vengeance trail, he also has to deal with the nosy tour guide and a dogged lawman.
As I said, none of this is very new or original. This kind of story only works if it moves. There cannot be time for deep thinking about the human condition; it needs a hero with a grudge and a gun. While Bill can sometimes seem a little naive, his quest is involving. His dealings with the (female) tour guide are fun and even have a tough guy's version of sexual tension. These elements make for a fun and exciting read.
February 19, 2025
Nanu-nanu: No Soup for You
Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a dour sort: poor-to-no sense of humor, I rarely laugh, and hold joke-makers in contempt. Some have even accused me of being the Comedy Police, which is sort of true because I do have a Comedy Breathalizer that I make everyone tell their jokes into. It is 100% accurate: If I laugh, it's funny. If I don't laugh, it's not.
Early in this book I got a lot of laughs out of Bill trying to pick a fight in the bar. But I'm not laughing now. This jocular tone went on way too long and, in fact, never let up right to the end. Maybe it's funny all the way to the end. Maybe Laverne and Shirley was funny. Maybe Mork and Mindy was funny. Ditto all the other Hollywood Chiseler stuff was funny. Maybe. But I'm gonna have to say "No."
As for a book, a novel? NO ONE is funny enough to keep it up for 130 pages. NOTHING is funny for that long. This is why comedy TV and movies fail so wretchedly.
A book takes a LOT longer than 90 minutes to read, so a whole novel has no chance. No one can keep laughing for three days.
Of course, if you can hear "That's what she said" a hundred times and STILL not throw the TV out the window, this book is for you.
If you can watch those old Cary Grant movies and actually laugh, this book is for you.
Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a dour sort: poor-to-no sense of humor, I rarely laugh, and hold joke-makers in contempt. Some have even accused me of being the Comedy Police, which is sort of true because I do have a Comedy Breathalizer that I make everyone tell their jokes into. It is 100% accurate: If I laugh, it's funny. If I don't laugh, it's not.
Early in this book I got a lot of laughs out of Bill trying to pick a fight in the bar. But I'm not laughing now. This jocular tone went on way too long and, in fact, never let up right to the end. Maybe it's funny all the way to the end. Maybe Laverne and Shirley was funny. Maybe Mork and Mindy was funny. Ditto all the other Hollywood Chiseler stuff was funny. Maybe. But I'm gonna have to say "No."
As for a book, a novel? NO ONE is funny enough to keep it up for 130 pages. NOTHING is funny for that long. This is why comedy TV and movies fail so wretchedly.
A book takes a LOT longer than 90 minutes to read, so a whole novel has no chance. No one can keep laughing for three days.
Of course, if you can hear "That's what she said" a hundred times and STILL not throw the TV out the window, this book is for you.
If you can watch those old Cary Grant movies and actually laugh, this book is for you.
March 10, 2020
Fun little book, but not much mystery to it. You can maybe guess at the ending, but the book doesn't give you any real clues that you can use to decipher the story yourself. Witty banter, with some fun characters and a pretty detailed knowledge of Yosemite. I will say that I rather did like the main character. He's no two fisted hero, or smart private eye that is quick with a gun. Much more of a regular Joe that is pretty darn thick headed at times.
The Hard Case Crime books are all pretty good in their own right, and this one is no exception. Not the best one you can find, but pretty good for a casual, quick read. So if you enjoy the Hard Case series and other books like it, pick it up. But if you have a stack of stuff you're still trying to get to, maybe hold off until you've burned though your stack.
The Hard Case Crime books are all pretty good in their own right, and this one is no exception. Not the best one you can find, but pretty good for a casual, quick read. So if you enjoy the Hard Case series and other books like it, pick it up. But if you have a stack of stuff you're still trying to get to, maybe hold off until you've burned though your stack.
June 29, 2024
This was a fun, witty bit of noir.
Bill Wayne was shot in the back when he was working for his shipping company in China. Years later, he's home and someone's shooting at him again. Figuring it was one of his old business partners (who abandoned him in China), he goes on a road trip to find them and interrogate them. Problem is, someone else is finding them and killing them at the same time.
I haven't read any Powell before and this was fun enough to convince me to read more of his stuff in the future. His writing is quick, clever, and loaded with wisecracks. Sometimes the witticisms were so thick, I wondered if the book was actually a parody of Chandler-style noir. By the book's end, I figured Powell was writing a serious mystery, but let a lot of his humor spill through.
The scene on the cover never happens, though.
Bill Wayne was shot in the back when he was working for his shipping company in China. Years later, he's home and someone's shooting at him again. Figuring it was one of his old business partners (who abandoned him in China), he goes on a road trip to find them and interrogate them. Problem is, someone else is finding them and killing them at the same time.
I haven't read any Powell before and this was fun enough to convince me to read more of his stuff in the future. His writing is quick, clever, and loaded with wisecracks. Sometimes the witticisms were so thick, I wondered if the book was actually a parody of Chandler-style noir. By the book's end, I figured Powell was writing a serious mystery, but let a lot of his humor spill through.
The scene on the cover never happens, though.
October 22, 2017
"At the overnight stop in North Platte, Nebraska, Bill Wayne didn't copy the other tourists in the party when they bought postcards to mail to friends. He was running a little low on friends these days. Once he had classed five guys as friends but they had picked up a habit of doing things behind his back, like shooting at it. The only wish-you-were-here postcard he wanted to send them was a picture of a cemetery."
Oh boy, another absolutely perfect Hard Case Crime book. Maybe the best I have read yet. Light, readable - very funny, and thrilling enough Hitchcock could have made it a movie similar to North by Northwest.
I don't know how these old guys did it, so easily, so frequently and with so few words. I cannot recommend this gem highly enough.
Oh boy, another absolutely perfect Hard Case Crime book. Maybe the best I have read yet. Light, readable - very funny, and thrilling enough Hitchcock could have made it a movie similar to North by Northwest.
I don't know how these old guys did it, so easily, so frequently and with so few words. I cannot recommend this gem highly enough.
August 4, 2021
The best of the three pulp novels I've read by Powell. Entertaining throughout. However, at one point, the plot has to unconvincingly rely on the hero being incredibly stupid. It's so bad that the author feels it necessary to have the hero directly admit that he's just done something "horribly wrong and stupid."
Rather than self-consciously acknowledge this problem, Powell should have tried to eliminate it through a rewrite. Still, it's a fun book overall.
Rather than self-consciously acknowledge this problem, Powell should have tried to eliminate it through a rewrite. Still, it's a fun book overall.
March 15, 2018
Fun little crime novel. The protagonist goes on a bus tour of the west that stops in every town where his old pilot buddies live, so he can find which of them shot him in the back and left him to die in China... but it turns out someone's stalking HIM, and using his presence in each town to kill all the old buddies and blame it on him.
May 22, 2018
Say It With Bullets is a solid noir set in the '50s with all the standard ingredients: Knock out fights, gritty hotels, hard-to-read babes, car chases, and dead bodies. All relatively predictable. Like eating a TV dinner hot from the oven -- you know what you are getting isn't great but it doesn't make it bad. In fact, you kind of like it. Particularly once in a while.
June 11, 2022
A page turner. A roller coaster ride to the finish. I think it is a really fun read. "Say It With Bullets" was written in the early 1950's. It is set after WWII. The action is set around a violent act in China that follows the hero back to the US. The scenic ride across the country during the action is fun.
I recommend "Say it With With Bullets.". A very fun read.
I recommend "Say it With With Bullets.". A very fun read.
January 8, 2023
“D for done in, e for extinct, a for assassin, and d for departed.” That spells ‘dead’.
Bill Wayne has a score to settle with five guys who used to be his friends. The same five who put a bullet in his back four years ago in China. Now Bill’s on a cross country bus tour of the United States, a tour that has stops at each of his ‘friends’ locations.
The only problem is that Bill acts completely suspicious, like ALL the time! For no real reason. Which really makes no sense. He also irritates and provokes the investigating sheriff, which really, really makes no sense. If he is meant to be the 'hero' of the story, I'll pass.
On the positive, I did like the book having it's ending in Yosemite! One of my favorite places to visit! I enjoyed reading the descriptions of it as it existed at the time this book was written!
Bill Wayne has a score to settle with five guys who used to be his friends. The same five who put a bullet in his back four years ago in China. Now Bill’s on a cross country bus tour of the United States, a tour that has stops at each of his ‘friends’ locations.
The only problem is that Bill acts completely suspicious, like ALL the time! For no real reason. Which really makes no sense. He also irritates and provokes the investigating sheriff, which really, really makes no sense. If he is meant to be the 'hero' of the story, I'll pass.
On the positive, I did like the book having it's ending in Yosemite! One of my favorite places to visit! I enjoyed reading the descriptions of it as it existed at the time this book was written!
March 2, 2019
A really great Noir read. The lead character is so flawed and the "damsel in distress" is wonderful. Short story but a fun read.
February 11, 2025
Entertaining.
February 27, 2012
Bill Wayne is on a Treasure Trip tour through the American Southwest to see five old war buddies—guys he got into business with, flying cargo around post-war, pre-Communist China. Only Bill isn’t out to collect souvenirs and postcards. One of his buddies shot him in the back, and Bill means to find out which one. So he’s tracking them down, one by one, looking for answers on why he was left for dead. And if they’re not up for talking, his .45 will talk for them. There’s just a couple of snags. Bill isn’t sure he can actually go through with the dirty deed himself—will he freeze up if things come down to killing? Worse, he perpetually has to dodge tour hostess Holly… the home-town girl who swooned at his high-school football stardom. Then there’s the issue of the millions of dollars in Chinese gold bricks buried in the middle of a lake…
In a lot of crime fiction, the protagonist is completely hard-boiled: no qualms about lying, stealing, or especially killing. What makes Bullets a more interesting and complex piece is the fact Bill doesn’t fit this mold: he’s mad as hell and wants vengeance, but he’s unsure he can actually go through with it. The first scuffle leaves a man dead, but Bill’s not sure he’s the one who pulled the trigger. And when he finally comes clean to Holly in the middle of the book, she postulates the theory of a sixth shooter: someone from his days in China that Bill’s memory has completely repressed… someone using Bill as a patsy to shield their own murderous revenge. There’s a lot going on here: plenty of mystery and ambiguity, a plot of surprising depth, and a multi-faceted protagonist.
Say It With Bullets is a solid mix of great tough-guy lines and twisty-turny mystery, making it more than a simple revenge tale. Bullets is a great example of why many retro pulp and noir novels deserve to be reprinted: it’s fast, it’s complex, and most of all, it’s fun. There’s nothing really wrong with the book, though I can see its humor falling flat or not working for some readers.
(Full review found here.)
In a lot of crime fiction, the protagonist is completely hard-boiled: no qualms about lying, stealing, or especially killing. What makes Bullets a more interesting and complex piece is the fact Bill doesn’t fit this mold: he’s mad as hell and wants vengeance, but he’s unsure he can actually go through with it. The first scuffle leaves a man dead, but Bill’s not sure he’s the one who pulled the trigger. And when he finally comes clean to Holly in the middle of the book, she postulates the theory of a sixth shooter: someone from his days in China that Bill’s memory has completely repressed… someone using Bill as a patsy to shield their own murderous revenge. There’s a lot going on here: plenty of mystery and ambiguity, a plot of surprising depth, and a multi-faceted protagonist.
Say It With Bullets is a solid mix of great tough-guy lines and twisty-turny mystery, making it more than a simple revenge tale. Bullets is a great example of why many retro pulp and noir novels deserve to be reprinted: it’s fast, it’s complex, and most of all, it’s fun. There’s nothing really wrong with the book, though I can see its humor falling flat or not working for some readers.
(Full review found here.)
February 24, 2014
As far as I know, no one ever made this 1953 crime novel into a film, but someone could have, probably should have. Alan Ladd or John Garfield could have starred as Bill Wayne, the flyer shot and left for dead by one of five "pals" in China as the Communists were edging out the Nationalists. By the time he awoke from what was supposed to have been the big sleep, nursed back to health by a couple of Chinese peasants who hid him from the Reds, his "buddies" had absconded with their plane, heading for the US of A. Seven years later, Bill's back in the States, gets written up in the local paper, and then someone takes a shot at him. It wasn't good the first time, when he was left face down in a pool of his blood at a Shanghai airfield, but he'd put all that behind him; he never wanted to see his former friends again...until that second shot came out of the darkness.
The would-be killer had to be one of the five, but why? That's the question that eats at him...and who? Bill finds out where the five lads now live, then joins a guided bus tour that goes through all five cities. Safety in numbers, he thinks. A reason for being there should events go awry, and they do. As he visits his first man,Russ, he gets brained by a tire iron, and when he wakes up Russ is dead, shot with Bill's gun and someone has gone through the trouble of pulling off one of his jacket buttons. A very neat frame. Someone, likely one of the remaining four, wants to get rid of his partners, and Bill makes the perfect little patsy for the crime...soon to be crimes shortly after he pulls into Reno.
The narrative of this fast-moving crime novel is crisp and clean, the characters well portrayed, from Bill Wayne, who is his own worst enemy, to Holly, who can't seem to keep her nose out of Bill's business, to Frankie, the weak link of any chain who is forever trying to coax jackpots from slot machines. The dialogue propels the story without resorting to cliches or melodrama. Powell deftly weaves together many disparate plot elements, including a lost plane filled with gold, into a gripping adventure laced with suspense.
The would-be killer had to be one of the five, but why? That's the question that eats at him...and who? Bill finds out where the five lads now live, then joins a guided bus tour that goes through all five cities. Safety in numbers, he thinks. A reason for being there should events go awry, and they do. As he visits his first man,Russ, he gets brained by a tire iron, and when he wakes up Russ is dead, shot with Bill's gun and someone has gone through the trouble of pulling off one of his jacket buttons. A very neat frame. Someone, likely one of the remaining four, wants to get rid of his partners, and Bill makes the perfect little patsy for the crime...soon to be crimes shortly after he pulls into Reno.
The narrative of this fast-moving crime novel is crisp and clean, the characters well portrayed, from Bill Wayne, who is his own worst enemy, to Holly, who can't seem to keep her nose out of Bill's business, to Frankie, the weak link of any chain who is forever trying to coax jackpots from slot machines. The dialogue propels the story without resorting to cliches or melodrama. Powell deftly weaves together many disparate plot elements, including a lost plane filled with gold, into a gripping adventure laced with suspense.
May 1, 2011
As noir goes, there's a bit to enjoy about SAY IT WITH BULLETS, Release Number 16 (with a 'bullet' at least in the title) in the largely stellar run of Dorchester Publishing Company's "Hard Case Crime" imprint. There's Bill Wayne, a wronged man left for dead with a bullet to the back who's come back to the post-War states after his fellow servicemen who were guilty of the crime. There's a shifty girl-from-his-past named Holly Clark, a teacher-and-tour-guide who willingly (but unwittingly) becomes his sidekick and probable partner-in-crime-of-vengeance. And there's even a fortune in buried treasure at the bottom of a mountain lake for the first sucker willing to risk all odds to find it.
Outside of that, "Bullets" fails to fire. Hawked by Hard Case editors as their first 'comic' entry in the series, the novel fails to really reach the level of comedy but admirably achieve smartaleckyness early on and never loses touch. Through Wayne's eyes, the world is a place where nothing is quite as it seems when the men he's hunting start dropping off like flies ... but not by his doing (though, in noir stories, he's bound to get blamed for it ... and he does!). With the sole exception of some terrific zaniness in the book's second half (Wayne visits a small-time casino to hide out from all of the local folks chasing him only to find he can't lose at games of chance, bringing only more and more eyes on him), author Richard Powell does steward's work of keeping this tale quick but only slightly dirty.
The book's cover advertises "first publication in 50 years," and, after reading it, one might be able to figure out why. It's good, but it isn't THAT good that it needed resurrecting alongside other tales from the Hard Case logo.
Outside of that, "Bullets" fails to fire. Hawked by Hard Case editors as their first 'comic' entry in the series, the novel fails to really reach the level of comedy but admirably achieve smartaleckyness early on and never loses touch. Through Wayne's eyes, the world is a place where nothing is quite as it seems when the men he's hunting start dropping off like flies ... but not by his doing (though, in noir stories, he's bound to get blamed for it ... and he does!). With the sole exception of some terrific zaniness in the book's second half (Wayne visits a small-time casino to hide out from all of the local folks chasing him only to find he can't lose at games of chance, bringing only more and more eyes on him), author Richard Powell does steward's work of keeping this tale quick but only slightly dirty.
The book's cover advertises "first publication in 50 years," and, after reading it, one might be able to figure out why. It's good, but it isn't THAT good that it needed resurrecting alongside other tales from the Hard Case logo.
March 14, 2015
Το μυθιστόρημα αυτό κυκλοφόρησε στις ΗΠΑ με τον ενδιαφέρων τίτλο Say It With Bullets πριν από εξήντα περίπου χρόνια και επανακυκλοφόρησε από την σούπερ σειρά παλπ αστυνομικών βιβλίων Hard Case Crime πριν από έξι-εφτά. Μ'έναν μικρό έλεγχο, η ελληνική μετάφραση δεν είναι ακριβώς πλήρης, κάποιες φράσεις έχουν συντομευτεί για να γλιτώσει φαίνεται ο εκδότης καμιά δεκαπενταριά σελίδες, αλλά αυτό δεν με εμπόδισε στο να περάσω αρκετά ευχάριστα ένα δίωρο.
Πρωταγωνιστής είναι ο Μπιλ Γουέιν, πρώην αεροπόρος, που ζητάει εκδίκηση για τον πισώπλατο πυροβολισμό που δέχτηκε στην Κίνα από έναν από τους πέντε συνεργάτες του, που τον άφησαν στην ξένη αυτή χώρα, πιστεύοντας ότι είναι νεκρός. Έτσι, ο Γουέιν πρέπει να περάσει από πέντε διαφορετικές πόλεις της χώρας, Τσεγιέν, Σολτ Λέικ Σίτι, Σαν Φρανσίσκο, Ρένο και Λος Άντζελες, στις οποίες διαμένουν οι πέντε εχθροί του, για να τους βρει και να κλείσει τον λογαριασμό μαζί τους. Και ένα τουριστικό πούλμαν που έχει ακριβώς αυτό το δρομολόγιο, θα τον βολέψει τρομερά. Αρκεί να μην τριγυρνά στα πόδια του η πανέμορφη συνοδός του λεωφορείου, που την τρώει ο κώλος της... Και στην μέση υπάρχει και ένας θησαυρός αξίας πεντακοσίων χιλιάδων δολαρίων, ο λόγος όλων των αναποδιών και των φόνων...
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι συγκλονίστηκα από την πλοκή, σχετικά απλή ήταν και δίχως πολλές καλές εκπλήξεις, διαβαζόταν όμως ευχάριστα λόγω της παλπ ατμόσφαιρας. Η γραφή τίποτα το ιδιαίτερο, με λίγο χιούμορ, έκανε απλώς την δουλειά της.
Στα ελληνικά από τις εκδόσεις Κισσός, με τον τίτλο "Θ'ανοίξω πέντε τάφους".
Πρωταγωνιστής είναι ο Μπιλ Γουέιν, πρώην αεροπόρος, που ζητάει εκδίκηση για τον πισώπλατο πυροβολισμό που δέχτηκε στην Κίνα από έναν από τους πέντε συνεργάτες του, που τον άφησαν στην ξένη αυτή χώρα, πιστεύοντας ότι είναι νεκρός. Έτσι, ο Γουέιν πρέπει να περάσει από πέντε διαφορετικές πόλεις της χώρας, Τσεγιέν, Σολτ Λέικ Σίτι, Σαν Φρανσίσκο, Ρένο και Λος Άντζελες, στις οποίες διαμένουν οι πέντε εχθροί του, για να τους βρει και να κλείσει τον λογαριασμό μαζί τους. Και ένα τουριστικό πούλμαν που έχει ακριβώς αυτό το δρομολόγιο, θα τον βολέψει τρομερά. Αρκεί να μην τριγυρνά στα πόδια του η πανέμορφη συνοδός του λεωφορείου, που την τρώει ο κώλος της... Και στην μέση υπάρχει και ένας θησαυρός αξίας πεντακοσίων χιλιάδων δολαρίων, ο λόγος όλων των αναποδιών και των φόνων...
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι συγκλονίστηκα από την πλοκή, σχετικά απλή ήταν και δίχως πολλές καλές εκπλήξεις, διαβαζόταν όμως ευχάριστα λόγω της παλπ ατμόσφαιρας. Η γραφή τίποτα το ιδιαίτερο, με λίγο χιούμορ, έκανε απλώς την δουλειά της.
Στα ελληνικά από τις εκδόσεις Κισσός, με τον τίτλο "Θ'ανοίξω πέντε τάφους".
July 4, 2013
Say It With Bullets (1953)
Richard P. Powell is another forgotten noirist and crime writer who cranked them out during the forties and fifties, and finally hit it big with a mainstream novel called The Philadelphians. Like so many of these guys, Powell started as a journalist. This one deals with a guy who is tracking down five Army buddies who shot him in the back and left him in China over a smuggling deal. I saw the mystery solution early, but the mystery aspect was never that strong in most of these. He does write good dialogue and there’s lively banter between the hero and the girl who is a tour guide on the bus tour that just happens to stop in every town across the west where his army buddies are. Clean prose.
Richard P. Powell is another forgotten noirist and crime writer who cranked them out during the forties and fifties, and finally hit it big with a mainstream novel called The Philadelphians. Like so many of these guys, Powell started as a journalist. This one deals with a guy who is tracking down five Army buddies who shot him in the back and left him in China over a smuggling deal. I saw the mystery solution early, but the mystery aspect was never that strong in most of these. He does write good dialogue and there’s lively banter between the hero and the girl who is a tour guide on the bus tour that just happens to stop in every town across the west where his army buddies are. Clean prose.
May 6, 2014
This was the next book in my Hard Case Crime I was due to read and it just so happened to be the perfect one to choose after my disappointment with Richard Stark.
It has all the hallmarks of a Parker novel with a tough protagonist betrayed by former colleagues, searching for revenge. Whilst the plot and prose were not as tight as a Parker, there was far more humanity in it.
Powell treats revenge as a complex endeavor with the avenger not entirely sure of his own plans beyond the pursuit of answers. Whereas Stark treats revenge as the justifiable creation of carnage and violence with no interest but the reciprocal visitation of pain and suffering. Powell takes the same violence and coats it in moral ambiguity as is appropriate for such a topic.
Another thrilling yarn from HCC!
It has all the hallmarks of a Parker novel with a tough protagonist betrayed by former colleagues, searching for revenge. Whilst the plot and prose were not as tight as a Parker, there was far more humanity in it.
Powell treats revenge as a complex endeavor with the avenger not entirely sure of his own plans beyond the pursuit of answers. Whereas Stark treats revenge as the justifiable creation of carnage and violence with no interest but the reciprocal visitation of pain and suffering. Powell takes the same violence and coats it in moral ambiguity as is appropriate for such a topic.
Another thrilling yarn from HCC!
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