Naughty

by Monte Schulz

Veteran Joe Krueger is drifting in 1950s California, looking for work wherever he can find it. Tired after a long drive, he stops at a boardinghouse and meets sweet -- and sexy -- Ida, who rents him a room. That very night, Ida tells him "Mother" and "Father" have run their auto over a cliff, then seduces him in the teary aftermath. Smitten now, Joe starts helping out around the boardinghouse, and the two marry. The honeymoon is over when a shocking series of events force the Kruegers down to San Francisco, where Ida is injured in a bus accident. Soon enough, insurance investigators have chased them out of the city to another town where Ida schemes to swindle a motel owner out of her property. Next, the motel owner and her crippled husband are missing, a water softener salesman is shot, and workmen are digging holes in Joe Krueger's basement. Schulz shifts gears from his recent Jazz Age Trilogy, combining the exquisitely wrought language of those novels and a straight-for-the-throat pulpy narrative. Imagine the pathology laid bare in Don DeLillo's Libra fused with the sordid and desperate criminality of Jim Thompson's The Getaway, and the black humor of Bruce Jay Friedman. Based on the true story of Iva Kroeger and her husband Ralph, who were indicted for the murders of Mildred and Jay Arneson in 1962, Naughty culminates in a trial: Ida, whose crimes have (only just) begun to catch up to her, is at her zenith, pleading insanity and playing the part to the hilt. The reader learns Joe's and Ida's fates via excerpts from authentic court documents. Naughty explores exactly what happens when "a swell-looking babe" is unleashed on real life, leaving marks, patsies, and bodies in her wake.

300 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2013

Reviews

[Tori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who was ida?! I knew something was up with her!! I just wish Joe saw it. Their first encounter, made me suspicious. Poor Joe.

Then they meet the one couple!! He watches his wife have sex with the other husband. Stupid Joe.

Glad Joe hit the road at the end. How did she get out?! Who in their right mind would let her out??

She did anything to get her hands on money. Ida owed so many people in the end.

Great book. Glad I picked it up!!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ida definitely fit the description of the old saying "If looks could kill..." She was gorgeous and very smart, but her good qualities turned into malevolence when anything got in her way.

Here we have Joe Krueger, a veteran and everyday guy looking for work wherever he can find it After meeting and becoming enraptured with Ida, people want to be happy for him when he eventually marries her.

But when a wild couple meets and "befriends" them, that's when trouble starts. Joe catches Ida having sex with the woman's husband all the while trying to fight off the woman's overly flirtatious behavior. He doesn't even consider filing for divorce right then and there! Stupid Joe!

And poor Joe very gradually realized just how malevolent Ida could be after police officers had discovered 2 bodies buried in the basement!

Why was Ida allowed to be released from prison??? She owed so many people huge amounts of money, manipulated total strangers, shot a woker who had put in a water softener, and even committed murder!!!

Well, despite having to serve time in prison due to mostly Ida's malevolence, at least Joe was lucky to be given a chance to start life over. Good on him!

This book kept me guessing on how Ida's malevolent behavior was going to catch up with her. I couldn't wait to find out. But the reason why I only gave it a 4-star rating was because it has very graphic descriptions of sexual activity in it. Definitely wasn't necessary.

[Lorelei Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. The beginning, introducing Joe, our everyman, is master writing from the first. And when he meets Ida, we're happy for him. Here is love for a lonely man. And then slowly, slowly it turns, and just like Joe we make excuses for the strange darkness that creeps into the story. Are they both victims, or is it flowing from her? We don't want to make that call any more than Joe does. He loves Ida, we want him to have some success. As he gets swept up so do we, and this book becomes one of those rare stories where we are fooled as thoroughly as our main character. The pace is terrific, the quality of the writing never lets up, the surprises keep coming. The court reporting is shaped to match the rest, never slowing down or telling us what we already know in the way we know it. And the ending is beautiful right down to the last moment, which I won't give away. Read it!

[August Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monte Schulz's Naughty has all the elements of classic noir - a woman who can wrap men around her finger, a man out of his element willing to compromise himself for sex, and the inevitable consequences of the collisions between them. Fans of James M. Cain will feel right at home in Schulz's post-World War 2 world, both rooting for Joe to run as far and as fast as he can, and daring him to stick around to see the end, no matter what loving Ida costs him.