Night Squad

by David Goodis

David Goodis. Night Squad. New York: Gold Medal Books/Fawcett Publications, [1961]. First edition, first printing (February 1961). Mass market paperback original, Gold Medal Book 1083. 191 pages.

When a cop goes bad, he can always become a crook.  When a crook goes bad--that's when the Night Squad wants him.

David Goodis's irresistibly readable study of corruption is a masterly portrait of a man clawing his way back from betrayal--and betraying countless others along the way.

Genres: Noir, Crime, Fiction, Mystery, Pulp Noir, Hard Boiled, Pulp

191 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Born and bred in Philadelphia, David Goodis was an American noir fiction writer. He grew up in a liberal, Jewish household in which his early literary ambitions were encouraged. After a short and inconclusive spell at Indiana University, he returned to Philadelphia to take a degree in journalism, graduating in 1937.

Reviews

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Goodis was a prolific writer of pulp novels from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. Like many of his contemporaries, he created badly compromised characters who existed in a thoroughly corrupt world and often neither the characters nor the world in which they lived deserved to be saved.

Such is the case in Night Squad, published in 1961. The protagonist is a disgraced former cop named Corey Bradford. Like most of his contemporaries on this force, he took more than the occasional bribe; it was simply a way of life. But he was ultimately caught and bounced from the force. Now he lives in the shabbiest part of town; he's drunk most of the time; his ex-wife has married another man, and it's hard to imagine why the guy even bothers to keep on living.

The neighborhood where Bradford hangs his hat is controlled by a crime boss named Grogan who has a long history of ruining lives, but the cops haven't been able to touch him. Grogan owns a seedy saloon, and one night, while Bradford is in the back room of the saloon, watching Grogan and some other men play poker in a game in which Bradford is not allowed, two gunmen burst into the room intent on killing Grogan. Bradford's old cop instincts kick in and he manages to save Grogan's life.

Grogan now offers Bradford $15,000 to find out who was attempting to have him killed. At virtually the same moment, the commander of the police department's night squad reaches out to Bradford and invites him to rejoin the police department as a member of the squad with a very special mission.

Bradford is now torn between returning to the force and trying to do the right thing as opposed to attempting to earn the $15,000 that the gangster is offering. It's a tough choice and Bradford will wrestle with it throughout the course of the novel. The story has lots of action and a great cast of low-life characters, Bradford included. Goodis vividly describes the filth and corruption that surrounds all of these people, leading, finally, to a great climax. All in all, Night Squad is a deliciously nasty pulp novel.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodis had a real talent evoking protagonists with many shades of grey, usually facing trouble with no easy way out. That is exemplified with Night Squad, one of the last books he published. Corey Bradford worked as a cop until several months ago when he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, taking payoffs. Corey, the son of a cop, felt no remorse for his doings; he never took payoffs from drug dealers or such, but only from 'working gals', poker clubs and the like. He reasoned people have a need to blow off steam, and while the rich may be able to do it legally, the working class do not possess that option. Nonetheless, he finds himself back in his old stomping ground, a run-down working class neighborhood (Philly?) with few options.

The 'big man' of the neighborhood, one Grogan, basically owns most of it and controls the games, ladies and whatnot. One day Corey wanders into "The Hangout," known for the backroom poker game, but Grogan tells him he cannot even play in an open game. A few minutes later, some punks come in the back door and try to kidnap Grogan; Corey, with some fast moves, saves the day and shortly thereafter, Grogan takes Corey on as an investigator to find out who is after him. Surprisingly, the police force, in particular the Night Squad, pick him up soon after this, and make him an offer. The sargent of the Night Squad really, really wants Grogan, but he is like Teflon- nothing sticks! Basically, if he can help catch Grogan, he can slide back into the police force. Yet, Grogan just offered him 15 grand to find out who is out to get him!

Moral quandaries beset Corey, and of course, things get complicated. Grogan has a massive stockpile of cash somewhere and that seems to be the target of the 'folks' out to kidnap him. The cops want Grogan for some old, heinous crimes. Corey just wants to get by in life, but now, damned if he does, damned if he does not...

Very atmospheric novel by Goodis, with the weather emphasizing the bleakness of the rundown neighborhood that functions as the backdrop to the tale. As usual, Goodis serves up here a more character driven tale than plot, but the characters feel real and all possess shades of grey. good stuff! 4 seedy stars!!

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moral Dilemma In The Swamp

The noir novelist David Goodis (1917 -- 1967) received attention with the Library of America's publication of his novel "Down There" followed in 2012 by a LOA volume of five additional novels. After reading these books, I wanted to read more of Goodis. "Night Squad" (1961) was the last novel published during Goodis' lifetime and the last of a series of pulp paperback originals that he wrote between 1951 -- 1961. The novel has been reissued several times, most recently in April, 2013, following the success of the Library of America volume.

Like most of his writing, "Night Squad" is set in the Philadelphia slums of the mid-1950's. The neighborhood known as the "Swamp" has since disappeared due to freeway construction and urban renewal. The book tells the story of a lifelong resident of the Swamp, Corey Bradford, 34. A divorced former policeman, Bradford had been dismissed from the force as a corrupt cop for engaging in shakedowns and bribery. He wanders the streets and bars aimlessly and almost broke. After Bradford saves a sleazy businessman, Grogan, from thugs in a bar aptly named the Hangout, Grogan gives Bradford the chance to make big money by finding the organization that tried to shake him down. But that evening, Bradford also gets the chance to redeem his life. The head of a rough undercover unit of the Philadelphia police known as the Night Squad offers to reinstate Bradford to the force with the mission of finding evidence of Grogan's extensive criminal activity. Besides putting him in serious risk of his life, Bradford's roles of serving the law and serving a hard criminal create a moral dilemma for his action and soul that Goodis' novel explores and resolves.

"Night Squad" is a novel of tormented, isolated, damaged people, beginning with Bradford and continuing through the many other characters in the book. Goodis develops his characters quickly and effectively showing their failed dreams. In the characters and residents of the Swamp include Bradford's ex-wife, Lillian, his only friend, Carp, Grogan's wife the blonde femme fatale Lita, the Night Squad seargeant McDermott and one of the other members of the squad, Ferguson, the bouncer at the Hangout-- an Amazonian woman named Nellie -- and more. Goodis shows these people from the inside. The focus of the book, however, remains on Bradford and on the choices he must make. Much of the book is recounted as Bradford talking to himself. Bradford also engages in monologues with his police badge, that he calls jim.

The book is also highly atmospheric as Goodis describes the Swamp and its bars, filthy tenements, alleys, crooked streets, and cold nights. Some of the action also takes place in the section for which the Swamp was named, a fetid dangerous, disease-infested patch of water and mud located on the riverfront adjacent to the city streets.

This book offers Goodis' unique combination of introspection and violence, formulaic noir writing and creativity. It offers insightful, lyrical portraits of people and places combined with a cluttered plot. Goodis' books tend to feature similar plot lines, places, and people, including the local bar, the femme fatale contrasted with the faithful woman, and the torn anti-hero. But each of his books is able to use the noir formulas to probe individually into the characters and places.

If not the best of Goodis' novels, "Night Squad" is effective in its portrayal of character, place, and moral choice. The conventions of noir, in Goodis' writings, become vehicles for the exploration of fragmented people and lonely places.

Robin Friedman

[Glenn Russell]

Night Squad - fast-paced David Goodis noir crime novel republished by Blackmask featuring the cover of the original 1961 edition.

There they are, two sleek, tough looking dudes in suits and dress hats stepping from the light of a police precinct, venturing into the night, ready to take on the world of crime.

We can see the price of the original edition in the upper right corner: 35 cents. Readers back then handed over their coins for a tale of intrigue, action and danger in the slums of the big, bad city of Philadelpha.

Never doubt it for a second, David Goodis delivered the goods - plenty of fists, plenty of bullets, plenty of bodies for the morgue.

The action takes place in a section of the City of Brotherly Shove dubbed The Swamp. Aptly called since the dingy row houses and narrow streets are surrounded on three sides by murky, stinking bogs and rats as big as cats infest every gutter and alleyway.

In the first pages we are told how a huge rat made its way into the run-down home of main character Corey Bradford when Corey was a baby and sank its rat teeth in his thigh. Not only that, Corey's mother tells Corry how, before Corey was born, a pack of starving rats, smelling blood, swarmed Corey's policeman father when he lain wounded in an alley, leaving the man in blue a pile of bones. I'm here to tell you the stench of rats and bogs permeates the atmosphere of the entire novel.

Here's a snatch of action from the first pages taking place in the backroom of a bar where Corey joins a bunch of burly guys sitting around a table playing poker. "It all happened very fast, the back door opening and two men coming in, showing guns. The men wore horror masks that covered their entire heads. One was a werewolf and the other was a stomach-turning combination of hyena and horned Satan."

Moments later, thanks to Corey's quick reflexes and courage, the werewolf and hyena are lying in their own blood.

And what kind of police do we find patrolling The Swamp? Not only the regular cops but the Night Squad, a fringe unit the newspapers call barbarians and civic groups call butchers, a unit headed up by one Henry McDermott, Detective-Sergeant with a reputation for brutality, torture and for being utterly merciless. Not exactly the kind of upstanding police officer those moms and dads back in the 1950s where likely to see on their black-and-white TVs.

Back on Corey Bradford. Corey was a cop on a beat but had his badge taken away after being accused of accepting bribes. However, for his courage in that bar scene noted above, Corey is hired by Walter Grogan, head gangster in The Swamp.

The plot thickens. Later that same night, McDermott makes Corey a new member of the Night Squad.

Events pop off and Corey is caught in the crossfire. Lots of events, lots of popping. David Goodis uses words in the service of action, so much action Corey is lucky to catch a few hours sleep at night.

One way to look at the novel is through the lens of the mythic archetypes as popularized by Joseph Campbell. We have: outcast and hero, damsel in distress, enchantress, forces of evil, trickster and mentor.

A tale of grit, grime, blood and redemption. Throw down your coins and join the Night Squad.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Night Squad (1961) was the second to last of Goodis’ novels and its publication capped Goodis’ time of great productivity. Though the City which it is set in is never named, it takes place in a rundown neighborhood known as the Swamp, which is perhaps an approximation of Philadelphia’s Swampoodle neighborhood, but in the book, the Swamp is surrounded on three sides by swampland and on side by Addison Street and is in the outskirts of the city.

It is the story of one Corey Bradford, former police officer on the take who got caught with his hand in the till. Not that unusual for the Swamp where everyone is corrupt, but Corey got caught when a big investigation was going on and they made an example of him. Now he’s the lowest kind of drunk that isn’t even welcome in a poker game in a rundown tavern. But that’s where Corey’s story leads with him all alone and no one on his side. He’s still part cop, maybe even part of the famed Night Squad, but also on the pay of Grogan, the old warlord of the Swamp. No one trusts Corey and everyone has it in for him. He’s caught between the Law and the gangsters and he’s got no firm place anywhere.

Perhaps Corey’s one pal is a little guy who runs around the tavern stealing other people’s drinks, another fallen guy who talks like a literature professor but is stuck in the slums and taverns of the Swamp. There are two women in Corey’s orbit, the teasing young wife of Grogan who has an unaccounted for thing for Corey, a thing he can hardly afford to indulge. There’s also Lillian, once his wife, now a burly ex-con’s wife.

Here, Goodis offers the reader a portrait of the city slums and the power of the criminal gangs that run it, a story of a fallen cop with a tarnished badge, and a guy at the end of his string who is somehow caught in the middle of the battle for the Swamp. Ultimately it is a story about Corey’s decisions and ethics.

[WJEP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ex-bad-cop Corey stumbles into a web of grudges and guile. Corey is an introspective lone wolf. Much of Corey's brooding takes the form of second-person heckling of himself: "You’re a wrong number from way back and the vote on that is unanimous." In addition to the introspection, Goodis stages a few unusual shootouts.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Night Squad was written towards the end of Goodis’s career, in 1961, the last one published in his lifetime.

It’s a novel of corruption, dirty cops, double-crossing dames, and a cast of villains who will stop at nothing to get what they want. 34 year old Corey Bradford has been thrown off the Philadephia Police force for taking bribes, and is steadily sliding into a life of alcoholism in the seedy suburb of The Swamp. The local crime boss hires him to find out who is infiltrating his racket, while Philadelphia PD offer him his badge back if he joins the notorious Night Squad, a group of disgraced cops like him who do a lot of the city’s dirty work. Of course, Bradford takes both jobs, playing one off against the other.

This is different to the earlier work of Goodis; here, his protagonist lacks any sort of good intention, his corruption is from within, he’s a nasty piece of work. And so are many of the other main characters in the book. It’s as if Goodis himself has lost faith in villains having any sort of saving grace. That was much more noticeable in his earlier work.

It’s got a decent if rather straight-forward plot, which gives the author license to spend his time delving into Bradford’s character. The reader holds out for some sort of salvation but none arrives, a sign perhaps, of Goodis’s mood towards his last years.

[Graham P · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Goodis' last novel (1961), and one that shows the wear and tear of a writer grinding the wheels of his genius. While it's not a poor novel, it's one marked less memorable, despite it having what all gritty noir fans love so much: the scarred-knuckle thugs who don't give a shit, the weak-willed vagrants swimming in gin, the once beautiful 'good' girl who no longer has any spirit to live, the crooked cop, and the amicable asshole of a boss-man. Under all this, there's some strange and brutal images: castration by a pair of pliers, a man eaten alive by rats, a nasty police captain showing sympathy and saving the life of an injured fly, and a misanthropic bouncer ruminating on how love is so elusive. It's a strange mixture, as always with Goodis and fellow pulp-master, Jim Thompson. However, convention takes over the latter half, loose ends get even looser, and dare I say, an ending that even approaches a hopeful light. For Goodis at his best, 'Down There', 'Street of No Return' and 'The Burglar' are must-reads.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one took a while to get going for me. But once it did the pages flew past.


Another decent Goodis. Still think Shoot the Piano Player is my favourite so far. Main character in this, Corey, had inner dialogue that wasn't that great a lot of the time. So 4*.
But definitely going to continue with Goodis. Think this is the 3rd novel of his I've read. All 4*.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodis’ penultimate novel, Night Squad, is a hardboiled cop novel starring Corey Bradford as the fallen, disgraced cop. The crime tale is set in a South Philly gritty locale known back then (1961) as The Swamp, a geographical feature that’s used in a fairly tense chase scene. Night Squad is a serviceable effort, but I’ve read better Goodis novels.

For me, there’s too much introspection, a lot of it set off in italics, done here by Bradford. His mental conflicts, especially over the questions of morality, strike me as overdone if not a bit repetitive. Therefore the narrative pace bogs down in places. He makes for a credible world-weary ex-cop with a “lazy smile,” cussed nature, and hard fists. I suppose he might qualify as a cliché, although he’s pretty complex and well-drawn.

Goodis captures the exact mannerisms and subtleties of his characters. I loved the sharp, often ironic dialogue. The setting was descriptive. Colorful minor characters like the impish runt Carp, the luscious femme fatale Lita, and remorseless crime boss Grogan help to rescue the novel from mediocrity.

I remain a big Goodis fan, but this isn’t a title by him I’d consider rereading. He just wrote better novels, Street of No Return and Nightfall are two for instance, that deserve it more.

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75, rounded up.

Quite a good read, and I got through it in just two days.

Corey is an ex-cop thrown off the force, for corruption - or accepting bribes.
He has hit hard times, lives in the the slum area he was brought up in, and is a slave to liquor.

But his life is to change, thanks to his association with local gangster-hood, Walter Grogan.
When Grogan's life is threatened, he employs Corey to find out who hired the thugs who were unsuccessful in kidnapping him.

While this is going on detective-sergeant McDermott has his own reasons for wanting Grogan wiped out of existence and re-instates Corey in to the police force, this time the Night Squad, giving him back his old badge and asks Corey to find something on Grogan than can lead to his arrest.
For a while, Corey is on two payrolls and for the next few days is on a hell of a ride, doing two jobs that are going to see him beaten, shot at, kidnapped among other things.

I enjoyed this book. Some scenes may have seemed a bit too drawn-out - drunken conversations at a bar, and so on - but they were for most part, integral to the plot. Some may be impatient with Corey's inner monologues, but not me. Corey was able to get out of scrapes that wouldn't have been likely in a real life situation, but so what? The story had a few twists and surprises as we learn why some people had a few good reasons to wanting Grogan dead.

Another entertaining Goodis novel.

[Noah Goats · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't recommend Night Squad to just anyone, because in some ways it's pretty bad. The hero's (Corey Bradford) badge acting as a physical manifestation of his conscience and talking to him like Jiminy Cricket is pretty cheesy, and a thick tough guy patois is smeared over the dialogue like way too much frosting on a too tiny cupcake. Also, as a mystery, Night Squad is not particularly satisfying, with Bradford just sort of stumbling around without any real intelligence or policing technique until the story is resolved.

On the other hand, it's a lot of pulpy fun. The setting of the novel, a neighborhood known as "The Swamp" is fantastic in its over the top seediness, and it is populated with wonderfully criminal lowlifes. Bradford is an interesting character: a bent cop who has been fired from the force and is given one last chance at redemption. The story hooked me and didn't bore for a moment.

If you like pulpy old crime novels, this might be for you.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started slow and I continued to struggle at times when the pacing crawled through scenes that went on too long for what they delivered. And when the narration shifted to Corey Bradford talking to himself or to his badge, that level of artifice also pushed me out of the flow of the novel. Still, plenty of great scenes and action, with some blissfully tense interchanges between characters sparking as they came together like red and black jumper cables. Cut out about thirty pages and this would have been great.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corey Bradford used to be a cop. A crooked cop, at that, which is why he lost his badge and his wife and has now come to rest at the bottom of a gutter, a drunken nobody not worth a second glance. But tonight, Corey changes all that by jumping two gunsels taking aim at local big-shot Walter Grogan in his own gambling den. In return for saving his life, Grogan offers Bradford $15,000 to track down whoever’s out to get him. Shortly thereafter, Bradford is picked up by members of the Night Squad—an entire police squad of loose cannons and psychotics—who want Bradford to put Walter Grogan behind bars. His desire split between the money and redeeming his tarnished honor, Corey walks a thin line as he tries to handle both jobs at once…

In most of Goodis’ novels, his downtrodden protagonists don’t want to be, often don’t deserve to be, in the situation they’re in. It’s their desperate flailing that causes their inevitable doom, like watching someone floundering in quicksand. In The Secret Squad, Corey knows full well that it was his choices that made him who he is today—and rather than wallow in its misery, he basks in it. He shows a sadistic pleasure in his fall to the bottom of the Swamp, losing his badge and his wife and his worth as a man; he still has vestiges of civilized society in him, but he’s become a part of the grimy shadow world and doesn’t seem to care how far he’s fallen. Which makes him an ideal candidate for the Night Squad, a group of psychotic detectives who root out the worst the Swamps bring forth.

Thus, it’s interesting to read The Secret Squad since it’s so similar yet divergent from Goodis’ earlier novels. Corey Bradford willingly accepts his crime and takes his downfall in stride, and while his story is dark and has no contrived happy ending, it hints that Corey’s life may finally start heading upward towards redemption. Compare his deliberate choices to Goodis’ other protagonists, wrongfully condemned or accused misfits, whose panicked flailing in vain attempts to free themselves only furthers their eventual demise. David Goodis is still not an author you read because you want to see good things happen to good people—even though it’s more of a detective novel, it is still a Goodis novel—but compared to the last Goodis I read—The Wounded and The Slain—Corey Bradford’s life was peachy.

I wouldn’t say The Secret Squad is the best thing David Goodis ever wrote, but I found it a capable detective story and a very likable novel. The evocative setting and twisty-turny plot are standouts, and make up for those more repetitive and internalized “have a chat with my badge” sections. It’s a great entry drug into David Goodis for fans of detective/crime fiction, dipping into the dark and misanthropic waters of Corey Bradford rather than diving into the crushing depths of, say, Down There. The Secret Squad is not Goodis at his best—that would probably be Dark Passage or The Burglar—but if this excellent read is Goodis at his worst, it showcases just how damn good he was. His jazzy prose and rich atmosphere are hard to beat.

(Full review found here.)

[Trent · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I can't simply pick a favorite book by David Goodis, for some reason this is the one I've read the most. Andrew Vachss said of Goodis, "An obsessed genius who didn't last long, but he could put Jim Thompson on the trailer anytime he wanted."

I agree. I personally like Goodis much more than Thompson, though I have to admit Thompson is quite astounding.

Corey Bradford, Night Squad's protagonist, is someone I relate very much to, though, whether it's a good or bad thing (maybe it's just a thing), I relate almost too closely with all of Goodis' characters. Lean, mean and insightful, this is crime fiction and existentialism blending and working miraculous magic. If you've read Goodis in the past and liked him, you'll definitely like this one.

[Powder River Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was actually a decent detective story. Strangely the main character, Corey Bradford, was a likable guy; he is a drunken bum who owned his mistakes, though he seemed to enjoy them. His fall from whatever grace he began with makes him perfect for the The Night Squad.

Would I try another book from David Goodis? Possibly. From reading about him, his stories are rather dark but they appear to be good.

Can't say I had a favorite scene. Lots of twists and turns along the way which I enjoy. The Night Squad is made up of some pretty pathetic low life officers but in the end they get the job done...one way or another. Actually the first scene when he saved Grogan was the tell all to the story.....he's a bad guy, though not destroyed totally and he has a great command of the street even though he's no longer a cop.

I received this free audiobook from the narrator and Audible.com. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A corrupt police precinct wants to put a hardened criminal on the payroll. Are they making him an offer for his mad criminal skills or is he getting The Big Set-Up?
David Goodis' hardboiled crime novel "Night Squad" is a masterpiece of deadpan humor. Perhaps the greatest crime novel with an enema scene in it. Drunk chicks, fat dames, and fistfights. David Goodis always delivers!

[Roger King · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cat had nine lives.

Every now and then you have to take a break from
Tolstoy or Hemingway and try on a little crime noir. This was a good one: dames, gangsters, crooked cops, exes, alley cats, rats, double crossing, triple crossing, plot twists, and ultimately a triple retribution.

[Guy Salvidge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Late and not especially memorable Goodis. Goodis by the numbers.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading a slew of nearly indistinguishable Goodis novels, I finally found one that stands out. With this portrait of a crooked ex-cop who has a unique moral code, the author finally turns away from the fatalism that suffuses his books and, instead, grounds his characters' choices and behavior in socio-economic reality. While I understand that this is a doctrine common to noirs, at times the attitude of "oh, why do anything? everything is just predetermined and inevitable" leads to little narrative tension or character growth; often, frankly, it feels like lazy writing (I guess I'm just not an existentialist at heart).

Not here. Corey and the other denizens of the "Swamp" are poor and vulnerable and victimized by police and con-men alike (only in a slum could a child be bitten by a rat). Many suffer from PTSD and Post-War Disillusionment (both noir staples). To cope, they drink and gamble; get high and get laid. Corey did all of this -- like many cops -- but he got caught and busted; his marriage fell apart; he's got no money. He's now acting purely in his own self-interest and will spend nearly the entire book playing all sides against each other in order to achieve it. If only his conscience -- symbolized by a phantom pain -- didn't keep interfering...

This is, thus far, my favorite of the author's books and is textbook noir: not only for all the reasons I list above, but also because it takes corruption (moral, physical, political) as one of its themes. Here, the police are little better than the gangsters they often cover for. Corey is torn between the two groups: neither cop nor criminal, he's in a liminal stage for most of the book, but each choice he makes brings him closer to picking a side until, by the end, his character arc ends in redemption.

As usual, Mr. Goodis offers detailed descriptions of space -- urban blight in all its glory -- and down-and-out characters just looking to get by. While there is a mystical element to the book that might seem out of place in noir, I was fine with it because plot points made it organic (only a decent man would have attracted a woman like a Lillian). It also contains a rare Goodis happy ending that is very much earned.

I do have some quibbles. Female characters are vehicles for male characters' stories rather than given any subjectivity of their own. Coincidences are rife and often implausible. And it isn't clear, given all that the Night Squad does, that Corey's desire to stay with them is really expiation; rather it seems like the less bad of two bad options.

4 1/2 stars. If you're looking for a book with all the classic elements of noir that also manages to say something about the trauma engendered by urban decay, I recommend this book. Trigger warnings for homophobic and racist language.

[Ron Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful Noir

In “Night Squad” David Goodis has written a wonderful piece of classic noir fiction. Originally published in 1961, the novel portrays the seamiest underbelly of the city with a cast of unusual characters ranging from a lady bar bouncer to a well-educated gentleman who has elected a life of poverty after a family tragedy. Gang members, killers, and worse are presented in an easy, matter-of-fact way.

There is plenty of brutal, ugly violence that Goodis describes, through the eyes of the protagonist, Corey Bradford, a defrocked cop hired by a separate, disreputable division of the police department. The violence is underplayed, though, without a lot of unnecessary elaboration, leaving much to the twisted readers’ imaginations. For example: “Grogan fired three times in quick succession and Kingsley sat there with two holes in his head and red-black rubble where his nose had been.” Another scene: “Some pieces of rubber sprayed out, mixed with pieces of bone and bloody flesh. From the back of the gunman’s skull, a thin stream of brains trickled down.”

Goodis is a master of powerful subtlety and adds a hint of humor. The lead bad guy is occupied, at one point, getting a “high colonic,” and there is a brief reference to a community leader who had a late night liaison with a zebra at the zoo. This is a very well-written, suspenseful, and unpredictable book. Fun, too.

[Paperbackbooks86 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first noir novel, and I picked it up based on a few reviews I came across, all saying to give this book a
Shot. After finding it for cheap, I put it on my list to read, and just wrapped it up as my final book for 2021.

This book had me hooked from start to finish. I was immediately swept into a black and white noir film. My mind was able to picture characters, voice, locations and everything else. It was like watching a movie the whole book.

The twists and double crossing kept me turning the pages. The characters I throughly enjoyed. If I had to find something to complain about, I would say the ending. It ends somewhat abrupt, but not enough to knock it off the 5 stars I’m giving it.

It’s a quick read that is highly entertaining, and from what I have read from other reviews this isn’t even close to his best work! I would probably say this was my favorite read of 2021, cant recommend it enough.

[Andrew Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better David Goodis novels of the ones I've read.

In Night Squad, a recently fired cop living in a trippy fictional neighborhood called "The Swamp" takes conflicting jobs for a brutal gambler and a notoriously tough special unit of cops called Night Squad, hoping to come out with a large pile of cash.

The plot is fast moving and there's lots of sharp, early 50's noir dialogue.

As with many of the especially prolific crime writers from the mid to late 20th century, there's some "experimenting" with the plot that falls flat. Most of it here has to do with the main character speaking to his badge and the badge speaking back, but most of this boring stuff doesn't last for too long when it shows up.

Overall, a great piece from David Goodis, a writer who has been extremely underrated in his own country.

[Jason McCracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure pulpy noir with dirty cops, double crossin' dames and nasty villains that don't really care who they kill to get what they want. Oh, and the Night Squad. You do not fuck with the Night Squad.

For an instant he thought of arguing the point. Then he tossed the idea away, reminding himself that this was Night Squad and there was no arguing with Night Squad. Because they're screwballs, he told himself. Because they're the kind that oughta be in cages and if you get them upset, you're messing with homicidal maniacs.

I also think the "Hero" of this tale may have been suffering from a severe case of schizophrenia.

[Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an "ok" read for most of the book... Corey was a disgraced ex-cop, hired by a man to figure out who did him wrong and then taken back in by the police for a secret unit. He's battling the bottle but not as amusingly as the whimsical town drunk, and gets into a few scrapes along the way before realizing just how dark people and life can be.

But wow.... when Grogan prepares to blind his wife with lye because she made a fool of him? That's some dark psycho-angry stuff right there. I'll remember that more than anything else in this book.

[Wes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good stuff. Stumbled upon this for sale on my kindle when I was browsing for something to read. I've always like noir, so this seemed right up my alley. Fast read and with a pretty compelling main character. You're in his head space the entire book which is pretty good stuff. The mystery itself is no real shocker and runs pretty smooth.

Certainly for fans of the genre or Goodis himself.

[Magnus Stanke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning, this last (I think) paperback by David Goodis.
The tone is as pessimistic and existentialist as you'd expect, the style economic and the hero decidedly compromised. There are several instances when he is too soused to do anything meaningful and yet we as the reader never stop rooting for him.
The book is full of suspense and action and overall a breeeze to read.
A hard-boiled masterpiece.

[Ricky Mikeabono · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fine bit of noir pulp, and Goodis is a new author to me. It was nice to read a standalone detective novel with all the series I've gotten caught up in. Good amount of action, a seedy setting, and racy situations. The little asides and quips were a bit awkward, but maybe that's what people did back then. An enjoyable read but I doubt I'll remember much about it in a few months; it will blend into the plots of the others in this genre.

[J.M. Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book.

This is one of DG’s Later works and while I have loved all of the other books from Night Passage to They Shoot Horses Don’t They This one was a tough book to finish. A lot of the exposition a lot of needless repetition and the noir was a little cartoonish. I found myself skimming and that’s never a good sign.

[Edward Champion · Rating 2 out of 5]

A failure, alas. It turns out that Goodis and cops don't mix nearly as well as Goodis and lowlifes. Reading this tale of role-swapping, I oddly enough longed to reread Dick's A SCANNER DARKLY. Still contains a few gems.