Ed Gorman's Blog, page 197

Die, Lover, Die! Now Available on Kindle and The Nook

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Die, Lover, Die! Now Available on Kindle and The Nook

BARNES & NOBLE | Die, Lover, Die! by Dave Zeltserman | NOOK Book (eBook): "Lauren Blaine is on the run...fleeing across the country, pursued by a pack of ruthless, skilled, and psychopathic killers.

That's she's dumped her husband and he hasn't taken it well.

Of course, he might have taken it better if he wasn't a major drug dealer with a gale-force temper... and if she hadn't run off with all of his cash.

Now she's marked-for-death, a moving target for every mercenary, hitman, and sadist in the midwest.

What they don't know is that Lauren is nobody's victim... she's a resourceful, brave, and cunning woman who won't go down without a fight.

This is 10,000 words of non-stop action, violence and sex...a wild ride like nothing else you've read before...from twelve masters of suspense, who teamed up to write this rollicking story 250 rapid-fire words at a time, tag-team style, without an outline, without knowing what was coming next. The result is a pure, literary adrenaline rush."

Forgotten Books: Champagne for One by Rex Stout

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"I'll try to be fair to him, and I know there is no law against a man having plucked eyebrows and a thin mustache and long polished nails, and my suspicion that he wore a girdle was merely a suspicion, and if he had married Mrs. Albert Grantham for her money I freely admit that no man married without a reason and with her it would have been next to impossible to think up another one, and I concede that he may have had hidden virtues which I had missed. One thing for sure, if my name were Robert and I had married a woman fifteen years older than me for a certain reason and she was composed entirely of angles, I would not let her call me Robbie."

Part of the reason you read Stout, Rex Stout, is for sentences like that one. Yes the people, especially N. Wolfe are spellblnding and the plots often dazzling but the it's the writing itself that shines through in even the lesser books.

Champagne For One comes later in the Wolfeian series. It is a classic Archie Goodwin set-up. An especially annoying rich woman (the aforementioned Mrs. Albert Grantham) needs a fifth man for a splashy dinner she's having in her mansion. The original man got sick and called Archie to substitute for him. The occasion is a feast for the unwed mothers who graduated from the school the late Mr. Grantham established for such young women. The idea is to keep track of them and see how they're faring in the world and celebrate their worth.

Mind you this is 1958. Unwed mothers were still the province of tabloid headlines and exploitation drive-in films and hammy bestsellers. But Stout, ever Stout, presents us with five young attractive, bright and decent young women. One of them he hopes to see again. The mystery is established after the dinner when the drinks flow freely. One of the young women drinks a glass of champagne and immediately goes into convulsions, poisoned. Archie of course pursues the killer despite the fact that four different parties try to stop him.

Pure pleasure and enjoyment.

Not even Bill Crider has this :) Good Morning C***s

This should be a Bill Crider post but I thought I'd beat him for once with earth shattering news!

Virgin Atlantic Passengers Get a Foul Mouthed Awakening
by AOL Travel Staff Subscribe to AOL Travel Staff's posts
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Looks like somebody's going to be in trouble after Virgin Atlantic passengers were greeted with a four-letter wakeup call Sunday.

"Get up, you c***s," read the message, sent by airplane crew and likely intended for two sleeping stewards, reports The Sun.

The crew members thought they were sending a private message to the TV screens of empty seats where the stewards were having a nap. Instead, the message was sent to all passengers in premium economy on the flight from Orlando to Glasgow.

According to the paper, passengers "complained the whole way home and some are seeking refunds and compensation."

A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic spokesman said the incident was being investigated and that appropriate action will be taken as necessary.

It seems that obscenities are not taken lightly in the friendly skies. Just last week a Delta passenger was booted from his flight for using the f-word.

Live At The Heartbreak Lounge-Peter Rabe-Richard Stark

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Ed here: I'm not only a fan of Wallace Stroby's fiction I'm a fan of his blog writing as well--Live At The Heartbreak Lounge. Here he notes some similarities between a Richard Stark and a Peter Rabe. But make this blog a regular stop because he reviews not only other Rabes but many other noirs as well. http://wallacestrobycom.blogspot.com/...

BTW This is my favorite Daniel Port novel. I told Peter that it had several elements of a western in it. He seemed to like that.

Wallace Stroby:


In THE OUT IS DEATH, Port tries to rescue an old and infirm safecracker named Dalton from the clutches of a brutal young thug named Corday, who wants Dalton to go on one last job for him. It's a generational thing, as it turns out, with old school gangster Port going up against the '50s-style juvenile delinquents of Corday's gang. Doesn't take much to figure out who comes out on top. Suffice it to say that there were five Port novels in all, the last being 1959's TIME ENOUGH TO DIE. Black Lizard reprinted three and most have remained out of print since, though some are now showing up on Kindle.

TOID does bear similarities to Westlake's 1965 Stark novel THE JUGGER, the sixth book in the series, in which Parker travels to Omaha to find out what happened to his contact and go-between, an aging safecracker named Joe Sheer, who's fallen prey to corrupt small-town cops (in that sense, THE JUGGER also owes a debt to Marlowe's THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH). In THE JUGGER, though, Sheer is dead before Parker arrives (and Parker was prepared to kill him as a security measure anyway). In TOID, Port comes to Dalton's aid in time to save him from that fate, though he also has selfish reasons for getting involved, including Corday's va-va-voom girlfriend.

The thirty harshet author insults

Ed here: Carol sent me the link to thirty author insults. Here are some samples as well as the link.

10. Henry James on Edgar Allan Poe (1876)

"An enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive stage of reflection."

9. Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac

"That's not writing, that's typing."

8. Elizabeth Bishop on J.D. Salinger

"I HATED [Catcher in the Rye]. It took me days to go through it, gingerly, a page at a time, and blushing with embarrassment for him every ridiculous sentence of the way. How can they let him do it?"

7. D.H. Lawrence on Herman Melville (1923)

"Nobody can be more clownish, more clumsy and sententiously in bad taste, than Herman Melville, even in a great book like 'Moby Dick'….One wearies of the grand serieux. There's something false about it. And that's Melville. Oh dear, when the solemn ass brays! brays! brays!"

6. W. H. Auden on Robert Browning

"I don't think Robert Browning was very good in bed. His wife probably didn't care for him very much. He snored and had fantasies about twelve-year-old girls."

It's here-the new issue of Cinema Retro

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The latest issue of Cinema Retro (#20) is now shipping to subscribers all around the world. As we publish in the UK, those subscribers always get their copies first. However, the latest issue just arrived from the other side of the pond and has now been shipped out to all other regions. Readers will have it in their hot little hands very soon.

*Cover story on Candy starring Ewa Aulin as the sexy teen nymph in an all-star fiasco that involved Marlon Brando, Ringo Starr, James Coburn and Walter Matthau. Dean Brierly examines how such a sure-fire project turned into one of the worst movies ever made.

This issue's Film in Focus is Earthquake, the 1974 blockbuster starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and many other familiar faces in one of the most successful films of the genre. Ross Warner reminds why the film remains a guilty pleasure and Thomas Hauerslav of the web site In70mm.com presents a fascinating look at the history of Sensurround, the Oscar-winning sound system that had more than its share of mishaps.

Nick Anez provides analysis of two Fox Westerns from the 1960s: The Comancheros starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman and Rio Conchos starring Whitman and Richard Boone. Anez examines the startling similarities between the two films and debates if Conchos can truly be regarded as a remake of The Comancheros.

Lee Pfeiffer has a sit-down interview with jazz great Kyle Eastwood and discusses his scoring of films with his father, Clint Eastwood. Kyle also recalls starring with his dad in Honkytonk Man and making a cameo in The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Gary McMahon looks at memorable films that have coped with the restrictions of shooting key sequences in confined places, from the legendary fight aboard the Orient Express in the James Bond classic From Russia With Love to Hitchcock's Lifeboat and Huston's Key Largo.

Cinema Retro music critic Darren Allison provides an in-depth tribute to the recently departed legendary composer John Barry.
Matthew Field concludes his three-part interview with director Lewis Gilbert with discussions of Friends and Educating Rita.
Herbie J. Pilato examines the good, the bad and the ugly among major films based on legendary TV series.
Raymond Benson looks back on his top films of 1979 including Alien and Apocalypse Now.

Cinema Retro honors famed film critic and documentary maker Richard Schickel at a special event held at the Players club in New York City.

Gareth Owen pays tribute to Michael Powell's long-neglected classic Peeping Tom.

Coverage and photos from the new book MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot

plus the usual extensive coverage of the latest movie books, DVDs and soundtracks

Don't delay- if you're not already a subscriber, click here for information about joining the ranks of our supporters from around the globe. Click here to subscribe directly through our Ebay affiliate.
http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php

ANGEL BABY – Elmer Gantry's Little Sister

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Ed here: I've seen this movie probably three times since 1961 when it first appeared. Caught it originally at a drive-in where I was sober enough (for some reason) to appreciate how loopy it was. This is my kind of guilty pleasure. I know he's tan but I still don't know how George Hamilton ever got work. TCM Movie Morlocks is a site you need to follow.

ANGEL BABY – Elmer Gantry's Little Sister
Posted by morlockjeff on June 15, 2011

After the critical and boxoffice success of ELMER GANTRY in 1960, another film, much smaller in scale and budget, came along that mirrored the latter film both thematically and in some of the plot details. It might have been merely a coincidence that ANGEL BABY appeared shortly after ELMER GANTRY in 1961 but it certainly beats the Burt Lancaster Oscar winner when it comes to curiosity value. Take, for example, George Hamilton and Mercedes McCambridge as married evangelists, traveling down the backroads and byways of the Deep South. (You heard right – Hamilton and McCambridge are married!!; this odd arrangement is revealed by the screenwriter through an expositional mid-point revelation.) Or consider Salome Jens in her first major screen role as a young mute who miraculously finds her voice at a revivalist tent show and becomes a faith healer herself! Then, there's the hardcore roadshow veterans, Joan Blondell and Henry Jones, sinners who became believers and occasionally fall off the faith wagon if the temptation to booze overcomes them. And in a small but pivotal role is Burt Reynolds in his movie debut playing a lustful redneck named Hoke Adams. Last but not least, Haskell Wexler is one of the cinematographers. It may not be Academy Award material but it's a fascinating brew that comes off like an Erskine Caldwell literary adaptation crossed with a sordid B-movie melodrama aimed at the drive-in crowd. Plus it's got six revival-style musical numbers written by songwriter Wayne Shanklin whose composition "Chanson d'Amour" ended up in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut [1999]. None of these numbers are exactly rave-up toe-tappers but, for the record, they include "Little by Little," "Rise Up Singing," "Beulah Land", "Our Love's No Ordinary Thing," "He's My God, Yet", and "Jenny Angel." READ

for the rest go here:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2011/06/15/a...

Watch Me Die by Lee Goldberg

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AVAILABLE FOR $2.99 on e e books

A Re-Review

Ed here:The Man With The Iron-On Badge is now called Watch Me Die. Lee Goldberg has not only re-titled his novel but also given is a striking new cover.

Watch Me Die is a book that will keep you laughing and smiling for a long time until it takes a memorably violent turn. If you have any affection for the private eye novel, this book should be required reading because in addition to gently spoofing the form it is a story so rich in character and story twists it's truly masterful.

Say you were a lonely and somewhat overweight security guard who works the night shift at an exclusive gated community. Say that your idea of dining out was Denny's. Say that the only girl who'll have sex with you--and then only occasionally--always makes it clear that she's looking for somebody a whole lot better than you. Say that your fantasy life springs from all the private novels and TV shows you spend time with in your apartment. And say that suddenly Cyril Parkus who lives in the gated community gives you a chance to perform one of the classic jobs of a real private eye--following his beautiful wife.

This is the life of Harvey Mapes, one of my all-time favorite characters in private eye fiction. Of course Harvey takes the job and the money. Of course Harvey enjoys following a woman as beautiful and worldly as Lauren. Of course Harvey has thoughts of finally getting his life in order. This is noir at its finest as I said the first two times I reviewed it.
But fate--or somebody--has different ideas for Harvey.

The novel is seeded with references to private eye shows and novels. In addition it gives us a realistic look at the trapped lives of millions of working Americans who live just above the poverty line. And it also goes the standard Los Angeles crime novel one better by taking us places and showing us people we don't usually see in the LA novel.

But more than the comedy, the beautifully designed plot and the snapshots of La La Land--more than any other element in the book, it's Harvey's voice you'll remember. There's a workaday universality to it that gives the novel its wit and insight and truth.

The Business Rusch: Bookstore Observations

Ed here: An excellent post from one of my favorite writers and favorite people.

The Business Rusch: Bookstore Observations
Kristine Kathryn Rusch

I live in a town that has no completely new bookstore. We have two marvelous bookstores that feature new and used. One specializes in mysteries, and the other gets as much of everything as it can. But it only has a tiny storefront, and so "everything" is geared toward Times bestsellers and books on Oregon.

So it's a treat for me to go to a chain bookstore. It's rare and unusual, and I usually spend hours in the store, walking the aisles, looking at trends. I also spend hundreds of dollars, because I generally only get there once every six weeks or so. I have a habit of buying books that I won't remember when I got home rather than making a list.

Or I used to.

I'm not one of those obnoxious people who stands in the aisle of a brick-and-mortar store and downloads the book on my Kindle or iPhone app. I'm not that crass.

However, I escaped this latest bookstore adventure down only $66, and that included a cupcake, a coffeecake, and a to-go cup of tea. Dean bought his standard two books. And the rest—maybe $35—was me.

That's it. And it wasn't because I didn't want to spend the money. I had my standard $150 to $200 budgeted for this bookstore adventure. I simply couldn't find what I wanted.

for the rest go here:
http://kriswrites.com/2011/06/15/the-...

New Books: Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles

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Ed here: I read this in two sittings and had a ball. This is crossover fiction at its best. If you're looking for a good time, this is it. Larry Correia really keeps you turning the pages.

Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles

Jake Sullivan is a war hero, a private eye-and an ex-con. He's free because he has a magical talent, being able to alter the force of gravity in himself and objects in his vicinity, and the Bureau of Investigation calls on him when they need his help in apprehending criminals with their own magical talents. But the last operation he was sent along to help with went completely wrong, and Delilah Jones, the woman the G-men were after, who just happened to be an old friend of Jake's in happier times, had a lot of magical muscle with her, too much muscle for the cops to handle, even with Jake's help.

It got worse. Jake found out that the Feds had lied to him about Delilah being a murderer as well as a bank robber, and they had lied about this being his last job for them-he was too valuable for them to let him go. And things were even worse than Jake imagined. There was a secret war being waged by opposing forces of magic-users, and Jake had no idea that he had just attracted the attention of one side, whose ruthless leaders were of the opinion that Jake was far too dangerous to be permitted to live...

From Larry Correia:

The Grimnoir Chronicles started out of spite. I know that sounds like an odd
motivator to write a book, but I was a panelist at Life, The Universe, &
Everything. Which is a speculative fiction convention at BYU. I was on a panel
with three other authors that are well known names in fantasy. At the time I
was having a lot of success with my first novel, Monster Hunter International,
which is a sort of urban fantasy, X-Files meets the Expendables, homage to all
B-movies. At one point a student had a writing question. I thought I had a good
answer, but when I started to respond he cut me off. "You're just a contemporary
fantasy author. I want to hear what the epic fantasy authors have to say." And
he said it like contemporary was a slur. So I got kind of indignant, and said to
myself, Nobody tells Larry Correia what genre he's in!"

So on a lark, I set out to write something that fit the tropes of epic fantasy.
Big world, lots of complex world building, complicated magic system, tons of
characters, that kind of thing. But I didn't want to do just another elves and
orcs, swords and magic dragons, type thing. I wanted to do something different…
During a brain storming session I noticed that my son was reading an issue of
Noir Spiderman, and that got me remembering all of the pulp novels I grew up on
(I read a lot of Raymond Chandler as a kid). There's just something neat about
that whole, gritty, hard-boiled, type world that is fun to read about. So I
decided to write an epic fantasy, set in a world based on the 1920s-30s.

So the epic fantasy turned into an alternative history. Sort of. Then I made a
list of all of the things that I thought would be fun to write about in that
setting. (I've got a reputation as an action writer, so there was going to be
plenty of that) I brushed up on my history of 1900-1940 and had fun with the
What Ifs. (I am a huge history geek) I came up with a magic system that was
detailed, complex, and had some pretty firm rules. Which worked out to feeling a
bit like super heroes upon execution, so now it was a hard boiled/epic
fantasy/adventure/alternative history/super hero novel. Yeah, try pitching that
to your editor.

The Grimnoir world diverged from ours in the 1850s,when magical abilities began
to randomly appear amongst the populace. Fast forward to the 1930s, and about
one in a hundred people have some sort of ability, with one in a thousand having
access to some pretty impressive powers. The story of Hard Magic is about the
members of a secret society of magic users (led by Blackjack Pershing) trying to
keep a Tesla super weapon from falling into the hands of Imperial Japan.
It came out really good. I'll be honest, I'm very proud of this one.