Kiss and Kill

by Richard Deming

He had found her in a quiet bar -- a sulky-mouthed, awkward, green-eyed kid trying desperately to pick up a man. He taught her how to dress, to walk, to laugh, made her into the kind of woman who makes every man reach into his pocket for hundred-dollar bills. Looking at her now, Sam was proud of himself. He had done a good job on her. He was almost sorry she had to die...

Genres: Pulp Noir, Pulp

Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Richard Deming (1915-1983) was a solid and reliable pro whose crime-writing career extended from late 1940s pulps to early 1980s digests. He also wrote several volumes of popular non-fiction late in his life.

He is most likely to be remembered as one of the most prolific contributors to Manhunt and the early days of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and as a paperback original writer, sometimes of novels based on TV shows (Dragnet, The Mod Squad, and under the pseudonym Max Franklin, Starsky and Hutch). He was also a frequent ghost for the Ellery Queen team on paperback originals and for Brett Halliday on lead novelettes for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deming’s “Kiss and Kill” (1960) is a top-notch, fun-to-read, long-con novel. Sam Carter amd Mavis Train are both con artists who meet at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills while trolling for victims. They are two peas in a pod and they take to each other like peanut butter and jelly, operating coast to coast, conning elderly widows out of money by claiming a brother is being held for ransom by the Communists in North Korea and they need $10,000 to get him out. Later, they graduate to fleecing younger widows with Sam marrying them after finding them in lonely hearts advertisements and the collecting their various assets when they met with fatal accidents. Between jobs, Sam and Mavis would enjoy themselves, spending lavishly, and moving from town to town, one step ahead of the wire reports. Deming absolutely nails their characters and makes it fun despite the macabre world of what they were doing.

Carter, who narrates the novel, tells us that he was “the careful man” and that you have to be careful “to get away with an average of three murders a year. We sort of drifted into the business of murder. In the beginning neither Mavis nor I had any plans more serious than working bunco dodges. Maybe if we’d never met, neither of us would ever have turned to murder. But we did meet, and as a team we could hardly avoid moving into the big time. We complemented each other too beautifully to miss.”

When they meet at the posh hotel, both looking to work a bunco dodge, Sam quickly realizes that Mavis has never worked a con before and that she needs training, but he also realizes that she was exactly the type of girl he needed to work his score. Mavis was “a slim, black-haired girl of about twenty-five with a firm, well-formed body and disturbing green eyes.” He explains: “But Mavis was no artist. Her idea of how heiresses acted was derived from seeing movies. Up to now I had assumed she was merely play-acting for the thrill of it. Now I realized with a shock that she was trying to work a bunco game and had picked me as her mark.”

Although they fall in love and marry, the major con they begin working together is Sam marrying widows and taking them for everything they had. To do this, Mavis had to play the sister while Sam married the young widows and honeymooned with them. This led, of course, to tension between them.

This novel seems like a perfect set-up for a movie, starting with the meet-cute as one con artist tries to take advantage of the other, both thinking the other had money. Deming expertly keeps the story fresh through to the shocking ending and keeps Sam’s narration in character throughout.

[Edwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crisp plotting and a nice twist drive this short noir that tells the story of a sociopathic grifter and his wife/accomplice whose scams escalate to murder as they travel across the country bilking single women out of their money. The dollar was clearly worth a lot more when this was published. This era of paperback originals spawned several novels where the narrator was unreliable or a jerk. This is certainly one of the better ones. Recommended.

[Jim Reddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A con artist and his protégé pose as brother and sister as they target widows. Eventually their scams escalate and include murder. Well written but it became pretty obvious where it was leading to towards the end.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't crazy about this one. Sam is a bunco artist and when things start off he has it too easy. The first two thirds of the book follow the evolution of he and Mavis, his wife but acting as his sister when they are working a scam. He finds widows/spinsters to marry and then kill for small scores. You can see the ending coming from practically the beginning. It's well-written, but Jim Thompson did this kind of amoral sociopath so much better.

[Tom Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Deming was a 20th century pulp author with a specialty in crime fiction. Later in life, he wrote branded paperback tie-ins for Mod Squad, Dragnet, and Starsky and Hutch.

His 1960 short crime novel KISS AND KILL was a mid-career effort originally published in the U.S. by Zenith Books and since reprinted by Armchair Fiction.

The book is a darn masterpiece.

Small-time con-man Sam Carter meets a fellow bunco artist named Mavis. They decide to marry, team up and seek out bigger cons. The angle they develop involves posing as brother and sister, targeting wealthy spinsters for Sam to marry, and then making off with his new wife’s cash.

Without spoiling anything, the first person narration (Sam tells the story) recalls a Jim Thompson sociopathic anti-hero. Mavis is a sexy and devoted partner toggling between her role as a lusty wife and a chaste sister. The plotting is crisp and efficient and reminded me of Harry Whittington at his best. Finally, the twist ending will leave you howling and dying to read more of Deming’s work.

Fans of hardboiled con-game crime fiction should drop everything and get a copy of this one. It’s hard to understate the perfection of this quick read.

Highly recommended. Essential reading.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Recently I reread this novel as I’d forgotten that I’d read it previously, but after starting it I kept going once I got into it again, always a good thing & my rating stays 4 stars as before.)

KISS AND KILL by Richard Deming is the story of Sam, a bunco artist and his protégé Mavis who start out as a team targeting altruistic widows to scam across the country, and eventually come up with a different plan once that becomes too risky, and ends up escalating into murder.

Classic pulp fiction novel that is somewhat easy to guess the ending about two-thirds way through, but still a good read for fans of the genre.

4 stars.

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam is a conman who needs a temporary partner - enter Mavis. They get along very well, but decide to marry and change their game a little. Sam marries lonely women with money, murders them and collects. Mavis goes along with whatever he decides... almost always.

Well-written tale of two amoral people who run afoul of their own nasty natures. It will keep you guessing up to the last page - which will leave you quite bewildered... Definitely worth reading, though. Enjoy!

[John Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superior noir thriller about a couple of Honeymoon Killer-style con artists. It may not be up to the standards of Williford or Westlake--the surprise ending, after all, isn't much of a surprise--but with its crisp pace and economical storytelling, K&K is far better than many of its contemporary paperback originals that are being reprinted as "rediscovered cult classics" these days.

[Oli Turner]

Fabulous hard boiled noir. A short punchy conman tale featuring betrayal and backfiring schemes. Saw the twist coming but it was a fantastic finale nonetheless. My first richard deming novel. I will be reading more of his work.

[B.G. Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read two other con artist novels that I can remember, one was Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham, the other was The Grifters by Jim Thompson. I Can highly recommend both of those books, and now I can say that this is yet another great con novel worth your time. I just picked it up knowing that I wanted to read a Richard Deming novel, but had no idea what it was about. Sometimes its good to just pick something based on the title and cover.

Sam Carter is already a professional con artist when he meets Mavis Train, his soon to be partner, as she amateurishly attempts a con of her own. They become lovers, but with little pretense of romance, as Sam is just taking her on as a matter of course. The story is narrated by Sam, and Deming does an admirable job in putting across Sam to the reader as a calculating sociopath. Mavis is more than willing throughout their relationship to bend to every fucked up whim of Sams, and let me tell you, his whims get pretty dark.

For every con they set up, Sam and Mavis pose as brother and sister, with Sam at first only fleecing widows. They start simple, but get more involved as Sam decides that promising marriage to these women,as well as sex, is the best method for bringing them into his confidence game. They work many cons which necessitate leaving town immediately afterwards, but oddly, it's only when Sam begins killing their marks that they become less desperate and really hit their stride. Of course these murders are carried out with the sole purpose of Sam collecting insurance money and whatever else can be left to him. Mavis, at the same time, has no moral qualms about seeing the women dead who are causing her no small amount of jealousy. She's expected to play her role to the hilt, which involves not having any physical contact with Sam during their con. Does that sound like a scorned woman? I thought so too, but don't get any ideas, this one doesn't end the way you think it would.

Many cons are worked and much time passes until the odd couple finally meet their end in the form of a female mark by the name of Helen and her brother Dewey. This turned out to be a very dark tale that had me putting a few more Deming novels on the TBR list. Incidentally It's marked more by doom than desperation; a slow burning tale with all the sinful elements. Dark, deadly, and fun for the whole family