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Fifty-to-One
When he releases a supposedly nonfiction account of a heist at a Mob-run nightclub, which had actually been written by an eighteen-year-old showgirl, a shady book publisher and his protégé discover that living a pulp fiction novel is much more dangerous than writing them. Original.
333 pages, Paperback
First published November 25, 2008
23 people are currently reading
690 people want to read
About the author
Charles Ardai
76 books110 followersCharles Ardai is a founder of Hard Case Crime, a pulp crime novel publisher, as well as an editor and author. In 1991 he received the Pearlman Prize for his fiction. He also writes under the pen name Richard Aleas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
March 30, 2011
Tricia Heverstadt comes to the Big Apple all the way from South Dakota with very little money to make it big, just like her sister Coral. When she gets there, Coral turns her out and Tricia gets bilked out of all her money. Out of desperation, she takes two jobs, one as a dancer at a nightclub owned by a gangster, and another working for Hard Case Crime Books. She writes a crime novel but a lot of people seem to think it's a true story because the plot mirrors a heist that was pulled on Uncle Nick, the gangster she works for. South Dakota doesn't look so bad now, does it, Tricia?
Fifty-To-One is a lot of fun. Each chapter is named after one of the first fifty Hard Case books. Charley Borden, the Hard Case owner in the tale, is delightfully sleazy. Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake are characters in the story. Tricia goes from one predicament to another, all the while looking for the money everyone thinks she has.
I guessed who stole the money about halfway through but it was a wild guess on my part. Still, the ending made smile and hungry for more Hard Case.
Fifty-To-One is a lot of fun. Each chapter is named after one of the first fifty Hard Case books. Charley Borden, the Hard Case owner in the tale, is delightfully sleazy. Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake are characters in the story. Tricia goes from one predicament to another, all the while looking for the money everyone thinks she has.
I guessed who stole the money about halfway through but it was a wild guess on my part. Still, the ending made smile and hungry for more Hard Case.
May 19, 2017
Ardai focuses on a young, innocent small-town hick as his protagonist. This young innocent hick comes to big bad New York City and encounters strippers and mobsters and, with the entire city seemingly against this protagonist, solves a deepening mystery.
This book (Fifty To One) opens with Patricia Heverstadt arriving from
South Dakota with two suitcases and a typewriter out to follow her
older sister's footsteps in New York City. Of course, her sister tells her
to go home and, within moments of arriving, she is conned out of most
of her funds by some sharp talking New Yorker. She, still carrying her
bags, follows the address on the business card left her by the con
artist to an office building where she auditions for a dancing part.
Having no money left, she asks the producers for an advance and they
give her a place to stay in the "Chateau," which turns out to be a
converted office next door with bunks for a dozen would-be starlets.
Trixie, as she now calls herself, finds no other than her con man on the
same floor and he is none other than "Charlie" who is running a new
publishing house, Hard Case Crime and is also running from a beating
by none other than Mickey Spillane. Could "Charlie" be an alter ego for
Charles Ardai? Hard to tell.
In addition to her dancing career (at a club run by mobsters, of
course), it seems Trixie is an aspiring novelist who writes a novel
(using the pen name "anonymous") telling the story about a how a
famous mobster is robbed of $3 million. Since truth is always stranger
than fiction, it turns out that the mobster was actually robbed of $3
million and, of course, Trixie is the prime suspect since she bragged
about it in her book.
With that as a backdrop, Ardai takes the reader on a journey through
late fifties New York and pits Trixie and Charlie against a mobster
determined to get his money back.
Ardai had a little fun with this one, throwing in odd bits of parody
throughout the book. He also named each chapter after a Hard Case
Crime book. The title refers not just to the book's number within the
ranks of Hard Case publishing history, but also to a card game that a
mobster likes to play. One card is removed from the deck and the odds
are fifty-to-one that the player can now guess the top card. Guess it and maybe you live a little longer. Fail to guess it and there might be a
new bullet hole in your chest.
It's a great fun novel to read in and of itself and the bits of parody that
Ardai throws in actually do not take away from the finished product. I
really enjoyed reading this one
This book (Fifty To One) opens with Patricia Heverstadt arriving from
South Dakota with two suitcases and a typewriter out to follow her
older sister's footsteps in New York City. Of course, her sister tells her
to go home and, within moments of arriving, she is conned out of most
of her funds by some sharp talking New Yorker. She, still carrying her
bags, follows the address on the business card left her by the con
artist to an office building where she auditions for a dancing part.
Having no money left, she asks the producers for an advance and they
give her a place to stay in the "Chateau," which turns out to be a
converted office next door with bunks for a dozen would-be starlets.
Trixie, as she now calls herself, finds no other than her con man on the
same floor and he is none other than "Charlie" who is running a new
publishing house, Hard Case Crime and is also running from a beating
by none other than Mickey Spillane. Could "Charlie" be an alter ego for
Charles Ardai? Hard to tell.
In addition to her dancing career (at a club run by mobsters, of
course), it seems Trixie is an aspiring novelist who writes a novel
(using the pen name "anonymous") telling the story about a how a
famous mobster is robbed of $3 million. Since truth is always stranger
than fiction, it turns out that the mobster was actually robbed of $3
million and, of course, Trixie is the prime suspect since she bragged
about it in her book.
With that as a backdrop, Ardai takes the reader on a journey through
late fifties New York and pits Trixie and Charlie against a mobster
determined to get his money back.
Ardai had a little fun with this one, throwing in odd bits of parody
throughout the book. He also named each chapter after a Hard Case
Crime book. The title refers not just to the book's number within the
ranks of Hard Case publishing history, but also to a card game that a
mobster likes to play. One card is removed from the deck and the odds
are fifty-to-one that the player can now guess the top card. Guess it and maybe you live a little longer. Fail to guess it and there might be a
new bullet hole in your chest.
It's a great fun novel to read in and of itself and the bits of parody that
Ardai throws in actually do not take away from the finished product. I
really enjoyed reading this one
December 29, 2008
By far the best of the Hard Case originals since the series kicked off several years ago with Fade to Blonde. This is cheeky, self-referential fun, celebrating both the disposable paperback culture to which HCC is a living tribute and the imprint's own history (exaggerated here to fifty years; in reality it's five). You can tell Ardai had a good time constructing this book: as opposed to some of its more recent original titles (i.e. The Max), the attitude is put in service of the imagination. He manages to work in references to HCC's previous fifty entries in a story of stolen loot that somehow seems like something E. Stanley Gardner could have tossed off while cleaning between his toes (and that's a compliment; most of ESG's good stuff came to him that way). The characters are amalgamations of every B-movie cliche you can list, but that's the point: there are the guys and the dolls, the gangsters and their molls, but most of all there is a spirit that's congruent to the original. Several recent HCC titles (Gun Work in addition to The Max) have tried to graft a hyperkinetic sensibility to the pulp mindset. Not being much of a splatterpunker, I wasn't all that excited---tastes are tastes, but I think part of the fun of paperbacks in the 50s that, while they were a quick read, they still required a plot and a characters you gave a crap about, and not strings of scenes in which led and the C-word fly with equal ferocity. That said, I've always admired the way HCC has avoided the other pitfall of the retro- biz, which is to get too academicky about celebrating junk culture. Too often in our entertainment (at least until Depression II) millions of dollars are spent recreating schlock: there is no earthly reason the GNP of a small Third-World country should be spent on a boring remake of The Day the Earth Stood More Still than the Expression on Keneau Reeve's Face when the whole point of Klaatu's First Coming is that the good folks at 20-C-Fox could pop it off in 1951 for relatively cheap, slam it in theaters with the prints still wet, and double their investment in time for a Cuban vacation with a mistress or two. Too often the postmodern appropriation of pop-cult forms proves nothing more than postmodern appropriation's ability to make authentically cheesy revelry feel labored and rigor mortisy (never mind the stinky condescension it often exudes as well). As an editor, Ardai has managed to skip all the knob-slobbing self-congratulation that usually accompanies homage. As a writer, he has here laid out a cleverly intricate labyrinth of a comic mystery whose left turns are not visible from three chapters up the road. Yes, there's a lot of that intertextuality business, but it doesn't scream, Yo, mofo, in case you ain't noticed, I'm being interextual on you. And for that, I'm grateful.
December 6, 2008
Well let me start by saying this is a gimmick book--the 50th title published by Hard Case Crime--the conceit is that the company started 50 years ago (not 50 books ago) and that each of the 50 chapter titles is a title (in publishing order) of one of their 50 books. The plot is convoluted, unpredicatble, meandering, maddening, and so much fun. In lesser hands this would have been all "stuff," but Charles Ardai (who is one of the Hard Case founders, and appears in modified form as one of the characters in the book, and who also writes under the nom de plume of Charles Aleas) is a master at hard-boiled prose, so as stupid as the plot sometimes becomes there are redeeming virtues in his descriptions of New York ca. 1958, and in his handling of action. It certainly helps to be in on the joke, but this stands alone as a grand entertainment, as well. Well worth any mystery fan's money and time.
October 26, 2011
In an ode to the dime-store era paperbacks, Ardai crafts an intelligent pulp masterpiece while simultaneously saluting his very own Hardcase Crime. 'Fifty-To-One' celebrates the first 50 books from Hardcase Crime with each chapter the title of one of the corresponding published books. What makes this work is the intricately woven tale of a young woman's journey from innocent farm life to big city indecency and seemingly innocuous encounter with a certain devious publisher out for a quick buck. Before long, Tricia is writing a mob heist and on her way to a steady pay check, that is, until fiction turns fact and the mob come looking for answers after loosing a cool 3mil in the exact fashion as described in Tricia's book. At heart, 'Fifty-To-One' is a classic example of the murder mystery whodunit caper with everyday characters acting out believable scenes and getting themselves in and out of interesting situations. For the book worms out there, Ardai has loaded up on Easter eggs so keep an eye out for famous author and book references. This is a testament to the Hardcase Crime legacy worthy of all applause and notoriety its received - 4 stars.
April 29, 2022
Not only is this an incredibly entertaining Pulp mystery, it’s also a terrific send up of many of the tropes of the genre. Written to celebrate being the Fiftieth book published by Hard Case Crime (of which Charles Ardai is a co-founder and editor), it is a celebration of the genre the company exists to publish and has Easter eggs for the previous books under it’s publishing banner.
You can read it without knowing the other books, easily. But the satisfaction of knowing the titles of the other books worked masterfully into the story was a delight.
An incredible read. Worth the time and dime.
You can read it without knowing the other books, easily. But the satisfaction of knowing the titles of the other books worked masterfully into the story was a delight.
An incredible read. Worth the time and dime.
September 23, 2008
If I were the type who only gave books five-star ratings when they were obvious classics of English literature, I'd give this book maybe three stars at the most. Thankfully, I'm not that type. I'm giving this book five stars, and that's because it was a tremendous joy to read from the first page to the last. There's a bit of a gimmick to it--in this, the 50th book released by Hard Case Crime, publisher Charles Ardai writes a book about Hard Case Crime if it existed 50 years ago, and titles each chapter after one of the 50 books Hard Case Crime has published. In fact, he even titles the chapters in chronological publishing order. In order to pull off this trick, he had to find a way to fit titles like Zero Cool and The Murderer Vine into the flow of the story he'd constructed, and it speaks volumes for Ardai's talent that he was able to do this seamlessly, in a way that never distracted one iota from the story itself. After seeing how well he pulled off this somewhat gimmicky concept, and made it work just as well as any other Hard Case Crime title that he's released, I'm anxious to check out more of Ardai's work (he's released two Hard Case Crime novels under the name Richard Aleas).
The book itself is a story about Tricia, a girl who comes to New York City from her small-town home in South Dakota, and finds herself with no job, no money and no place to stay. She falls in with a troupe of dancing girls and a disreputable pulp paperback publisher, Charley Borden, almost by accident. Her job as a dancer has her working at a mob-run nightclub (and telling everyone her name is Trixie), and Borden gets her to hunt for a loose-lipped mobster who is willing to tell his life story to her, have it fictionalized, and turn it into a cheap paperback. One of his competitors is making plenty of money off another cheap mob memoir, and Borden wants a slice of that pie. Tricia makes a game effort to find such a character, but soon despairs, and instead decides to pen a completely fictional account and pass it off to Borden as a memoir. After all, he's offered her $500 for such a manuscript, and she could use the cash. When Borden publishes the book, though, he and Tricia are in for an unpleasant surprise--a mobster has, in the last month, committed the exact robbery that Tricia described in her novel, and the mob are sure that Tricia and Borden know who and where he is.
Things take off from there at a breakneck clip, and they don't slow down until the novel reaches its end. No one is willing to believe Tricia's vehement assurances that she made the whole thing up, and soon she's caught between two rival mob factions, the police, and numerous other shady characters, all with their own agendas to pursue. All she wants to do is get all these people off her back, but it seems that, in order to do so, she, Borden, and Borden's secretary, Erin, are going to have to locate the missing money and get it back to the mob boss from whom it was stolen, before his patience runs out AND before the police catch up with them.
If that seems like a waste of a five-star rating to you, if you're the type who can't stand to read anything that hasn't been (and probably never will be) canonized, then you should probably give "Fifty To One" a miss. But if that sounds like your idea of cheap, pulpy fun, then you're going to be all over this book just like I was. Those of you in the latter category, preorder this now (I read an advance copy--its actual release date is 11/25), and those of you in the latter category... loosen up.
The book itself is a story about Tricia, a girl who comes to New York City from her small-town home in South Dakota, and finds herself with no job, no money and no place to stay. She falls in with a troupe of dancing girls and a disreputable pulp paperback publisher, Charley Borden, almost by accident. Her job as a dancer has her working at a mob-run nightclub (and telling everyone her name is Trixie), and Borden gets her to hunt for a loose-lipped mobster who is willing to tell his life story to her, have it fictionalized, and turn it into a cheap paperback. One of his competitors is making plenty of money off another cheap mob memoir, and Borden wants a slice of that pie. Tricia makes a game effort to find such a character, but soon despairs, and instead decides to pen a completely fictional account and pass it off to Borden as a memoir. After all, he's offered her $500 for such a manuscript, and she could use the cash. When Borden publishes the book, though, he and Tricia are in for an unpleasant surprise--a mobster has, in the last month, committed the exact robbery that Tricia described in her novel, and the mob are sure that Tricia and Borden know who and where he is.
Things take off from there at a breakneck clip, and they don't slow down until the novel reaches its end. No one is willing to believe Tricia's vehement assurances that she made the whole thing up, and soon she's caught between two rival mob factions, the police, and numerous other shady characters, all with their own agendas to pursue. All she wants to do is get all these people off her back, but it seems that, in order to do so, she, Borden, and Borden's secretary, Erin, are going to have to locate the missing money and get it back to the mob boss from whom it was stolen, before his patience runs out AND before the police catch up with them.
If that seems like a waste of a five-star rating to you, if you're the type who can't stand to read anything that hasn't been (and probably never will be) canonized, then you should probably give "Fifty To One" a miss. But if that sounds like your idea of cheap, pulpy fun, then you're going to be all over this book just like I was. Those of you in the latter category, preorder this now (I read an advance copy--its actual release date is 11/25), and those of you in the latter category... loosen up.
March 13, 2009
Disappointing. The book promises to satirize the cheapie pulp noir paperback phenomenon the way Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" satirized B movie exploitation movies, but by page 50 it turns into a tiresomely exhausting suspense tale that runs around like chicken with its head cut off, going nowhere.
May 12, 2009
I just can't say enough nice things about this clever, fast-paced novel from Hard Case Crime publisher Charles Ardai. The concept is irresistible: for the 50th Hard Case Crime publication, in honor of the fictional 50th year of Hard Case Crime, publisher Ardai wrote a novel set 50 years ago (in 1958 -- the book was published last year) where each of its 50 chapters is titled for one of Hard Case's books, in order of their publication. Clever, huh? Julio Cortazar would probably have approved.
But it's so much more than just clever, meta, and deconstructive -- it's a supremely entertaining pulp novel with vividly realized characters, an intoxicating narrative voice and plenty of satisfying twists and turns, not to mention action. Fifty-to-One is the story of a book that never was, the fictional story of a heist against a mob boss, made up by a dancer named Trixie and published as the true confessions of a thief. Problem is, the mob boss is convinced it isn't fiction, since he seems to be missing a few million bucks and some important documents. Unlike almost any other mystery I've ever read, this one actually had me surprised -- nay, shocked -- when The Big Reveal comes as to who stole the money. I felt like a dork for not seeing it coming, but that's how caught up I was in the narrative trickery. More importantly, I cared about the characters enough that at the end I actually gave a shit whodunnit -- actually pretty rare for me with a bona-fide mystery novel. In the meantime it's a fast-paced ride and filled with juicy period details and a plot that never slows down.
Ardai's two earlier novels, written as Richard Aleas, were absolutely brilliant but incredibly depressing. This novel retains some of the moral sensibilities that made Little Girl Lost and Songs of Innocence so intense, but in this case those sensibilities serve the purposes of the caper, rather than the roman noir. There's still plenty of dark alleys, bloodshed and tragedy, but Fifty-to-One left me feeling invigorated, rather than contemplative.
After reading more than a dozen books in the Hard Case Crime line, I have to say I think this one's my favorite -- beating out even Lawrence Block's classic Grifter's Game (aka "Mona"), Ed McBain's powerful The Gutter and the Grave, and David Dodge's "yarn" Plunder of the Sun, all of which I adored. Don't miss it.
But it's so much more than just clever, meta, and deconstructive -- it's a supremely entertaining pulp novel with vividly realized characters, an intoxicating narrative voice and plenty of satisfying twists and turns, not to mention action. Fifty-to-One is the story of a book that never was, the fictional story of a heist against a mob boss, made up by a dancer named Trixie and published as the true confessions of a thief. Problem is, the mob boss is convinced it isn't fiction, since he seems to be missing a few million bucks and some important documents. Unlike almost any other mystery I've ever read, this one actually had me surprised -- nay, shocked -- when The Big Reveal comes as to who stole the money. I felt like a dork for not seeing it coming, but that's how caught up I was in the narrative trickery. More importantly, I cared about the characters enough that at the end I actually gave a shit whodunnit -- actually pretty rare for me with a bona-fide mystery novel. In the meantime it's a fast-paced ride and filled with juicy period details and a plot that never slows down.
Ardai's two earlier novels, written as Richard Aleas, were absolutely brilliant but incredibly depressing. This novel retains some of the moral sensibilities that made Little Girl Lost and Songs of Innocence so intense, but in this case those sensibilities serve the purposes of the caper, rather than the roman noir. There's still plenty of dark alleys, bloodshed and tragedy, but Fifty-to-One left me feeling invigorated, rather than contemplative.
After reading more than a dozen books in the Hard Case Crime line, I have to say I think this one's my favorite -- beating out even Lawrence Block's classic Grifter's Game (aka "Mona"), Ed McBain's powerful The Gutter and the Grave, and David Dodge's "yarn" Plunder of the Sun, all of which I adored. Don't miss it.
December 26, 2019
Trixie is an 18-year old farm girl from South Dakota who arrives in New York City in 1958 looking to follow in her big sister's footsteps and find a more exciting life in a big city. She lands a job dancing at The Sun nightclub, which is allegedly owned by a mobster. On the side, she pens a fictional book for the newly launched Hard Case Crime line of pulp paperbacks, all about how the nightclub is robbed of $3 million .
But after an enterprising, shady editor publishes her book as nonfiction, both the mob and the police come after her. Someone read her manuscript in advance, and then used it as a blueprint to pull off the heist in real life!
This was Hard Case Crime's 50th book, written by its founder and chief editor, and structured around a clever marketing gimmick, but it never really manages to rise to a level of quality to stand by itself.
The idea was to imagine HCC was actually fifty years old (the fictional Charley Bordan, a stand-in for Charles Ardai, is a fun scoundrel without any sense of ethics) and create a crime story in a classic pulp style with each chapter bearing the name of HCC's books in order of publication.
The novel manages to successfully ape a convincing 1950's style, perhaps not of a great noir novel like Grifter's Game or Fright, but more in line with the tone of Kill Now, Pay Later. The author also weaves fun cameos into the story. Mickey Spillane makes an appearance in a fight scene. Young versions of Lawrence Block and Don Westlake show up.
Some of the book/chapter names fit smoothly. "Plunder of the Sun" tells about the heist at the club. "Fade to Blonde" is about how Trixie changes her appearance when she goes on the run. Other times, the author has to resort to groan-inducing techniques such as "The Vengeful Virgin" (Trixie gets mad at Charley and plays a trick on him) and "Night Walker" (Trixie walks through Brooklyn at night planning her next move). Often, he just has to give the characters unusual names: A boxer fights under the moniker of Colorado Kid. There are racehorses named Spiderweb and Shooting Star.
Ultimately, this book has to meander all over the place in order to create enough scenarios to make the titles fit. The premise was over-the-top to begin with, and it gets increasingly ridiculous the longer it goes on. The novelty wears thin quickly, and the characters are not believable enough to make up for it.
The ending was clever enough, but it was also too easy to see coming.
The biggest problem was that nearly every chapter title reminded me of another book better than the one I was reading.
Skip this one.
But after an enterprising, shady editor publishes her book as nonfiction, both the mob and the police come after her. Someone read her manuscript in advance, and then used it as a blueprint to pull off the heist in real life!
This was Hard Case Crime's 50th book, written by its founder and chief editor, and structured around a clever marketing gimmick, but it never really manages to rise to a level of quality to stand by itself.
The idea was to imagine HCC was actually fifty years old (the fictional Charley Bordan, a stand-in for Charles Ardai, is a fun scoundrel without any sense of ethics) and create a crime story in a classic pulp style with each chapter bearing the name of HCC's books in order of publication.
The novel manages to successfully ape a convincing 1950's style, perhaps not of a great noir novel like Grifter's Game or Fright, but more in line with the tone of Kill Now, Pay Later. The author also weaves fun cameos into the story. Mickey Spillane makes an appearance in a fight scene. Young versions of Lawrence Block and Don Westlake show up.
Some of the book/chapter names fit smoothly. "Plunder of the Sun" tells about the heist at the club. "Fade to Blonde" is about how Trixie changes her appearance when she goes on the run. Other times, the author has to resort to groan-inducing techniques such as "The Vengeful Virgin" (Trixie gets mad at Charley and plays a trick on him) and "Night Walker" (Trixie walks through Brooklyn at night planning her next move). Often, he just has to give the characters unusual names: A boxer fights under the moniker of Colorado Kid. There are racehorses named Spiderweb and Shooting Star.
Ultimately, this book has to meander all over the place in order to create enough scenarios to make the titles fit. The premise was over-the-top to begin with, and it gets increasingly ridiculous the longer it goes on. The novelty wears thin quickly, and the characters are not believable enough to make up for it.
The ending was clever enough, but it was also too easy to see coming.
The biggest problem was that nearly every chapter title reminded me of another book better than the one I was reading.
Skip this one.
May 3, 2010
The fiftieth title from Hard Case Crime is self-indulgently amusing noir lite. Author/publisher Charles Ardai explains the impulse behind Fifty-to-One: "to write a 50th book that would commemorate the (fictitious) 50th anniversary of the founding of Hard Case Crime, set 50 years ago, and to tell the story in 50 chapters, with each chapter bearing the title of one of our 50 books, in their order of publication." What makes this a real challenge, of course, is that each chapter is connected in some to way its title, and Ardai can hardly be blamed for doing what he must with the plot to pull it off. One downside to this template is that Fifty-to-One's required 50 chapters result in 329 pages, which is about 100 pages longer than the book's backflipping gimmickry can hope to sustain. It's a good thing that Ardai got this out of this system now, rather than waiting for Hard Case Crime #100.
March 21, 2020
So, in honor of its 50th book, Hard Case Crime’s editor comes up with a genuinely quirky idea. We’ll pretend we are honoring this line’s 50th anniversary. And we’ll have a rip snorting paperback original sort of story all about how Hard Case Crime got going, starring a shady publisher and a hot innocent girl from the Dakotas who writes a purportedly true book on how a mobster got robbed. And the title of each chapter will be the name of each Hard Case Crime published up to 2008.
The result, pretty much dictated by using the chapter title approach, is kind of random, shaggy dog thing which has our intrepid heroine and her shady publisher running around New York, being chased by cops and mobsters. The tone is light and jokey, not quite Shell Scott, but far from David Goodis and Jim Thompson. The 50 chapters makes it too long.
More fun for the writer than the reader, I am afraid.
The result, pretty much dictated by using the chapter title approach, is kind of random, shaggy dog thing which has our intrepid heroine and her shady publisher running around New York, being chased by cops and mobsters. The tone is light and jokey, not quite Shell Scott, but far from David Goodis and Jim Thompson. The 50 chapters makes it too long.
More fun for the writer than the reader, I am afraid.
June 29, 2014
I shouldn't say anything negative about this special issue. It is Ardai's love letter to his 10+ years ongoing project and to pulp novels in general. I had immense pleasure in discovering cleverly disguised characters from previous books and HCC inside jokes (like where do unusually long feet on some covers come from). It brought back so many pleasant memories and - when checking out the gallery of covers - I was surprised that I've actually read just 25 of those first 50 books. Which is good as it leaves me lots of great stuff in the future.
More here (review includes spoilers!):
http://a60books.blogspot.ie/2013/06/f...
More here (review includes spoilers!):
http://a60books.blogspot.ie/2013/06/f...
December 17, 2021
What a way to celebrate the 50th publication!
February 8, 2020
A little too "cutesy" at times, I like my noir a little more, well, noirish. Wasn't a bad book overall, but it was hard to overlook how slow the main character was to realize who stole the money. I had it figured out in five minutes, and sure enough, I was right. She stumbled along in the dark while I waited for her to catch on, yet at other times she seemed intelligent and resourceful. I dont' know. Worth reading, I guess, but I won't go out of my way to find more books by this author.
May 14, 2014
Published in 2008, Fifty-to-One is the fiftieth volume issued in the Hard Case Crime series of detective and crime fiction books. Written by Charles Ardai, the cofounder of Hard Case Crime and a Shamus Award nominee under his pseudonym, Richard Aleas, the book was written to both serve as a celebration (at the time) of the 50 book achievement of their publishing house and also as a writing challenge for Ardai himself.
The idea behind Fifty-to-One was to write a cohesive, entertaining fifty chapter novel wherein each chapter was titled after the other books in the Hard Case Crime inventory, in the order they were published no less. As one can imagine, this made for an interesting writing exercise for Mr. Ardai as he had to write chapters either wholly involving or at least mentioning the ideas suggested by such title phrases as "Lemons Never Lie," "361," "Grifter's Game," "Branded Woman," "The Girl with the Long Green Heart," "The Vengeful Virgin," etc.
Having been a Hard Case Crime fan for some time and having read many of the first fifty books in their collection, for me half the fun of reading Fifty-to-One was getting to each new chapter, seeing the title, and then wondering where the story would go. I have to say it was definitely a fun ride. The plot, built around a small town girl getting mixed up in the robbery of a gangster during her first few months in New York City, is a bit of a roller coaster which twists and turns improbably at times but in an amusing and not unexpected way given the foreknowledge of the book's construction. Also, the reading experience is made even more fun by the tongue-in-cheek underlying plot premise that Hard Case Crime was founded not just fifty books ago (in the early 2000's), but back in the 1950's by a scrappy entrepeneur with a checkered past (the small town girl main character gets a job working for this shady avatar of Ardai himself). There are lots of self deprecating in-jokes about Ardai and fun is poked at other characters from other novels in the actual Hard Case Cime inventory. The book also contains appearances in character form by authors Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake (two real-life major contributors to Hard Case's current lineup of novels).
All in all it was a very fun read but I would only give it three stars from the point of view of a compelling plot and the ability to maintain suspense that I search for in good crime novels (the book is good, but the plot feels more like an old Goldie Hawn/Chevy Chase film than a hardboiled noir), but I gave it an extra fourth star out of the sheer accomplishment of stringing a good narrative together around a chain of 50 book titles. Also, especially given that consideration, Charles Ardai's writing in Fifty-to-One impressed me enough to want to seek out his other works to find out what he is capable of in a book written without a gimmicky foundation.
I recommend Fifty-to-One as a fun, entertaining read. Check it out, it certainly made me smile and I hope it does the same for you.
The idea behind Fifty-to-One was to write a cohesive, entertaining fifty chapter novel wherein each chapter was titled after the other books in the Hard Case Crime inventory, in the order they were published no less. As one can imagine, this made for an interesting writing exercise for Mr. Ardai as he had to write chapters either wholly involving or at least mentioning the ideas suggested by such title phrases as "Lemons Never Lie," "361," "Grifter's Game," "Branded Woman," "The Girl with the Long Green Heart," "The Vengeful Virgin," etc.
Having been a Hard Case Crime fan for some time and having read many of the first fifty books in their collection, for me half the fun of reading Fifty-to-One was getting to each new chapter, seeing the title, and then wondering where the story would go. I have to say it was definitely a fun ride. The plot, built around a small town girl getting mixed up in the robbery of a gangster during her first few months in New York City, is a bit of a roller coaster which twists and turns improbably at times but in an amusing and not unexpected way given the foreknowledge of the book's construction. Also, the reading experience is made even more fun by the tongue-in-cheek underlying plot premise that Hard Case Crime was founded not just fifty books ago (in the early 2000's), but back in the 1950's by a scrappy entrepeneur with a checkered past (the small town girl main character gets a job working for this shady avatar of Ardai himself). There are lots of self deprecating in-jokes about Ardai and fun is poked at other characters from other novels in the actual Hard Case Cime inventory. The book also contains appearances in character form by authors Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake (two real-life major contributors to Hard Case's current lineup of novels).
All in all it was a very fun read but I would only give it three stars from the point of view of a compelling plot and the ability to maintain suspense that I search for in good crime novels (the book is good, but the plot feels more like an old Goldie Hawn/Chevy Chase film than a hardboiled noir), but I gave it an extra fourth star out of the sheer accomplishment of stringing a good narrative together around a chain of 50 book titles. Also, especially given that consideration, Charles Ardai's writing in Fifty-to-One impressed me enough to want to seek out his other works to find out what he is capable of in a book written without a gimmicky foundation.
I recommend Fifty-to-One as a fun, entertaining read. Check it out, it certainly made me smile and I hope it does the same for you.
April 16, 2017
Though about forty-volumes shy of being a completist on the publication line they're celebrating here, I've been a fan of Hard Case Crime and their pulpy aesthetic since they debuted in 2004. Fifty-to-One, a tour de force in which the line's founder Charles Ardai spins a narrative in fifty chapters named after each of the company's publications (in order!), is a cheekily gleeful commemoration of their achievement of bringing pulp back to the shelves of bookstores and libraries everywhere.
The plot associated with this gimmick, perforce, is insanely convoluted: a South Dakotan girl moves to the Big Apple where she winds up dancing in a gangster's club and then using her experience to write a confessional novel about a fake robbery at said club. Unfortunately for her but luckily for readers, the robbery turns out not to be so fake after all, and glorious shenanigans ensue. As a bonus, the novel comes with an inset color section featuring all of the covers of the fifty titles, and an author's note from Ardai about the process of creating all this narrative chaos.
No one will ever chalk this up as a great mystery - if the reader manages to avoid being distracted by the non-stop action for about three seconds, it becomes obvious whodunnit - but it's such a giddy good time and so clearly a labor of love that you're unlikely to care. Fifty-to-One is a slyly fabulous celebration of Hard Case's achievements, and will likely turn me into a completist after all.
The plot associated with this gimmick, perforce, is insanely convoluted: a South Dakotan girl moves to the Big Apple where she winds up dancing in a gangster's club and then using her experience to write a confessional novel about a fake robbery at said club. Unfortunately for her but luckily for readers, the robbery turns out not to be so fake after all, and glorious shenanigans ensue. As a bonus, the novel comes with an inset color section featuring all of the covers of the fifty titles, and an author's note from Ardai about the process of creating all this narrative chaos.
No one will ever chalk this up as a great mystery - if the reader manages to avoid being distracted by the non-stop action for about three seconds, it becomes obvious whodunnit - but it's such a giddy good time and so clearly a labor of love that you're unlikely to care. Fifty-to-One is a slyly fabulous celebration of Hard Case's achievements, and will likely turn me into a completist after all.
December 13, 2008
Fitting its celebratory nature, Fifty-to-One is a lighter story than many of Hard Case Crime's books. It's a book with a lot of gimmicks--it posits the existence of Hard Case Crime as a paperback publisher 50 years ago; each of its fifty chapters is named after each of Hard Case Crime's first fifty books--but in spite of that, it's a good novel in its own right.
What really makes the book stand out is the delicate balance of tone. It's not a pitch-black noir novel, but it's not really a light-hearted romp, either. Nor is it a parody of its genre. Charles Ardai manages to capture just the right mix of humor and seriousness to make this novel feel like a celebration while still being an effective crime thriller.
Considering that the plot has to twist around to accomodate references to fifty other titles, it works surprisingly well without feeling contrived. Similarly, the characters feel well-fleshed out and likeable. While this isn't necessarily the book I'd pick to introduce someone to the crime noir genre, it's a lot of fun, and a good, solid read.
What really makes the book stand out is the delicate balance of tone. It's not a pitch-black noir novel, but it's not really a light-hearted romp, either. Nor is it a parody of its genre. Charles Ardai manages to capture just the right mix of humor and seriousness to make this novel feel like a celebration while still being an effective crime thriller.
Considering that the plot has to twist around to accomodate references to fifty other titles, it works surprisingly well without feeling contrived. Similarly, the characters feel well-fleshed out and likeable. While this isn't necessarily the book I'd pick to introduce someone to the crime noir genre, it's a lot of fun, and a good, solid read.
January 2, 2015
Probably the cleverest book I've ever read. Each chapter shares its title with one of Hard Case Crime's previous novels, in order of publication. Not only has Ardai made a story out of it, but he's made a very decent story out of it, and managed to throw in enough plot twists to keep the reader happy. For me, it's up there with Catch-22 for cleverness.
The author is one of the founders of Hard Case Crime, and the male lead is essentially based on himself. Ordinarily I don't like books where the author bases a character on themselves, but this one actually works purely because it's about a guy 50 years ago founding Hard Case Crime, so it really has to star Ardai. He doesn't make himself a likable character, nor does he make himself out to be a muscle-ripping ladies man (like Howard did with Conan, along with hundreds of other authors). Fortunately the main lead is female, and an extremely well-rounded character as well.
The cover is by Glenn Orbik, and rounds the book off by being what I believe is the finest cover for Hard Case Crime to date.
The author is one of the founders of Hard Case Crime, and the male lead is essentially based on himself. Ordinarily I don't like books where the author bases a character on themselves, but this one actually works purely because it's about a guy 50 years ago founding Hard Case Crime, so it really has to star Ardai. He doesn't make himself a likable character, nor does he make himself out to be a muscle-ripping ladies man (like Howard did with Conan, along with hundreds of other authors). Fortunately the main lead is female, and an extremely well-rounded character as well.
The cover is by Glenn Orbik, and rounds the book off by being what I believe is the finest cover for Hard Case Crime to date.
June 15, 2013
Here's the premise that got the book started, from the author's note: "Of course, in retrospect the concept was insane: to write a 50th book that would commemorate the (fictitious) 50th anniversary of the founding of Hard Case Crime, set 50 years ago, and to tell the story in 50 chapters, with each chapter bearing the title of one of our 50 books, in their order of publication."
The book is a mystery/pulp by Charles Ardai, who is the editor of the imprint and has previously written two superb books under the alias Richard Aleas.
This one is a fun romp. You can enjoy its cleverness as you look at the chapter titles, though the reviewer that I saw over on Amazon who claimed that they were never forced was incorrect. Still, it was a whimsical run through a 1950s world of gangsters, molls, down-on-their-luck girls, cheats, and liars. It was also a nice period piece.
But, unlike Ardai's other books, which haunt you, this one is pretty forgettable.
The book is a mystery/pulp by Charles Ardai, who is the editor of the imprint and has previously written two superb books under the alias Richard Aleas.
This one is a fun romp. You can enjoy its cleverness as you look at the chapter titles, though the reviewer that I saw over on Amazon who claimed that they were never forced was incorrect. Still, it was a whimsical run through a 1950s world of gangsters, molls, down-on-their-luck girls, cheats, and liars. It was also a nice period piece.
But, unlike Ardai's other books, which haunt you, this one is pretty forgettable.
December 19, 2008
Hard Case Crime's fiftieth publication is quite the gimmick. When the story involves a fictional owner of Hard Case Crime publications and a wide-eyed, new-to-New-York, South Dakota farmgirl named Trixie (Patricia), you know you're in for a great ride.
What's fascinating about this book is that they wrote this story so that there were fifty chapters, each chapter having the name of each of their 50 publications, in order. So, they had to create a storyline that pulled in elements of their previous titles (not the stories themselves). But this story line had to be consistent and entertaining. Plus, there's a clever little bit at the end with the male protagonist's name.
This is not high fiction, but that's not what Hard Case Crime publishes. This one was pure entertainment. My architectural appreciation of how the story was constructed was just a bonus.
What's fascinating about this book is that they wrote this story so that there were fifty chapters, each chapter having the name of each of their 50 publications, in order. So, they had to create a storyline that pulled in elements of their previous titles (not the stories themselves). But this story line had to be consistent and entertaining. Plus, there's a clever little bit at the end with the male protagonist's name.
This is not high fiction, but that's not what Hard Case Crime publishes. This one was pure entertainment. My architectural appreciation of how the story was constructed was just a bonus.
December 11, 2008
Commemorating the publishing of the fiftieth book published by Hard Case Crime, Charles Ardai crafts a classic mystery of the hard-boiled, film noir detective genre championed by Hard Case Crime. Rewriting Hard Case Crime to 50 years ago, Ardai populates his underside of New York with innocent dames, not-so innocent dames, a book publisher willing to do what it takes to make his business a success, a Sicilian Mafia Don, numerous mobsters, corrupt cops, and all the sorts of characters that populate these stories. You get a twisting, turning plot that keeps up the pace throughout the novel. Throw in cameos by two of Hard Case Crimes writers, Lawrence Block and Donald Hamilton and you have a great, exciting story of read.
July 27, 2009
The author is also the editor of the Hard Case Crime novel imprint, and he wrote a special novel to commemorate the 50th Hard Case book published. This story is set 50 years ago, with a fictional Hard Case Crime books company started back then. This is a clever fun book -- nothing provocative or edgy -- and can be enjoyed as pure escapism. In-jokes are everywhere, including a fictionalized bit role for a couple of well-known mystery writers. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the Hard Crime novels I've read, and I haven't thought so highly of an imprint since St. Martin published their "Mean Streets" series many years ago.
May 12, 2009
This is so much fun. I don't read much crime fiction and I don't think I have ever read any "pulp" paperbacks. However, I figured out that the Hard Crime books that Ardai publishes are an homage to the best of the crime novels of the 1950's.
And this book is the the homage of homages. Ardai has take the titles of the 49 books he published before this one and made them chapters in this book. Somehow he manages to use these titles to string together an amazing tale about Tricia, a small-town girl, Charley the publisher and a crime that Tricia thinks she has invented.
As I said, this was fun.
And this book is the the homage of homages. Ardai has take the titles of the 49 books he published before this one and made them chapters in this book. Somehow he manages to use these titles to string together an amazing tale about Tricia, a small-town girl, Charley the publisher and a crime that Tricia thinks she has invented.
As I said, this was fun.
February 16, 2015
7/10 (320 pages)
Finished 2/16/15
There's over a hundred books in the Hard Case Crime series, and Fifty to One was my first foray into the expanding list. Pulp crime is the name of the game, with this story set in 1958 New York, involving a girl from South Dakota looking to make it by who quickly gets involved in a web of crime and deceit. Those with a penchant for noir style novels will certainly dig Fifty To One, (and my guess would be many others in the Hard Case Crime series) although this one is far more lighthearted than your average hard boiled crime noir. Picked it up for 1.99 and Amazon, and at that price I wholeheartedly recommend.
Finished 2/16/15
There's over a hundred books in the Hard Case Crime series, and Fifty to One was my first foray into the expanding list. Pulp crime is the name of the game, with this story set in 1958 New York, involving a girl from South Dakota looking to make it by who quickly gets involved in a web of crime and deceit. Those with a penchant for noir style novels will certainly dig Fifty To One, (and my guess would be many others in the Hard Case Crime series) although this one is far more lighthearted than your average hard boiled crime noir. Picked it up for 1.99 and Amazon, and at that price I wholeheartedly recommend.
Read
August 4, 2010Yuk. I dislike stories that serve no purpose other than product promotion. The Hard Case series has undoubtably captured my interest and some of the reprints are great reads. This one is just a bit too cute for my tastes. Fifty-to-one references this as the 50th hard case release written especially for the series, there are 49 chapters, each one titled with the corresponding Hard Case release, one of the characters is the Hard Case crime book publisher hiding from a disgruntled writer etc etc etc. Just not my cup of tea. I'm all for humor, but not variety show level spoofs.
August 8, 2013
It was a very fun read. A tightly plotted 1950s suspense story or mobsters, showgirls, and pulp fiction writers. It's all spun around a fun little gimmick: imagine if this publisher (Hard Case Crime) really did exist and each of the 50 chapters is a title from the publisher.
It was a light and engrossing read that had you racing along to keep pace with what the character will do next and how they wil get out of the next jam as they try to figure out who robbed a mob boss and not get killed.
It was a light and engrossing read that had you racing along to keep pace with what the character will do next and how they wil get out of the next jam as they try to figure out who robbed a mob boss and not get killed.
February 14, 2012
From the hard case crime imprint, a kind of tongue in cheek noir with some good noir about a young women from Aberdeen south Dakota who moves to nyc when she is 18 and becomes a dancer and novelist. Not the best of the hard case crime's titles, a bit too "funny" for me.
September 28, 2013
I kind of admire the idea behind the book- 50 chapters commemorating the 50 titles in hard case crime at the time, but the story was just a flop. it was tenuous and torturous, constrained by the format and not really on brand.
December 9, 2015
absolutely cracker of an opening with really good writing tapered off into "what is happening, I really don't know" kindoff shizz. i also got into "i have already read so much now i have to finish it mode"
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