The Living End

Johnny Liddell #12

by Frank Kane, Victor Kalin (Illustrator)

THE LIVING END

Eddie Marlon is just a kid with a song he wants published, another city kid with dreams of being in the music business. His song is nothing special, but Eddie gets a tip that a local radio station needs help on the early morning shift. Marty Allen hires him to line up the records for his show. But the way Eddie sees it, Marty is a square--he doesn't go for the bucks that are to be had charging A&R guys to get their tunes on the air.

Eddie must have been born lucky because one night Marty needs Eddie to help him get the station boss out of a jam. Then they owe him. And when it's time to collect, Eddie is right there with a plan. He wants his own time slot and he wants to put on free shows with all the big talent, who will naturally play for free to get the air time. Eddie's got big plans alright. Because now it's his shot at the top--and if you want to be on Eddie's show, you're going to pay for it!

Genres: Crime

218 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1957

About the author

Frank Kane, Brooklyn-born and a lifetime New Yorker, worked for many years in journalism and corporate public relations before shifting to fiction writing. At the time he was selling crime stories to the pulps he was also sustaining a career writing scripts for such radio shows as Gangbusters and The Shadow.

In addition to the Johnny Liddells, Kane wrote several suspense novels, some softcore erotica, and (under the pen name of Frank Boyd) "Johnny Staccato", a Gold Medal original paperback based on the short-lived noir television series, starring John Cassavetes, about a Greenwich Village bebop pianist turned private detective.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Living End is the story of the payola scandal that corrupted the recording and radio industries, taking us to a time before Spotify, playlists, downloads, and satellite radio. It was pay to play in order to get a record played. Eddie Marlon was a young kid on the rise, sort of the Tony Montana of the radio industry and he didn't care whose toes he had to step on to get ahead and who he had to make an example of. It was a tough, hard-nosed business and softies need not apply. This is quite well written and a Kane is fascinated with the subject matter. Quite a different kind of story than his Johnny Liddell PI novels.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rise and roil of sociopath Eddie Marlon as he corrupts his way to success in the music business of the late 1950s. A roadmap for an insecure egomaniac whose inflated sense of entitlement and grievance grants him license to destroy any challenger or lackey who fails to kowtow. He strikes back tenfold to the few who defy his commands, doing his best worst to destroy their careers and lives. But this is fiction, so comeuppance is more easily dealt on the page than its real life reflection.

[Curt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a young, vindictive hustler who rises in the pop music business and a disc jockey - read it in a day, pulses right along. Great cover too!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Pulp about Radio Payola

Kane is an excellent writer of pulp and detective fiction. This one is a little different as it traces the rise and fall of a music business insider and disc jockey, brought down by the payola scandals of the late fifties where disc jockeys were paid to play certain records on their shows. This is a quick, well written read that gives you a bit of history, mixed in with violence and fifties sex. And thanks to Stark House Press for bringing this and other noir and pulp fiction back in print.