Pulp Fiction discussion

Book publisher, I have no affiliation. Wonderful selection, fantastic covers.

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/

I stop by to look around every once in awhile. What made me think of it just now is the poll title, A Touch of Death, where the cover linked is theirs. Also currently $1.99 US for the Kindle edition.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Book publisher, I have no affiliation. Wonderful selection, fantastic covers.

http://www.hardcasecrime.com/

I stop by to look around every once in awhile. What made me think of it just now is the..."

Fantastic covers which definitely grab your attention and demand that you look closer. I've enjoyed a fair few of theirs over the years.

I have to admit that the covers were one reason I bought them. I've read about half of them up until the publisher & book size changed. They no longer fit properly into the bookcase I have for them.

I originally found out about them because The Dead Man's Brother was published by them. Zelazny is a favorite author & this was his only crime novel.

Jim wrote: "I have to admit that the covers were one reason I bought them. I've read about half of them up until the publisher & book size changed. They no longer fit properly into the bookcase I have for them..."

Cheers for the tip-off. I've picked up a couple of his son's books recently but haven't yet dipped into them... Destination Unknown and Too Late to Call Texas

I've only read The Day the Leash Gave Way and Other Stories by Trent. It was awful. I had no idea he'd written so many more, but I'll avoid them.

Have you seen the official Hard Case Crime GR group?

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

The publisher, Charles Ardai did mention A Touch of Death as one of the HCC he thought he could recommend without reservations to anyone.

At least, that's how I remember it.

At any rate, this is his baker's dozen of all time faves:

At the risk of offending any authors I've left out, here's a personal baker's dozen of favorites (in publication order)

* GRIFTER’S GAME (Block)
* THE CONFESSION (Stansberry)
* HOME IS THE SAILOR (Keene)
* THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART (Block)
* THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE (McBain)
* A TOUCH OF DEATH (Williams)
* SONGS OF INNOCENCE (Aleas)
* THE MURDERER VINE (Rifkin)
* NOBODY’S ANGEL (Clark)
* THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH (Winter)
* JOYLAND (King)
* QUARRY’S VOTE (Collins)
* SOHO SINS (Vine)

Speaking of Block (as you've ID'd him above), I had the occasion to know him a bit not as an author. The one thing worth sharing is that his best friend was author Donald E. Westlake.

Westlake and Block co-wrote a spicy novel together:

Sin Hellcat

I think they may have written more than one together, but that's the one I read.

My solid impression was that even this early in their careers, their styles were pretty distinctive. Block jokes in the intro that he can't say who wrote what, but it's darn obvious.

I have read several of his Bernie Rhodenbarr novels, but no Scudder ones. Also one his Evan Tanner. I have never read Westlake.

Christopher wrote: "Westlake and Block co-wrote a spicy novel together:..."

They were part of a bunch of well known authors writing soft porn in the early 60s to make money as the pulps faded. There's a list of many here:
http://greenleaf-classics-books.com/v...

I found out about this when I found a similar book by Robert Silverberg entitled Gang Girl / Sex Bum. I was shocked as I'd always thought of him as very straight & uptight. I have no idea why. I guess because of his position in the SF community. The stories themselves weren't a big deal, but I found the foreword & afterwords of tremendous interest due to censorship. I go into it in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It's fascinating & the censorship angle is scary as hell.

Christopher wrote: "Have you seen the official Hard Case Crime GR group?..."

I used to belong to that group. I even created a bookshelf for it. There's 30 books with reviews here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

One of my goals is to read them in order, Haha, i've only read the first five and a couple of other's and I have enjoyed them for the most part.

I've only read four Hard Case Crime books:

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
Money Shot by Christa Faust
Grave Descend by Michael Crichton writing as John Lange
The Vengeful Virgin by Gil Brewer

They each got 3 star ratings from me.

I do like the pulpy covers.

By the way, there's a list of the Hard Case Crime books that you might find interesting: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I love the Hard Case Crime series, and have read more than half of the series. They started out with a subscription series, which lasted until they changed publishers. I miss that; it took me back to school days, eagerly anticipating the box of books which the teacher would open and distribute. (Got my first Heinlein that way, The Green Hills of Earth.)

I have almost all of them, and like Jim, I'm running out of room to properly shelve them. I'm sorry that a handful are in hardback only, and I don't have any interest in the graphic novels.

Charles Ardai has done a great job mixing classic and newer crime writers, and yes, the covers are classic! I'm looking forward to Killer, Come Back to Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury, coming out this August.

Not unusual for some of these writers to cross genres. Roger Zelazny, Fredric Brown, Robert Silverberg, John D MacDonald, Isaac Asimov, to name a few. A lot of the pulp writers (including Heinlein!) wrote under pseudonyms to avoid competing with themselves in the various pulp magazines, or to write adult novels without adulterating their reputation - hey, a guy has to make a living!