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Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969: The Fiend / Doll / Run Man Run / The Tremor of Forgery
In the 1960s the masters of crime fiction expanded the genre’s literary and psychological possibilities with audacious new themes, forms, and subject matter—here are five of their finest works
This is the first of two volumes gathering the best American crime fiction of the 1960s, nine novels of astonishing variety and inventiveness that pulse with the energies of that turbulent, transformative decade.
In Margaret Millar’s The Fiend (1964) a nine-year-old girl disappears and a local sex offender comes under suspicion. So begins a suspenseful investigation of an apparently tranquil California suburb which will expose a hidden tangle of fear and animosity, jealousy and desperation.
Ed McBain (a pen name of Evan Hunter) pioneered the multi-protagonist police procedural in his long-running series of 87th Precinct novels, set in a parallel Manhattan called Isola. Doll (1965) opens at a pitch of extreme violence and careens with breakneck speed through a tale that mixes murder, drugs, the modeling business, and psychotherapy with the everyday professionalism of McBain’s harried cops.
The racial paranoia of a drunken police detective in Run Man Run(1966) leads to a double murder and the relentless pursuit of the young Black college student who witnessed it. In Chester Himes’s breathless narrative, New York City is a place with no safe havens for a fugitive whom no one wants to believe.
In Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery (1969) a man whose personality is disintegrating is writing a book called The Tremor of Forgery about a man whose personality is disintegrating, “like a mountain collapsing from within.” Stranded unexpectedly in Tunisia, Howard Ingham struggles to hold on to himself in a strange locale, while a slightly damaged typewriter may be the only trace of a killing committed almost by accident.
Volume features include an introduction by editor Geoffrey O'Brien (Hardboiled America), newly researched biographies of the writers and helpful notes, and an essay on textual selection.
This is the first of two volumes gathering the best American crime fiction of the 1960s, nine novels of astonishing variety and inventiveness that pulse with the energies of that turbulent, transformative decade.
In Margaret Millar’s The Fiend (1964) a nine-year-old girl disappears and a local sex offender comes under suspicion. So begins a suspenseful investigation of an apparently tranquil California suburb which will expose a hidden tangle of fear and animosity, jealousy and desperation.
Ed McBain (a pen name of Evan Hunter) pioneered the multi-protagonist police procedural in his long-running series of 87th Precinct novels, set in a parallel Manhattan called Isola. Doll (1965) opens at a pitch of extreme violence and careens with breakneck speed through a tale that mixes murder, drugs, the modeling business, and psychotherapy with the everyday professionalism of McBain’s harried cops.
The racial paranoia of a drunken police detective in Run Man Run(1966) leads to a double murder and the relentless pursuit of the young Black college student who witnessed it. In Chester Himes’s breathless narrative, New York City is a place with no safe havens for a fugitive whom no one wants to believe.
In Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery (1969) a man whose personality is disintegrating is writing a book called The Tremor of Forgery about a man whose personality is disintegrating, “like a mountain collapsing from within.” Stranded unexpectedly in Tunisia, Howard Ingham struggles to hold on to himself in a strange locale, while a slightly damaged typewriter may be the only trace of a killing committed almost by accident.
Volume features include an introduction by editor Geoffrey O'Brien (Hardboiled America), newly researched biographies of the writers and helpful notes, and an essay on textual selection.
950 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 12, 2023
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November 6, 2024
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.0 of 5
After enjoying the previous Crime Novels collection (Crime Novels: Five Classic Thrillers 1961-1964) I was reading to dig in to four more crime classics. Three of these books I've already reviewed here on my blog and on Goodreads, though I'm including those reviews here. The fourth book, The Tremor of Forgery, I'm reviewing here first.
Once again, I enjoyed this collection overall. I wasn't familiar with Margaret Millar, but The Fiend definitely thrills. Ed McBain is a name I'm quite familiar with (I've spent many years working in bookstores) but I've never read anything by him. The Doll is a great introduction and does make me want to read more in the series.
Run Man Run didn't sit well with me, but it wasn't the writing - Chester Himes does a great job - but the subject always puts me on edge. And Patricia Highsmith is a name I've seen on the shelves but also hadn't ever read prior to this. The Tremor of Forgery is both subtle and complex.
I really appreciate editor Geoffrey O'Brien's hand in these selections and providing the background on the books and the time in which they were written.
The book includes a really great selection of Biographical Notes and Notes On The Texts. Especially as someone still relatively new to the genre, I found these extremely helpful and informative.
To the reviews:
THE FIEND by Margaret Millar
Margaret Millar's The Fiend is a story of the mentally deranged individual, Charlie Gowen. There had been an incident in Charlie's past, involving a child, which has made him the town pariah. Today, though, at least on the surface, he is more or less coping and the few people he does interact with consider him more or less "cured." His brother, Ben Gowan, seems to be aware that Charlie needs constant watching and has given up his own life to keep a watchful eye on his brother. For good reason.
Charlie is slowly showing signs of returning to his old life with an unhealthy interest in children. Charlie should not be sitting in a car across from a park and watching the children.
Charlie has fixated on one particular little girl, Jessie Brant, when he watches her scramble around a jungle gym and fall. Charlie believes it is his duty to warn her parents - that she needs protecting, from dangers like the jungle gym as well as from people like himself.
The book is not so simple, though, as a pedophile with an interest in a particular child. Millar digs in and examines a number of people in the story, including the girl's parents and friends of the family - who also have an apparent unhealthy obsession with the neighbor's child.
While we're tempted to label Charlie as the titular 'fiend' based on what we know about him and the actions we see him engage in, Millar shows us how ugly people can be and how so many are able to hide their more unsavory sides.
This was a really engaging and surprisingly fascinating read ('surprising' because I didn't think I'd enjoy a book with a child molester at the forefront). It's a psychological thriller that really keeps the reader guessing and changing opinions.
Looking for a good book? From 1964 comes Margaret Millar's psychological thriller, The Fiend. It's a powerful novel examining the vagaries of the human psyche.
4 stars
#####
DOLL by Ed McBain
A woman, model Tina Sachs, is killed, brutally slashed to death while her young daughter sat in another room, quietly playing with her doll.
In the squad room of the 87th Precinct, Steve Carella asks his lieutenant to assign Bert Kling to the case. Kling has been a bit belligerent since the loss of his fiancé. He's about to get booted out of the squad but Carella still believes in him and thinks he just needs the chance to prove his worth. But Kling and Carella have an argument during the investigation and Carella orders Kling to go home.
Shortly after Kling leaves, Carella makes a discovery in his investigation and heads off to follow up on his lead. Unfortunately Carella never calls in to report on what he's discovered and the criminal(s) behind the crime surprise and subdue the officer.
Stripped naked and bound to a radiator, the killers torture (mentally and with doses of drugs) Carella to try and force him to tell them how he discovered them as they believed they had covered their tracks. As the torture gets more intense, Carella's only hope to survive is that the men at the 87th precinct can find him.
I've never read an Ed McBain book but I recognize his name from my browsing of bookstores. I'm quite sure I never knew about his 87th Precinct series but after reading this I am more curious to read more.
What I liked here was the absolute tension that McBain provides. The mystery of 'who dunnit' took a back seat to 'is Carella going to survive'? We also wonder (along with the killers) how Carella figured it out.
Being just one in a long series of books about the precinct, I do wonder what kind of relationships there are among the men. Are the books mostly about solving crimes, or are they about the men who work there (or a bit of both)? This is what has me curious to read more.
What doesn't work here for me is how quickly the book ends. We have so much tension built up and then it's over in a couple of pages and hardly any denouement (and what there was made almost no sense unless, perhaps, we're more familiar with the series).
Looking for a good book? Doll is a good (but not great) introduction to Ed McBain and the 87th Precinct series. Excellent for fans of dark, police thrillers.
4 stars
#####
RUN MAN RUN by Chester Himes
Matt Walker is a white cop with a bad temper. Drunk and stumbling around Harlem after a rough visit with a prostitute one night, Walker can't find his car and is sure that a Black man - a porter at the hotel - he runs into has stolen it. He threatens the man, pointing a gun at him, trying to make him say where the car is when the gun 'accidentally' goes off. Walker isn't so drunk that he isn't aware of the trouble he'll be in, so he finishes the man off- killing him with another shot.
Another Black porter is aware of what's happened and Walker kills him as well. And still another man, Jimmy Johnson, is in Walker's way to a free and clear exit and Walker shoots him, too. But Jimmy survives and when he wakes from his coma, he points the finger at Walker. But Walker was at least smart enough not to use his service revolver (which was tested after the allegation) so who are people going to believe? A New York cop or a Black man in Harlem?
But Walker isn't satisfied leaving a possible witness to his crime and stalks Johnson, looking for a way to get rid of him. What Walker doesn't know is that he is also being stalked - by someone he would never suspect.
It's more than a little bit sad that a story about a cop killing a Black man, published in 1960, is still a story that resonates, perhaps even more-so, today.
I have to be honest and say that this kind of racism is really hard for me to read and enjoy. Of course I read through it, hoping that Walker would not come out unscathed, but it's still the rare kind of story that puts me on edge and I really have difficulty enjoying.
There's a fair amount of tension in the stalking, which I suspect is what holds this book together for most readers, but I actually found it not only uncomfortable, but a bit boring.
This is not a book I would recommend and it's not something I would consider to be a classic.
Looking for a good book? Run Man Run by Chester Himes is a thriller from 1960 that is much too close to home today and shows how poorly we've done with race relations.
3 stars
#####
THE TREMOR OF FORGERY by Patricia Highsmith
The exotic Tunisia is the setting for Patricia Highsmith's slow-building thriller.
American Francis J. Adams - short, paunchy, bombastic (ie the 'typical' American) - pulls up a beach chair and starts talking to Howard Ingham. Ingham, a writer, is quiet and reserved - not your typical American. Adams invites Ingham back to his bungalow where he plies the writer with booze and conversation. When asked what he does for a living, Adams tells Ingham that he considers himself a self-appointed ambassador - spreading goodwill and Our Way of Life. This latter so important to Adams that Ingham takes to thinking of him as OWL.
Ingham, stuck in Tunisia and looking to write his novel (tentatively title The Tremor of Forgery) also befriends Danish patriot Anders Jensen. Jensen appears to be quite the opposite of OWL Adams, though both have some obvious biases toward Arabs.
When someone (Ingham believes it to be a particular Arab) attempts to break into his bungalow, Ingham grabs the only thing he can find to use to protect himself - his typewriter, which he throws out the window toward the intruder. There's a scream and a thud, but there is no body and Ingham is sure there should be a body. Did OWL Adams or Jensen, who seem to be looking out for Ingham have anything to do with it?
I referred to this as a 'slow-building' thriller, and I hold to it. And if you think about it ... 'slow-building' and 'thriller' are terms that don't exactly go together well.
Mostly I was bored with this book. Historically, I can understand why this book is something that was included in the Four Classic thrillers collection. There's a lot of powerful messages regarding Americans and how we're often viewed by those in other countries. The war going on in the background of the book (the Six Day War between the Arabs and the Israelis) also reflects an American ignorance of what is happening elsewhere in the world while the OWL Americans proclaim some sort of superiority.
Then the tossing together of strangers who form some sort of unique bond, though it's all facade, has some strong social commentary (it might be interesting to note - at least I thought it was interesting - that Highsmith is also the author of Strangers on a Train which has some very similar themes).
All this is well and good and definitely has its place in literature. It's the sort of book that I would expect to be taught in a good English literature class. But, except for about three of you reading this (yeah, you know who you are), a book taught in English Lit is not generally the sort of book one reads for entertainment.
There's a little too much background, too much set-up, which doesn't significantly impact the plot, though I'd agree in some discourse that it does impact character and intent.
Looking for a good book? As a novel of importance, Patricia Highsmith's The Tremor of Forgery is impactful. As a "classic thriller" ...? Not so much.
3 stars
#####
I received a digital copy of this collection from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
The collection gets 4 stars.
After enjoying the previous Crime Novels collection (Crime Novels: Five Classic Thrillers 1961-1964) I was reading to dig in to four more crime classics. Three of these books I've already reviewed here on my blog and on Goodreads, though I'm including those reviews here. The fourth book, The Tremor of Forgery, I'm reviewing here first.
Once again, I enjoyed this collection overall. I wasn't familiar with Margaret Millar, but The Fiend definitely thrills. Ed McBain is a name I'm quite familiar with (I've spent many years working in bookstores) but I've never read anything by him. The Doll is a great introduction and does make me want to read more in the series.
Run Man Run didn't sit well with me, but it wasn't the writing - Chester Himes does a great job - but the subject always puts me on edge. And Patricia Highsmith is a name I've seen on the shelves but also hadn't ever read prior to this. The Tremor of Forgery is both subtle and complex.
I really appreciate editor Geoffrey O'Brien's hand in these selections and providing the background on the books and the time in which they were written.
The book includes a really great selection of Biographical Notes and Notes On The Texts. Especially as someone still relatively new to the genre, I found these extremely helpful and informative.
To the reviews:
THE FIEND by Margaret Millar
Margaret Millar's The Fiend is a story of the mentally deranged individual, Charlie Gowen. There had been an incident in Charlie's past, involving a child, which has made him the town pariah. Today, though, at least on the surface, he is more or less coping and the few people he does interact with consider him more or less "cured." His brother, Ben Gowan, seems to be aware that Charlie needs constant watching and has given up his own life to keep a watchful eye on his brother. For good reason.
Charlie is slowly showing signs of returning to his old life with an unhealthy interest in children. Charlie should not be sitting in a car across from a park and watching the children.
Charlie has fixated on one particular little girl, Jessie Brant, when he watches her scramble around a jungle gym and fall. Charlie believes it is his duty to warn her parents - that she needs protecting, from dangers like the jungle gym as well as from people like himself.
The book is not so simple, though, as a pedophile with an interest in a particular child. Millar digs in and examines a number of people in the story, including the girl's parents and friends of the family - who also have an apparent unhealthy obsession with the neighbor's child.
While we're tempted to label Charlie as the titular 'fiend' based on what we know about him and the actions we see him engage in, Millar shows us how ugly people can be and how so many are able to hide their more unsavory sides.
This was a really engaging and surprisingly fascinating read ('surprising' because I didn't think I'd enjoy a book with a child molester at the forefront). It's a psychological thriller that really keeps the reader guessing and changing opinions.
Looking for a good book? From 1964 comes Margaret Millar's psychological thriller, The Fiend. It's a powerful novel examining the vagaries of the human psyche.
4 stars
#####
DOLL by Ed McBain
A woman, model Tina Sachs, is killed, brutally slashed to death while her young daughter sat in another room, quietly playing with her doll.
In the squad room of the 87th Precinct, Steve Carella asks his lieutenant to assign Bert Kling to the case. Kling has been a bit belligerent since the loss of his fiancé. He's about to get booted out of the squad but Carella still believes in him and thinks he just needs the chance to prove his worth. But Kling and Carella have an argument during the investigation and Carella orders Kling to go home.
Shortly after Kling leaves, Carella makes a discovery in his investigation and heads off to follow up on his lead. Unfortunately Carella never calls in to report on what he's discovered and the criminal(s) behind the crime surprise and subdue the officer.
Stripped naked and bound to a radiator, the killers torture (mentally and with doses of drugs) Carella to try and force him to tell them how he discovered them as they believed they had covered their tracks. As the torture gets more intense, Carella's only hope to survive is that the men at the 87th precinct can find him.
I've never read an Ed McBain book but I recognize his name from my browsing of bookstores. I'm quite sure I never knew about his 87th Precinct series but after reading this I am more curious to read more.
What I liked here was the absolute tension that McBain provides. The mystery of 'who dunnit' took a back seat to 'is Carella going to survive'? We also wonder (along with the killers) how Carella figured it out.
Being just one in a long series of books about the precinct, I do wonder what kind of relationships there are among the men. Are the books mostly about solving crimes, or are they about the men who work there (or a bit of both)? This is what has me curious to read more.
What doesn't work here for me is how quickly the book ends. We have so much tension built up and then it's over in a couple of pages and hardly any denouement (and what there was made almost no sense unless, perhaps, we're more familiar with the series).
Looking for a good book? Doll is a good (but not great) introduction to Ed McBain and the 87th Precinct series. Excellent for fans of dark, police thrillers.
4 stars
#####
RUN MAN RUN by Chester Himes
Matt Walker is a white cop with a bad temper. Drunk and stumbling around Harlem after a rough visit with a prostitute one night, Walker can't find his car and is sure that a Black man - a porter at the hotel - he runs into has stolen it. He threatens the man, pointing a gun at him, trying to make him say where the car is when the gun 'accidentally' goes off. Walker isn't so drunk that he isn't aware of the trouble he'll be in, so he finishes the man off- killing him with another shot.
Another Black porter is aware of what's happened and Walker kills him as well. And still another man, Jimmy Johnson, is in Walker's way to a free and clear exit and Walker shoots him, too. But Jimmy survives and when he wakes from his coma, he points the finger at Walker. But Walker was at least smart enough not to use his service revolver (which was tested after the allegation) so who are people going to believe? A New York cop or a Black man in Harlem?
But Walker isn't satisfied leaving a possible witness to his crime and stalks Johnson, looking for a way to get rid of him. What Walker doesn't know is that he is also being stalked - by someone he would never suspect.
It's more than a little bit sad that a story about a cop killing a Black man, published in 1960, is still a story that resonates, perhaps even more-so, today.
I have to be honest and say that this kind of racism is really hard for me to read and enjoy. Of course I read through it, hoping that Walker would not come out unscathed, but it's still the rare kind of story that puts me on edge and I really have difficulty enjoying.
There's a fair amount of tension in the stalking, which I suspect is what holds this book together for most readers, but I actually found it not only uncomfortable, but a bit boring.
This is not a book I would recommend and it's not something I would consider to be a classic.
Looking for a good book? Run Man Run by Chester Himes is a thriller from 1960 that is much too close to home today and shows how poorly we've done with race relations.
3 stars
#####
THE TREMOR OF FORGERY by Patricia Highsmith
The exotic Tunisia is the setting for Patricia Highsmith's slow-building thriller.
American Francis J. Adams - short, paunchy, bombastic (ie the 'typical' American) - pulls up a beach chair and starts talking to Howard Ingham. Ingham, a writer, is quiet and reserved - not your typical American. Adams invites Ingham back to his bungalow where he plies the writer with booze and conversation. When asked what he does for a living, Adams tells Ingham that he considers himself a self-appointed ambassador - spreading goodwill and Our Way of Life. This latter so important to Adams that Ingham takes to thinking of him as OWL.
Ingham, stuck in Tunisia and looking to write his novel (tentatively title The Tremor of Forgery) also befriends Danish patriot Anders Jensen. Jensen appears to be quite the opposite of OWL Adams, though both have some obvious biases toward Arabs.
When someone (Ingham believes it to be a particular Arab) attempts to break into his bungalow, Ingham grabs the only thing he can find to use to protect himself - his typewriter, which he throws out the window toward the intruder. There's a scream and a thud, but there is no body and Ingham is sure there should be a body. Did OWL Adams or Jensen, who seem to be looking out for Ingham have anything to do with it?
I referred to this as a 'slow-building' thriller, and I hold to it. And if you think about it ... 'slow-building' and 'thriller' are terms that don't exactly go together well.
Mostly I was bored with this book. Historically, I can understand why this book is something that was included in the Four Classic thrillers collection. There's a lot of powerful messages regarding Americans and how we're often viewed by those in other countries. The war going on in the background of the book (the Six Day War between the Arabs and the Israelis) also reflects an American ignorance of what is happening elsewhere in the world while the OWL Americans proclaim some sort of superiority.
Then the tossing together of strangers who form some sort of unique bond, though it's all facade, has some strong social commentary (it might be interesting to note - at least I thought it was interesting - that Highsmith is also the author of Strangers on a Train which has some very similar themes).
All this is well and good and definitely has its place in literature. It's the sort of book that I would expect to be taught in a good English literature class. But, except for about three of you reading this (yeah, you know who you are), a book taught in English Lit is not generally the sort of book one reads for entertainment.
There's a little too much background, too much set-up, which doesn't significantly impact the plot, though I'd agree in some discourse that it does impact character and intent.
Looking for a good book? As a novel of importance, Patricia Highsmith's The Tremor of Forgery is impactful. As a "classic thriller" ...? Not so much.
3 stars
#####
I received a digital copy of this collection from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
The collection gets 4 stars.
July 18, 2023
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Library of America for an advance copy of this collection of crime stories from the latter end of the 1960's that deal with many of the problems that people were dealing with, and how sometimes the stopper on the bottle that was full of turmoil would suddenly explode in different ways.
Crime fiction in the late 1960's reflected the oddness, the weariness of a country that was in the midst of many problems, problems that America's inability to deal with still trouble us today. Add to that the violence that seemed all around, from Presidents, to students, to moral leaders and people trying to make a difference. Violence seemed to be the go to solution for a lot of what ailed America. And violence was everywhere, on the news, the papers, outside the door, in entertainment. At the same time woman were demanding rights, black Americans were demanding acknowledgement and a war was building that would divide more people, mostly those who had to fight in it, and those who started it, but never feared the consequences. Literature of all types was showing this new vision of the American Dream. However crime novel understood it best. There was a sickness in America, but it had always been there, no one wanted to address it, or show it. Like a married couple having separate beds on I Love Lucy, or the movie Psycho showing a toilet, crime novels begin to probe at the darkness all around, and create stories that resound to this day. Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969 (LOA #371) edited and introduced by Geoffrey O'Brien features stories that seem as disturbing today as they must have been over 50 years ago, full of violence, drug use, crimes of passion, and crimes that make sense at the time to the person committing it.
This collection features four stories from the end of the century, introduced by Geoffrey O'Brien with a biographical sketch of the writers at the end along with a section on where the stories came from, and why certain things have been edited. The collection starts with The Fiend, a sticky icky story that would be familiar to many watchers of television today. Written by Margaret Millar the story features the disappearance of a nine-year old girl, the creepy man who has been accused of crimes before, and the ugliness that exists even in the finest of communities. Ed McBain's Doll is next a book from his 87th Precinct series about cops in a city that seems very reminiscent of New York City, and changed the idea of police procedurals. This is a grim violent story about a killer, the modeling industry, and the cops who are determined to figure out who killed a young woman in front of her daughter. Run Man Run by Chester Hines is a chase novel about a young black man who sees a murder, and being pursued by the racist, drunk cop who committed the crime, a story that still has the power to stun. Finally Patricia Highsmith's The Tremor of Forgery about a man whose life is falling apart writing a book in Tunisia about a man whose life is falling apart called the The Tremor of Forgery. A tale that is both psychological, weird, and yet very very compelling and page turning.
Besides being about crime, these books are about the darkness that lies deep in the human soul. The one that acts out, or the one that is so close to breaking down do to life, love, or lack of either of these. With few exceptions many of the characters are not people you want to know, or have to deal with. They are people who society is more of a burden than something that has to be followed or obeyed. They answer to an inner voice that tells them what to do, no matter how bad. There is also a level of violence that is starting to show in the companion book to this series, dealing with the early part of the 60's. Doll and The Fiend show the inner mind of the killers so well and so disturbingly that is must have been a shock for many readers, maybe just expecting a men's adventure tale of private eyes and gangsters. A lot of this has carried over to novels of today, but the early books seem more raw, and real.
Another outstanding collection. One can't go wrong in picking up book one or two. Both offer great stories, and stores that seem so of today, that still stun and disgust in a few ways. Perfect for fans of crime novels, or for people who want to get started.
Crime fiction in the late 1960's reflected the oddness, the weariness of a country that was in the midst of many problems, problems that America's inability to deal with still trouble us today. Add to that the violence that seemed all around, from Presidents, to students, to moral leaders and people trying to make a difference. Violence seemed to be the go to solution for a lot of what ailed America. And violence was everywhere, on the news, the papers, outside the door, in entertainment. At the same time woman were demanding rights, black Americans were demanding acknowledgement and a war was building that would divide more people, mostly those who had to fight in it, and those who started it, but never feared the consequences. Literature of all types was showing this new vision of the American Dream. However crime novel understood it best. There was a sickness in America, but it had always been there, no one wanted to address it, or show it. Like a married couple having separate beds on I Love Lucy, or the movie Psycho showing a toilet, crime novels begin to probe at the darkness all around, and create stories that resound to this day. Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969 (LOA #371) edited and introduced by Geoffrey O'Brien features stories that seem as disturbing today as they must have been over 50 years ago, full of violence, drug use, crimes of passion, and crimes that make sense at the time to the person committing it.
This collection features four stories from the end of the century, introduced by Geoffrey O'Brien with a biographical sketch of the writers at the end along with a section on where the stories came from, and why certain things have been edited. The collection starts with The Fiend, a sticky icky story that would be familiar to many watchers of television today. Written by Margaret Millar the story features the disappearance of a nine-year old girl, the creepy man who has been accused of crimes before, and the ugliness that exists even in the finest of communities. Ed McBain's Doll is next a book from his 87th Precinct series about cops in a city that seems very reminiscent of New York City, and changed the idea of police procedurals. This is a grim violent story about a killer, the modeling industry, and the cops who are determined to figure out who killed a young woman in front of her daughter. Run Man Run by Chester Hines is a chase novel about a young black man who sees a murder, and being pursued by the racist, drunk cop who committed the crime, a story that still has the power to stun. Finally Patricia Highsmith's The Tremor of Forgery about a man whose life is falling apart writing a book in Tunisia about a man whose life is falling apart called the The Tremor of Forgery. A tale that is both psychological, weird, and yet very very compelling and page turning.
Besides being about crime, these books are about the darkness that lies deep in the human soul. The one that acts out, or the one that is so close to breaking down do to life, love, or lack of either of these. With few exceptions many of the characters are not people you want to know, or have to deal with. They are people who society is more of a burden than something that has to be followed or obeyed. They answer to an inner voice that tells them what to do, no matter how bad. There is also a level of violence that is starting to show in the companion book to this series, dealing with the early part of the 60's. Doll and The Fiend show the inner mind of the killers so well and so disturbingly that is must have been a shock for many readers, maybe just expecting a men's adventure tale of private eyes and gangsters. A lot of this has carried over to novels of today, but the early books seem more raw, and real.
Another outstanding collection. One can't go wrong in picking up book one or two. Both offer great stories, and stores that seem so of today, that still stun and disgust in a few ways. Perfect for fans of crime novels, or for people who want to get started.
September 13, 2023
This book includes 4 excellent crime novels from the late 1960's. I really liked the first three stories. Although I liked the fourth story, which did have crime in it; it didn't have the same thriller aspect of the first three. I love the mid twentiest century mysteries and this is a great introduction if you've never read any of them.
The first story by Margaret Millar, includes Charlie, a young man who has been convicted of child molestation, but loves little girls, and three somewhat disfunctional families. Charlie usually eats his lunch across from the school playground, and he has picked a very active nine year old, Jessie, as his favorite. She is usually with her girlfriend, Mary Martha, and Charlie isn't sure which girl belongs in which house. Mary Martha's mother is divorced; Jessie's father is involved with the woman next door whose husband travels a lot. She has no children and dotes on Jessie. When Jessie disappears, their are a lot of possible scenarios, making the story very exciting.
The second story, Doll, by Ed McBain, features detective Carella of the 87th precinct. It begins with a woman being murdered in her bedroom while her daughter sits in the next room with her doll. The woman is a well known model named Tinka. When the dead woman is discovered the next morning, Carella goes to the crime site, and the young girl is still there. The girl tells him her mother was laughing when he first came but then he was hitting her and her mother was crying, but Anna was talking with her doll Chatterbox so she couldn't hear much from the next room. The supervisor describes the man who was there, and then Carella looks in Tinka's address book and suddenly grabs the doll and runs out. He goes to the address where he breaks into the apartment. Unfortunately, before he can do anything someone hits him with a gun and knocks him out. He awakes chained to the radiator. His wife thinks he dead, and his team is trying to solve the murderer and to find Carella.
The third story is Run Man Run by Chester Himes. Matt Walker, a white cop who is drunk and carrying both his service pistol and another with no ID can't find where he parked his car. When he sees a black porter working outside a luncheonette. The man outside tells the man to go inside and talk to his buddy Fat Sam. Walker shoots Fat Sam, and when the first one comes looking he is shot as well. When the third black Porter, Jimmy, comes inside, he sees Walker lift the gun and runs.
Walker continues to stalk Jimmy, who becomes more scared all the time as Walker figures out where he lives and where his girlfriend lives. The story is VERY exciting and full of suspense - a great read.
Lastly, is The tremor of forgery by Patricia Highsmith. Author Howard Ingham has gone to Tunisia to work on a movie. He is very frustrated when he doesn't hear from his girlfriend or the man who is supposed to be working with him. While waiting to hear from his New York colleagues, he is working on writing a book. He meets another man with whom he often has dinner and goes for outings. The man tells him that he is broadcasting messages to Russia. He keeps seeing an Arab around his car, and the man eventually steals some items out of the car. He also makes friends with a Danish man who has a dog. When he finally hears from his girlfriend she tells him she has been having an affair with the man he's supposed to be working with and the man has committed suicide. When the Arab tries to come into his bungalow in the middle of the night, Howard throws his typewriter at him. Then the Arab seems to disappear, and he thinks he may have killed him.
I thank Netgalley and Library of America for the ARC.
The first story by Margaret Millar, includes Charlie, a young man who has been convicted of child molestation, but loves little girls, and three somewhat disfunctional families. Charlie usually eats his lunch across from the school playground, and he has picked a very active nine year old, Jessie, as his favorite. She is usually with her girlfriend, Mary Martha, and Charlie isn't sure which girl belongs in which house. Mary Martha's mother is divorced; Jessie's father is involved with the woman next door whose husband travels a lot. She has no children and dotes on Jessie. When Jessie disappears, their are a lot of possible scenarios, making the story very exciting.
The second story, Doll, by Ed McBain, features detective Carella of the 87th precinct. It begins with a woman being murdered in her bedroom while her daughter sits in the next room with her doll. The woman is a well known model named Tinka. When the dead woman is discovered the next morning, Carella goes to the crime site, and the young girl is still there. The girl tells him her mother was laughing when he first came but then he was hitting her and her mother was crying, but Anna was talking with her doll Chatterbox so she couldn't hear much from the next room. The supervisor describes the man who was there, and then Carella looks in Tinka's address book and suddenly grabs the doll and runs out. He goes to the address where he breaks into the apartment. Unfortunately, before he can do anything someone hits him with a gun and knocks him out. He awakes chained to the radiator. His wife thinks he dead, and his team is trying to solve the murderer and to find Carella.
The third story is Run Man Run by Chester Himes. Matt Walker, a white cop who is drunk and carrying both his service pistol and another with no ID can't find where he parked his car. When he sees a black porter working outside a luncheonette. The man outside tells the man to go inside and talk to his buddy Fat Sam. Walker shoots Fat Sam, and when the first one comes looking he is shot as well. When the third black Porter, Jimmy, comes inside, he sees Walker lift the gun and runs.
Walker continues to stalk Jimmy, who becomes more scared all the time as Walker figures out where he lives and where his girlfriend lives. The story is VERY exciting and full of suspense - a great read.
Lastly, is The tremor of forgery by Patricia Highsmith. Author Howard Ingham has gone to Tunisia to work on a movie. He is very frustrated when he doesn't hear from his girlfriend or the man who is supposed to be working with him. While waiting to hear from his New York colleagues, he is working on writing a book. He meets another man with whom he often has dinner and goes for outings. The man tells him that he is broadcasting messages to Russia. He keeps seeing an Arab around his car, and the man eventually steals some items out of the car. He also makes friends with a Danish man who has a dog. When he finally hears from his girlfriend she tells him she has been having an affair with the man he's supposed to be working with and the man has committed suicide. When the Arab tries to come into his bungalow in the middle of the night, Howard throws his typewriter at him. Then the Arab seems to disappear, and he thinks he may have killed him.
I thank Netgalley and Library of America for the ARC.
August 5, 2023
Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969 is a wonderful snapshot of how the genre was evolving during this time frame. The novels are classics and having them together in one volume takes the reader back to the late 60s. Some of my general comments here will resemble what I wrote for the volume covering 1961-1964 since they have the same goals.
Collections like this I generally rate as a whole based on their purpose rather than, for instance, a collection of stories recently written that are presented to the world for the first time. In other words, while I think about how good they are I am more concerned with how representative they are of the time period. And on that note, I think this volume succeeds very well.
I preferred this volume to the one covering the previous few years for purely personal reasons. This is the time frame during which I started reading a lot of mysteries and thrillers. The summer between 3rd and 4th grade my mother, trying to keep me from getting into (too much) trouble, challenged me to see which of us could read the stack of old, as well as the new issues we got, magazines. Ellery Queen, Michael Shayne, and Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazines. I've been a fan since and loved the shift from hardboiled to, well, more psychological, more backstory of criminals rather than always a straightforward whodunit. This collection highlights that shift very well.
I had read all of these previously but only remembered Run Man Run and The Tremor of Forgery in any detail, so revisiting all of them was great fun. Himes' work is a reflection of society still.
Some may find these novels "dated." I won't say I disagree, but any work of fiction that utilizes the society contemporary to the writing as an element in the story is going to be, by definition, dated. That is neither a positive nor a negative, to treat it as either is pointless beyond simply being a personal reason to not like it. In fact, in a collection that seeks to highlight how a genre was evolving during a time period, datedness is a positive attribute.
I would recommend this collection to any readers of crime fiction who enjoy good storytelling, these novels can each stand as an excellent example of crime fiction. For those who like to know how their favorite genre has developed over the years, this will give you a glimpse at the time when it was swinging from hardboiled private detectives to more psychologically, and sociologically, driven narratives, a trend started in the early part of the decade.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
Collections like this I generally rate as a whole based on their purpose rather than, for instance, a collection of stories recently written that are presented to the world for the first time. In other words, while I think about how good they are I am more concerned with how representative they are of the time period. And on that note, I think this volume succeeds very well.
I preferred this volume to the one covering the previous few years for purely personal reasons. This is the time frame during which I started reading a lot of mysteries and thrillers. The summer between 3rd and 4th grade my mother, trying to keep me from getting into (too much) trouble, challenged me to see which of us could read the stack of old, as well as the new issues we got, magazines. Ellery Queen, Michael Shayne, and Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazines. I've been a fan since and loved the shift from hardboiled to, well, more psychological, more backstory of criminals rather than always a straightforward whodunit. This collection highlights that shift very well.
I had read all of these previously but only remembered Run Man Run and The Tremor of Forgery in any detail, so revisiting all of them was great fun. Himes' work is a reflection of society still.
Some may find these novels "dated." I won't say I disagree, but any work of fiction that utilizes the society contemporary to the writing as an element in the story is going to be, by definition, dated. That is neither a positive nor a negative, to treat it as either is pointless beyond simply being a personal reason to not like it. In fact, in a collection that seeks to highlight how a genre was evolving during a time period, datedness is a positive attribute.
I would recommend this collection to any readers of crime fiction who enjoy good storytelling, these novels can each stand as an excellent example of crime fiction. For those who like to know how their favorite genre has developed over the years, this will give you a glimpse at the time when it was swinging from hardboiled private detectives to more psychologically, and sociologically, driven narratives, a trend started in the early part of the decade.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
October 2, 2023
So! Four novels in one. I'm fairly well-read in all things Chandler, but I'm not all that familiar with 60's crime fiction, most of which isn't availabe in e-book format (my preferred mode of reading these days), so I was very happy to find out about this offering from Library of America.
Here's how it went.
First, Margaret Millar, "The Fiend": Of the four books, this was the one I was looking forward to most. A clever psychological crime tale involving a cast of characters, each with their own sets of secrets, and how they play off of and interact with each other -- yay! Turns out this wasn't quite what I got. All in all this was a solid but fairly unengaging read -- I was not a fan of the shifting POVs (sometimes they'd change in the middle of the paragraph), and of course a lot of the ideas and general circumstances are pretty dated, especially in regards to women and their role/place in society. There's some snappy dialogue, but not much plot to go around. In fact, I'm not 100 per cent sure this actually qualifies as a crime novel, if you want to be strict about it -- nobody really commits a crime, unless you count adultery and some criminally bad decision-making. It's more of a cultural study of mid-60's West Coast suburban life and all the ways expectation moulds people's ways of thinking and behavior. Everybody in "The Fiend" is a keeper of secrets, either their own or other people's, and Margaret Millar takes great care in peeling off one layer of onion skin after the other, which is fun, but this is still a novel that was written about six decades ago, and like I said, it shows, not least in some pretty creative psychology that probably wouldn't fly in this time and age unless we're talking dumb streaming series.
Not to spoil anything, but to me, there really wasn't any Fiend in "The Fiend" (well, okay, maybe that train track person); just a lot of over-emotional women in the throes of existential frustration and the men who are at the root of it and/or have to deal with them -- if that qualifies as a crime novel, so be it, but I thought that whole aspect fell a bit short.
Next, "Doll", by Ed McBain. Interest-wise, this came in third for me (after "Run Man Run" but ahead of Ms. Highsmith) when I read the description, but boy, was I wrong. I'd never read Ed McBain before, but now I have to search out the other 87th Precinct titles as well, which is no small feat as there are about 864 of them and of course most of them are not available for Kindle where I live (THANKS FOR NOTHING, AMAZON), so now I can choose between shelling out for smelly old OOP paperbacks or (ahem) downloading them illegally. Yay.
Anyway. This was fast, furious and very funny, also clever, and an absolute joy to read. After trudging through the stiltedness of "The Fiend", it was great to dive into a book that actually *wanted* to be read and made me feel at home in its world, so much so that I literally couldn't stop reading, which is something I usually don't get from books very much anymore.
Also, of the four books included in "Crime Novels", this one felt most "modern"; while the others show their age, this one is still fresh and kicky. McBain even lets his female characters be characters instead of, well, just Females with a capital F.
Loved it. Am now waiting for (a yellowed, icky, no doubt smelly paperback of) #21 to arrive on my doorstep.
"Run Man Run", by Chester Himes: Sounded so exciting. A bad cop chasing an innocent Black man through NYC, intent on eliminating the only eyewitness to a horrendous double murder, what's not to like, story-wise? The description made it sound like this was a very tight, fast, compact story, likely playing out in the space of a single night.
Well.
Turns out this is NOT what's inside the box. The described chase is over after the first chapter or so; what follows is lots of hand-wringing, and talking (mostly variations on "he's out there, he'll get me, will no one believe me", which gets old a lot sooner than seems humanly possible, mostly due to prose that seemed barely competent to me and the fact that the hunted man is so, SO unlikable), and weird interactions between strangely unformed characters. This novel goes on and on and ON, long past the point where I lost interest and, later, much of the will to live, or at least to read.
I also found it in questionable taste, to put it this way; I mean, what's going ON in that Harlem nightclub?? Let's see: "The atmosphere was both sensual and animal, thick, dense, odorous, pungent and perfumed. Bulls herded their cows. They were domesticated bulls but they were dangerous. [...] Every bull had his cow with heavy udders filled with sex, smelling of the breeding pen, cows that had been topped again and again and wanted to be topped again indefinitely." WTF? Also, can I please go home now?
Some of the prose doesn't border on the purple so much as downride straddle it and push it to the ground: "His panic-stricken muscles were straining in incredible frenzy like a wild stallion in a fit of stone-blind terror." Or what to make of this: "The fear came up into her loins like sexual torture." (Of course the lady in question will go to bed with the fear-inducing gent within a couple of pages, because this is simply that kind of book. In fact, they'll screw like jackrabbits. It's all a bit, okaaaay...) The eroticism generally feels like it's been sitting out in the sun too long: "Then she went as sweet as sugar candy. Her big brown eyes got limpid and her mouth got wet. Her body folded into his. He could feel her pointed breasts through the thickness of their coats." Ouch! Talk about pointed...
Women are treated in a way that you might want to call old school if you were feeling generous (nothing like a slap in the face when the broad gets hysterical with fear); the one recurring female is basically in a state of perma-arousal when she's around men, which made for some, um, interesting reading. Her main function seems to be a fairly worrisome fixation on her man; she only exists in relation to him, and of course to deliver the verbal cues that let him spool off his interminable loop of fears, convictions and suspicions, 99% of which are so underwhelming and pedestrian as to make the reader (well, me) howl with exasperation.
Just not for me, I guess.
As was Patricia Highsmith. "The Tremor of Forgery", well. I guess I just didn't feel it. I'm not a big Highsmith fan (the lady as well as her works); every now and then I decide to maybe give her another try, but I have yet to come across a Highsmith novel I'm able to finish, and this one proved no exception. I tend to fare better with her short fiction, but apparently this one clocks in at around 250 pages -- nope. I only made it a handful of pages in before giving up. Life's too short. I'm leaving this one to the other reviewers.
All in all, this was an enjoyable experience, and I even came out of it with a new favorite author, so I'd definitely recommend this collection -- even if I didn't love every single novel, I don't regret reading them, as they all proved entertaining in their own way (except for the Highsmith one, but that's just personal taste).
My sincere thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for the opportunity to read this tome in exchange for an honest review.
Here's how it went.
First, Margaret Millar, "The Fiend": Of the four books, this was the one I was looking forward to most. A clever psychological crime tale involving a cast of characters, each with their own sets of secrets, and how they play off of and interact with each other -- yay! Turns out this wasn't quite what I got. All in all this was a solid but fairly unengaging read -- I was not a fan of the shifting POVs (sometimes they'd change in the middle of the paragraph), and of course a lot of the ideas and general circumstances are pretty dated, especially in regards to women and their role/place in society. There's some snappy dialogue, but not much plot to go around. In fact, I'm not 100 per cent sure this actually qualifies as a crime novel, if you want to be strict about it -- nobody really commits a crime, unless you count adultery and some criminally bad decision-making. It's more of a cultural study of mid-60's West Coast suburban life and all the ways expectation moulds people's ways of thinking and behavior. Everybody in "The Fiend" is a keeper of secrets, either their own or other people's, and Margaret Millar takes great care in peeling off one layer of onion skin after the other, which is fun, but this is still a novel that was written about six decades ago, and like I said, it shows, not least in some pretty creative psychology that probably wouldn't fly in this time and age unless we're talking dumb streaming series.
Not to spoil anything, but to me, there really wasn't any Fiend in "The Fiend" (well, okay, maybe that train track person); just a lot of over-emotional women in the throes of existential frustration and the men who are at the root of it and/or have to deal with them -- if that qualifies as a crime novel, so be it, but I thought that whole aspect fell a bit short.
Next, "Doll", by Ed McBain. Interest-wise, this came in third for me (after "Run Man Run" but ahead of Ms. Highsmith) when I read the description, but boy, was I wrong. I'd never read Ed McBain before, but now I have to search out the other 87th Precinct titles as well, which is no small feat as there are about 864 of them and of course most of them are not available for Kindle where I live (THANKS FOR NOTHING, AMAZON), so now I can choose between shelling out for smelly old OOP paperbacks or (ahem) downloading them illegally. Yay.
Anyway. This was fast, furious and very funny, also clever, and an absolute joy to read. After trudging through the stiltedness of "The Fiend", it was great to dive into a book that actually *wanted* to be read and made me feel at home in its world, so much so that I literally couldn't stop reading, which is something I usually don't get from books very much anymore.
Also, of the four books included in "Crime Novels", this one felt most "modern"; while the others show their age, this one is still fresh and kicky. McBain even lets his female characters be characters instead of, well, just Females with a capital F.
Loved it. Am now waiting for (a yellowed, icky, no doubt smelly paperback of) #21 to arrive on my doorstep.
"Run Man Run", by Chester Himes: Sounded so exciting. A bad cop chasing an innocent Black man through NYC, intent on eliminating the only eyewitness to a horrendous double murder, what's not to like, story-wise? The description made it sound like this was a very tight, fast, compact story, likely playing out in the space of a single night.
Well.
Turns out this is NOT what's inside the box. The described chase is over after the first chapter or so; what follows is lots of hand-wringing, and talking (mostly variations on "he's out there, he'll get me, will no one believe me", which gets old a lot sooner than seems humanly possible, mostly due to prose that seemed barely competent to me and the fact that the hunted man is so, SO unlikable), and weird interactions between strangely unformed characters. This novel goes on and on and ON, long past the point where I lost interest and, later, much of the will to live, or at least to read.
I also found it in questionable taste, to put it this way; I mean, what's going ON in that Harlem nightclub?? Let's see: "The atmosphere was both sensual and animal, thick, dense, odorous, pungent and perfumed. Bulls herded their cows. They were domesticated bulls but they were dangerous. [...] Every bull had his cow with heavy udders filled with sex, smelling of the breeding pen, cows that had been topped again and again and wanted to be topped again indefinitely." WTF? Also, can I please go home now?
Some of the prose doesn't border on the purple so much as downride straddle it and push it to the ground: "His panic-stricken muscles were straining in incredible frenzy like a wild stallion in a fit of stone-blind terror." Or what to make of this: "The fear came up into her loins like sexual torture." (Of course the lady in question will go to bed with the fear-inducing gent within a couple of pages, because this is simply that kind of book. In fact, they'll screw like jackrabbits. It's all a bit, okaaaay...) The eroticism generally feels like it's been sitting out in the sun too long: "Then she went as sweet as sugar candy. Her big brown eyes got limpid and her mouth got wet. Her body folded into his. He could feel her pointed breasts through the thickness of their coats." Ouch! Talk about pointed...
Women are treated in a way that you might want to call old school if you were feeling generous (nothing like a slap in the face when the broad gets hysterical with fear); the one recurring female is basically in a state of perma-arousal when she's around men, which made for some, um, interesting reading. Her main function seems to be a fairly worrisome fixation on her man; she only exists in relation to him, and of course to deliver the verbal cues that let him spool off his interminable loop of fears, convictions and suspicions, 99% of which are so underwhelming and pedestrian as to make the reader (well, me) howl with exasperation.
Just not for me, I guess.
As was Patricia Highsmith. "The Tremor of Forgery", well. I guess I just didn't feel it. I'm not a big Highsmith fan (the lady as well as her works); every now and then I decide to maybe give her another try, but I have yet to come across a Highsmith novel I'm able to finish, and this one proved no exception. I tend to fare better with her short fiction, but apparently this one clocks in at around 250 pages -- nope. I only made it a handful of pages in before giving up. Life's too short. I'm leaving this one to the other reviewers.
All in all, this was an enjoyable experience, and I even came out of it with a new favorite author, so I'd definitely recommend this collection -- even if I didn't love every single novel, I don't regret reading them, as they all proved entertaining in their own way (except for the Highsmith one, but that's just personal taste).
My sincere thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for the opportunity to read this tome in exchange for an honest review.
September 4, 2023
The 1960s was a time of change in culture and attitude, and mystery books evolved during that era. These four books are representative of the period. They often focus on the psychological content and impact of the crimes, the personality of the victims, survivors, and police officers, along with the mental state of the villains. My memory of crime thrillers during the 1950s usually categorized them as pulp fiction featuring hard-boiled private detectives and conniving dames with lurid cover illustrations. There were a few popular and widely read series about crime detection, such as the books by Agatha Christie and the older Sherlock Holmes stories.
This collection of four mystery novels serves as an example of books from the late 1960s, and an updated introduction to each author is included. Margaret Millar was a favourite of mine when her books were current. Her stories were classed as psychological thrillers and narrated from a woman's viewpoint. The Fiend is more of a domestic drama centring on two families with young daughters. An aura of menace prevails due to a creepy man who takes too much interest in the girls. I wish a book by the author's husband, Ross MacDonald, had been included, as I remember taking much pleasure in his crime novels.
Doll, by Ed McBain, is a police procedural and one of his 87th Precinct novels set in a location similar to NYC. It involves the kidnapping of one of their officers and the desperate search to save him.
I had never read anything by Chester Himes and was unfamiliar with his books set in Harlem. Some were made into movies. I found the narrative of Run, Man, Run to be shocking and with profane language. The attitude seemed to reflect a racist tone. It features a prejudiced and paranoid drunken police detective with a hatred towards Blacks. Violence, murder and deception ensue. After learning more about the author, I realized the story was written from the perspective of the victims, and this changed the mood, making it a powerful picture of prejudice, hatred and fear.
The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith is a solid psychological thriller. A man in a deteriorating mental state has been stranded in a foreign country. He is writing about a man who is also becoming unstable.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this volume of four collected books that brought back some enjoyable memories. Publication is set for September 12.
This collection of four mystery novels serves as an example of books from the late 1960s, and an updated introduction to each author is included. Margaret Millar was a favourite of mine when her books were current. Her stories were classed as psychological thrillers and narrated from a woman's viewpoint. The Fiend is more of a domestic drama centring on two families with young daughters. An aura of menace prevails due to a creepy man who takes too much interest in the girls. I wish a book by the author's husband, Ross MacDonald, had been included, as I remember taking much pleasure in his crime novels.
Doll, by Ed McBain, is a police procedural and one of his 87th Precinct novels set in a location similar to NYC. It involves the kidnapping of one of their officers and the desperate search to save him.
I had never read anything by Chester Himes and was unfamiliar with his books set in Harlem. Some were made into movies. I found the narrative of Run, Man, Run to be shocking and with profane language. The attitude seemed to reflect a racist tone. It features a prejudiced and paranoid drunken police detective with a hatred towards Blacks. Violence, murder and deception ensue. After learning more about the author, I realized the story was written from the perspective of the victims, and this changed the mood, making it a powerful picture of prejudice, hatred and fear.
The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith is a solid psychological thriller. A man in a deteriorating mental state has been stranded in a foreign country. He is writing about a man who is also becoming unstable.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this volume of four collected books that brought back some enjoyable memories. Publication is set for September 12.
September 11, 2023
A weaker outing than the previous Library of America "1960s crime novels" omnibus, unfortunately. I praised that collection for its variety of crime plots, and wondered at the time whether this second volume would continue having unique representatives of the crime genre; I was pleased to see that it did. To wit:
- The Fiend - a "missing child" plot coupled with a psychological portrait of a character who may or may not be the criminal
- Doll - a right-down-the-middle police procedural
- Run, Man, Run - sort of a cat and mouse game between a witness and a criminal (a dirty cop, no less)
- The Tremor of Forgery - Patricia Highsmith Patricia Highsmithing
That last one is a bit tongue in cheek, in part because frankly there is not much of a crime plot whatsoever in The Tremor of Forgery, which is without question my least favorite Highsmith novel of the thirteen I've read. It may be emblematic of Highsmith's late 1960s, for better or (mostly) worse, but there are many better candidates if you wanted to throw in a 1960s Highsmith novel. It drags down the whole collection, not least because it's the last inclusion and sends you off on a sour note.
I was looking forward to this because of the Highsmith -- you may notice that I'm the most familiar with her work out of all the authors included. But I enjoyed the other three books quite a bit, and Margaret Millar has entrenched herself on my TBR list through the quality of The Fiend. My late grandfather (a retired NYPD lieutenant, albeit with the Rescue Squad instead of a criminal beat) was devoted to Ed McBain novels, so I appreciated finally reading one here. Not high art, sure, but scratches the same itch as a good episode of Law and Order. I'll probably read more.
Thanks to NetGalley and Library of America for the ARC.
- The Fiend - a "missing child" plot coupled with a psychological portrait of a character who may or may not be the criminal
- Doll - a right-down-the-middle police procedural
- Run, Man, Run - sort of a cat and mouse game between a witness and a criminal (a dirty cop, no less)
- The Tremor of Forgery - Patricia Highsmith Patricia Highsmithing
That last one is a bit tongue in cheek, in part because frankly there is not much of a crime plot whatsoever in The Tremor of Forgery, which is without question my least favorite Highsmith novel of the thirteen I've read. It may be emblematic of Highsmith's late 1960s, for better or (mostly) worse, but there are many better candidates if you wanted to throw in a 1960s Highsmith novel. It drags down the whole collection, not least because it's the last inclusion and sends you off on a sour note.
I was looking forward to this because of the Highsmith -- you may notice that I'm the most familiar with her work out of all the authors included. But I enjoyed the other three books quite a bit, and Margaret Millar has entrenched herself on my TBR list through the quality of The Fiend. My late grandfather (a retired NYPD lieutenant, albeit with the Rescue Squad instead of a criminal beat) was devoted to Ed McBain novels, so I appreciated finally reading one here. Not high art, sure, but scratches the same itch as a good episode of Law and Order. I'll probably read more.
Thanks to NetGalley and Library of America for the ARC.
September 14, 2023
These are four books that bend the mystery and suspense genre and added a new layer to an already awesome group of books we have The Feindd about a nine year old girl Jessie who goes missing and 3 suspects the lonely wife next-door who husband loves her but is always out of town Aunt Virginia,, her best friend Mary Martha‘s mother Kate who is a little lonely and newly divorced and the newly released Charles who is soon to get married to timid Louise Louise proves she’s not as timid as soon to be brother-in-law been first thought. Then we have the book the doll by Ed McBain A model named Tinker is murdered and she died with a man’s name on her lips, but I see the killer and why did he do it in front of her daughter Hannah and her baby doll? This book is good it’s about drug addiction getting sober and the thing that kept coming to my mind is too little too late it is really a good book and a crime mystery with the great detective. In the third book a black man witnesses a murder and he is sought as a witness but there was a lot of racism in this book it is also good it’s like the 1960s version of the Democrats novel and the thing that kept coming to my mind was Maya Angelou‘s saying when you know better you do better The last book it’s called tremors and if the first three were great then trimmers is phenomenal it is one of the first psychological thrillers will you read about someone who is mentally coming apart and OMG there was a murder and it is so good I feel bad because I forgot who wrote it but OMG it’s in this book a book any mystery suspense and thriller fan should read. You get it all psychological thriller crime mystery a kidnapping in celebrity scandal this is so so good I loved the book and highly recommend it I want to thank the American library and Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.
November 29, 2023
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969 is a collection omnibus which includes 4 full-length novels. Released 12th Sept 2023 as part of the Library of America series, it's 950 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
The four novels included are true classics and will be familiar to most readers of crime fiction. Ed McBain's Doll is an early(ish) 87th Precinct novel and is an exemplary example of an early police procedural. The others range from single protagonist thrillers to psychological drama. All are well known capable writers writing at the top of their formidable forms.
The editor, Geoffrey O'Brien, has also included biographical and background notes and an essay on text selection. For lovers and students of classic form American mystery, these extras and introduction will undoubtedly prove valuable and interesting.
Four and a half stars. The actual novels included in this and its sister volumes will likely be familiar to most die-hard lovers of American crime fiction; much of the value of the series comes from having the library as a reference source and to revisit the classics over and over again. It would be a superlative choice for public library acquisition, for authors home reference, and for lovers of classic American fiction.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969 is a collection omnibus which includes 4 full-length novels. Released 12th Sept 2023 as part of the Library of America series, it's 950 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
The four novels included are true classics and will be familiar to most readers of crime fiction. Ed McBain's Doll is an early(ish) 87th Precinct novel and is an exemplary example of an early police procedural. The others range from single protagonist thrillers to psychological drama. All are well known capable writers writing at the top of their formidable forms.
The editor, Geoffrey O'Brien, has also included biographical and background notes and an essay on text selection. For lovers and students of classic form American mystery, these extras and introduction will undoubtedly prove valuable and interesting.
Four and a half stars. The actual novels included in this and its sister volumes will likely be familiar to most die-hard lovers of American crime fiction; much of the value of the series comes from having the library as a reference source and to revisit the classics over and over again. It would be a superlative choice for public library acquisition, for authors home reference, and for lovers of classic American fiction.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
June 18, 2023
This Library of America compendium of four crime novels written and set in the late 1960s comes at an interesting time. The era depicted has come to be regarded through music, films, and TV, as an age of (to pick up Paul Simon’s song title) feeling groovy. It was not. These four books provide varying perspectives on a period when fashions and social and moral codes were in transition, with influences and attractions felt from two opposite poles.
I was unfamiliar with the work of the first author, Margaret Millar, and didn’t immediately take to her style. That said, “The Fiend” (1964) proved well worth sticking with, and indeed is a book far ahead of its time, touching on themes of alienation, gender roles, and family politics. It’s like a perfect mashup of Joan Didion and Ross MacDonald, and it may not come as a surprise that author Millar was the spouse of MacDonald, a.k.a., Kenneth Millar.
“Doll” (1965) is middle-period Ed McBain, book number 20 in his series of crime procedurals, and it’s always a pleasure to revisit the cops of the 87th Precinct.
“Run Man Run” (1966) is Chester Himes’ semi-autobiographical comic thriller, and it’s simply a corker. The works of Patricia Highsmith enjoyed a resurgence following the popularity of the Ripley films. “The Tremor of Forgery” (1969) rounds out this collection perfectly, and encapsulates the mood of these times. Geoffrey O’Brien, who collected and edited this volume, gets high marks for selecting and juxtaposing four entirely diverse voices that blend quite wonderfully. They make the very opposite of a joyful choir, but they provide an unforgettable tour through the anxieties and uncertainties of changing times.
I was unfamiliar with the work of the first author, Margaret Millar, and didn’t immediately take to her style. That said, “The Fiend” (1964) proved well worth sticking with, and indeed is a book far ahead of its time, touching on themes of alienation, gender roles, and family politics. It’s like a perfect mashup of Joan Didion and Ross MacDonald, and it may not come as a surprise that author Millar was the spouse of MacDonald, a.k.a., Kenneth Millar.
“Doll” (1965) is middle-period Ed McBain, book number 20 in his series of crime procedurals, and it’s always a pleasure to revisit the cops of the 87th Precinct.
“Run Man Run” (1966) is Chester Himes’ semi-autobiographical comic thriller, and it’s simply a corker. The works of Patricia Highsmith enjoyed a resurgence following the popularity of the Ripley films. “The Tremor of Forgery” (1969) rounds out this collection perfectly, and encapsulates the mood of these times. Geoffrey O’Brien, who collected and edited this volume, gets high marks for selecting and juxtaposing four entirely diverse voices that blend quite wonderfully. They make the very opposite of a joyful choir, but they provide an unforgettable tour through the anxieties and uncertainties of changing times.
April 27, 2024
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.
Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969 is a compelling anthology that encapsulates the essence of crime fiction in the transformative years of the 1960s. This collection, featuring works by Margaret Millar, Ed McBain, Chester Himes, and Patricia Highsmith, offers a panoramic view of the genre’s evolution, showcasing the daring themes and literary experimentation that defined the era.
The Fiend by Margaret Millar is a chilling narrative that delves into the psyche of a troubled individual, blurring the lines between protector and predator.
Doll by Ed McBain takes readers into the gritty streets of the 87th Precinct, where a murder investigation becomes a deep dive into the dark underbelly of city life. My personal favorite, Doll is a stand out in this collection.
Run Man Run by Chester Himes is a relentless pursuit of justice and survival.
The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith transports readers to Tunisia, where an expatriate writer grapples with his own moral compass.
Together, these four novels not only entertain but also challenge readers to consider the complexities of crime and punishment, guilt and innocence, and the human capacity for both good and evil. This collection is a must-read for aficionados of the genre and a testament to the enduring power of well-crafted crime fiction.
Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969 is a compelling anthology that encapsulates the essence of crime fiction in the transformative years of the 1960s. This collection, featuring works by Margaret Millar, Ed McBain, Chester Himes, and Patricia Highsmith, offers a panoramic view of the genre’s evolution, showcasing the daring themes and literary experimentation that defined the era.
The Fiend by Margaret Millar is a chilling narrative that delves into the psyche of a troubled individual, blurring the lines between protector and predator.
Doll by Ed McBain takes readers into the gritty streets of the 87th Precinct, where a murder investigation becomes a deep dive into the dark underbelly of city life. My personal favorite, Doll is a stand out in this collection.
Run Man Run by Chester Himes is a relentless pursuit of justice and survival.
The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith transports readers to Tunisia, where an expatriate writer grapples with his own moral compass.
Together, these four novels not only entertain but also challenge readers to consider the complexities of crime and punishment, guilt and innocence, and the human capacity for both good and evil. This collection is a must-read for aficionados of the genre and a testament to the enduring power of well-crafted crime fiction.
June 4, 2023
Crime Novels, Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969(Vol.2)(LOA)-A continuation of Library of America’s exploration into the exceptional noir classics of the 1960’s. These four are a very good example of how that genre flourished during that decade.
The Fiend by Margaret Millar- A known sex-offender is put on alert when a local child goes missing, but the community soon begins imploding revealing many suspects.
Doll by Ed McBain(Evan Hunter)- The 87th Precinct begins a desperate search for one of their own as Steve Carella is kidnapped by murderers, who turn his plight into a game of death. I’ve read all the 87 Precinct books and this is one of the best and darkest read.
Run, Man, Run by Chester Himes- A rough, ragged, profane tale of murder, deception and fear that is mostly psychological and superbly done. I’m definitely going to read more Hines,
The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith-A man is trapped within a crumbling mind, in a strange country he cannot leave as he forgets everything about his past life, even the possible death he might have caused. Great stuff! Thanks NetGalley for this dark and deadly ARC!
The Fiend by Margaret Millar- A known sex-offender is put on alert when a local child goes missing, but the community soon begins imploding revealing many suspects.
Doll by Ed McBain(Evan Hunter)- The 87th Precinct begins a desperate search for one of their own as Steve Carella is kidnapped by murderers, who turn his plight into a game of death. I’ve read all the 87 Precinct books and this is one of the best and darkest read.
Run, Man, Run by Chester Himes- A rough, ragged, profane tale of murder, deception and fear that is mostly psychological and superbly done. I’m definitely going to read more Hines,
The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith-A man is trapped within a crumbling mind, in a strange country he cannot leave as he forgets everything about his past life, even the possible death he might have caused. Great stuff! Thanks NetGalley for this dark and deadly ARC!
November 4, 2024
Pretty poor selection. This is an more an indictment of the editor's taste than of the genre itself, for there were definitely other, better possibilities than the four novels the editor ended up choosing. I have a feeling part of the problem is LOA decided to go for books that were historically important or at least idiosyncratic, rather than books that are actually any good.
1. The Fiend - 3/5. Probably the best here, but still not terribly good. Too long and melodramatic.
2. Doll - 2/5. Also melodramatic, less interesting.
3. Run Man Run - 2/5. Historically interesting but poorly written.
4. The Tremor of Forgery - 1/5. A bizarre, racist, and uninteresting novel that barely qualifies as a "thriller" at all.
1. The Fiend - 3/5. Probably the best here, but still not terribly good. Too long and melodramatic.
2. Doll - 2/5. Also melodramatic, less interesting.
3. Run Man Run - 2/5. Historically interesting but poorly written.
4. The Tremor of Forgery - 1/5. A bizarre, racist, and uninteresting novel that barely qualifies as a "thriller" at all.
August 31, 2023
I was hesitant to get this ARC because of the length alone, but I opened it and it immediately grabbed my interest. These stories were written beautifully. Four authors from the 1960’s who excelled at crime writing all in one collection. These stories do not disappoint and each bring something different to the reader.
I highly recommend this collection for someone who wants to dive into an incredibly readable collection that will keep you reading.
Highly recommend!
#CrimeNovelsFourClassicThrillers19641969LOA371 #NetGalley #LibraryofAmerica
I highly recommend this collection for someone who wants to dive into an incredibly readable collection that will keep you reading.
Highly recommend!
#CrimeNovelsFourClassicThrillers19641969LOA371 #NetGalley #LibraryofAmerica
September 12, 2023
If the title of this book was as descriptive as it should be would read.....Four Classic Thrillers By Some of The Best Authors to Ever Grace Us With A Story. And it would be true. These stories are forerunners for today's crime novels. These authors had the abilities to take their readers into the story, you will refuse to acknowledge anyone trying to talk to you. If you have never read these stories, I envy you the experience. Enjoy.
January 10, 2024
All of these books are written by writers of hard core fiction and are full of drama, suspense. I used to read them a lot in my younger days, unfortunately, my heart won"t stand up to the suspense these days (sic)
They are great stories, and will appeal to people who like stories that have a big and long suspenseful build up, before an ending that one does not see coming.. Enjoy.. Thanks you NetGalley and the publishers for the DR..
They are great stories, and will appeal to people who like stories that have a big and long suspenseful build up, before an ending that one does not see coming.. Enjoy.. Thanks you NetGalley and the publishers for the DR..
February 17, 2024
Taking a look at the crime novels of the 1960s, you get a look at the social issues of the day. There are many underlying threads within these stories. However, just for reading enjoyment, these four stories are amazing on their own.
Get a fantastic weekend read, with four crime stories that will keep you reading until the very last page.
Get a fantastic weekend read, with four crime stories that will keep you reading until the very last page.
February 19, 2024
Thanks to NetGalley for making this terrific collection available! I read this kind of fiction when I was younger and I am surprised at how well it holds up. Each of these authors delivers every time when it comes to excitement and suspense. Dialogue seems simpler but more realistic. These books are not ones I read in particular, so that was particularly great for me.
February 3, 2025
A great collection that introduced me to some authors I will definitely add to my TBR, especially Millar and McBain. I had never read any Highsmith but seen the Ripley movies, the Ripley Netflix show, and Carol, so I was very excited but ultimately underwhelmed by Tremor of Forgery. Neither the characters nor the plot were able to hold my attention. 3 out of 4 ain't bad.
February 16, 2025
This volume from the Library of America series provides a decent sampler of 1960’s crime fiction:
Margaret Millar’s The Fiend ratchets up the tension in a child-in-peril plot centered around a mentally troubled man previously convicted of child abuse. It was definitely well done, but as a parent I always find this kind of plot so disturbing even when it turns out relatively well.
Ed McBain’s The Doll is an entry from his 87th Precinct police procedural series. There’s some interesting interaction between characters, but every “big reveal” was obviously telegraphed so far in advance as to rob it of any shock value.
Chester Himes’s Run Man Run rages against the fate of being a black man framed/gaslit by a white cop in NYC. It reminded me a lot of Dorothy B. Hughes’s An Expendable Man in the previous volume but with more vitriol as Himes is writing from some level of personal experience.
Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery just bored and annoyed me. It’s one of these pretentious sort of “artistic guy lazes about slowly destroying his life and relationship through ennui and guilt” novels. I’m sure it’s the “deepest” one of the lot, but for me it was a lousy note to end the book on.
Margaret Millar’s The Fiend ratchets up the tension in a child-in-peril plot centered around a mentally troubled man previously convicted of child abuse. It was definitely well done, but as a parent I always find this kind of plot so disturbing even when it turns out relatively well.
Ed McBain’s The Doll is an entry from his 87th Precinct police procedural series. There’s some interesting interaction between characters, but every “big reveal” was obviously telegraphed so far in advance as to rob it of any shock value.
Chester Himes’s Run Man Run rages against the fate of being a black man framed/gaslit by a white cop in NYC. It reminded me a lot of Dorothy B. Hughes’s An Expendable Man in the previous volume but with more vitriol as Himes is writing from some level of personal experience.
Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery just bored and annoyed me. It’s one of these pretentious sort of “artistic guy lazes about slowly destroying his life and relationship through ennui and guilt” novels. I’m sure it’s the “deepest” one of the lot, but for me it was a lousy note to end the book on.
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