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Fade to Blonde

Max Phillips

3.61 · Rating details · 943 ratings · 93 reviews

"She wore a pale blue dress with cream piping, a dark blue belt, and a silly little schoolgirlish collar. She had nice straight shoulders. There was nothing wrong between them and her open-toed shoes, so I guess the trouble must have been somewhere behind those blue-gray eyes. They'd be trouble, of course. She looked up and called, 'Is your name, Corson?' " From the first ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, Hard Case Crime #2, 220 pages

Published September 7th 2004 by Hard Case Crime

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· 943 ratings · 93 reviews

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May 09, 2011 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime, hardboiled-and-noir, 2000-2005, mystery, hardcase-crime

So I’m reading this, and periodically glancing again at the cover, when it hit me...Hard Case Crime is like a bad-ass male counterpart to Harlequin Romances. Now I’ve never read a Harlequin Romance and Fabio still gives me the heebies and jeebies. Therefore, I don’t know if they are the literary equivalent of golden drops of liquid sunshine or if they suck so bad they cause brain hickeys and a loss of IQ. I just don’t know, so let’s leave quality comparisons sitting in the back napping with its ...more

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Feb 10, 2008 Dan Schwent rated it liked it

Shelves: cool-covers, hardcase

Ray Corson is a laborer and former boxer who gets mixed up with Rebecca LaFontaine. Rebecca's on the run from a guy that wants to burn her face with lye. Too bad Rebecca's an expert on lye. Or is that lie?

This one has quite a few twists and turns. I didn't see the ending coming even though I knew Rebecca was so full of crap she could barely go farther than five feet from the toilet. Still, a lot of guys would have been taken in like Ray was and it's easy to see his way of thinking. The writing i ...more

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Jul 18, 2014 Robert rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-deals, robert-s-reads

Dammit, blondes should definitely not be forced to fade away. Instead, the little vixens filled with honey and curves and dimpled noses should prance around from town to town just for the hell of it. I have no idea why, but I continue to be fascinated by women with honey-colored hair. If I’m being truly honest, though, I don’t discriminate if she’s brunette, or raven-haired, or a redhead, but for whatever reason blondes pack a little extra wallop when I step in the ring.

So, yes, I liked Rebecca ...more

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Jul 18, 2014 Tim The Enchanter rated it it was ok

Shelves: disappointments, my-ebooks, 2-stars, crime, noir

Posted to The Literary Lawyer.ca

A Poor Effort - 2 Stars

This is the second in the Hard Case Crime series. Each installment is a throwback to pulp crime fiction and feature bad behavior, cigarettes and at least one woman with loose morals. It is not a series in the traditional sense and books are written by a wide array of authors and are taken from the past and present. The series spoils the reader by featuring a Lawrence Block novel as the first installment and I should not have expected ...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Brandon rated it liked it

Shelves: 2012, noir, fiction, hardcase

Former boxer and current odd-jobber Ray Corson is enlisted by damsel in distress, Rebecca LaFontaine, to shake off some unwanted attention. A gentleman by the name of Halliday intends to disfigure Rebecca but not if Corson has anything to do with it.

This novel had to be dripping with solid gold if it was going to be able to top Hardcase's first publication, Grifter's Game. Unfortunately, while Fade To Blonde was an enjoyable read, it really didn't completely measure up.

That being said, Phillips ...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Jayaprakash Satyamurthy rated it liked it

Whoever Max Phillips is* (I used to be one of those reviewers who did a lot of research, but that just meant my reviews wound up being regurgitated facts and subconscious plagiarism so now I make like Jack Spader and wait for a review to be dictated to me. By ghosts) he does a damned fine job of writing a vintage piece of noir, set in the seamy margins of the film business sometime in the 1950s, as far as I can tell from internal references. He goes straight for Chandler/Hammett territory and fo Whoever Max Phillips is* (I used to be one of those reviewers who did a lot of research, but that just meant my reviews wound up being regurgitated facts and subconscious plagiarism so now I make like Jack Spader and wait for a review to be dictated to me. By ghosts) he does a damned fine job of writing a vintage piece of noir, set in the seamy margins of the film business sometime in the 1950s, as far as I can tell from internal references. He goes straight for Chandler/Hammett territory and for the most part delivers a convincing period piece, right down to the somewhat rambling, episodic middle-acts that both the aforementioned masters often delivered, moving their sleuths from one seedy venue to another explosive confrontation to get the pieces in place for the final blow. Still, there are times when it's clear from certain mannerisms in the dialogue (especially the ploy of making 70% of a sentence? A question) that the writer has lived through the 2000s.

That's a minor complaint, because Phillips certainly delivers on most other fronts with a variety of colourful character, all sorts of sordid set-pieces and bursts of frantic action. There's a dame, and she's bad news for everyone around, especially herself. There's a hood, but we don't know everything about him until it's almost too late. There's a patsy, but the dame and the hood don't have his full measure. Various gangsters, crooks, lowlifes, minor functionaries, film world nobodies & used-to-be-somebodies and so forth prowl around the edges of the narrative darting in for quick bits of snappy dialogue and plot advancement. If anything, this novel is a bit too crowded for its 220 or so pages.

A bigger complaint is that the protagonist just doesn't add up. A failed screen writer and sometime-boxer, sometime bit-actor, he lived through some frightening moments in the second world war, but he's also well-read in a hard-bitten sort of way (he likes Chekhov and Stephen Crane, Hemingway tires him out). None of this really explains why he's such a fucking psycho. When anyone else would have been happy to get in a couple of solid punches and wind their opponent long enough to make a clean getaway, Corson will go for the jugular, every single time. Excessive violence is his only action mode and even in the tough circles he moves around in, he is known to be a bit of a wild card. Only, we're never given sufficient reasons why this is so.

So there you have it. Lots of good one-liners, a suitably sordid plot and a pretty good stab at old-fashioned noir entertainment through degradation even if there is an attempt to let a little sunshine through at the every end. Not something that I'll include in my list of all-time favourites, but by no means a bad way to spend your time and money.

*So I did my research afterwards, and he's one of the people running Hard Case crime. A bit cheeky to make one of his own books the second in the series, but at least it's obvious that this is an operation run by people who know a thing or two about their chosen area of operation. Also he gets huge points from me for this interview answer:

GM: Ray Corson, Mike Hammer, Phillip Marlowe and Jeff Markham are in a bar and get into a drunken brawl. Who’s going to win?
MP: Jules Maigret glares at them over his beer and they all slink out in shame. ...more

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Apr 23, 2017 Kurt Reichenbaugh rated it liked it

Shelves: beat-other

Fade to Blonde is one of the longer pulp/noir novels I've read in the Hard Case Crime line-up strictly because of its somewhat aimless plot. Ray Corson is a likable, compelling ex-boxer, screen writer, handyman for hire with an engaging manner about him. The problem is that he's stuck in a story where the other characters don't measure up. Rebecca LaFontaine as the femme fatale is too clearly a liar and trouble from the start. She hires him to get rid of an obsessed suitor named Lance Halliday. ...more

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May 21, 2018 Brad Lyerla rated it liked it

This should be regarded as a "hard case" classic. Phillips has mastered all of the cliches. I don't know why I like these sorts of books, but when I am traveling, they can distract me against even the most unpleasant lay over, bumpy air, rude fellow passenger or the like. ...more

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Jun 12, 2020 Joe Santoro rated it liked it

Shelves: hard-_case_crime

Pretty by the numbers, as far as the Hard Case Crime series goes... they sure do like to focus on films (especially of the adult variety).

Ray Corson was a pretty good lead, but a bit too smart for the personality/life history he was supposed to have. I did love his Sherlock reference though.

The mystery part was fun, and definitely had an ending I didn't expect, which is always nice. ...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Steve rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Noir purists

Shelves: fiction, crime-badness-noir

Ray Corson is a former boxer, a wannabe writer (Stephen Crane, Hemmingway, etc.), and current roofer. In other words, he’s a guy in his mid-thirties starting to show a gut, who has knocked around the country a bit too long. Enter a beautiful woman with a big Studebaker convertible, and a job for someone who can still throw a devastating overhand right. Things start to happen, as he inserts himself into Rebecca LaFontaine’s world of drugs, thugs, porn, and lies. But Corson is no fool, and he can ...more

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Jul 27, 2009 Gregory rated it really liked it

Shelves: hard-case-crime-series

Ray is my kind of protagonist. He's observant even when he seems not to be and he's more intelligent than he lets on but there's a sensitive side too. He's a would-be writer or screen writer if he could get a break. His take on other writers was pretty good. I recall one on Tolstoy: the man never crossed out a sentence in his whole life. This novel had some nice twists and interesting characters (Gangster Scarpa could have had another scene for me). And the femme fatale Rebecca, man that's a pie ...more

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Oct 10, 2013 Mr. Matt rated it liked it

Shelves: pulp-fiction, 2013

I really wasn't sure about Fade to Blonde as I read the book. The story follows a complex web surrounding (surprise, surprise!) a drop dead gorgeous blonde. She is wrapped up in a tangle involving gangsters, drugs, stag movies, and more.

To be frank, I probably wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't been on an airplane with nothing other to read. The story had a few too many twists in it and also jumped around. For large chunks of the story I found myself wondering why the protagonist was doing th ...more

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Jun 17, 2017 Dave rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hard-case-crime, crime-fiction-all, crime-fiction-pulp, read-have, political-thrillers

This book, although written in the modern era, is terrific reading because Phillips has captured the mood and spirit of the fifties-era pulp and he captures it better than anyone else in modern times. If you did not know better, you would think this was written fifty years ago. Maybe, Phillips is just an old soul or maybe he just succeeded at what he set out to do here.

Who is Max Phillips? He is the cofounder of Hard Case Crime along with Charles Ardai. He has also written under the pen name For This book, although written in the modern era, is terrific reading because Phillips has captured the mood and spirit of the fifties-era pulp and he captures it better than anyone else in modern times. If you did not know better, you would think this was written fifty years ago. Maybe, Phillips is just an old soul or maybe he just succeeded at what he set out to do here.

Who is Max Phillips? He is the cofounder of Hard Case Crime along with Charles Ardai. He has also written under the pen name Forrest DeVoe Jr a series of sixties-era spy novels.

Ray Corson is an ex-boxer who has Hollywood connections and is now doing day labor. He also tries to write screenplays, but most of that ends up in the desk drawer. While working on a roof, he is approached by the ultimate femme fatale, Rebecca. "Well, maybe she wasn't all that blonde, but it'd be a crime to call hair like that light brown. It was more sort of lion-colored." Rebecca La Fontaine is driving a big blue convertible Studebaker. "She wore a pale blue dress with cream piping, a dark blue belt, and a silly schoolgirlish collar. She had nice straight shoulders. There was nothing wrong between them and her open-toed shoes, so I guess trouble must have been somewhere behind those blue-gray eyes." Rebecca must be a synonym for trouble because that is just what she brings to Ray. She is a dame in trouble with a hood named Holliday. Seems she came to town all innocent and made a blue movie with Holliday one night when she had too much and now Holliday won't lay off her. She says Holliday threatened to throw lye on her face and mess her up good. She wants Ray to do something about Holliday. He doesn't necessarily believe anything Rebecca says, but figures its worth poking into. After all, he's got nothing else going.

Ray is a bit wild and when the contractor he is working for says he doesn't have money to pay him, Ray puts a chain around the contractor's mouth and pulls until the contractor opens the safe and pays him. Ray's moments of craziness put him in trouble with local mob figures, like when he lays waste to two guys who came to tell him to cool off the investigation and they end up in the hospital or when he singlehandedly burns down the mob's whorehouses out in Calabasas because he did it without thinking.

Ray lived in a two-bit motel, right behind the Sun-Glo billboard. "The Sun-Glo Girl was seventy-five feet long and lay around all day on an elbow and a hip. Her job was to lie there, smiling and brushing back her hair." Descriptions like this I could read all day.

When Ray pays a visit on Rebecca, he finds her in a room without much space for anything but a bed, "which Rebecca was just then sharing with the biggest ole Cowboy I'd ever seen." She tells him yet another story and Ray goes to visit the gangsters in their bars and casinos and goes to work for them, sort of. There, he quickly raises trouble. The bartender hit a button and Ray sees two men in dinner jackets strolling toward him. "One of the dinner jackets was a pretty little fellow, a real pocket edition. But I've known," he explains, "some pocket editions and I wasn't giggling." When he sits with the gangster leader himself, "A slim brunette with a neck like a gazelle had appeared at [his] shoulder, wearing just about as much cloth of gold as you'd need to keep the chill off a canary. She set a fresh gimlet in front of me as if she were kissing her baby goodnight." Wow!

Of course, when Rebecca comes to see Ray, he finds her in the motel pool. "She opened her eyes again and her smile turned mocking. I'd been staring at her endowments, and she'd noticed it first."
It's a great story filled with Hollywood floozies, blue movies, hoods, casinos, bars, flophouses, drug dens, and more. The story moves very quickly and is worth reading over and over again just for the great descriptions that Phillips gives, which absolutely evoke the fifties gangster pulp era.

He visits a drug party to get the goods on Halliday and uses a connection to get in. "Joan Healey was the most generous and least worried person [he] knew. She was about thirty-five and looked ten years younger and acted like a high school girl who'd just discovered malteds. [He] never figured out whether she thought she was ugly enough that she had to take what she could get or beautiful enough that she had a civic duty to spread it around, but she'd pretty much throw a leg over anybody who asked." That really gives the reader the full-on hardboiled, cynical attitude!

At the farmhouse turned whorehouse, the door was opened by "a thin woman of fifty or so in a party dress that showed too much of her and tried to push around what it didn't show. She smiled at me and said hello honey."

This was just one great book filled with great writing. Phillips has the talent or the attitude to convey in just a few sentences what might take others paragraphs to tell.

My biggest complaint with this book is that Phillips has failed to publish other hardboiled novels of this ilk. ...more

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Sep 20, 2017 Bill Telfer rated it really liked it

This is only the secomd book published by the Hard Case Crime imprint -- and it was an original for them which came out in 2004. I bought it back then but only got around to reading it now. I couldn't put it down. Great stuff in the pulp tradition. Pure, enjoyable "hard-boiled" fiction. ...more

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Sep 28, 2016 Jim N rated it it was amazing

Fade to Blonde is razor sharp noir, a crisply-written homage to the hardboiled fiction of the '40s and '50s that reads like a lost noir film you really want to see. The protagonist, veteran and former boxer Ray Corson, is a streetwise tough guy in need of work. He's hired by Rebecca, an attractive, manipulative blonde in need of help and the plot takes off from there. Corson's a great character: he's big and fearless but he's also smart and observant. However, he's not so smart that he doesn't s ...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Timothy Mayer added it

Hard Case Crime shows it can deliver as a book publisher. With novels such as Money Shot, I've become a big fan of the company It's always good to know there are Still a few publishers out there who can deliver the goods.
Fade to Blond is written from the perspective of Ray Corson, a WWII vet and prize fighter. It's the 1950'S in Los Angeles and he's trying to make a living in the building trades. One day a mysterious blond woman comes up to him on a job site wanting to hire Corson to keep a form
Hard Case Crime shows it can deliver as a book publisher. With novels such as Money Shot, I've become a big fan of the company It's always good to know there are Still a few publishers out there who can deliver the goods.
Fade to Blond is written from the perspective of Ray Corson, a WWII vet and prize fighter. It's the 1950'S in Los Angeles and he's trying to make a living in the building trades. One day a mysterious blond woman comes up to him on a job site wanting to hire Corson to keep a former boyfriend off her back. Needing the cash and smitten with the woman, he takes the job.
But soon he discovers there's more to the job than she let on. Her ex is a small time hoodlum named Halliday who produces adult films and is in fealty to Lenny Scarpa, a major player in the drug trade. Scarpa, in turn, is beholden to Fausto Burri, the mob boss of Santa Monica. Soon Corson discovers all kinds of inconsistencies in the blonde’s (who goes by the name Rebecca Lafontaine) story. But he’s fallen in love with her and becomes ensnarled in a complex of schemes.
Max Phillips has a natural, but not too easy to follow, writing style. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell who's talking if the scene involves multiple characters. But his feel for natural speaking can also work to his advantage, especially if a given character does not speak standard English. And he can turn a sentence. Such as this description of a young woman who lives too fast:

"I was always glad to see Joanie, because it meant no one had killed her yet."

And check out how he manages to capture the spirit of the age in one sentence:

"I saw a couple more people about as well-known as Neale and Tremaine, and some players who were just half familiar faces, but you couldn't think what they'd done, and some gaudy specimens who must have been choreographers or designers, and some set dressers and grips and a couple guys who nigh I've been artists, the new kind, that try to look like dockworkers."

The ending of the book is quite stunning, although not too surprising. It out-ranks the famous "It was easy” conclusion from another novel.
A good hard boiled book from a company creating crime fiction with an edge ...more

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Sep 03, 2016 Sarah rated it liked it

The main premise of this is that if a woman is pretty enough, she can act like a sociopath and still have men falling all over her and risking their lives for her. Rebecca was awful. I mean, I know she was supposed to be, but I just got sick of the main character being wrapped around her little finger even thought she is obviously bad news and is using him. This frustrated me. I found the main character hard to relate to for that reason. But the book was fast paced and kept me turning pages, eve ...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Brian rated it liked it

Shelves: pulp, mystery, hard-case-crime

Three (and a half) stars with a bit of reservation...

I've got a shelf full of these Hard Case Crime books, and as I go through more and more, the characters and the situations tend to blend far more than I'd like. Big and Quiet But Wisecracking Guy gets hired by a Femme Fatale for a Task. BQWG falls for FF, Task clearly not what he first thought, but clouded by love/lust, he still goes through with it, until the Twist.

I guess I'm not really spoiling much by saying this book follows that formula ...more

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Oct 25, 2015 Benjamin Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-crime

In 2004, the Hard Case Crime imprint was begun, cofounded by authors Charles Ardai and Max Phillips. While the publishers reprinted many of the hard boiled crime novels of the 30’a 40’s and 50’s, they also publish newly minted stories. Max Phillips wrote this second novel and one can easily imagine him pecking away on an old typewriter, trying for every cliché in the proverbial book as he worked to establish the imprint and everything it stands for.

A beautiful femme fatal hires out-of-work Holly ...more

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Sep 11, 2015 Math rated it it was amazing

When selecting any of the Hard Case Crime series, you pretty much know what to expect. And if you don't, then the blurb, and the fantastic artwork provide plenty of clues. 'Fade to Blonde' is no exception: a riveting, page turner which, like its main protagonist Ray Corson, pulls no punches. The prose is both skillful and succinct, with witty dialog to match. There's plenty of memorable characters and enough twists to hold your interest. As Corson says: "I only buy books by people I wish I wrote ...more

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Nov 25, 2010 Sandi rated it liked it

Shelves: crime-mystery-thriller-suspense, read-2010

One of Hard Case Crime's original works, this is a rather nifty homage to the hardboiled works of the Forties and Fifties. Set in Hollywood, Ray Corson wants to be a screenwriter but like many he has to find other work to pay the bills. Enter Rebecca LaFontaine who is looking for a hired hand. Only 220 pages, but plenty of plot, a self aware hero, and just enough hardboiled dialogue made this a quick enjoyable read. ...more

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Oct 31, 2015 Ken Schloman rated it really liked it

This Shamus Award winner is the second novel in the Hard Case Crime portfolio. While written in 2004, the novel captures the tone and feeling of crime novels written in the 1940's, 1950's and 60's. The characters are tough with snappy dialogue. You can see the influences of Chandler, McDonald, and even Hammett. As I read the novel I could visualize it as a Bogart and Bacall noir movie. It is a great homage to the genre. ...more

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Nov 12, 2007 Bruce rated it liked it

This 2004 novel is packaged as if it were a reprint of a noir/crime novel from the 50s. A reasonably decent read it is, but that it isn't. The protagonist is more of a noble superhero type than an ignoble anti-hero, and the heroine comes off more as a confused little girl in a woman's body than a seductive temptress. ...more

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Nov 08, 2016 David G rated it really liked it

sometimes all I need is a good hard case crime...tough guys, hard dolls
this one has a hollywood,porn thing going.
good escape.

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Jul 15, 2017 Yuckamashe rated it liked it

Shelves: noir-pulp

This was the typical noir scenario. Good girl gone bad meets a guy whose rough around the edges but has a heart of gold. It was a pleasant surprise that it had a happy-ish ending.

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Jan 17, 2021 Moran rated it liked it

This book hit all the tropes of the genre right on the nose. It had the beautiful (but not too beautiful) damsel in distress; the down-on-his-luck, everyman tough guy that’s prone to violence and also willing to take almost any oddjob that comes his way; a good slew of gangsters representing a healthy cross-section of age, motivation, and intimidation; and a supporting cast of witty, fast-talking, affable characters to push along the main plot. The locales were also spot on: from a rent-by-the-d This book hit all the tropes of the genre right on the nose. It had the beautiful (but not too beautiful) damsel in distress; the down-on-his-luck, everyman tough guy that’s prone to violence and also willing to take almost any oddjob that comes his way; a good slew of gangsters representing a healthy cross-section of age, motivation, and intimidation; and a supporting cast of witty, fast-talking, affable characters to push along the main plot. The locales were also spot on: from a rent-by-the-day seedy motel, to a gaudy movie producer mansion, to shady offices, and rambling dope parties -- there was a lot to enjoy!

Some of the plot diversions felt a bit unnecessary but were nevertheless entertaining. The shoot-up at the brothel comes to mind as one such unnecessary diversion. The whole affair seemed ancillary to the main plot and could have probably been left out (I’m guessing it was left in to hit some publisher page quota). Nevertheless, the scene read like the Django Unchained Candyland shootout and was therefore extremely enjoyable.

My biggest qualm with the book was its inability to provide its protagonist, Ray Corson, with proper motivation for carrying on with the plot. From the beginning of the story, he seems reluctant to be at the service of the titular blonde, Rebecca. She doesn’t even give him enough money to warrant his interest in her situation. Whatmore, he continues to pick and prod at her story, because it seems off to him; he does not trust her. Yet he still goes along with the mission. Initially, it seems that he’s doing so in pursuit of a potential romantic relationship, but even that motivation waffles and ultimately collapses.

So our main character is not motivated by money, romance, or even a sense of wanting to do the right thing. If I were to guess, I would say that the author would claim “curiosity”. But the protagonist already has the whole plot figured out by the time he embarks on his final mission. He needlessly ends up putting himself at risk when he could have just gotten up and walked away.

While this book delivers on most of the desired elements for this style of book: the characters, the settings, the violence, the smut. It fails to deliver on a purpose to push its plot along. It feels like Ray Corson could step out of the plot at any point and that’s how I ended up feeling throughout my reading of the book. ...more

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Dec 31, 2018 Trevor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, pulp-fiction

Originally published in 2004, Fade to Blonde is a Hard Case Crime original by Max Phillips, and it sings. The book is a ride, with a femme fatale for the ages, a hard-necked protagonist who could stand side by side with other genre greats, and enough tough guy dialogue to fill a dictionary.

Phillips puts everything together in beautiful fashion. There's a little bit of everything in here, and he does a great job of pulling out a pretty grand ending to a winding plot through seedy period sets. Ray ...more

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Dec 13, 2020 Martin rated it liked it

Shelves: hard-case-crime, mystery, crime

I'll begin by writing that I love Hard Case Crime as a publisher. They just have terrific design and editorial sensibilities. That written, this is not their best book. It doesn't really work that that the hero is smarter than everyone else, works harder than everyone else, and has a heart of gold is also broke and an idiot. Other writers make this work by having the hero be a hard drinker or addicted to gambling or always going for the 2 birds in the bush or he can't resist a woman he's laid. I ...more

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Jun 28, 2019 Rubin Carpenter rated it it was amazing

A fantastic read !
classic noir at it's best !
A former boxer who now does odd jobs
takes a job from a woman who claims she needs protection from a 3rd rate mobster
it quickly spirals into a dangerous game
where nobody comes out unscathed. ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Neil Jenkins rated it really liked it

I love these crime thrillers (mainly based in 1960s America where PC was a little different) from the hard case crime publishers. This tale is of a man who is hired as a hit man by a troublesome lady with a great crime twist at the end. These are not expensive, quick to read and lots of fun

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About Max Phillips

Max Phillips

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Max Phillips has received an Academy of American Poets Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his stories have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the Partisan Review, and the Village Voice, among other publications.

Forrest Devoe Jr. is the pen name of Max Phillips. In addition to cofounding the pulp revival imprint Hard Case Crime, he has authored one of its debut titl ...more