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226th out of 308 books
—
201 voters
Wild Wives
Jake Blake is a private detective short on cash when he meets a rich and beautiful young woman looking to escape her father’s smothering influence. Unfortunately for Jake, the smothering influence includes two thugs hired to protect her—and the woman is in fact not the daughter of the man she wants to escape, but his wife. Now Jake has two angry thugs and one jealous husba...more
Paperback, 102 pages
Published
September 9th 2009
by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
(first published 1956)
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It's a fast read, with a quirky cast of characters set in San Francisco. However, there are some odd similarities to a 1950 film noir starring Robert Mitchum, Claude Rains, and Faith Domergue. Both the movie and Willeford's novella dealt with a (comparatively) young man who fell for a beautiful "wild" (mentally imbalanced) woman who lied about being controlled by her "father" (he turned out to be her rich and much older husband). In the resulting confrontation, the femme fatale smothered the hus...more
Charles Willeford originally published this under the title Until I am Dead and is often paired with High Priest of California. They bear similarities. In both cases does a man fall under the spell of a demented or wicked woman. Jacob Blake is completely taking in by the “dame” who shows up in his office requesting that he protect her from her bodyguards. Things go from bad to worse as Blake discovers he has been a complete fool. It’s classic noir with the down-trodden P.I. who drinks too much a...more
At 93 pages, this book is more like a novella than a novel, which makes sense, as it was originally issued in 1956 as the second half of a double novel, with Willeford's "High Priest Of California" in front of it. Like a B-movie at a double feature, the second half of a double novel doesn't really have to be that long. Willeford's "Wild Wives" is also similar to a B-movie in that it has an action-packed plot, with lots of lurid sex and violence. Finally, like a B-movie, it spends a great deal of...more
Cockfighter keeps popping up on one shelf or another of my recommendations here on Goodreads so when I found this classic hard-boiled novel in an op-shop for $1 I knew I HAD to try Charles Willeford for myself.
And I wasn't disappointed. It's a tiny novella filled with seedy and conflicted characters and a simple yet convoluted plot. Perfect pulp material.
Three seperate parts are vivid in my mind for different reasons; the first being the description and behaviour of Barbara Ann Allen is graphic...more
And I wasn't disappointed. It's a tiny novella filled with seedy and conflicted characters and a simple yet convoluted plot. Perfect pulp material.
Three seperate parts are vivid in my mind for different reasons; the first being the description and behaviour of Barbara Ann Allen is graphic...more
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This will be the 4th or 5th Willeford I've read...the last one High Priest Of California that a review or two or more say has been paired with this one. The synopsis has some similarities to that other from Willeford...although this one features a detective, whereas the other featured a used-car salesman...detective work only figured into the story in the way that Frank "Dolly"...I forget his last name...detected who the woman is that he met at the dance blub....(update:edit: it was Russell Haxb...more
A very short book - a novella, actually. The beginning was good, the middle sustainable, but the ending was not to my liking. Jake Blake, a struggling PI, who lives in a hotel, where he works from a room, gets an assignment from a 27 year old rich spoilt daughter (or so she said) of a tycoon to help her disappear from the body guards arranged by her 'father'. The same day, he had received a job application from a 15 year old girl, which he foolishly accepted, as she was willing to work without p...more
Though sporting a catchy title that's a clear misnomer -- don't wait for multiple wives, wild or otherwise, to show up -- this is vintage Willeford. Stop me if you've heard this one before: Jake Blake is a hardboiled dick in a seedy, rundown office who gets lured into a messy situation by a femme, possibly fatale. But this is Willeford, so none of it plays out quite as expected. Instead, it's a dark, demented shaggy dog joke, as our brutal, opportunistic, amoral antihero tap-dances with his inev...more
Aug 12, 2012
Ed
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
private eye/crime noir fans
Recommended to Ed by:
Longtime Willeford fan
This fast-paced novella is an unconventional private eye tale populated with seedy, greedy characters. Willeford, having written it under a pseudonym in 1956, rehashes the usual private-eye-falls-for-a-femme-fatale formula. But he throws in enough curveballs to keep the reader off-balance, starting with the first scene where a beautiful young lady struts into the private eye's office. Our lovers eventually make their way to no-holds-bar Las Vegas where the action grows even weirder. I'd say WILD...more
Willeford's description of characters is unique and all his own which is just one reason I like to take a break with his books.
This one is shorter than most books and I can't point to one person as the real 'bad guy' since every person has his (or her) flaws, deep flaws. One reviewer said 'deadpan' humor, and another said 'wry off-beat humor.' I agree with both. Charles Willeford gave writers who read him and who came after him, something use in their writing. I'm sure Willeford would have been...more
This one is shorter than most books and I can't point to one person as the real 'bad guy' since every person has his (or her) flaws, deep flaws. One reviewer said 'deadpan' humor, and another said 'wry off-beat humor.' I agree with both. Charles Willeford gave writers who read him and who came after him, something use in their writing. I'm sure Willeford would have been...more
A hardboiled PI who's just a bit desperate for cash.
My Take
This was a bit Alfred Hitchcock with a flavor of 39 Steps about it. I kept waiting for one betrayal, but got several others.
For a private investigator, Blake seems a bit clueless and pretty lazy. Letting those thugs get the jump on him. He simply takes Florence's story at face value. Jumps to conclusions. Fluffs off Bobby.
It seems too that a guy like him would have reacted quite differently to Davis's come-on. That was just not believabl...more
My Take
This was a bit Alfred Hitchcock with a flavor of 39 Steps about it. I kept waiting for one betrayal, but got several others.
For a private investigator, Blake seems a bit clueless and pretty lazy. Letting those thugs get the jump on him. He simply takes Florence's story at face value. Jumps to conclusions. Fluffs off Bobby.
It seems too that a guy like him would have reacted quite differently to Davis's come-on. That was just not believabl...more
Hilarious. Deceptively simple writing that had me in hysterics.
"The Seal House is at the beach and it overlooks a pile of rocks in the ocean. Seals spend a lot of time on that particular pile of rocks. And people interested in seeing seals over rocks flock to the Seal House restaurant to eat, drink, and look at the seals. I got a table by the window, ordered a drink and looked at the seals."
"The Seal House is at the beach and it overlooks a pile of rocks in the ocean. Seals spend a lot of time on that particular pile of rocks. And people interested in seeing seals over rocks flock to the Seal House restaurant to eat, drink, and look at the seals. I got a table by the window, ordered a drink and looked at the seals."
It was a very quick read, and it was a fun story. It had a twist ending that I didn't see coming. I like how Willeford always seems to introduce characters, have them disappear, and then bring them back right when you'd least expect it. They're interesting characters, too, doing things you'd didn't expect.
Certainly not nearly as good a story as Pick-Up. Borrows a few elements from the former to little effect. Much less sympathetic protagonist than Harry from Pick-Up. Madness referred to, shown, but not probed. Coasts along nicely for a while then crashes. But a nice quick read.
Wild, indeed. Willeford's writing is rich and vivid, the tone rough and tumble. The narrator spits venom. Stumbles as it rushes to its ending, but a potent and menacing read, nonetheless.
Now this is classic pulp. Loved it! The whole worldview in a short, simple read! Willeford really is a genius with this stuff.
Worth reading for the cover art alone! I really dig Willeford's stuff, and this one's another brief gem.
Amazing what a good writer can do with just a main plot and a very simple subplot. Good downbeat ending.
Bizarre, very short and kind of kinky too. Doesn't make a lot of sense either. I liked it.
Pulp Noir is my guilty pleasure and Willeford is as guilty and as pleasurable as their is.
I love fiction that's based in San Francisco. Dashiell Hammett, Jack Kerouac, I love it all!!!
Mar 12, 2008
Andy
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Willeford fans, noir
Shelves:
pulp-fiction
Nutty as fuck sleaze from Charles Willeford, mixing noir with hepcat beatnikisms. The PI is named Jake Blake and he hangs out at the Knockout Club. The book is full of booze, babes and spankings, and reads smoothly like a good shot of straight rye. The "girlfriend who turns out to be a psycho" yarn is a noir shaggy dog story but Willeford does it better than most.
Woo Woo, What fun. I read this this a long time ago and wasn't impredssed. I needed a quick read for the bus and tried it agian. Love it. A bit short on profund statements on the meaning of life; but maybe not. Love the tryst at the restaurant. Bad Bobby . And Bad Mrs .Weintraub. I know people who talk like Jake Blake. Gotta check out more Willeford.
Well, so far I've read 2 of Willeford's early works, (50's) and several of the later ones (80's). Like them all, but the angry, sardonic, stylized tone of the earlier ones reek with ambition and desires whilst really shitting on the same. dirty and piercing. Totally captivating reading.
Definitely has that old pulp style, and I dig it - some patches are predictable, but the final twist is so perfectly noir that I can forgive all the rest. A lot of fun and a fast read for summer.
Apr 08, 2013
Micah
marked it as to-read
Apr 04, 2013
Jennifer Gilbert
marked it as to-read
Mar 29, 2013
Robthew
added it
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Charles Willeford was a remarkably fine, talented and prolific writer who wrote everything from poetry to crime fiction to literary criticism throughout the course of his impressively long and diverse career. His crime novels are distinguished by a mean'n'lean sense of narrative economy and an admirable dearth of sentimentality. He was born as Charles Ray Willeford III on January 2, 1919 in Little...more
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