The Squeeze

by Gil Brewer

An Ace Double, paired with Frank Diamond's Love Me to Death.

Genres: Crime

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Florida 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/

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finishes strong after a clunky setup requiring major suspension of disbelief. The squeeze of the title is that everyman accountant Joe Maule loses a bundle gambling and has to repay a mobster by tracking down 260K stolen and hidden by another guy. As I said, major suspension of disbelief required with this plot. It gets even harder to believe following a twist Brewer introduces. But once you get passed that in the first third of the book the action picks up and the story rips along to the end. The dialog seemed out of whack at times, with the mobster sounding like something from a B-movie, and our protagonist - as Brewer's protagonists often are - mostly uncommunicative. What this novel has, however, is another of those great extended series of scenes involving the disposal of a body. Ranks up there with similar scenes in Brewer's The Vengeful Virgin and Satan Is a Woman. Mid-tier Brewer, but the body disposal sections are top-notch and make this one worth tracking down.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

After writerly forays to Wyoming and France, with his ninth novel Gil Brewer gets back to his Florida roots. In The Squeeze, narrator Joe Maule is an average guy who racks up a gambling debt that he cannot pay. He owes to money to an underworld type named Victor Jarnigan, who gives him another way to get out of debt . . . or else. Top-tier Brewer, no frills.

[B.G. Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the original Ace edition of THE SQUEEZE up on a shelf, which was always going to be in too good a condition to bother reading. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever be back in print. But of course Starkhouse has been for fans of Gil Brewer what the Golden Triangle used to be for heroin...a reliable source.

"I felt something deep down beginning all over again--a kind of recommencement of tragedy. It was like a big black ball of yarn had unwound and now it was winding up again. Only this time it was winding tighter and blacker and smoother than before."

This is from chapter 11, at which point the unlucky Joe Maul becomes more than just unlucky, he becomes totally screwed. In the process of going after a large sum of money In order to settle a gambling debt, Joe is faced with the problem of a dead body, which may also pose a problem to the likelihood of Joe and his sex partner in crime, Caroline, getting to the money at all.

Another reviewer mentioned suspension of disbelief being required at the beginning of this book, and I couldn't agree more. The circumstances under which Joe comes to owe a debt to Victor Jarnigan are way more far fetched than what was necessary for Brewer to create. If I even understood it correctly, an entire gambling operation, which isn't even real, is set up in order to ensnare Joe Maule, who is also chosen to move in on Ernest Lobb and his fortune, based on the fact that Lobbs sister-in-law, Caroline, looked at Joe in a way that was slightly suggestive. Its definitely a wacko premise.

But when the ball got rolling I began to notice the hallmarks of classic Brewer. I mean the Brewer who wrote about Florida the way Chandler wrote about L.A.. Here's a bit of what I'm talking about... "I started down a slight incline and stepped into water above the ankles. My feet sucked at the muck. The cypress trees stood stalwartly in the rain, drooping Spanish moss from their skeletal limbs, against the pail, rain-washed sky."

This would have been more of a swamp-noir novel had it taken place inland instead of on the gulf. However, there is what is reported to be a steel box containing money, hidden among mangroves, and more than one party driven insane with the idea of possessing it. So, in that sense, it is a swamp-noir tale.

"My middle name was Money. It was in my brain, like cancer."

In Joe Maul, Brewer gives us the typical male-off-his-fucking-rocker, along with a woman to match. But just when I thought I had figured out the femme fatale formula, Brewer throws in a twist. Maybe not an inventive one, but one I didn't see coming. What I learned here was that even as far back as 1955, Brewer was already mixing up those ingredients that made him one of the coolest progenitors of what I consider classic noir. And props to Starkhouse as always.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of what makes hardboiled fiction goo--a femme fatale, stolen money, lots of booze, gun play and a decent body count.