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Strip for Violence
She was an expensive call girl and spending a night with her came high. But he never figured on a price as high as murder.
The photograph did justice to her generous statistics. Any private eye would enjoy tracking her down, and Hal Darling was no exception.
Her name was Marion Lodge. She'd put her impressive body to good use as a call girl before she'd dropped out of sight almost a year before. Hal was being paid a fortune to find her.
But someone else was also looking for Marion — with a knife. Hal had to get her fast, or the killer would strike first.
The photograph did justice to her generous statistics. Any private eye would enjoy tracking her down, and Hal Darling was no exception.
Her name was Marion Lodge. She'd put her impressive body to good use as a call girl before she'd dropped out of sight almost a year before. Hal was being paid a fortune to find her.
But someone else was also looking for Marion — with a knife. Hal had to get her fast, or the killer would strike first.
140 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1953
21 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Ed Lacy
102 books10 followersEd Lacy was the pseudonymn of Leonard (Len) S Zinberg, who was born in New York City on 25 August 1925. After his mother and father had divorced and his mother remarried, he spent his early years living in relative affluence in the outskirts of Harlem.
During the late 1920s, he attended the College of the City of New York and then, in the 1930s he travelled throughout the United States where he had a variety of odd jobs, including working as a butcher, to support himself. In the early 1940s, he returned to New York, where he married and resided for the rest of his life.
Back in New York, he was a freelance writer and some of his early published work emerged in literary journals, such as a short story titled 'A Leaner' in 'Story Magazine' in November 1936. He was also a member of the League of American Writers, on whose committee, 'Keep America Out of War Committee', he served in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
During World War II he was Private First Class Len Zinberg, serving with the Allies’ 1943 push into Fascist Italy. As PFC Zinberg he had a story titled 'Timing' in the men’s magazine, 'Sir!' in October 1942 and his early detective story 'Pay Telephone' appeared with James M. Cain in 'Popular Detective' in October 1943.
In addition, in the 25 October 1943 issue of 'The New Republic', he won a Soldiers' Prose competition and published a war sketch. His war sketches also appeared in 'Yank', whose motto was 'written by the men ... for men in the service'.
He was later promoted to Sergeant and as such he wrote the scathing satire 'Welcome Home' about a GI returning to his childhood home and a second 'Yank' article recorded the reception in Rome on VJ-Day where 'most people were merely smiling quietly.'
And it was probably the contributions he made to such as 'Yank' and 'The New Republic' that paved the way for his 18 New Yorker pieces, published between 1945 and 1947, which in turn were instrumental in promoting his professional writing career.
As a marketing ploy he adopted Steve April as a pseudonym and he was able to
sell more stories to markets such as 'Esquire' and 'Colliers'. As Steve April he also wrote text for comic strips such as Ranger Comics (1946) and Fight Comics (1951) and a novel, Exit 13 (1954).
The Ed Lacy pseudonymn came about when the original paperback (rather than historic reprints) boom hit America and this presented him with a more lucrative writing opportunity as he turned dedicatedly to detective fiction.
His first published crime and detective novel, 'The Woman Aroused', followed in 1951 and this began an output that totalled 28 novels as well as many short stories, his 'New York Times' obituary suggested 'many hundreds', until his early death in 1968. He also wrote on boxing, both in his novels and historically.
His early books often had lurid titles and he was known to remark, 'Yes, the title made me grit my teeth, too' and the often sexy cover art perhaps did not do these books the justice they deserved as professionally they were regarded as being well written and solidly plotted.
By the mid-1950s, however, he realised he had established a strong presence in the paperback original market so in 1955 he was able to sign with the more prestigious Harper to bring out his works in hardcover and 'The Best That Ever Did It' (1955) gave him his first solid recognition as the book went into a second printing.
Included in his novel output were three separate series of detective novels featuring Dave Wintino, Toussaint Moore and Lee Hayes. A white American himself, Lacy is credited with creating 'the first credible African-American PI' in American fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore. His first novel featuring Moore, 'Room to Swing' (1957) won the 1958 Edgar Award for Best Novel and this clearly marked the high point of his writing career.
His short stories continued to be reprinted in Ellery Queen's Magazine and in var
During the late 1920s, he attended the College of the City of New York and then, in the 1930s he travelled throughout the United States where he had a variety of odd jobs, including working as a butcher, to support himself. In the early 1940s, he returned to New York, where he married and resided for the rest of his life.
Back in New York, he was a freelance writer and some of his early published work emerged in literary journals, such as a short story titled 'A Leaner' in 'Story Magazine' in November 1936. He was also a member of the League of American Writers, on whose committee, 'Keep America Out of War Committee', he served in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
During World War II he was Private First Class Len Zinberg, serving with the Allies’ 1943 push into Fascist Italy. As PFC Zinberg he had a story titled 'Timing' in the men’s magazine, 'Sir!' in October 1942 and his early detective story 'Pay Telephone' appeared with James M. Cain in 'Popular Detective' in October 1943.
In addition, in the 25 October 1943 issue of 'The New Republic', he won a Soldiers' Prose competition and published a war sketch. His war sketches also appeared in 'Yank', whose motto was 'written by the men ... for men in the service'.
He was later promoted to Sergeant and as such he wrote the scathing satire 'Welcome Home' about a GI returning to his childhood home and a second 'Yank' article recorded the reception in Rome on VJ-Day where 'most people were merely smiling quietly.'
And it was probably the contributions he made to such as 'Yank' and 'The New Republic' that paved the way for his 18 New Yorker pieces, published between 1945 and 1947, which in turn were instrumental in promoting his professional writing career.
As a marketing ploy he adopted Steve April as a pseudonym and he was able to
sell more stories to markets such as 'Esquire' and 'Colliers'. As Steve April he also wrote text for comic strips such as Ranger Comics (1946) and Fight Comics (1951) and a novel, Exit 13 (1954).
The Ed Lacy pseudonymn came about when the original paperback (rather than historic reprints) boom hit America and this presented him with a more lucrative writing opportunity as he turned dedicatedly to detective fiction.
His first published crime and detective novel, 'The Woman Aroused', followed in 1951 and this began an output that totalled 28 novels as well as many short stories, his 'New York Times' obituary suggested 'many hundreds', until his early death in 1968. He also wrote on boxing, both in his novels and historically.
His early books often had lurid titles and he was known to remark, 'Yes, the title made me grit my teeth, too' and the often sexy cover art perhaps did not do these books the justice they deserved as professionally they were regarded as being well written and solidly plotted.
By the mid-1950s, however, he realised he had established a strong presence in the paperback original market so in 1955 he was able to sign with the more prestigious Harper to bring out his works in hardcover and 'The Best That Ever Did It' (1955) gave him his first solid recognition as the book went into a second printing.
Included in his novel output were three separate series of detective novels featuring Dave Wintino, Toussaint Moore and Lee Hayes. A white American himself, Lacy is credited with creating 'the first credible African-American PI' in American fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore. His first novel featuring Moore, 'Room to Swing' (1957) won the 1958 Edgar Award for Best Novel and this clearly marked the high point of his writing career.
His short stories continued to be reprinted in Ellery Queen's Magazine and in var
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 6, 2022
"Strip for Violence, first published in 1953, was one of Lacy's earliest crime novels. Set in New York City, the thriller features another one of Lacy's offbeat heroes, a pint-sized five foot one inch tall private eye with the last name of Darling, who has to constantly prove his judo skills make up for his size. Darling lives on a small boat moored off the Hudson River side.
Darling runs a small office, employing washed-up boxers as security for dance halls and a cute secretary, Anita, who is studying for her Dick Tracy decoder ring. Darling is not running a high class agency with millionaire clients. He is escorting drunken women home and throwing rowdy partygoers out. Once in a while though an interesting case or two finds its way to him, sometimes one that gets a bit too interesting. Here, that includes the case of the asteroid from Mars that flew into a fifth story window and a missing beneficiary to a will. But before he knows it he's up to his eyeballs in corpses and hoodlums and on the run for who knows what reason.
Lacy three just about everything into this one and it swaggers with attitude, hard, nasty, and relentless.
Darling runs a small office, employing washed-up boxers as security for dance halls and a cute secretary, Anita, who is studying for her Dick Tracy decoder ring. Darling is not running a high class agency with millionaire clients. He is escorting drunken women home and throwing rowdy partygoers out. Once in a while though an interesting case or two finds its way to him, sometimes one that gets a bit too interesting. Here, that includes the case of the asteroid from Mars that flew into a fifth story window and a missing beneficiary to a will. But before he knows it he's up to his eyeballs in corpses and hoodlums and on the run for who knows what reason.
Lacy three just about everything into this one and it swaggers with attitude, hard, nasty, and relentless.
November 24, 2022
"“WHATCHA looking for, Tiny, a bruise?” This was said by a big joker, about two hundred pounds of lard-ass, and trying so hard to be tough, he was strictly for laughs. And that’s how it all started. How a guy can live a peaceful, normal life for years, then the fickle finger of fate gives him a slight goose … and in my case put me on a three-day merry-go-round of women and murder."
Really enjoyable, with a twisty wide ranging plot covering a bizarre caper and multiple murders, snappy dialogue, tons of mayhem and an unrelenting pace. Hal Darling, the pint sized PI is more colorful than your average hardboiled PI, using his quick wits and judo skills to overcome his obvious physical limitations. Like Lacy's Room to Swing, featuring a protagonist that must overcome some real impediments, whether physical, racial, or societal makes for a deeper and more interesting character and ultimately story than the typical hardboiled detective novel of the time.
Really enjoyable, with a twisty wide ranging plot covering a bizarre caper and multiple murders, snappy dialogue, tons of mayhem and an unrelenting pace. Hal Darling, the pint sized PI is more colorful than your average hardboiled PI, using his quick wits and judo skills to overcome his obvious physical limitations. Like Lacy's Room to Swing, featuring a protagonist that must overcome some real impediments, whether physical, racial, or societal makes for a deeper and more interesting character and ultimately story than the typical hardboiled detective novel of the time.
September 27, 2016
Very pat -if not contrived- "trick" ending but if you've read a few vintage 1950s-1960s hard-boiled original paperbacks finding out "whodunnit" isn't your main objective.
If you're like me you're probably more interested in the patter between characters and the use of slang of the era.
This novel has that in spades!
About this time the lights dimmed and Margrita came on. She was a tall blonde with a full figure, and a passable voice. She wore a transparent skirt that clouded up near her waist. As she moved about, you saw two shapely legs, and if you were lucky, the solid curve of her hips and ...well, I guess she wore a G-string or something.
The lead character is Hal Darling -owner of a private investigations outfit in New York City. This isn't 77 Sunset Strip - Hal Darling owns what amounts to a rent-a-cop company. His employees - all retired heavyweight boxers- are hired out as guards to nightclubs and warehouses.
Hal stands five feet, one inch and is a black belt in Judo or Jiu Jitsu. He can take a few punches and then kill an attacker with a shoulder flip, a talent that comes in handy on the case described in this book.
Hal is hired by a U.S. postman to determine the origins of a sliver of stone. The postman swears it flew through the window of his 10th floor apartment, leaving a small hole in the glass and striking a vase across the room and breaking it into shards.
There are lots of murders and quite a bit of mayhem and the entire time author Ed Lacy keeps it all going at a brisk pace.
I really loved this novel but then I've always been an Ed Lacy fan.
Haven't read one of his books in over 30 years and this one had me wondering what had kept me away.
The only other authors I could compare Ed Lacy's writing to would be Jonathan Latimer or Bruno Fischer.
Highest Recommendation!
I own a copy of the original paperback of this novel but I read this via Kindle as purchased from Amazon. The outfit that issued this novel in e-book format is books.planetmonk.com and they have many other titles worthy of your time.
September 9, 2013
Ed Lacy (Len Zinberg) was an interesting, colorful figure. He was a World War II hero, published in The New Yorker and The New Republic, and then went on to a long run writing popular pulp novels. He was also blackballed during the 1950s and is credited for writing the first African-American private investigator novel for which he won an MWA Edgar Award. (My full profile of him appears at this link: http://www.mysteryfile.com/Lacy/Profi...). Strip for Violence is another misleading racy title his books seemed to have attracted, probably to gain more sales. What Strip for Violence really is is an entertaining tale of an unusual midget private eye named Hal Darling. Hal lives on a houseboat in New York City when he's not running his detective agency. This tale finds him pitted against a big shot thief and lots of stolen money at stake. Hal gets into frequent fights where he uses his slick judo moves to save himself. The prose style is a breezy, slangy, but readable hardboiled one. I had a lot of fun with this read, and I am also a big fan of the author.
June 7, 2014
STRIP FOR VIOLENCE is a multi faceted detective mystery that for some reason doesn't hit the mark. The pint size protagonist, while offering something a little different by virtue of his unassuming facade and skilled martial arts did seem to over compensate in order to don a Hammer like persona where Hal Mason, was really his own character, one prone to but not defined by violence. The mystery spans multiple compass points from the investigation of a rock thrown through a window, later turning to be a diamond, an inheritance chase down, and murder. All these are linked to form a broader spanning mystery yet the whodunit aspect was viod pretty early on. Ed Lacy has written some really good novels, this is mediocre but still worth a look for a light read.
April 28, 2019
Well, despite having a title that is about as a bad a title one could drum up, this was a pretty good book. A pulpy book from 1953, it's about Hal Darling, who has a small detective and security business in New York. Several cases merge, including a story about his secretary who fancies herself a crime fighter and is digging into a case for a big reward, and a postman who is shot by a mysterious bullet (that McGuffin seems strange). The characterizations are good, the prose is very good, the places are rendered well, and the story was fast paced. Worth the $.99 for the ebook.
April 16, 2022
A 1953 detective novel that was brilliant!
Hal Darling is a short baby-faced private detective who finds himself caught up solving a murder (that begins to increase in number) and finding the origin of a strange rock that crashed through the fifth floor window of a mailman.
Superior tough guy dialogue and a story that twists and turns and ends so smoothly.
This is the type of pulp novel I love to read.
Found in Kindle for under a dollar, and I'll definitely be looking for more books written by Ed Lacy and published through PlanetMonk Books.
Hal Darling is a short baby-faced private detective who finds himself caught up solving a murder (that begins to increase in number) and finding the origin of a strange rock that crashed through the fifth floor window of a mailman.
Superior tough guy dialogue and a story that twists and turns and ends so smoothly.
This is the type of pulp novel I love to read.
Found in Kindle for under a dollar, and I'll definitely be looking for more books written by Ed Lacy and published through PlanetMonk Books.
August 13, 2020
The Little Detective
Ed Lacy has written another exciting, first-rate, hard boiled crime thrillers about a short detective with a black belt in judo. If you crave Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe series, you’ll love Lacy. He never lets the action bog down in exposition, and the writing is crisp and sharp, with interesting characters and a terrific villain.
Ed Lacy has written another exciting, first-rate, hard boiled crime thrillers about a short detective with a black belt in judo. If you crave Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe series, you’ll love Lacy. He never lets the action bog down in exposition, and the writing is crisp and sharp, with interesting characters and a terrific villain.
November 21, 2017
My first Ed Lacy novel, and I enjoyed it. Whilst it may seem a little dated, the storyline is tight and fast, and the protagonist is a likeable PI, with flaws but also a good conscience.
Yeah, I'll try some more of Lacy's work.
Yeah, I'll try some more of Lacy's work.
September 11, 2021
Great Pulp Read
Pretty good story line with characters well developed and woven into an intricate whodunit plot. The book captures the feel of the early 50’s NYC quite well.
Pretty good story line with characters well developed and woven into an intricate whodunit plot. The book captures the feel of the early 50’s NYC quite well.
August 1, 2023
Classic 50s pulp.
People get killed. Reluctant Private Dick gets laid three times, gets beaten up more than that, finds true love, solves the mystery and gets the rewards.
People get killed. Reluctant Private Dick gets laid three times, gets beaten up more than that, finds true love, solves the mystery and gets the rewards.
March 28, 2011
A hard-boiled thriller set in New York where a call-girl disappears and Hal Darling, private investigator, starts to track her down.
The pursuit leads him into all sorts of trouble but, unlike three others, he manages to stay alive and eventually solves the problems, as well as finding himself in love.
The pursuit leads him into all sorts of trouble but, unlike three others, he manages to stay alive and eventually solves the problems, as well as finding himself in love.
December 1, 2013
Hal Darling's a tiny private eye with an explosive short man's temper. He farms out ex-boxers to work as bouncers at cheap dance halls to supplement his income. This aspect of the story's pretty amusing and carries the book for awhile until it turns into a fairly average hardboiled dick yarn. When it reaches that point all the freshness of the book runs out, and so did my interest. Too bad!
August 26, 2012
Another entertaining old-school pulp detective thriller.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews