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Take Me As I Am
TAKE ME AS I AM
They pulled off the heist, but now Monk has to lay low. So he hands off the bag full of money to Alma and tells her to head west. She’s supposed to get in touch with Gramma, and turn the bag over to him. But Alma knows the cops are going to stop her along the way, so she picks up a young hitchhiker to act as a cover. And then the rendezvous with Gramma turns sour.
Bill is on his way to California. The last thing he expects is to be picked up by a pretty single woman. But when she offers to give him a ride all the way to Sacramento, he figures his luck has turned. Alma is a little older than she is, but she seems to like his company. How could he know that he is now on the run with her from both the cops and Gramma’s gang... and Monk.
They pulled off the heist, but now Monk has to lay low. So he hands off the bag full of money to Alma and tells her to head west. She’s supposed to get in touch with Gramma, and turn the bag over to him. But Alma knows the cops are going to stop her along the way, so she picks up a young hitchhiker to act as a cover. And then the rendezvous with Gramma turns sour.
Bill is on his way to California. The last thing he expects is to be picked up by a pretty single woman. But when she offers to give him a ride all the way to Sacramento, he figures his luck has turned. Alma is a little older than she is, but she seems to like his company. How could he know that he is now on the run with her from both the cops and Gramma’s gang... and Monk.
- GenresCrime
199 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 4, 2023
3 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
Darwin Teilhet
29 books1 followerDarwin LeOra Teilhet and Hildegarde Teilhet were American authors who worked separately as well as together. After producing several detective novels in the first part of their career they moved on to spy fiction.
Novels were published by Darwin Tielhet, Darwin L. Teilhet, Darwin and Hildegarde Teilhet or his pseudonyms, Cyrus Fisher (juvenile fiction), William H. Fielding and Theo Durant.
Novels were published by Darwin Tielhet, Darwin L. Teilhet, Darwin and Hildegarde Teilhet or his pseudonyms, Cyrus Fisher (juvenile fiction), William H. Fielding and Theo Durant.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 27, 2025
Darwin Teilhet wrote three books under the pen name William H. Fielding, The Unpossessed (1951), Take Me as I Am (1952), and Beautiful Humbug (1954). He wrote 22 novels under his own name. Take Me As I Am is a top-notch crime fiction tale which begins as a caper novel of the type Lionel White and later Richard Stark (Don Westlake) would write. The caper involves a carefully-planned heist of an armored car rumoured to be carrying more than half a million in cash. The caper has been planned down to the last detail and Teilhet does an excellent job of putting the reader in the thick of it, parsing out the action blow-by-blow as Monk and his accomplices take on the unsuspecting guards and make off with quite a bit cash less than expected. But, of course, as all caper novels go, there are some problems. After all, it wouldn’t necessarily be much of a story if the whole thing went off without a hitch, would it
What Teilhet does cleverly here is that he jumps from making Monk the centerpiece of his story to making blonde bimbo Alma the central character. Her role in the caper is simply to take the handoff of the goods and appear to be an innocent young college girl out for a Sunday drive. That way Monk and the others could be stopped but they would have nothing on them to tie them to the robbery. We do not get much background on Alma, just that her first young love was a neighbor boy Dale who her mother took out with a shotgun when they were in a delicate position.
Alma though is quick thinking in this situation and decides when she sees Bill Evans hitchhiking down the highway that she would appear even more innocent with this young kid with her. No one would be on the lookout for a pair of young lovers on the road, would they? Bill is as innocent and guileless as they come as Alma does not even give him a clue what is going on or that she is on the run from the law and the mob. Nevertheless, he suspects not all is right in the world as he sees blonde girls sort of resembling Alma being taken off the board along the way and she foolishly directs him to the wrong clothing store.
The story of their cross-country journey with neither knowing much about the other and Bill having not much of a clue about anything continues with the story finally turning to the question of whether Alma wants the money or Bill.
This is terrific short paperback with action filling it from cover to cover.
What Teilhet does cleverly here is that he jumps from making Monk the centerpiece of his story to making blonde bimbo Alma the central character. Her role in the caper is simply to take the handoff of the goods and appear to be an innocent young college girl out for a Sunday drive. That way Monk and the others could be stopped but they would have nothing on them to tie them to the robbery. We do not get much background on Alma, just that her first young love was a neighbor boy Dale who her mother took out with a shotgun when they were in a delicate position.
Alma though is quick thinking in this situation and decides when she sees Bill Evans hitchhiking down the highway that she would appear even more innocent with this young kid with her. No one would be on the lookout for a pair of young lovers on the road, would they? Bill is as innocent and guileless as they come as Alma does not even give him a clue what is going on or that she is on the run from the law and the mob. Nevertheless, he suspects not all is right in the world as he sees blonde girls sort of resembling Alma being taken off the board along the way and she foolishly directs him to the wrong clothing store.
The story of their cross-country journey with neither knowing much about the other and Bill having not much of a clue about anything continues with the story finally turning to the question of whether Alma wants the money or Bill.
This is terrific short paperback with action filling it from cover to cover.
January 25, 2025
Actually fairly good, though dated. Certainly better than a lot of the far more popular pulp fiction that is read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews