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The Grave's in the Meadow
"Richard Ludwell had been on the take with all the angles for some time. But he made the mistake of witnessing the wrong rub-out. He had to split or he'd be pushing up daisies." Mob novel.
- GenresMystery
192 pages
First published January 1, 1959
1 person is currently reading
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About the author
Manning Lee Stokes
47 books3 followersAlso wrote Nick Carter: Killmaster series under Nick Carter alias with Mike Avallone and others
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 1, 2026
“The Grave’s in the Meadow” is a 1959 classic noir republished by Stark House’s Black Gat Books. Stokes authored some 88 novels under a variety of pseudonyms, but is not all that well known these days.
“Born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl. If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” Those are the lyrics from Born Under a Bad Sign popularized by Albert King and later by Cream. That theme echoes throughout this novel. Dick Ludell has a bad luck sign tattooed on his soul and jumps from the fire into the frying pan throughout the novel. Like Thompson in “the Getaway,” Stokes here keeps Ludell in his toes, taking him through one harrowing escapade after another. He is sort of the equivalent of a video game character who has to survive each level to make it to the next level of the game.
The story opens with Lake City reporter Ludell being confided in by a boxer who wouldn’t follow instructions from the gambling syndicate. Before Ludell can meet the boxer in the alley behind a bar, gunfire rings out and Ludell sees the shooter fleeing the scene. He tells us: “was in trouble, bad trouble. Half an hour before I’d seen a hoodlum named Tuffy Sikes kill a fighter named Billy Gonzales. Kid Gonzales, an up-and-coming middleweight, was a nice coffee-colored kid with a white smile and ice cream suits that fitted him too tightly.” Ludell knows he was the only one who could identify Sikes and Sikes knew it.
Ludell is no choir boy. He’s had his hand in the till and been plugging as told by the syndicate, but he knows he’s nothing to the mob and they’ll take him off the board without batting an eye. Trouble is Ludell, like most, has only two people in the world he can count on, buddy Harry Wilkins and romantic partner Joan Reese. Wilkins thought Ludell cared too much about money and Ludell didn’t think he had enough cash to keep golddigger Joan interested.
As Ludell tells the story ( and you’ll have to decide just how reliable a narrator he is), the hideout Wilkins sets up for him contains a fresh corpse and Ludell who is in the run from the mob and the police has to figure out what to do with it. Assuming the corpse’s identity also seems like a plan except Ludell has already splashed around town another identity – also false.
From there, Ludell marries the first overweight heifer of an heiress he finds, only to find he now appears to be a golddigger out to off her for her money. No to be outdone, Joan marries for money too. The two of them seem perfectly matched, almost too perfectly because there is no honor among thieves and no trust between them either. Even though Joan comes to his rescue, Ludell can’t trust her motives and send paranoid even to the point of keeping a gun in her. Indeed, Ludell seems to be continually pitted against smooth operators who are blackmailing him into doing dastardly deeds and waiting to be doublecrossed. In his world, no one can ever be trusted and everyone will turn on you.
Stokes paces this one perfectly so that the reader never gets a rest.
“Born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl. If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” Those are the lyrics from Born Under a Bad Sign popularized by Albert King and later by Cream. That theme echoes throughout this novel. Dick Ludell has a bad luck sign tattooed on his soul and jumps from the fire into the frying pan throughout the novel. Like Thompson in “the Getaway,” Stokes here keeps Ludell in his toes, taking him through one harrowing escapade after another. He is sort of the equivalent of a video game character who has to survive each level to make it to the next level of the game.
The story opens with Lake City reporter Ludell being confided in by a boxer who wouldn’t follow instructions from the gambling syndicate. Before Ludell can meet the boxer in the alley behind a bar, gunfire rings out and Ludell sees the shooter fleeing the scene. He tells us: “was in trouble, bad trouble. Half an hour before I’d seen a hoodlum named Tuffy Sikes kill a fighter named Billy Gonzales. Kid Gonzales, an up-and-coming middleweight, was a nice coffee-colored kid with a white smile and ice cream suits that fitted him too tightly.” Ludell knows he was the only one who could identify Sikes and Sikes knew it.
Ludell is no choir boy. He’s had his hand in the till and been plugging as told by the syndicate, but he knows he’s nothing to the mob and they’ll take him off the board without batting an eye. Trouble is Ludell, like most, has only two people in the world he can count on, buddy Harry Wilkins and romantic partner Joan Reese. Wilkins thought Ludell cared too much about money and Ludell didn’t think he had enough cash to keep golddigger Joan interested.
As Ludell tells the story ( and you’ll have to decide just how reliable a narrator he is), the hideout Wilkins sets up for him contains a fresh corpse and Ludell who is in the run from the mob and the police has to figure out what to do with it. Assuming the corpse’s identity also seems like a plan except Ludell has already splashed around town another identity – also false.
From there, Ludell marries the first overweight heifer of an heiress he finds, only to find he now appears to be a golddigger out to off her for her money. No to be outdone, Joan marries for money too. The two of them seem perfectly matched, almost too perfectly because there is no honor among thieves and no trust between them either. Even though Joan comes to his rescue, Ludell can’t trust her motives and send paranoid even to the point of keeping a gun in her. Indeed, Ludell seems to be continually pitted against smooth operators who are blackmailing him into doing dastardly deeds and waiting to be doublecrossed. In his world, no one can ever be trusted and everyone will turn on you.
Stokes paces this one perfectly so that the reader never gets a rest.
November 25, 2025
Imagine writing three novels a year for 30 years. When Stokes launched his impressive bibliography in 1946 with the publication of The Wolf Howls “Murder” he went on to write 87 more before his death in 1976. Of course, sometimes, like in 1967 his credits include a staggering nine titles, but if you take his active years 29 (he died in early January, so we won’t count 1976), and divide by 88, it comes out to three books a year. Many were written under pseudonyms, and this Black Gat edition includes a four-page bibliography of Stokes’ storied career.
The Grave’s in the Meadow originally came out in 1959 from Arcadia House and was reprinted by Dell two years later. (The cover on this BG edition reprints the one from Dell.) The novel opens moments after Richard (Dick) Ludwell witnesses the murder of Kid Gonzales an up-and-coming middleweight who refused to take a dive in his last fight for the benefit of mobster Al Alonzo. The Kid paid dearly and Ludwell, who can identify the shooter Tuffy Sikes, knows he must disappear or face erasure by Sikes. Ludwell’s childhood chum is about his only trusted friend and has an ideal hideout buried in some tiny burg 100 miles from his troubles in Lake City.
Ludwell’s getaway is fast and smooth, and upon arrival in his new home he immediately begins to leverage every lucrative opportunity he can exploit. But nearby Shadeland is already packed with its own raft of savvy operators, and Ludwell is soon entwined in the local power plays. The novel is packed with unexpected twists and plenty of action as Ludwell sprints headlong from one hot mess to the next. It’s a mind-bender!
The Grave’s in the Meadow originally came out in 1959 from Arcadia House and was reprinted by Dell two years later. (The cover on this BG edition reprints the one from Dell.) The novel opens moments after Richard (Dick) Ludwell witnesses the murder of Kid Gonzales an up-and-coming middleweight who refused to take a dive in his last fight for the benefit of mobster Al Alonzo. The Kid paid dearly and Ludwell, who can identify the shooter Tuffy Sikes, knows he must disappear or face erasure by Sikes. Ludwell’s childhood chum is about his only trusted friend and has an ideal hideout buried in some tiny burg 100 miles from his troubles in Lake City.
Ludwell’s getaway is fast and smooth, and upon arrival in his new home he immediately begins to leverage every lucrative opportunity he can exploit. But nearby Shadeland is already packed with its own raft of savvy operators, and Ludwell is soon entwined in the local power plays. The novel is packed with unexpected twists and plenty of action as Ludwell sprints headlong from one hot mess to the next. It’s a mind-bender!
October 19, 2024
The Grave's in the Meadow by Manning Lee Stokes (1960)....Paperback Warrior billed this pulp as "HIGH ALERT: This may be the greatest crime novel you’ve never read. Check out the review at www.paperbackwarrior.com."....ahhhh, it's OK...certainly not a HIGH ALERT! It's a standard-pulp-crime-fiction of the day...not great, not bad. If it was such a classic why is it not in-print? I've read lot's better by Day Keene, Peter Rabe, etc....the second tier guys to Jim Thompson, David Goodis, etc...sooooo, I guess that makes Manning Lee Stokes third tier-??? IDK...All I do know is Grave's was OK, didn't earn the Paperback Warrior billing, but I'm glad I read it...in two sittings. 3.0 outta 5.0...
February 19, 2023
Fun, quick little read in the pulp, hard-boiled crime genre. An interesting plot with an interesting, amoral main character that’s just likable enough that you can at least understand why he makes some poor choices (just like real-life folks sometimes do). A couple of twists that I didn’t expect, some serious tension and a few bursts of violence made for an entertaining short read. The final wrap-up at the end seemed rushed, but did not spoil the novel enough to disappoint me. Recommended.
December 19, 2025
Excellent Pulpnoir
Stark House Press has republished another excellent pulpnoir short novel from the fifties. Stokes keeps the story moving with femme fatales, double crosses and unreliable narrators. It’s all fun and provides an entertaining reading experience. Will read more by Stokes. Recommended.
Stark House Press has republished another excellent pulpnoir short novel from the fifties. Stokes keeps the story moving with femme fatales, double crosses and unreliable narrators. It’s all fun and provides an entertaining reading experience. Will read more by Stokes. Recommended.
June 8, 2018
This is an excellent novel from pulp novelist Manning Lee Stokes. The plot is fairly predictable. It's still a great read!
December 30, 2022
Pure pulp, I really liked it but ending seemed way too rushed
October 7, 2024
Great crime novel with a twist in every chapter. Keeps you guessing until the very end. Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews