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A Taste for Sin
- GenresNoir
144 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1961
46 people want to read
About the author
Gil Brewer
139 books60 followersFlorida writer Gil Brewer was the author of dozens of wonderfully sleazy sex/crime adventure novels of the 1950's and 60's, including Backwoods Teaser and Nude on Thin Ice; some of them starring private eye Lee Baron (Wild) or the brothers Sam and Tate Morgan (The Bitch) . Gil Brewer, who had not previously published any novels, began to write for Gold Medal Paperbacks in 1950-51. Brewer wrote some 30 novels between 1951 and the late 60s – very often involving an ordinary man who becomes involved with, and is often corrupted and destroyed by, an evil or designing woman. His style is simple and direct, with sharp dialogue, often achieving considerable intensity.
Brewer was one of the many writers who ghost wrote under the Ellery Queen byline as well. Brewer also was known as Eric Fitzgerald, Bailey Morgan, and Elaine Evans.
http://www.gilbrewer.com/
Brewer was one of the many writers who ghost wrote under the Ellery Queen byline as well. Brewer also was known as Eric Fitzgerald, Bailey Morgan, and Elaine Evans.
http://www.gilbrewer.com/
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 25, 2018
It involves another drifter, another loser, who finds himself involved somehow in a huge bank robbery, in murder and kidnapping. He also has a past: Jinny, the old nightmare he couldn't rid himself of. Jinny was another faithless woman. He found her one afternoon in the backroom of his shop, making it with his friend. Theirs had been an innocent pure romance, walking through the square in Santa Fe right after it rained, cutting across the park. Jim had come into the shop and saw Les "had her up on the work bench between the vise and the table saw. She wore a white fluffy dress. She squealed with delight." The blood was then all over everything amid the screaming. He explained: "Blood shot all over the workshop behind the Navajo blanket curtains of the front part of the store, as I carefully fashioned Les Pine into something that would look like a man when he wore clothes. If he lived." After several months in the asylum, Jim came home and "found Jinny in the same fluffy white dress, hanging with her arms in the bathtub, her head hanging, kneeling on the floor." "She had cut her wrists with a leather-working gouge. They hung in tepid water which faintly resembled tomato soup." Wow and that's just the background to explain Jim's state of mind. No one writes like Gil Brewer. These characters are just filled with too much emotion and pain for any human to bear.
He works as a clerk in a liquor store and is months behind in all his bills. But, this one involves a more classic femme fatale: Felice Anderson. She had a husband, but "So far that hadn't mattered, the way we'd looked at each other when she came to the store to order booze." "She could balance your libido with her eyes." "She reached and held her thick black hair up away from her head, those dark lips spread and the white teeth gleaming with an expression that was pure animal." Felice entices Jim with her rape fantasies and then pushes him to rob the bank and murder her husband, the bank manager. Meanwhile, Jim robbed the liquor store where he worked and beat a cop in the process and there's a detective using his vacation time to chase down who did it. The detective has his eye on Jim as Jim and Felice are trying to pull off the million-dollar caper.
He works as a clerk in a liquor store and is months behind in all his bills. But, this one involves a more classic femme fatale: Felice Anderson. She had a husband, but "So far that hadn't mattered, the way we'd looked at each other when she came to the store to order booze." "She could balance your libido with her eyes." "She reached and held her thick black hair up away from her head, those dark lips spread and the white teeth gleaming with an expression that was pure animal." Felice entices Jim with her rape fantasies and then pushes him to rob the bank and murder her husband, the bank manager. Meanwhile, Jim robbed the liquor store where he worked and beat a cop in the process and there's a detective using his vacation time to chase down who did it. The detective has his eye on Jim as Jim and Felice are trying to pull off the million-dollar caper.
March 9, 2016
*4.5 Stars*
While the last Brewer novel I read left much to be desired, A Taste For Sin, one of his later works, hits all the right notes! In it, we follow Jim Phalen, a drunk with money problems, as he hooks up with Felice Anderson, a hot, barely legal Latina with rough rape fantasies. It's all fun and games at first, but then this feisty femme goes from zero to fatale almost immediately, blackmailing him into helping her not only kill her husband but also rob the bank where he works of a million bucks.
I read this book as part of the Gil Brewer two-fer from Stark House that also includes Wild To Possess. While that book was pretty bland with a clunky plot, in A Taste For Sin, not only does the plot move as smooth as butter, but Brewer holds no punches with the depravity in the material. There aren't many books where you'll have a scene where the two main characters run around the house rough-sexin' each other while they have a police officer blind-folded and gagged and dog-chained to a radiator upstairs. A fun read!
While the last Brewer novel I read left much to be desired, A Taste For Sin, one of his later works, hits all the right notes! In it, we follow Jim Phalen, a drunk with money problems, as he hooks up with Felice Anderson, a hot, barely legal Latina with rough rape fantasies. It's all fun and games at first, but then this feisty femme goes from zero to fatale almost immediately, blackmailing him into helping her not only kill her husband but also rob the bank where he works of a million bucks.
She was a juvenile delinquent with a Spanish tinge, and she was absolutely out of her mind.This book has a lot of the ingredients that make a great pulp novel: ultra fast pacing that leaves you breathless, a vulnerable and morally questionable protagonist, an icy but irresistible femme fatale, dark humor, and surprising violence. We've seen a plot like this many times in pulp noir, but Brewer stands out and writes it all with his usual sharp wit and ratchets the intensity way up.
I read this book as part of the Gil Brewer two-fer from Stark House that also includes Wild To Possess. While that book was pretty bland with a clunky plot, in A Taste For Sin, not only does the plot move as smooth as butter, but Brewer holds no punches with the depravity in the material. There aren't many books where you'll have a scene where the two main characters run around the house rough-sexin' each other while they have a police officer blind-folded and gagged and dog-chained to a radiator upstairs. A fun read!
When you dine with Death, Fear sits at the head of the table.
May 3, 2018
My edition is in the Stark House Press two-fer that includes Wild to Possess. I read this novel when the Stark House publication first came out several years ago. I recently re-read it because I'd forgotten much of the plot. The lead protagonist Jim Phalen gets hooked up with a Cuban dish named Felice, who convinces him that they'll have to rob the bank her husband works for...oh, and kill her husband in the process. Phalen tells you in the beginning that he's done some time in a "hospital" so you know he's not good at dealing with stress. He plans the bank job, obsessively, considering every detail, and maps out their escape to the point of actually flying to Europe and back to rent a room for after the job. Unfortunately, planning isn't Felice's thing so much. She likes action, and plenty of it. And plenty of the green stuff to go with it. This is a good one.
June 12, 2020
“We’re going to rob the bank and kill my husband”. An exercise in mounting hysteria. Published eight years after Charles Williams’ “The Hot Spot” this shares some familiar plot elements – a bank job, a femme fatale, a hard-drinking, plug-ugly, protagonist desperate for a break – but the formula benefits from Brewer writing like someone – or life – had a gun pointed at his head.
Liquor salesman Jim Phalan is partial to the occasional snifter of absinthe and other smoothies (“I went down the street and drank five Pernods. It didn’t help…”). He’s in a rubbish job, lives in a dump, has a background of horrifying violence, pines for an ex and is behind on rent payments to his kindly landlady (“Her name was Gloria. She looked as if she slept with dogs”). Once he claps eyes on young Felice Anderson (Phalan goes from describing her as “a juvenile delinquent with a Spanish tinge, and she was absolutely out of her mind” to “My Spanish bomb…” in about thirty seconds) and gets wind of her robbin’ and murderin’ plans the reader can crack open the popcorn and comfortably sit back and watch as "Jim Nightmare Phalan" sets about systematically destroying his life. Phalan works hilariously hard to make Felice’s bank robbery scheme work (“I made endless lists”) and Brewer convinces the reader up to mere pages from the end that Phalan might actually pull it off. Of course, while destiny may be desire the reader knows there is absolutely no way Phalan is ever going to get his hands on one cent of the million he intends to steal and much enjoyment is to be had trying to spot where things are going to go south (there are two tiny lines which Brewer seeds to give you a hint). When Phalan isn’t copying keys, disposing of bodies and setting up multiple false trailes and hide-outs, he has disturbingly violent gymnastics with Felice and gets scared witless when she turns the headlights of her car off and accelerates to 100 mph. Brewer rewards the faithful reader with a boffo finale of volte faces, car chases and an elegant, wry, kick in the face. It’s another very enjoyable ride.
The secret sauce, as usual, is Brewer’s immediacy and endless heightened expressionism (“When you dine with Death, Fear sits at the head of the table”) which would wind up as slapstick comedy in the “Flashman” novels and then get attached to booster rockets and launched into space by James Ellroy. But fundamentally what Brewer does in his fiction is operationalise his own alcoholic psychosis. Life becomes as hard on a moment-to-moment level for wannabe bank robber Jim Phalan as it is for every park bench alcoholic, as it was for Brewer desperately rattling out the novels and living hand to mouth. Brewer feeds his own sense of walls closing in into the narrative, exteriorising his inner turmoil by way of a crime plot that just so happens to feature a protagonist whose drinking makes James Bond look like a militant teetotaller (“All I wanted was to get back to my room and lock the door and lie down and black myself out with absinthe”). The result is a narrative that absolutely obeys all the rules of formula fiction while still feeling like it comes from a distant, but personal place.
As for Felice…well, she’s another gonzo Princess with a background of abuse who smashes men’s heads in with a hammer. The 1950s/60s just couldn’t allow women to display sexual behaviour unless it was a result of “issues”. Lisbeth Salander has a God awful background but her sexual behaviour is depicted as recreational. “Killing Eve”’s Villanelle routinely leaves a couple of men in her bed to go off to her latest contract. The murderous Jessica Rabbits that populate these pulp novels conveniently sellotape the man to the plot and provide an excuse for the salacious covers but they are so often dancing to a tune sung by some previous male monster. Phalan, on the other hand, just can’t get over his ex. A pity Brewer never got to address that imbalance in any of the serious novels he wanted to write before the walls finally closed in on him. “So, you see what I could do if I wanted?”
Liquor salesman Jim Phalan is partial to the occasional snifter of absinthe and other smoothies (“I went down the street and drank five Pernods. It didn’t help…”). He’s in a rubbish job, lives in a dump, has a background of horrifying violence, pines for an ex and is behind on rent payments to his kindly landlady (“Her name was Gloria. She looked as if she slept with dogs”). Once he claps eyes on young Felice Anderson (Phalan goes from describing her as “a juvenile delinquent with a Spanish tinge, and she was absolutely out of her mind” to “My Spanish bomb…” in about thirty seconds) and gets wind of her robbin’ and murderin’ plans the reader can crack open the popcorn and comfortably sit back and watch as "Jim Nightmare Phalan" sets about systematically destroying his life. Phalan works hilariously hard to make Felice’s bank robbery scheme work (“I made endless lists”) and Brewer convinces the reader up to mere pages from the end that Phalan might actually pull it off. Of course, while destiny may be desire the reader knows there is absolutely no way Phalan is ever going to get his hands on one cent of the million he intends to steal and much enjoyment is to be had trying to spot where things are going to go south (there are two tiny lines which Brewer seeds to give you a hint). When Phalan isn’t copying keys, disposing of bodies and setting up multiple false trailes and hide-outs, he has disturbingly violent gymnastics with Felice and gets scared witless when she turns the headlights of her car off and accelerates to 100 mph. Brewer rewards the faithful reader with a boffo finale of volte faces, car chases and an elegant, wry, kick in the face. It’s another very enjoyable ride.
The secret sauce, as usual, is Brewer’s immediacy and endless heightened expressionism (“When you dine with Death, Fear sits at the head of the table”) which would wind up as slapstick comedy in the “Flashman” novels and then get attached to booster rockets and launched into space by James Ellroy. But fundamentally what Brewer does in his fiction is operationalise his own alcoholic psychosis. Life becomes as hard on a moment-to-moment level for wannabe bank robber Jim Phalan as it is for every park bench alcoholic, as it was for Brewer desperately rattling out the novels and living hand to mouth. Brewer feeds his own sense of walls closing in into the narrative, exteriorising his inner turmoil by way of a crime plot that just so happens to feature a protagonist whose drinking makes James Bond look like a militant teetotaller (“All I wanted was to get back to my room and lock the door and lie down and black myself out with absinthe”). The result is a narrative that absolutely obeys all the rules of formula fiction while still feeling like it comes from a distant, but personal place.
As for Felice…well, she’s another gonzo Princess with a background of abuse who smashes men’s heads in with a hammer. The 1950s/60s just couldn’t allow women to display sexual behaviour unless it was a result of “issues”. Lisbeth Salander has a God awful background but her sexual behaviour is depicted as recreational. “Killing Eve”’s Villanelle routinely leaves a couple of men in her bed to go off to her latest contract. The murderous Jessica Rabbits that populate these pulp novels conveniently sellotape the man to the plot and provide an excuse for the salacious covers but they are so often dancing to a tune sung by some previous male monster. Phalan, on the other hand, just can’t get over his ex. A pity Brewer never got to address that imbalance in any of the serious novels he wanted to write before the walls finally closed in on him. “So, you see what I could do if I wanted?”
December 9, 2020
If you are looking for a fast-paced noir thriller to lose yourself in for a few hours this Gil Brewer masterpiece is the one. Brewer removed the filter and just blew up the page. If you are a fan of crime-noir and haven't read this book yet, then you are missing out on a centerpiece of the genre.
July 31, 2011
David’s Femme Dépravée Theorem: The quality of a traditional Everyman noir novel is in direct proportion to the depravity of its femme fatale—and it doesn’t hurt if she also happens to be married to a clerk at the local bank. Brewer had written this book before, but not with this much panache.
April 17, 2021
Felice's idea of a good time is being raped. Her banker husband's idea of a good time is to take her fishing -- ugh. Enter hunky chump Jim Phalen. Jim is an absinthe drinker. Jim jumps at Felice's felonious scheme and suffers pitifully. Brewer really piles it on.
The 2-volume edition Wild to Possess/A Taste for Sin contains two good bios of Gil Brewer, one by his wife Verlaine and one by Bill Pronzini. I learned that drunk, destitute Gil was forced to make a living by writing short stories for Hustler. I've never read a Hustler story, but after reading this kinky sordid book, I can imagine that Gil would be good at it.
The 2-volume edition Wild to Possess/A Taste for Sin contains two good bios of Gil Brewer, one by his wife Verlaine and one by Bill Pronzini. I learned that drunk, destitute Gil was forced to make a living by writing short stories for Hustler. I've never read a Hustler story, but after reading this kinky sordid book, I can imagine that Gil would be good at it.
April 25, 2024
Pure dime store pulp from 1961. Little known, aficionados think highly of Brewer. From my part, it was pretty formulaic.
July 26, 2022
Brewer, Gil - A Taste For Sin
Jim works at a liquor store. To make ends meet, he boosts cases now and then, hoping his boss doesn’t notice.
Enter customer Felice. Nothing but firm curves under a black shirt, hitched high. White blouse, mostly unbuttoned, beckons with more moist delights.
Felice and Jim begin to yield to the electric charge between them, even though Jim knows she’s poison.
She’s 17, she’s reckless, she has a temper, she has a husband.
Yeah, that husband thing. Still, he works at the bank, he works nights, he has keys.
Jim is another of Brewer’s male losers. Guys transfixed stupid by hot snatch.
Oh, Jim comes up with a plan! Details and timetables so nothing - nothing - can go wrong.
The book hurtles at a frenetic pace, matching the Jim and Felice‘s activities every time they rip each others clothes off, which is often.
For tales of low rent lust and insane capers, Brewer is my go-to favorite.
Jim works at a liquor store. To make ends meet, he boosts cases now and then, hoping his boss doesn’t notice.
Enter customer Felice. Nothing but firm curves under a black shirt, hitched high. White blouse, mostly unbuttoned, beckons with more moist delights.
Felice and Jim begin to yield to the electric charge between them, even though Jim knows she’s poison.
She’s 17, she’s reckless, she has a temper, she has a husband.
Yeah, that husband thing. Still, he works at the bank, he works nights, he has keys.
Jim is another of Brewer’s male losers. Guys transfixed stupid by hot snatch.
Oh, Jim comes up with a plan! Details and timetables so nothing - nothing - can go wrong.
The book hurtles at a frenetic pace, matching the Jim and Felice‘s activities every time they rip each others clothes off, which is often.
For tales of low rent lust and insane capers, Brewer is my go-to favorite.
January 6, 2013
A Taste for Sin is an entertaining, dark-humored work that plot pretzels perversity, multifaceted lusts and murder in this Brewer-distinctive, short-&-sharp novel about an illicit couple (Phalen and Felice) whose plans - when compared to those of other Brewer protagonists - are feasible, at least initially.
Worth owning, this.
Worth owning, this.
June 12, 2018
This novella produced in 1961 is my second Gil Brewer book and as compared to the first (The Vengeful Virgin) is rather short. It is laced with the same witty and noir-esque prose that brewer is famous for. While being a breezy read there are some short comings in this book. The characters are one dimensional and so are there motivations. An important character related to the protagonist is never seen in the book...we just hear a name and a very brief backstory.
The story is about Jim Phalen a down on his luck loser who one day comes home to find his wife with his best friend...proceeds to kill him brutally...leaves town and starts working a low income liquor store. There he meets Felice the 17yr old wife of George Anderson the manager of a bank near Jim's store. From the point they meet its lust at first sight and the girl has rape fantasies. Together they plan to kill george steal a million dollars from the bank and run away together...
With that said this is a very brooding and when the time comes an explosive book. The plot just flies and the pages just turn themselves. The trademark alcoholism is there as is the absolutely crazy dame as in brewer's last novel but the spin on them here is much more sinister and malicious. Most characters we meet are sleazy and have hidden motives. There are some nice twists which can jolt you if not paying attention. The ending is well done and realistic.
Overall this book is high on entertainment value while being low on character development and complex plotting. The dialogue is crisp and the scenes are vivid but complex characters and overarching story lines you wont find here. Think of it as fast food...easy on the eyes..tasty to the mouth...but completely devoid of any nutrients. If you have a few hours this is well worth your time.
7.5/10
Good one time read for fans of Pure Entertainment.
The story is about Jim Phalen a down on his luck loser who one day comes home to find his wife with his best friend...proceeds to kill him brutally...leaves town and starts working a low income liquor store. There he meets Felice the 17yr old wife of George Anderson the manager of a bank near Jim's store. From the point they meet its lust at first sight and the girl has rape fantasies. Together they plan to kill george steal a million dollars from the bank and run away together...
With that said this is a very brooding and when the time comes an explosive book. The plot just flies and the pages just turn themselves. The trademark alcoholism is there as is the absolutely crazy dame as in brewer's last novel but the spin on them here is much more sinister and malicious. Most characters we meet are sleazy and have hidden motives. There are some nice twists which can jolt you if not paying attention. The ending is well done and realistic.
Overall this book is high on entertainment value while being low on character development and complex plotting. The dialogue is crisp and the scenes are vivid but complex characters and overarching story lines you wont find here. Think of it as fast food...easy on the eyes..tasty to the mouth...but completely devoid of any nutrients. If you have a few hours this is well worth your time.
7.5/10
Good one time read for fans of Pure Entertainment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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