Clik here to view.
Everything was natural now
The Train, by Georges Simenon and translated by Robert Baldick Before I started blogging Simenon to me meant Maigret, and since I wasn’t interested in Maigret I wasn’t interested in Simenon. As anyone...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I drive. That’s all I do.
Drive, by James Sallis Readers often come to writers with expectations. Sometimes those are based on that writer’s previous work (and those expectations can be a straitjacket for a writer), sometimes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Death always doubles off”
The Crazy Kill, by Chester Himes Over Christmas I read an article which quoted PD James. She talked about how the pleasure of crime fiction was the knowledge that by the end of the book order would be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When I got off the train I saw two blind men helping each other up the stairs
Dead Man Upright, by Derek Raymond Dead Man Upright is the fifth, and final, of Derek Raymond’s Factory novels. It’s being reprinted later this year, after a lengthy period out of publication. It...
View ArticleClik here to view.
He was the kind of puppy that would lick any hand that he was afraid to bite.
The Way Some People Die by Ross MacDonald The Way Some People Die is where MacDonald stops imitating Chandler and Hammet and becomes his own writer. It’s the best of the Lew Archer series so far (it’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It was a sweet setup, with a ninety thousand payoff
Richard Stark’s Parker, by Darwyn Cooke I don’t review many comics or graphic novels here. That’s not because I don’t read them; it’s just a question of focus. Graphic novels aren’t novels with art,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I don’t have a gun, a badge, or even a working stapler.
Watch Me Die, by Lee Goldberg Sometimes you just plain need something fun to read. When I want a break from more serious reading, I turn to crime. Crime fiction that is. I might also turn to actual...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stealing a man’s wife, that’s nothing, but stealing his car, that’s larceny.
The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain They threw me off the hay truck about noon. Frank Chambers is a drifter with itchy feet who needs a meal. Nick Papadakis, “the Greek”, runs a roadside...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fundamentally, this is political.
Fatale, by Jean-Patrick Manchette and translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith Fatale is under 100 pages long, and that’s including a Jean Echenoz afterword. By page two the protagonist has coolly murdered...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“How is it you keep ending up in the middle of everything?”
The End of Everything, by Megan Abbott I last read Megan Abbott back in 2008. Die a Little was a solid slice of 50’s-style noir and an exploration of the darkness lurking under the suburban dream. It...
View ArticleClik here to view.
safe in the knowledge that nothing bad will happen to you
Thursday Night Widows, by Claudia Piñeiro and translated by Miranda France The thing about recessions is that people tend to assume they’re bad for everyone, maybe not equally bad but generally not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
May nobody call me an unreliable narrator.
Where There’s Love, There’s Hate, by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo and translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Jessica Ernst Powell Some books are just delightful. The other day I finished a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Girls get murdered all the fucking time.
The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes I’m sick of serial killers. Serial killers are what we replaced our monsters with. We don’t believe in ghosts or goblins, so we looked to our real life monsters and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
fields of mud crushed under the weight of of the impending dark
The A26, by Pascal Garnier and translated by Melanie Florence I’ve long wanted to read Pascal Garnier. He’s been well reviewed on the blogosphere, I love noir and his books sounded punchy and darkly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Freddy reviewed his life and realized that altruism had been his major fault.
Miami Blues, by Charles Willeford If you’re even slightly a crime fan, I can save you some time on this review. You’ll like this one. Go pick up a copy. If however you’d like a little more detail, read...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘You have always, I must say, a smooth explanation ready.’
The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett What is there to say about this one? This is as classic as classic gets, and I say that as someone who’s reviewed Don Quixote here. This is one of the ur-texts...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It was the action of a shit, and Bobby wasn’t that, except that he was and...
9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Bobby Zha is a down-on-his-luck San Francisco cop, unpopular with his colleagues and the top brass but with a knack for the street which makes it just about worth...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac
Vertigo, by Boileau-Narcejac and translated by Geoffrey Sainsbury Like I suspect a lot of people I had no idea Hitchcock’s Vertigo was based on a book. The film, if you’ve not seen it, is easily among...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who was it who invented coffee? He must be a cousin of the genius who...
Game for Five, by Marco Malvaldi and translated by Howard Curtis Game for Five was the last book I read in 2015. I read it in the run up to New Year while feeling slightly under the weather from a cold...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What we won’t do to hang on to a relationship that’s slipping away from us,...
The Disappearance of Signora Giulia, by Piero Chiara and translated by Jill Foulston Back in 2009 the director Carol Morley made a documentary about Joyce Carol Vincent, a woman who lay dead in her...
View Article
