False Negative

by Joseph Koenig

Adam Jordan wrote the best and worst articles of his journalistic career on the same day. The worst was bad enough to get him fired - but the best landed him a new job, penning lurid articles for Real Detective magazine, one of the last of the true-crime pulps. 

Only the case they've got him working on, involving a beauty pageant contestant found dead on an Atlantic City beach, is one some very powerful men would rather see covered up than covered. And if Adam keeps digging, he may find he's digging his own grave...

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Mystery, Pulp, Noir, Mystery Thriller

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Joseph Koenig is an author of hard-boiled fiction. A former crime reporter, he won critical acclaim and an Edgar nomination for his first novel, Floater (1986), a grimly violent story of con men, cops, and killers in the Florida Everglades. His next two novels were Little Odessa (1988), a darkly comic tale of life in New York’s Ukrainian underworld, and Smugglers Notch (1989), a story of brutal murder in snowbound Vermont. Koenig’s fourth novel, the groundbreaking Brides of Blood (1993), won strong reviews for its elegant treatment of police procedure in Islamic Iran.

For nearly two decades after Brides of Blood, Koenig did not publish. But in 2012 the pulp-style publishing house Hard Case Crime released his newest novel, False Negative, a rollicking mystery about a journalist who, like Koenig once did, writes for true-crime magazines.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reporter Adam Jordan is fired for filing a false story but lands on his feet writing for Real Detective Magazine. When a beauty contestant is found murdered on the beach, Adam starts investigating. But will what he finds be worth dying for?

Like a few other reviewers have already mentioned, this book had all the winning ingredients. The writing was superb, the lead character a likeable scoundrel, and beauties turning up missing is a compelling tale. So why only a 2? I felt like something was missing. All the pieces never quite came together for me, like a soup that hasn't simmered long enough.

Still, it wasn't a waste of time. Joseph Koenig knows his way around a noir tale. I love the idea that a writer for a true crime pulp would solve a mystery. I'll be tracking down his earlier works. Hell, I caught myself enjoying False Negative just for the prose while it was meandering all over the place. It did have its moments, though. I didn't figure out who the killer was until sometime past the halfway mark. Koenig did a good job steering me all over the place.

So, yeah. I'm giving this a two. If it hadn't meandered all over the place and seemed unfocused, it would have been an easy three.

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Jordan is a jazz loving newspaper reporter in Atlantic City during the 1950s who hopes to write the great American novel in his spare time. Unfortunately, Jordan must have gone to the same journalism school that Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair did. One shortcut leads to a humiliating mistake that gets him fired and guarantees he won’t be hired by any reputable paper.

Jordan’s crime reporting has gotten the attention of the editor of a pulp true crime magazine. Jordan finds himself chasing lurid murder stories all over the New Jersey area to pay the bills and keep himself busy. He also has a hunch that the murder of one woman who was a beauty pageant contestant and the disappearance of a black back-up singer may be related.

Joseph Koenig hasn’t published a book in twenty years, but this new one for Hard Case Crime has been nominated for a Shamus Award and given me an itch to track down some of his old books. However, while I very much enjoyed the writing and several elements of False Negative, I felt like it couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be so it ended up with a lot of interesting story threads that weren’t woven together well.

My favorite piece was the whole angle of Jordan going to work for the pulp magazine and his interactions with a crusty old editor there, and I wish there had been more of a focus on that. There are plenty of subplots with one about a baseball player who gets his kicks by beating up women, and another about Jordan trying to get back in the good graces of a woman he had a one night stand with. He also meets quirky characters like a crime photographer and a streetwise black woman.

The problem is that half the book seems to want to be a deeper character story about what constantly trying to find more bizarre murders to sell to a crime hungry public would do to someone. But that is undermined by a murder mystery that is relatively straight forward with a killer that will be almost immediately obvious to most readers. I was far more interested in Adam when he was learning the pulp magazine rackets and pitching potential murder stories to his editor than I was when he was playing gumshoe.

It’s also weird how much time is spent on some of the subplots yet they don’t come to much. Who killed Adam’s editor? No one really seems to care and why have him survive one murder attempt only to be dispatched just a few chapters later? Why spend all the time bringing up the baseball player only to hear late in the book that he was killed after beating one woman to many? Maybe these were red herrings or maybe they were just supposed to be examples of the violent world that Jordan chooses to dwell in, but they don’t really seem to serve any purpose.

It’s an entertaining but slightly frustrating read that seems like it never quite delivers on its full potential.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Jordan is a newspaperman renowned for his ability to report the facts and pump out print in quick fashion. His job revolves around crime as a spectator after the event until a beauty queen is found murdered followed by a succession of others. Retiring the pen and pad for a slice of the detective life, Jordan soon learns that crime is everywhere and can be committed anyone – even those close to you.

FALSE NEGATIVE is a delicious pulp. It’s got the PI angle wrapped up without actually being about a hardboiled sleuth as Jordan falls into the investigation by virtue of a seemingly lacking commitment by the authorities to uncover the killer.

I liked the unconventional approach author Joseph Koenig took to FALSE NEGATIVE. At its core, it’s a murder mystery in traditional pulp vein, yet Jordan’s everyday life and day job are paramount throughout the course of events. The protagonist wasn’t painted in such a manner as to be the hero, rather, his drive for good print and a beautiful front page for Real Detective magazine threw him into a violent and confronting world.

FALSE NEGATIVE delivers in spades; gory killings, beautiful victims, unconventional hero, sinister suspects, and some truly memorable characters.

FALSE NEGATIVE was Joseph Koenig’s first novel in 20yrs and by all account different from his previous efforts (I haven’t read his others) – I sure hope he continues to write these stories. Adam Jordan is a character that has got a few more escapades left in him at Real Detective magazine.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

"False Negative" is what happens when you give 100 monkeys 100 bottles of whiskey and 100 half-working typewriters.

I mean, it is bad. It is so bad you could use it to teach a college-level course on how not to write a novel. It packs so much lousiness in 200-odd pages that I'm almost impressed. Almost.

I guess the first thing that should've tipped me off was the cover banner reading "Joseph Koenig's First New Book in 20 Years!" Clearly there was a reason the publishing world hadn't been beating down his door. Why Hard Case Crime chose to will remain a mystery to me - though I've noticed that their new fiction tends to be a little on the shoddy side (see my review of The Twenty Year Death).

It's hard to even know where to start here. The plot is a wash, and even the author can barely be bothered with it. The killer is obvious from their second appearance, even though the "hero" doesn't figure it out until the woman he's been treating like dirt the whole novel comes to clue his sorry ass in. Point of View jumps constantly, sometimes in the middle of a page, so god help when you're trying to figure out whose head you're in. We get PoVs and background info dumps for just about every lowly character that slumps across the page. Side plots come and go as they will, contributing little to nothing except to fill pages.

Even that's forgivable for the right writer - but then you hit the race relations aspect of "False Negative," and that's where it really goes straight to shit. I've mentioned before (again, in my Twenty Year Death review) that I have very little patience for modern writers who seem to revel in the opportunity to make their main character an unabashed racist. I mean, this guy is just a bag of dicks - there's no other way to put it. I kept reading because I was sure that Koenig was funning us, and that he had a nasty end or shock prepared for this utter and complete wankstain of a main character. But that moment never comes, wish as the reader might.

Here's the thing: noir almost demands a morally shady character. But if you can't make them compelling, make them fascinating, make them SOMETHING other than just boringly unpleasant, you are doing it wrong.

Alternately, make your main character a sexist, racist, utter fuckface, but make your characters of color actual people so that your book doesn't read like Bill O'Reilly's wet dreams, MISTER KOENIG.

The only reason I finished this is because I've been determined to actually clear my Goodreads queue. For anyone considering picking it up, I suggest following in Dorothy Parker's footsteps and instead throwing it aside with great force.

[Snakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent noir story. I’d usually be hard pressed to give five-stars to a mystery/thriller book. But two things: Koenig is an incredible writer and his style is just slightly off kilter and very appealing and his storytelling was spot on with tons of insights into the human condition and the culture of the times. Really enjoyed this read.

[Craig Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Jordan is a dogged, cynical reporter in Atlantic City in 1953. Despite his talent, he loses his job when he is caught falsifying a story. He turned in copy about a senator’s holiday speech that he did not actually attend; he got caught because the senator died at the podium before the address could actually be delivered. After this, the only job Jordon can find is writing for true-crime pulp magazines. In the course of this new career, he becomes embroiled in solving the murder of a beautiful redhead found strangled and hog tied on the beach.

This is an interesting addition to the Hard Case Crime library. I do not normally like books about authors (Writing is a tedious job that few can make a living at, yet they are over represented and over-glamorized in fiction.) However, the true crime pulp magazines were a wonderfully bizarre niche for fifty years, one which sent writers scouring the country looking for very specific types of murders, murderers, and victims. Writers and editors were often brought into close contact with killers. Their resulting stories were a mix of sensationalistic journalism and outright fiction.

False Negative explores this murky and nearly forgotten milieu. It is serves up a decent mystery in the bargain.

The story works best when it is functioning as an historical novel. For example, there is a subplot about a missing chorus girl in Louis Armstrong’s band, which touches on the transition of jazz after World War II and also the effects of race relations in entertainment and journalism. There is another sadly still-relevant subplot about major league baseball protecting players who abuse women, a practice reaching back to the Babe Ruth era.

The story works less well with its still-living female characters. A lot of ink is spent on Jordan’s love triangle with two women. They are important to the plot, but Jordon does not seem to care much for either. Neither did I. I kept wondering why he did not just tell both of them to take a hike. It felt like the author was grasping for a reason to keep them around in the story just to set up the final events.

Author Joseph Koenig wrote four well-received novels in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, but then stopped publishing for 20 years until this book came out in 2012. He worked in the true crime field for many years and published an essay on his real-life experiences, some of which found their way into this novel.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, even though the main character was not very likable, he kind of grew on me. I was surprised by who the bad guy turned out to be. overall, a good mystery and I liked the details that showed me what things were like in that time period.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

False Negative is Joseph Koenig's fourth novel and his first after a twenty-year hiatus. As Koenig himself has explained, the story is focused on the experiences of a young reporter and editor for the last of the true crime pulp magazines and is based in part on his own experiences. Koenig has even stated that, "because fiction has to be believable," he had to "tone down much of what really went on on the dick books." The reality, just as in the novel, was that few of the criminals who went to prison emerged rehabilitated and many blamed the true crime magazines that published their photographs and story for their convictions and sentences. As Koenig explains, being a true crime editor gave him a "cautious view of the world" and he often ended up wondering when on crowded subway cars how many of the people there literally might have gotten away with murder.

Although published in 2012, this novel is thoroughly placed in the pulp-era of the early-fifties in Atlantic City. It focuses on a young crime reporter, Adam Jordan, who yearns for his big break, only to find that as he chases a story about a young woman's body found on a beach and he phonied up another story that he did not consider worthy of his time (a politician's speech), he loses his reporter's job as the politician he did not bother watching drops dead of a heart attack while giving his speech. The focus is also on the seamy side of 1950's Atlantic City. Every girl who ends up there from whatever farming town she started out in yearns to become Miss America, but most end up slinging hash or "working" invitation-only parties for sleazy pimps and other promoters. The young reporter and the women he meet are cynical. Jordan ends up working as true crime reporter and editor, still chasing down true crime stories as they happen, following leads from every story in the paper and chasing down women who believe he is like every two-bit sleazeball they've met.

The book flows well and reads quickly. And, includes an interview with Louis Armstrong as Jordan seeks information on a missing backup singer who no one cares is missing, after all backup singers never stick around and the police aren't going to waste their time on a missing Black girl in the early 1950's mileu. The book also casts a light on how interracial couples were viewed at that time.
At the beginning, Jordan himself discovers a body on a beach. "Wet sand coated her face, which was turned away from the rain. She was barefoot, in a pleated skirt and cashmere sweater. A silk kerchief was tied across her mouth, and her ankles, knees, and thighs were bound with a single piece of rope that was also looped around her throat." And, "She was a beautiful woman dead for several hours whose looks hadn't begun to fade." "The dead woman had flame red hair, and a shape on the neat side of voluptuous." What did this woman mean for Adam Jordan, cub reporter that he was? "He would eulogize her with tenderness. In the squalid circumstances of her death was a story more compelling than Conrad Palmer's. He would polish its lurid detail into a cautionary tale, every parent's nightmare. It would be his ticket out of Atlantic City and into journalism's major leagues."
Who was the dead woman? Jordan finds out that Suzie Chase was in Atlantic City to be Miss America. She was a former Miss Teenage Garden State and Miss Monmouth County. But, Jordan thought about it and "Suzie Chase was too good-looking to be Miss America. Miss Americas were the breed standard for the earnest wholesomeness Jordan believed was best left to kindergarten teachers, homecoming queens, and rodeo cowgirls for whom high-breasted, long-legged sauciness were professional poison."

All in all, False Negative is a well-written and compelling story that dips its toes into the saucy world of 1950's Atlantic City and the reporters working for the true crime magazines that had their heyday many years ago. It is a good story and well-worth reading. Highly recommended and a fine addition to the Hard Case Crime series.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the face of it (and not just counting the cover), this should have been a book that really worked for me. A journalist writes a story that gets him fired, and he turns to writing for the True Crime pulps. Naturally for a novel, this gets him involved in solving some murders, and he ends up editing the murder magazine. I liked the situation (and the cover) plenty, for for some reason the book never came together for me. The book lacks a narrative pull, there's very little tension in it, and though the settings (New York and Atlantic City) are interesting and ripe for atmosphere, I didn't get a sense of place or time. A disappointment, because I usually like these Hard Case Crime novels quite a bit.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hardcase are always a great read. Fast-paced, good noir tone.

[Bill Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

 Among the many genres in fiction, hard-boiled crime isn't always well regarded when compared to historical fiction and fantasy. It's often given about the same status as romance, science fiction, and fantasy. When you think of the people who read them, you think of people who live more on the peripheral of society than most. People who yearn for an ideal romantic partner; people who want to solve their problems with a fast steed and a sharp sword; people who want to hit the hyperspace drive button on their ship, and head to an unexplored part of the galaxy.
 As in literature, though, there are degrees, and I'd put Joseph Koenig's False Negative, which I got for free from my library's giveaway cart, at the top of its genre, though given that I read little of it, don't put a lot of faith in my endorsement.
The only reason I gave it a chance was because of a character on the first page who's identified as working for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, a daily newspaper that ceased publication in 1982, after over a century of being, at times, the dominant paper in its city.
 I'm a failed journalist who likes reading about journalism, and False Negative is about a crime reporter in 1953 who gets fired and, needing a job, starts work as the editor of a detective magazine.
 Koenig has a journalism background and his knowledge of the field and his writing style both attest to that. The story zips along at an invigorating clip, and Koenig follows a rule that few writers do: put something interesting on every page.
 If you have any interest in journalism, False Negative is a must. If you don't, it's a strong should. Also, if you've ever been told by others or yourself that you ought to write a book, at least the excerpt below will ring true.
Excerpt:

 He blew dust off the shoebox where he kept his novel, and read the last chapter. The characters were strangers. He'd forgotten why he had them do the odd things they did. His notes on the plot made no sense. He couldn't figure out what he'd had in mind, or how to get back on track. He opened a can of beer, and lit a cigarette. More terrifying than a blank page was having nothing to write.

[Greg Trosclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I were asked what I liked about reading Hard Case Crime novels well False Negative would be a good example. It is very much a Noir story. The main character, Jordan, is a bit sketchy. He is a crime reported out of Atlantic City who is fired from his gig reporting for a NYC paper after falsifying a story. He is then hired to write for Real Detective magazine. He dives in head first to a number of cases but one local case of a murdered beauty queen drags him in. This story has many of the tropes of a Noir movie, Questionable lead dealing with shady characters. Lots of alcohol is thrown around throughout the story. Lots of lascivious behavior from everyone in the book. The main character does not necessarily end up in a better position. Lots of violence. I liked the fact the Jordan had no issues with race or gender which while not a huge deal in the story felt real and genuine. I liked how he meets Louis Armstrong. I liked how the Real Detective part of the story is portrayed. The story is solid. Hard Case Crime novels as a whole fit this bill. Very solid well told crime stories. I am seldom not satisfied with them.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm in agreement with many other reviewers about this one...while it is reasonably well written, and has some good individual elements (interesting characters, good settings, nice attention to period detail), it never comes into focus. The narrative wanders and meanders as if the author isn't quite sure where the story is supposed to go. Also worth mentioning, there's pretty much zero tension, even in scenes that are fraught with imminent violence (or actual violence, for that matter). The author may have been trying to do something about the banality and randomness of actual violent crime, or the main character's lack of focus in his life, or something, but the novel ends up feeling slapdash, scenes thrown together that don't serve any larger narrative purpose. That may in fact be more like real life, but in a pulp crime novel it comes across as sloppy plotting or a lack of editing.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

False Negative was really enjoyable. This is the first time I have read anything by Joseph Koenig and he did a spectacular job with this novel. Adam Jordan is a newspaperman in 1953 who finds himself reluctantly working for Real Detective. I remember seeing magazines like this on the shelves when I was a kid-I have no idea if they even still exist today. Jordan is a good investigator with feet of clay. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end, and you will wonder how you missed seeing the Big Bad when they are finally revealed. If you're looking for fiction that is the embodiment of noir-this is it.

[SB Senpai Manga · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really believe this book has an identity crisis. There were so many plot threads that don’t go anywhere and are quickly replaced by something else. The basic plot is an interesting one, a man loses his job at a newspaper and lands a job at a pulp magazine where the stories are based on real crimes. That’s what made me pick up the book, and for awhile it was going that way as I kept being invested in the inner politics of the pulp magazine trade. After that, it was like reading a mystery in a secondhand way. The main character doesn’t always actively look into the murders, but gets the info from other sources. I was entertained, but it raises more questions than answers them.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

False Negative gets an A+ for attention to detail in setting a book in Atlantic City circa 1954, but unfortunately the narrative often loses focus. There are plot elements that seem to serve no purpose, which accounts for the entire middle portion of the novel, most notably the murder of the original editor of Real Detective and Adam Jordan assuming the job. In retrospect, that part of the novel seem to have been added afterward to pad out the story.

By the end of the novel, Jordan seems to have gone back to being a freelance writer and the editor job forgotten. Too bad, with a little editing and maybe a little more suspense this could have been a great novel.

[Oli Turner]

@therealhardcasecrime 107 finished
#falsenegative by #josephkoenig published in 2012. Noir tale of a journalist investigating a murder. The plot is a little bit meandering. I felt it could have been tighter and more focused which would have made it more gripping and engaging. However, the highlight of the novel is definitely the dialogue it is really great - glittering and playful, especially the flirtatious banter.

[DAVID LAMPE-WILSON · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great writing in the noir tradition but plot seemed all over the place.

With a serial killer on the loose, a magazine editor tries to find the culprit, but it was obvious to this reader. The subplot about working for a '50s pulp magazine became far more interesting than the search for a murderer.

Still, I'd read Koenig again for the gritty atmosphere and the crackling dialogue.

[robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

especially fun - for me - as a historical trip through a 1950s New Jersey, seen through an increasingly seedy lens of murder, entertainers, jazz music and journalism. All the machinery whose cogs are greased by corruption, money, and sex.

It has a truly magnificent pin-up cover.

[Malum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the characters were annoying and Koenig tips his hand way too early making the mystery easy to solve.
A few real life celebrities show up putting me in mind of a Toby Peters mystery. In fact, I would have far preferred reading one of those over this.

[John Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good writing, good story.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good writing but to me seemed it jumped around too much, still a great crime book.

[Quinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The femme fatale stole the show.

[Pocosnoopy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but dated noir fiction.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, told in the traditional noir style - down to earth, succinct, gritty and very evocative of post WW11 America. It reveals a very seamy side of life - people constantly hustling to make a living, women only interested in hooking a rich man and/or getting discovered as a model and willing to pay whatever price is necessary. Even so, the protagonist, journalist Adam Jordan is a sympathetic character, with a deeper sense of morality than many of the other characters.

The story is well-paced, with rising tension and a heap of red herrings. Even when the identity of the killer is revealed, well before the end, I had to keep on reading. I can imagine this as a great movie.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atlantic City newsman Adam Jordan, fired for filing stock copy about a politician's speech only to discover next morning the politician died of a heart attack before delivering it, takes a job writing for and eventually editing the true-crime pulp Real Detective Magazine. Before he moves to NYC and the editorial chair, however, he becomes intrigued by the case of a beauty queen found strangled on the beach. Investigating with the help of elfin photographer Pix Pixley, Jordan probes among shady and sometimes murderous characters, soon realizing that he may be after a serial killer. He also acquires an unexpected girlfriend, the almost-prostitute Cherisse (who's quite the most engaging character in the novel). The fact that Jordan's white and Cherisse is black and this is 1950s America makes matters . . . extra complicated.

It seems to take the novel a little while before it decides it's going to become a mystery rather than just a collection of the murder stories that Jordan encounters through his work for Real Detective, but it's so well written that this is just a minor annoyance. For the most part I just reveled in Koenig's loving recreation of 1950s noir, where even the hero's not exactly trustworthy and is anyway stupid enough that it takes him forever to realize the ice queen he's chasing isn't the woman he really wants.

I dithered between three stars and four. I hadn't read Koenig before, but will definitely try to track down more by him.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Jordan is a disgraced police reporter for the Atlantic City Press. After coming across the corpse of an aspiring Miss America, he finds a new outlet for his writing talent: Real Detective, a true crime magazine in New York. The pulp format is on its last legs and it’s a far cry from the literary establishment that fills his dreams, but the pay is good and it’s the only rag that will publish him. While covering the murder and various other heinous crimes in the region for the magazine, more beautiful girls pop up dead along on the South Jersey shore and Jordan’s investigation leads to personal danger as a one-on-one match with a serial killer becomes inevitable.

Read the rest of my review at TheCelebrityCafe.com

[Jason Seaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick-reading but leisurely pulp, featuring a protagonist who goes from newspaper reporter to true-crime writer and doesn't so much get involved in murders as finds himself becoming addicted to the idea of crime. It's got more than a few moments when it seems to wallow in nostalgia - set in the 1950s, it loves the trashy magazines of that era and early jazz of a previous one almost aggressively, and while it doesn't sanitize the era, it makes darn sure that the reader understands that the writer they're meant to identify with didn't share the general racism or the time AT ALL.

Still, as much as the action can seem random, the book does get across how these writers just can't be anything else, because ink is in their blood, and how writing (and reading) about crime may seem tacky or shameful, it's also a passion that cannot be denied.

[John Pringle · Rating 4 out of 5]

False Negative is one of the best novels Hard Case Crime has published in recent years and much like his chief character Adam Jordan, author Joseph Koenig shows his talents as a literary stylist. Julie Elliott of Library Journal summed this book up very nicely when she commented: “The snappy, fast-paced story follows the traditional hard-boiled style one comes to expect from this publisher, and Koenig’s characters, sense of place, and turns of phrase make the novel stand out.” Koenig writes with panache, the characters are fully fleshed and fascinating, and the dialogue is first-rate. I hope that the next book Koenig writes he sends it straight to Charles Ardai without a second thought. Koenig is an exceptional writer and this is an exceptional book.

[Jure · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy Koenig must be some kind of genius to be able to picture such a vivid picture of the period before he was even born. I’m definitely putting all of his stuff on the top of my to-do list.

More here (warning, it includes spoilers):
http://a60books.blogspot.ie/2012/06/f...