Top of the Heap by Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A.A. Fair

There is a saying in my head that states, “You read one HardCase Crime; you have to read another!” So, shortly after finishing Peter Rabe’s Stop This Man! from the Hard Case Crime imprint, I immediately went to my shelves and discovered I had another Erle Stanley Gardner book that I had shamefully neglected. Top of the Heap (1952) published under the pen name of A.A. Fair; features the private eye team of Cool and Lam, and like the Perry Mason books, is a long series spanning over 40 years. This work was number thirteen!

Normally, I do make an effort to read an author’s work in order of the series, but I was so compelled to read this book after the first paragraph that I couldn’t stop reading it. The novel begins with a tall, burly character pausing at the door of our duo detectives’ agency and simply asks, “B. Cool?” That line makes me chuckle. Perhaps it’s the modern connotation of the word cool, but I found that a part of a great opening scene.

Not knowing the series past events I was worried that I would be lost, but I didn’t feel that way at all. The story picks up right away. Bertha Cool is the senior, controlling partner at the agency and Lam is the chief operative that does most of the groundwork. The agency is hired to find a couple of ladies that seemed to have abandoned our burly gentleman from the opening, but after Lam figures that the job was a set-up for a quick alibi; he begins to dig a little deeper into this affair at the cost of the agency’s, and his own, good name. The story entangles when trying to unravel the shady business inside a nightclub named the Green Door that has tangled into a mobster’s affairs. While the owner of several mining companies, one coincidentally named the Green Door, goes missing, all evidence leads to Lam’s client committing murder and disposing of the body.

What really strikes me about Gardner’s work is the consistency and detail in his structure, and this is only the second novel I’ve read by Gardner. I could feel the elements of the mystery stacking up and playing out in much the same way as The Case of the Velvet Claws. 

For example, in the Velvet Claws, Perry Mason is accused of murder and wanted by the police; but, refuses to stop defending his client until his accuser is proven wrong despite the fact that the accuser and the client is the same person. Likewise, Lam, accused of blackmail after exposing the phony alibi angle refuses to stop working for his client despite the pursuit of the law and the mob. In fact, the client hires Lam to establish a phony alibi creates a good deal of suspicion from the start. There’s definitely a pattern here and one that I hope to explore further with my future reading of Gardner’s work. I really felt comfortable in Gardner’s hands, if you could describe reading a novel that way.

However, and most importantly, it is quite entertaining.

Jimbo's Crime Corner: Stop This Man! by Peter Rabe

Jimbo's Crime Corner: Stop This Man! by Peter Rabe: Peter Rabe's body of work is a relatively new discovery for me with the bulk of his work produced in the fifties and sixties....

Stop This Man! by Peter Rabe

Peter Rabe's body of work is a relatively new discovery for me with the bulk of his work produced in the fifties and sixties. His original Gold Medal paperbacks aren't easy to find, at least in my general area. However, I did pick up the very collectible Hard CaseCrime reprint of his 1955 novel Stop This Man! I'm a big fan of the Hard Case Crime imprint. Not only has the series introduced me to a great number of authors; they have also upheld the classic tradition of pulp artwork as evidenced by the cover of this book. That artwork alone makes me want to read it without even skimming the synopsis on the back.

I must say that the tone of this novel is very bleak and straight forward with a no-nonsense style prose. I have read that Donald Westlake was influenced by Rabe's writing style and I can definitely recognize that in Westlake's pseudonym Richard Stark novels. There's just enough character development to get the story moving and as the events unfold; there are just enough tidbits of background to become completely absorbed in the action.

Much like a film or a screenplay, the narrative alternates between characters. At first, it appears to be an FBI procedural/ chase novel, but it twists again becomes a heist novel. Then it twists back again into a chase. In retrospect, I find that this is what I enjoyed most; that is, the inability to pigeonhole the type of crime story that it tells. In fact, it contains FBI, Mobsters, ex-cons, dames, botched heists, gold, and nuclear radiation! (On a side note, the film version of Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly, also produced in 1955, deals with a mysterious stolen package that contains a valuable substance that turns out to be contaminated. The two stories would make a very interesting academic comparison in a much larger work for another day.)

At first, I actually thought this novel was going to be a disappointment; yet, Rabe is able to contain these elements into a story frame without running off course in any direction. The plot begins with an ex-con's supposed final heist. It goes wrong when he manages to steal contaminated gold ore. The ex-con, Catell, is determined to avoid another prison sentence, and in his efforts to off-load his contaminated score and avoid the authorities; he manages to sicken, not only himself, but also everyone around him. Which makes tracking his where a bouts that much easier for the FBI. Catell's character has a very existentialist vibe to him and reminds me of the films of Jean-Pierre Melville, such as Le Samouri. Without guessing the ending, you already feel that this character is doomed from the start.

Overall, I would recommend Rabe’s Stop This Man!

Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer in The Big Kill

Mike Hammer is another literary, or some would correct me, fictional, character that has survived in multiple incarnations of radio, television, and the silver screen. Visually, I'm most familiar with Stacy Keach's portrayal of Hammer from the CBS Television series Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer. However, the author, Mickey Spillane, took a stab starring as his own character in the film The Girl Hunters (1962) that Scorpion released on Blu-ray last year. Spillane's acting isn't stellar, but it isn't terrible. It works for the character. Although, having just recently watched The Girl Hunters it was hard to shake that image of Spillane as Mike Hammer in my head while reading the fifth novel in the series, The Big Kill (1951).

With as many women that Hammer notices eyeing him, you would expect a more rugged, handsome man. Spillane is short, stout, and his sarcasm falls flat. He resembles a cranky Jimmy Durante. Generally speaking, if it all possible, it is better to separate the author from the character. However, Spillane manages to combine the two entities into one believable creation. Imagining Spillane's physical appearance in the film role adds an unexpected quality to the images in my mind of the book. Almost a post-modern appreciation emerges with a sense of irony, especially when it comes to the outdated behaviorism.

I know several folks that find Spillane's character out of the times with his chauvinist and sexist attitudes. I admit I winced at few times at Hammer's quips towards females, but more so, I find myself chuckling at it. I can’t take it offensively. Perhaps Spillane knew it was silly. Luckily, I am able to separate from it. I see where it might rub folks some folks today wrong, but I do think the character motivations and the story wouldn’t work without the masculine slant. That is part of the appeal of the Mike Hammer series. In some respects, Mike Hammer is a crude, unsophisticated James Bond, especially when it comes to sleeping with the females.

Hammer is drowning his depression with booze when he notices a man carry a small infant into a crowded bar. Hammer watches and realizes that as the father cries, he’s saying his final farewells before he leaves his infant behind for good. Hammer chases after the father only to witness the fatal shooting. Hammer pulls his revolver and fires at the shooter while the getaway driver manages to run over his own accomplice in order to avoid Hammer’s aim.

The Big Kill is off to a roaring start. Angered, Hammer sets out to solve the mystery of why anyone would abandon their child and knowingly walk into their demise. Hammer vows to destroy the person responsible for putting this man into a situation that leaves his child an orphan. True to Hammer’s character, justice will pay no matter if you are male or female.

The novel has a few nice twists and turns and Hammer’s main squeeze and secretary is notably absent. The pace is fantastic, but towards the middle, I began to suspect who the real culprit responsible was and the final reveal did not impact as much as if I had not begun to ponder the mechanics of the story. I still recommend it though.

The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner

In organizing my book collection, I found that I had an Impress Mysteries version of Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Velvet Claws. I was also delighted to discover that this was the first full-length Perry Mason mystery. What better way to start exploring Gardner and to launch this blog diary, than to read the first Perry Mason story? A novel that started a series book run that lasted over 80 novels.

First off, let me just say that I’ve known about Gardner’s main character, Perry Mason, pretty much all my life and primarily through television. Perry Mason was a show my mother and my grandparents watched during its initial run and through its subsequent syndication. Since it was a television show from an era before my time, and a show that my parents watched, I never really paid attention to it. Raymond Burr was getting up in his years and still portraying the same character. I always just assumed it was courtroom drama. What a silly mistake.

In college, I discovered Raymond Chandler. I soaked in everything I could find on Chandler including interviews and biographies. The one thing that I always noticed was that Chandler cited Gardner has a big influence on his writing style. Even after that glowing endorsement, and that was sometime in the nineties, I still did not actively pursue Gardner until this year. However, over the years, if I found a Gardner, hardback or paperback, in good shape, I would purchase it knowing that one day that I would read it.

Now, to start this new journey with a classic pulp novel, and one, I am happy to say that so successfully hooked me, is Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Velvet Claws. The novel has all the elements of great pulp: the punchy, tough-guy talk, the mysterious double crossing dame, and, most importantly, swift action. I was surprised, maybe even shocked, that this was not the TV courtroom drama that I thought it was going to be. Hell, I didn’t even picture Raymond Burr as I remembered him in the series.

What I like about this novel is that Mason is determined to complete the job he’s hired to do, despite the fact that he’s being fingered for the crime. Stacking the odds against Mason drives the story with precision steering up and down the roller-coaster. Not only does he solve the crime, but he also manages to continue to defend his client even when she claims to have heard Mason in a deadly confrontation with her husband just before his death. It’s fantastic. I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t discovered him sooner.

As mentioned earlier, my copy is from ImPress Mysteries. I’m currently seeking out the vintage paperbacks. Don’t snatch them up.

Jimbo's Crime Corner

Greetings, my dear reader friends and curious onlookers of random google searches; welcome to my humble corner of the worldwide web. I’m Jimbo Brown and I love pulp crime novels. I love reading them, collecting them, and trading them. It is here that I will randomly blog about my passion for mid-century crime novels. I have to admit that I’ve never regularly participated in forums, blogs, or social media, but I’ve always considered myself a lurker, a watcher, or, appropriately for this blog, a peeper.

I follow several blogs for music and film and have always found myself intrigued by what stimulates other people. Not only that, I often find that those blogs inspire me to track down films and watch things I would not actively seek out. It’s also inspiring to see diaries documenting films watched throughout the year, but sadly, there are very few diaries for pulp novels. I thought I would take my cue and document the books that I read over the course of this year.

My scribblings are meant to be entertainment. This blog should not be considered a formal criticism in any shape, form, or fashion. I do not consider myself an authority on the subject, nor an expert on crime novels. In addition, it should be pointed out that I will try and keep plot synopsis very brief as they have a tendency for spoilers and tend to be outside my purpose of this blog. I also want to keep this fun, light, and brief.

It’s not easy to find like-minded readers in person, so perhaps I will do it in the modern 21^st Century way. If you’re not already a reader of the crime novel, then hopefully I can introduce authors and titles to folks that wouldn’t normally pursue them. Publishers like Hard Case Crime and Black Lizard have carried the torch for several marginalized crime authors. I also have to admit that many of the titles and authors that I have discovered I have rescued from Goodwill's, yard and estate sales, or, used booksellers. Surprisingly, older genre novels are getting increasingly hard to find. I do have to give props to my favorite used bookstore Rhino booksellers. I will occasionally mention a good find here and there, because sometimes a good find is just as exciting as reading the book.

I also have a tendency to purchase and collect things much faster than I can read them. I consistently have a stack of books that I am working my way through, as well as, movies. Embarrassingly, I often have to go look at my shelves just to remind myself as to what I have as I’m quite guilty of the DPS (Duplicate Purchase Syndrome).

Disclaimer space: I admit that I am not a speed-reader, I do not blitz through a novel in matter of short hours in a single afternoon, and I don’t stay up all night finishing cozies. It usually takes me three or four days to finish a book depending on how good it is, so updates to this blog won’t always be regular. They might come in spurts though and I don’t promise to stick to only crime novels. I started tracking my novels at the beginning of this year and I have several to blog before I'm caught up.  Nuff said.