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Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled
BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled is a compilation of uncompromising, gritty tales following in the footsteps of the tough and violent fiction popularized by the legendary Black Mask magazine in its early days. This collection includes thirteen lean and mean stories from the fingertips of Garnett Elliott, Glenn Gray, John Hornor Jacobs, Patricia Abbott, Thomas Pluck, Brad Green, Ron Earl Phillips, Kent Gowran, Amy Grech, Benoit Lelievre, Kieran Shea, David Cranmer, and Wayne D. Dundee and a boiled down look at hardboiled fiction in an introduction by Ron Scheer. Edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker.
180 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 30, 2011
23 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
About the author
David Cranmer
23 books23 followersDavid Cranmer aka as Edward A. Grainger is a New York-based writer whose work has appeared at Macmillan’s TOR.COM and Criminal Element sites. Follow him on Twitter @BEATtoaPULP.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 14, 2019
A feast of great stories. I recommend this for discerning readers of gritty pulp. Some of the standouts from this collection include: "A Small Thing At The Devil's Punchbowl" by Kent Gowran, which starts off with a guy (Wally) pouring bourbon over his bowl of cornflakes and saying that it was like a "pack of rabid monkeys playing skee-ball in my brain." Turns out Wally "had been a circus strongman until a cuckolded clown cut his legs out from under him with a blast from a double-barrel shotgun." Now, that's what I call writing. Gowran absolutely nails it with this story. The narrator is Ray Perkins. He's from some small town somewhere and his one regret in life is that he didn't go to California with Georgia Samson, only to find her ten years later nailed to the floor in the master bedroom of a Beverly Hills mansion with her "dead green eyes" staring up at him. I don't know what else Gowran has written, but I am going to find out. If you think that medical school has properly prepared you for an autopsy, you haven't read "Obstruction" by Glenn Gray, a story that step-by-step walks you through the process. John Hornor Jacobs' "The Death Fantastique" is about a young lady with a tattoo. It's about Efram, Melissa, and Ray-Ray and how they got along in Arkansas. It is a violent tale that will sear images upon your sight that you can't get rid of. Most of all, it's a damn good read.
January 12, 2019
A mixed bag of crime stories. A few were pretty good, but many were meh. My biggest complaint, though, is that many of these stories had me scratching my head as to why they were included here at all. Just because a story has a drug dealer or a dead body doesn't automatically make it pulpy or hardboiled.
November 7, 2011
Edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker, this entertaining collection of modern hardboiled short stories features tough guys and tough gals. Of course, private investigators are big part of the hardboiled genre, and none perks better than Wayne D. Dundee's Nebraska P.I. Joe Hannibal and his unusual tangle with a hit man coming to town to do a job. Joe is a good guy to know if you've got troubles. Amy Grech gives us a different lustful take on a deadly game of Russian roulette. Patti Abbott masterfully writes in a 15-year-old girl's voice about her troubles with her boyfriend Ric and her mother. I liked Ron Earl Phillip's story of a vet who runs a "cleaning" service that's a bit more comples than what a janitor does. Hardboiled fans should leave satisfied.
December 14, 2015
I really liked this small collection of modern pulp stories; there were some exceptional stories here, as well as some average ones. It has definently has given me some new authors too look into. It was a real pleasure reading these stories, it mixed the modern world with the old pulp styles really well. Well worth reading for all pulp fans.
November 5, 2011
Another great collection of short stories from David Cranmer, this time ably aided by Scott D. Parker. The introduction by Ron Scheer hits on the development of hardboiled fiction
Thirteen tales that live up to the hardboiled in the title. Tough, violent, uncompromising, some of the writers were familiar to me: David himself, Wayne D. Dundee, Amy Grech, Patricia Abbott, Kieran Shea, and Thomas Pluck. The others contributed good stories as well. I'll be on the lookout for their stories around the 'net as well.
Great set, great price, worth a look.
Thirteen tales that live up to the hardboiled in the title. Tough, violent, uncompromising, some of the writers were familiar to me: David himself, Wayne D. Dundee, Amy Grech, Patricia Abbott, Kieran Shea, and Thomas Pluck. The others contributed good stories as well. I'll be on the lookout for their stories around the 'net as well.
Great set, great price, worth a look.
September 27, 2012
Thin volume of hardboiled short stories. They were all right, but none of them really delivered the punch I was hoping for. You read hardboiled fiction and you really do - at least for me - want to be beaten to a pulp. You want to feel it, either emotionally or viscerally, and I didn't get that here. If you're a fan of the genre then this is worth your time.
January 31, 2014
Sometimes, when you're not expecting it, an anthology can sneak up and curb-stomp your brain. That's kind of what happened with Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled, as I downloaded it as a freebie from the Kindle Store some time ago, just one of those impulse grabs because I recognized a couple names from the ToC. Well, by the time I got around to reading it, I had become aware of a few other writers featured in its pages and walked away thoroughly entertained by a book chockful of pulpy goodness.
If you're not familiar with hard-boiled fiction, Ron Scheer offers a helpful introduction that works as a brief "for Dummies" orientation into the genre. From there, we're off to the races.
Amy Grech was one of the original names that lured me to download this ebook, with her story, "".38 Special." A man gets talked into a game of Russian roulette with the married woman after they finish having sex inside her house while her husband's away. Things go disastrously wrong from the get-go and it only gets worse for the man from there. Amy has a knack for lean and lurid prose, with this story as no exception. Fun and grizzly stuff.
The second name that caught my eye in the beginning was John Hornor Jacobs, whose story "The Death Fantastique" that has a runner caught up with a hooker and her pimp in a podunk town. Sex and violence ring loud and clear, just with Amy's did, but there's a little more sinister edge to this story, as there really aren't any sympathetic characters to be found. It's rough, raw, and really good.
From there, I tried out the other stories. Patti Abbott is a name I have come to recognize as one to depend on for quality short crime fiction, and "Ric with No K" was no exception. Thomas Pluck's "Black-Eyed Susan" also served up a nasty little revenge tale that I liked a lot. Plus there was a standout story from Ron Earl Phillips called "The Janitor" about a cleaning service that handles messes most maids would never touch.
There's really no bad story in the bunch, but not all of them are as memorable as the ones mentioned. If you want to dip your toes in the grittier side of crime fiction with some up-and-coming authors, you really can't go wrong with this anthology. And there's a second one already released by Beat to a Pulp Press that I downloaded recently, which I'll have to get to in quicker fashion than I did with this one. I have a hunch it's as good or better than this one.
If you're not familiar with hard-boiled fiction, Ron Scheer offers a helpful introduction that works as a brief "for Dummies" orientation into the genre. From there, we're off to the races.
Amy Grech was one of the original names that lured me to download this ebook, with her story, "".38 Special." A man gets talked into a game of Russian roulette with the married woman after they finish having sex inside her house while her husband's away. Things go disastrously wrong from the get-go and it only gets worse for the man from there. Amy has a knack for lean and lurid prose, with this story as no exception. Fun and grizzly stuff.
The second name that caught my eye in the beginning was John Hornor Jacobs, whose story "The Death Fantastique" that has a runner caught up with a hooker and her pimp in a podunk town. Sex and violence ring loud and clear, just with Amy's did, but there's a little more sinister edge to this story, as there really aren't any sympathetic characters to be found. It's rough, raw, and really good.
From there, I tried out the other stories. Patti Abbott is a name I have come to recognize as one to depend on for quality short crime fiction, and "Ric with No K" was no exception. Thomas Pluck's "Black-Eyed Susan" also served up a nasty little revenge tale that I liked a lot. Plus there was a standout story from Ron Earl Phillips called "The Janitor" about a cleaning service that handles messes most maids would never touch.
There's really no bad story in the bunch, but not all of them are as memorable as the ones mentioned. If you want to dip your toes in the grittier side of crime fiction with some up-and-coming authors, you really can't go wrong with this anthology. And there's a second one already released by Beat to a Pulp Press that I downloaded recently, which I'll have to get to in quicker fashion than I did with this one. I have a hunch it's as good or better than this one.
September 26, 2014
This compilation brings together a varied group of writers to explorer the noir genre. There's a slew of gun men, victims and femme fatales, all of them inhabiting a downbeat shadowy Americana. Thirteen writers showcase their talents in these short stories where anything can happen in a heartbeat. Here's just a glimpse of what to expect:
A Small Thing At The Devil's Punchbowl - Kent Gowran
A man goes searching for a mother's missing son but finds some weird voodoo magic instead.
Bull's Eye View - Wayne D. Dundee
A sleepy lake town is disturbed by a mysterious hit man, then all hell breaks lose and sides change in the blink on an eye.
Obstruction - Glenn Gray
An autopsy goes badly wrong when crime doesn't just stop when the corpse stops breathing.
The Death Fantastique - John Hornor Jacobs
A small time crook babysits a stash but local trouble makes for one hell of a quiet stop off.
Black-Eyed Susan - Thomas Pluck
Where a bartender serves more than just cold beer to some local boys who pick the wrong girl to tussle with.
The Janitor - Ron Earl Phillips
A man goes looking for his work buddy and heaven help anyone who gets in the way of The Cleaner.
To sum up if you like your noir hardboiled and straight up then this is the compilation for you.
A Small Thing At The Devil's Punchbowl - Kent Gowran
A man goes searching for a mother's missing son but finds some weird voodoo magic instead.
Bull's Eye View - Wayne D. Dundee
A sleepy lake town is disturbed by a mysterious hit man, then all hell breaks lose and sides change in the blink on an eye.
Obstruction - Glenn Gray
An autopsy goes badly wrong when crime doesn't just stop when the corpse stops breathing.
The Death Fantastique - John Hornor Jacobs
A small time crook babysits a stash but local trouble makes for one hell of a quiet stop off.
Black-Eyed Susan - Thomas Pluck
Where a bartender serves more than just cold beer to some local boys who pick the wrong girl to tussle with.
The Janitor - Ron Earl Phillips
A man goes looking for his work buddy and heaven help anyone who gets in the way of The Cleaner.
To sum up if you like your noir hardboiled and straight up then this is the compilation for you.
July 19, 2013
A good variety of modern hard-boiled with some more to my taste than others. Considering the price I paid on Kindle for this I would have been satisfied with just one good story, but there were several real stars in my opinion, especially the work of Garnett Elliott and James Horner Jacobs.
A perfect reinvention of good ol' pulp, with some great and some average but overall well worth a read.
A perfect reinvention of good ol' pulp, with some great and some average but overall well worth a read.
July 25, 2019
There’s a great collection of hard boiled short stories here. All are worth reading, and the length of each story makes this great for picking up and putting down.
Discovered some new authors who I would be interested in reading more from, and there is also a nice introduction explaining what is a “hard boiled” story.
In summary; a great read and I plan to read the other short story collections in this series.
Discovered some new authors who I would be interested in reading more from, and there is also a nice introduction explaining what is a “hard boiled” story.
In summary; a great read and I plan to read the other short story collections in this series.
March 22, 2013
A thoroughly engaging set of 13 short stories edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker, introduced with an excellent essay by Ron Scheer that delves into the development and definition of hardboiled fiction.
These are all modern day stories so don't open the first page expecting Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe. Most of the stories here are very good with several outstanding ones, and not a stinker in the bunch. I still consider myself a neophyte when it comes to hard boiled fiction so all of the authors were new to me; I'm very happy to have "discovered" these collections.
These are all modern day stories so don't open the first page expecting Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe. Most of the stories here are very good with several outstanding ones, and not a stinker in the bunch. I still consider myself a neophyte when it comes to hard boiled fiction so all of the authors were new to me; I'm very happy to have "discovered" these collections.
January 25, 2013
A great collection. Most of the writers featured are tried-and-true, but quite a few were new to me. I intend to look for more of their work. Stand-out stories by Kieran Shea, David Cramner (also the co-editor), Patricia Abbott (who never fails), John Hornor Jacobs, and Thomas Pluck. Also features a brilliant intro by Ron Scheer (and yeah, Mr. Scheer slams G.W. Bush, deal with it).
March 17, 2012
This is top shelf crime fiction by some of the best in the genre. Featuring stories by John Hornor Jacobs, Patricia Abbot, David Cranmer, Wayne D. Dundee and many others. This is the hard stuff. I highly suggest reading it if you are a fan of hardboiled crime or just crime fiction in general.
December 8, 2012
This is a great collection of horror and crime stories. Some are hardboiled and vicious to the point where even the seasoned crime reader I am, found myself flinching from time to time.
And that's the point to the collection: mean little vignettes. Well done!
And that's the point to the collection: mean little vignettes. Well done!
Want to read
January 29, 2012Added to the read stack on basis of Pulp Fiction Group Moderator Knowledge Lost.
January 12, 2016
The stories are very gritty and very unique from each other. You probably don't want to read these just before bed :)
April 6, 2013
Great little read, one or two stories in particular. Well worth a pickup/download.
January 27, 2016
Grade: 72% / 'C'
October 17, 2014
It was ok. The stories were really, really short. Some were interesting.
August 13, 2012
7,5/10
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews