TWO KILLERS STALK THE STREETS OF CHICAGO – CAN ONE TAXI DRIVER CORNER THEM BOTH?
Eddie Miles is one of a dying breed: a Windy City h... read full description
reviews
Aug 15, 2011
Abraham
rated it: 
I have dug most of the Hard Case series of books and while Nobody's Angel is one of the more subtle volumes it's still a good read. A gray melancholy day of a book about the adventures of one, Eddie Miles, an old school cab driver in a Chicago. When Eddie finds a prostitute knocking on death's door everything goes from being okay to grim, mainly because Eddie has a bad case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I really liked the grim portrait of Chicago, the book is set during the late
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Oct 26, 2010
Tony
rated it: 
Written and set in early-1990s Chicago, this slim hard-boiled crime novel has a lot to recommend it. I'm always keen to read books that teach me about professions I know nothing about, and this story does a great job detailing the work of an old-school late-shift big city cab driver. Eddie is a middle-aged cabbie who lost his good-paying job, his wife, and his kid, years ago, and has been eking out a living driving the streets of Chicago for about five or six years. To complete the lonely pictur
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Jun 01, 2010
Jason
rated it:
Of all the good things Hard Case Crime has done - and it's a list that includes putting unpublished and long-lost pulps (back) into circulation as well as making sure venerable authors can keep publishing - one of the most intriguing is how, every once in a while, they'll publish a novel by an otherwise unknown author who nevertheless has a background that is easily translatable to pulp adventure - Johnny Porkpie's "The Corpse Wore Pasties", Christa Faust's "Money Shot", and
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Jul 18, 2010
Kemper
rated it:
If I‘d ever been in a cab and the driver tried to talk me into buying his self-published novel, I probably would have jumped out while the car was still moving, but I would have missed out on a hell of a good book if Jack Clark had been behind the wheel.
Clark used to be a Chicago cabbie, and he wrote and self-published 500 copies of this novel that he used to sell out of his cab for $5 each. He went on to get another novel published and nominated for a Shamus award, but Hard Case Cr More...
Clark used to be a Chicago cabbie, and he wrote and self-published 500 copies of this novel that he used to sell out of his cab for $5 each. He went on to get another novel published and nominated for a Shamus award, but Hard Case Cr More...
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May 20, 2010
Dan
rated it:
Chicago cab driver Eddie Miles stops in an alley to take a leak and finds a young mutilated hooker close to death. Meanwhile, cabbies are being killed all over the city. Can Eddie keep from becoming just another victim?
Jack Clark, a Chicago cab driver, wrote Nobody's Angel and sold it out of his cab before Hard Case picked it up. That being said, the writing is light years away from where I thought it would be, good noir writing.
Having been to Chicago a few times, Cla More...
Jack Clark, a Chicago cab driver, wrote Nobody's Angel and sold it out of his cab before Hard Case picked it up. That being said, the writing is light years away from where I thought it would be, good noir writing.
Having been to Chicago a few times, Cla More...
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(7 people liked it)
Dec 05, 2011
Greg
rated it:
If this book had taken place in NYC instead of Chicago I probably would've liked it more. Although I don't know if you could map the taxi driver troubles of Chicago to New York for the same era, were there the same types of trouble neighborhoods? Snipers? Projects that sounded more like war zones in Bosnia than places in late twentieth century America? The book feels like a sort of intimate look at the city of Chicago and I just don't have the mental images in my head to really appreciate th
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(12 people liked it)
Feb 06, 2011
Trent
rated it: 
Grade: A ... this slice of noir by Jack Clark proves that literature can be found within any genre, that slumming with the paperback trash one can find an absolute gem. Hard Case Crime rarely disappoints; however, with Nobody's Angel they've exceeded just about anything else I've read from this beautiful line of books. Clark's tale is more a character study on the city of Chicago and the sub-culture of cabbie life than anything else. Which, I argue, is perfect fodder for a noir tale. Yes, there
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May 23, 2010
Randy
rated it:
Eddie Miles is a cab driver in Chicago. The book is a nice examination of that life, told in the first person and giving one a look at the life.
Two killers are working in town, one cab drivers who has the whole group up in arms, and the other a killer of hookers.
Eddie interrupts the second when he stops to take a piss in an alley and saves a young girls' life. Seventeen and having been in the trade since fourteen, she looks on Eddie as her angel.
He begins to l More...
Two killers are working in town, one cab drivers who has the whole group up in arms, and the other a killer of hookers.
Eddie interrupts the second when he stops to take a piss in an alley and saves a young girls' life. Seventeen and having been in the trade since fourteen, she looks on Eddie as her angel.
He begins to l More...
Sep 15, 2011
Ellen
rated it:
I heard an interview with the author and also with the publisher of Hard Case Crime and I was intrigued by the back story of the author/cab drive Jack Clark, who went from self-publishing and selling his book in his cab to having it published and sold in stores and available in libraries. All of that was immediately forgotten once I started to read the book. The author draws you into the late night world of 1980s Chicago, cabbies, partygoers, hookers, convenience store clerks and cops. The wri
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Jul 20, 2011
Tom
rated it:
For a genre novel, "Nobody's Angel" has a minimal plot, which is fine by me. Taking place in Chicago, the novel's action occurs during a group of unrelated serial killings, one killer preferring cab drivers, the other young prostitutes. Narrated by a cabbie named Eddie, the novel's tension comes largely from the ambiguities inherent in almost every fare taxi drivers pick up--the innocent becomes menacing, the menacing becomes innocent; threats come and go, some never arrive; stereotype
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Oct 29, 2010
Ed
rated it:
Driving the gritty Chicago streets, the middle-aged taxi driver Eddie Miles picks up thieves, socialites, whores, drunks, lawyers, and just about anybody needing a ride. It's a tough living. Eddie, a recovering alcoholic, is divorced and father to a teenager he hasn't seen in years. But he shows a lot of heart if not compassion, what redeems him as a likeable protagonist. I couldn't quite peg the time period, but it's pre-cell phones which is nice. Great assembly of minor characters flesh out th
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Feb 28, 2011
Author Jack Clark is a Chicago taxi driver who self-published his first book and drove around with a copy of it on the seat beside him.
Terry Gross's program on Aug 23, 2010 (listen to "fresh air") was intriguing. (Incidentally, the same program also featured a wonderful interview with Scott Simon about adoption!)
Terry Gross's program on Aug 23, 2010 (listen to "fresh air") was intriguing. (Incidentally, the same program also featured a wonderful interview with Scott Simon about adoption!)
Aug 08, 2010
Jesse
rated it:
Cab-noir, not a genre I'd ever encountered before. A surprising amount of detail about the racial and cultural attitudes, which are about what you'd expect, of Chicago drivers circa late 90s. With some anecdotes surely ripped from life. I must say that I am clearly an extraordinarily dull passenger, since I never rant in racist ways or talk about my small town. Maybe I should try that, just to provide some local color.
Dec 14, 2010
Robert
rated it: 
I guess I just didn't see what everyone else saw in this book. To me, it was too much cab driving and not enough mystery/detecting. The climax is a bit of a stumble and a trip.
Some -- I repeat, SOME -- of the cab stuff is interesting. But it just goes on and on. It's like 9/10 cabbie documentary and 1/10 mystery. Love Hard Case Crime. Not a fan of this one though.
Some -- I repeat, SOME -- of the cab stuff is interesting. But it just goes on and on. It's like 9/10 cabbie documentary and 1/10 mystery. Love Hard Case Crime. Not a fan of this one though.
Sep 29, 2010
Heidi
rated it:
I bought this book for my Kindle after hearing Jack Clark's interview on NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...
I loved the way he sold the book from the back of the cab for a few years before a publishing house picked it up. I loved that I read most of it on my cell phone's Kindle application - truly a traveling book.
For starters, a great book for anyone who has ever lived in Chicago. I loved roaming around familiar streets in the back of the author's cab, won More...
I loved the way he sold the book from the back of the cab for a few years before a publishing house picked it up. I loved that I read most of it on my cell phone's Kindle application - truly a traveling book.
For starters, a great book for anyone who has ever lived in Chicago. I loved roaming around familiar streets in the back of the author's cab, won More...
Mar 02, 2011
Frank
rated it:
Another enjoyable story in the Hard Case Crime set of books. Cabbie Eddie Miles drives people around Chicago and wonders about two serial killers, one of cabbies and one of prostitutes. He accidently finds the first.
Oct 20, 2010
Josh
rated it:
An interesting insight into the perils of being a cab driver in the Windy City. A concise, heavily atmospheric character driven story about a middle-aged cabbie, a serial killer, and the streets of Chicago.
Jan 12, 2012
Leslie
rated it:
An evocative portrait of the Chicago of about twenty years ago through the eyes of a weary late-night cabdriver. It doesn't make me want to visit the city, that's for sure, but it's pretty good.
Aug 06, 2010
Jeffrey
rated it:
Excellent crime drama that mixes in a lot of city flavor and unrelated stories to make for a wonderful trip through the seedy side of Chicago. The ending is somewhat pat, but it all works anyways.
Sep 23, 2011
Jack
rated it:
Having been in Chicago over July 4th, I read this noir tale when I returned. The hero really gives us a good view of his world from behind the windshield. I actually thought the secondary story about the murder of prostitutes could have stood on its own as a follow up to the murders of cabbies. Either way, Jack Clark writes a hell of a dark tale.
Apr 05, 2011
Andy
rated it:
Basically a bunch of random cab-driver city is a cesspool anecdotes with a cabbie-murders subplot that kind of feels like an afterthought.
Jun 15, 2010
Kathleen
rated it:
Excellent Chicago story. Cab driver as protagonist for a mystery is awesome when you think of all cab drivers see.
Aug 01, 2010
Amy
rated it:
quick read, didn't want to put it down...exactly what I needed - a little murder mystery set in Chi-town!
Oct 19, 2011
Mary
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The Chicago cab driver lore is great, but the crime part is pretty thin.
Jul 11, 2010
Stien
rated it:
Chicago neighborhoods, cab drivers and customers, murder, great style and plot.
Sep 02, 2010
Chris
rated it:
The latest from Hard Case Crime is a trip around Chicago via the culture of cab drivers. What I enjoyed most -- beyond the stories I've read of Clark selling this originally self-published novel from his cab before HCC picked it up -- is that it isn't some bloody tale of vigilantism. The story comes to Eddie, our first-person narrator, almost in spite of himself, and that story is well told. It's dark, atmospheric, and feels authentic in a way that only someone who really knows the world being w
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Jul 13, 2010
Derek
rated it:
More a "slice of life" about a cabdriver's life than a true mystery or noir, this is still an interesting read. It rings quite true and has some very compelling moments.
