Pulp Fiction discussion

What pulp/crime novel are you currently reading or just finished

Knowledge Lost wrote: "What pulp/crime novel are you currently reading or just finished"

Just finished Max Allan Collins' "First Quarry," a few days ago. A few chapters away from finishing "The Big Sleep." I've got two volumes of the Library of America's "Raymond Chandler." I'm converted. I'll read myself silly through the Philip Marlowe novels, plus whatever else this merry band elects to read.

Hehe what a funny coincidence Mike!

Im reading Quarry's List the second book in original 70s Quarry series.

Quarry is sick bastard but fun to read.

I hope to start The Wheelman tonight. Brought home the new George Pelecanos, The Cut from the library, but my husband nabbed it from my stack.

Mike wrote: "Knowledge Lost wrote: "What pulp/crime novel are you currently reading or just finished"

Just finished Max Allan Collins' "First Quarry," a few days ago. A few chapters away from finishing "The B..."

You might want to spread out all the Chandler novels just so you don't miss out on some other great novels

Knowledge Lost wrote: "Mike wrote: "Knowledge Lost wrote: "What pulp/crime novel are you currently reading or just finished"

Just finished Max Allan Collins' "First Quarry," a few days ago. A few chapters away from fin..."

You're absolutely right. I should spread them out. The question is whether I can muster up the patience. I did pick up The Ghosts of Belfast, the first in the Jack Lennon series by Stuart Neville. "Celtic Noir at its best. Well, we'll see. The Nook "Find of the Day" and Kindle's "Deal of the Day" is nickel-ing and dime-ing my poor banks account. And so it goes. Grin

Yeah I wanted to read them all at once, but I've held back

I read the 3 Quarry books from HCC & liked them so much that I got the rest & read them all back to back. They're fun, even on a reread, & quick.

Knowledge Lost wrote: "Yeah I wanted to read them all at once, but I've held back"

Finished The Big Sleep last night. I can't believe I had not read Raymond Chandler. I must admit, it's hard to resist going straight into Farewell, My Lovely.

But, on to Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro for Literary Exploration's January, 2012 read.

Reviewing The Big Sleeptoday, time allowing. Thanks, Group for a great read.

I just picked up Mickey Spillane's THE DELTA FACTOR (pub. 1968) to go along with the 2011 release of THE CONSUMMATA (prolonged sequel) published by Hardcase Crime - plan on reading these as a 1-2 punch in the next few days after I finish my current read (a fantasy epic)

I have Delta Factor as only 2 stars, but no review & it's about Morgan the raider. I think I got it mixed up with a Tiger Mann book. I don't like Tiger Mann. Darn you! Now I have to read it to find out. My TBR is too big, already.

Josh wrote: "I just picked up Mickey Spillane's THE DELTA FACTOR (pub. 1968) to go along with the 2011 release of THE CONSUMMATA (prolonged sequel) published by Hardcase Crime - plan on reading these as a 1-2 p..."

Let us know what you think of Delta Factor. I have not read Spillane yet and Spillane is important author for Max Allan Collins whose noir, hardboiled PI books i like alot.

I'm currently reading THE CHAOS WE KNOW by Keith Rawson - a collection of short stories full of raw emotion and dark characters. Review to come soon.

Mohammed wrote: "Josh wrote: "I just picked up Mickey Spillane's THE DELTA FACTOR (pub. 1968) to go along with the 2011 release of THE CONSUMMATA (prolonged sequel) published by Hardcase Crime - plan on reading the..."

Spillane's Mike Hammer should be first on the list of required reading for fans of hardboiled and noir alike. Desptire the place-setting, it fails to age.

Josh wrote: "Spillane's Mike Hammer should be first on the list of required reading for fans of hardboiled and noir alike. Desptire the place-setting, it fails to age. "

As I wrote in my 4 star review of Delta Factor, I prefer Spillane's stand alones & short stories to his series, especially Tiger Mann. I started with his Mike Hammer series & they're pretty good, but the repetitive elements get to me. For instance,the romantic tension between Velda & Hammer became a joke.

Has anyone read Spillane's YA books? Apparently he wrote 2. I'm expecting Ship That Never Was to show up. It should be an interesting read.

Just finished the short story collection by Keith Rawson THE CHAOS WE KNOW - review here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... - 5 stars.

Currently reading THIS IS LIFE by Seth Harwood, the follow-up to JAKE WAKES UP, pretty good so far.

I WILL get to the DELTA FACTOR by Spillane as mentioned here previously - my reading lends itself to the sporadic at times ;-)

The next crime book I read is going to be Bury Me Deep: A Novel by Megan Abbott

I just finished David Corbett's DONE FOR A DIME - not as good as some of his other works but well worth a look. It's a little less noir and more crime.

Am about to start James Ellroy's non-fiction MY DARK PLACES

Dan wrote: "The next crime book I read is going to be Bury Me Deep: A Novel by Megan Abbott"

BURY ME DEEP is my second favourite Megan Abbott book behind last years THE END OF EVERTHING.

I was looking up a pulp cover & came across this site:
http://www.philsp.com/index.html

If you follow the magazine links, most show the pulp covers. It's not just fantasy & SF, but everything including crime, detective, & romance.
http://www.philsp.com/data/image122.h...

I love pulp covers. My father used to read a lot of them & I remember being fascinated by them from an early age. I think it was curiosity about what was inside that led me to read so much so early.

I just joined up, hello all; and the book I'm currently reading is "Florida Roadkill" by Tim Dorsey. It has a kind of kitschy feel to the novel, but I truly love the writing style. This book is the first in the "Serge Storms" series; so if any of the series could make it into the rotation, I know I'd be up on the conversation.Florida Roadkill

I love Tim Dorsey! The entire series is a riot. Definitely too bright, sunny and funny to be considered noir, though. Serge is definitely one of a kind.

Oh, and by the way - welcome to the group, Jake.

Thanks, Melki!
I know it's not really a noir; it's kind of like a bright and airy version of a Tarantino film like "Resovoir Dogs" or (please forgive this reference) "Pulp Fiction." But, one series I've finished reading is the Serial Killers Uncut - A Psycho Thriller by Blake Crouchand J.A. Konrath. After reading the basis of the stories, I went back and re-read it while including all of the extra books (such as the 'Jack Daniels' series and the 'Andrew Z. Thomas' series) which are interspersed throughout. You don't need to read all the books to get the story, but when you do the plot lines expend greatly.

What's wrong with Pulp Fiction? I liked both it & Reservoir Dogs a lot.

I've read several of the Jack Daniels books & some other stuff by Konrath. He's OK. I got Cherry Bomb not long ago, but haven't gotten to it yet. He has a lot of free stuff on his web site, including the first JD novel. That's how I started reading them. The first thing I ever read by him was some stuff about the publishing industry. He's quit the Big 6 & is self publishing now.

I meant the movie name and group name were the same; they're both very good movies (at least, in my opinion). The first JD novel that I read was Shot of Tequila; which he had written as a prequel after the JD series had become popular. I like the series, but after reading the first five books, I took a break and started reading Florida Roadkill just to break up the series a little bit.
I'm glad to see that J.A. Konrath is self-publishing now; a publishing house wouldn't let him give away as much as he does to his faithful readers.

You should check out Konrath's blog about his take on self-publishing & the state of the Big 6. It's interesting. He & Barry Eisler have a discussion about it that he's put up on Smashwords for free. Eisler also recently turned down a huge contract to self-publish. They say they're getting more money & books out much faster this way, plus they're selling them for a LOT less.

Interesting stuff, although I don't fully buy all of it. They do point out some of the pitfalls, but only in passing.

So, I'm pretty behind on all of my group reads due to the holidays, vacation, and taking what I thought was a short pitstop at an entertaining Stephen King book. 1000+ pages later, I'm finally back.

I finally have been able to get my hands on a copy of the Postman Always Rings Twice, and am about 60% through it. I will request the Big Sleep from my interlibrary loan. Otherwise, working on Catch 22: then my next 3 are to catch up on book reads --> Never Let Me Go, Nicholas Nickleby, and Tenant at Wildfell Hall.

Been a little while between posts - I'm current reading 'Wee Rockets' by Gerard Brennan. It follows a gang of fourteen-year-old hoods as they rampage through West Belfast. I should finish this today and write a review - likely to be 5 stars.

I'm reading The Long Goodbye - Chandler's writing is the greatest! He gets so much out of every sentence - and love the LA setting, so familiar. I came to it via Murakami's memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - because he mentioned translating both The Long Good Bye and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby so got curious and very glad I did - have a number of other pulp/detective/noir reads lined up.

Mohammed wrote: "Josh wrote: "I just picked up Mickey Spillane's THE DELTA FACTOR (pub. 1968) to go along with the 2011 release of THE CONSUMMATA (prolonged sequel) published by Hardcase Crime - plan on reading the..."

I finally got to this in my TBR - would love to discuss THE DELTA FACTOR in more depth at some point. I give it 2.5 stars - justification in a review to be posted sometime today. It's not that I didn’t like the book (2.5 star books do the job but aren’t anything special imo) it's just a few things that failed to gel (similar to my other 2.5 star 2012 review of THIS IS LIFE by Seth Hardwood).

I gave Delta Factor 4 stars, but since I can barely remember it, I think I was being generous because it happened to tickle me that day. My review is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Jim wrote: "I gave Delta Factor 4 stars, but since I can barely remember it, I think I was being generous because it happened to tickle me that day. My review is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/r..."

My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... - As I stated, not a bad book but nothing overtly special. I am starting the sequel today.

I read your review & liked it. I thought this line was funny.
Morgan the Raider is the perpetual doppelganger of Spillane’s hero in the more acclaimed PI series with the protagonist a mirror image of Mike Hammer.

Exactly. Spillane has one decent main character that he writes. That was one of the reasons the YA novel he wrote flopped so badly for me. I changed my star rating down to a 3. I was feeling generous & tend to rate Spillane different from other authors. He's very much in a class by himself & people either like or hate his style.

One of the reasons I like his stand alone novels better than his series is because he doesn't have so much stupid baggage with the love interest. The Mike-Velda or the Tiger Mann-?? relationship is just too stupid & drawn out.

Hmm...now I'm sorry I didn't stick with my high school Spanish classes.

Jim wrote: "I read your review & liked it. I thought this line was funny.
Morgan the Raider is the perpetual doppelganger of Spillane’s hero in the more acclaimed PI series with the protagonist a mirror imag..."

I agree with the Velda love interest sub plot that populates pretty much EVERY Mike Hammer novel - it did get too much towards the end.

Finshed THE CONSUMMATA, the second Morgan the Raider book - I rate it the same (2.5 stars). It felt very much like a Carter Brown book, and had one too many twists in the end. Review to come soon. That being said, I hope Max Allan Collins writes more of these (dont know if Spillane had much more material on Morgan prior to his death).

I've just started reading a collection of short stories called BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled

For those who are interested - my review of THE CONSUMMATA by hardboiled heavyweights Spillane and Max Allan Collins can be found here:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

In a nutshell: Classic pulp (for good and bad)

Knowledge Lost wrote: "I've just started reading a collection of short stories called BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled"

I have this in the TBR - am tossing up between reading BEAT TO A PULP: Hardboiled or PULP INK as my next anthology read. Interested to see your thoughts on it.

Josh wrote: "I have this in the TBR - am tossing up between reading BEAT TO A PULP: Hardboiled or PULP INK as my next anthology read. Interested to see your thoughts on it. "

Not far through it yet, but so far so good. I like the modern pulp style and the fact the first short story refers to PAC man as being Digital Heroin

Jim wrote: "I gave Delta Factor 4 stars, but since I can barely remember it, I think I was being generous because it happened to tickle me that day. My review is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/r..."
With The Consummata coming out I decided to give The Delta Factor a try. I made it half way through and gave up. When I would read it barley held my interest and when I was not reading I found myself finding excuses not to pick it bak up.

The Consummata is co-written by Max Allan Collins. I've never cared much for their work together, although I like them both separately. It seems to bring out the worst in both writers or, as my friend Dan puts it so well, "Posthumous collaborations are always a crap shoot, emphasis on the crap." He went on to rate the book with only 2 stars, so I doubt I'll bother.

I think people either like Spillane or not, as I said in my review. They're written in a style that either tickles or repels, but rarely is there a middle ground. Like a grade B action movie, there is nothing to take seriously & if you can't just go with it, then you hate it because of all the irritations. I understand completely. I feel that way about his Tiger Mann books.

Knowledge Lost wrote: "I've just started reading a collection of short stories called BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled"

A collection I really enjoyed.

Jim wrote: "The Consummata is co-written by Max Allan Collins. I've never cared much for their work together, although I like them both separately. It seems to bring out the wo..."

Count me as one of those that like both authors separately or together.

Now delving into a little Irish Noir. The troubles are not over in the land with four green fields. In The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville, Gerry Fegan is haunted by the ghosts of twelve people he murdered during his time as an IRA hitter. Rich, bleak, and brutal, this book is turning me into a fan of the series, The John Lennon Investigations.

I just finished John Le Carre's The Spy Wh Came in from the Cold. I've shied away from Le Carre in the past because I found it boring and confusing. I now blame myself for not giving this an honest try. What an amazing novel. LOVED IT! Can't wait to read more.

I really enjoyed BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled and now I'm reading The Guilty Ones

Not pulp, but I'm reading The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie aka Dr. House. It's pretty good, a first person narration with attitude.

I'm interested in knowing what that book is like, I know Kim read it

Currently reading David Peace's Nineteen Seventy Four Book One of the Red Riding Quartet.

Dark, fast and dirty. Told in a Yorkshire vernacular. Flawed central character, corrupt legal officials , the backstabbing world of the media...all against the backdrop of the hunt for a child predator/murderer. Not really sure I will come out the other side unscathed. I will have to let you know.