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The Brat
She looked at the rotting, sun-blasted shack, the one room where they all lived, slept, made love, died. Looked at the dusty lawn where no grass grew. At the steaming swamp, at her tobacco-spitting mother. Saw the sly, lustful eyes of her father’s friends. Then she looked at her own lush beauty. Get me out of here, she prayed. Oh, please get me out of here! I’ll pay any price.
144 pages
First published January 1, 1957
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About the author
Gil Brewer
139 books58 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 15, 2016
Pulpy tagline!:
"She wanted out and she had the price—a lovely body and the will to use it."
This is a middle of the road Gil Brewer novel that falls somewhere between the pulp awesomeness of The Vengeful Virgin or A Taste For Sin , and the disappointing Wild To Possess . In this book, Brewer pushes to create the "fatalest" of femmes in Evis Helling, the titular "brat" of the story. But brat is an understatement! Lee first meets her when he's riding down a river one day minding his own business and he sees her sitting on a dock, as if she's been waiting specifically for him to ride by, like a sweaty swamp succubus ready to suck him in. They soon marry and then begin to plot a robbery together. After he starts to get cold feet, she goes through with the robbery anyway and sets him up to take the fall, prompting Lee to travel back into the heart of swampy darkness to track her down!
I thought that the beginning of the book was great and the final act was pretty good, but the middle of the book that mostly consists of Lee traveling through the swamp did not have the same urgency that Brewer is known for, and it falls into a repetitive slog. I also thought that the desperate sheriff was a pretty annoying character. But even though it doesn't stand up to his best work, it's still entertaining enough, even if just for it's pulpiness and for Evis herself!
This is a middle of the road Gil Brewer novel that falls somewhere between the pulp awesomeness of The Vengeful Virgin or A Taste For Sin , and the disappointing Wild To Possess . In this book, Brewer pushes to create the "fatalest" of femmes in Evis Helling, the titular "brat" of the story. But brat is an understatement! Lee first meets her when he's riding down a river one day minding his own business and he sees her sitting on a dock, as if she's been waiting specifically for him to ride by, like a sweaty swamp succubus ready to suck him in. They soon marry and then begin to plot a robbery together. After he starts to get cold feet, she goes through with the robbery anyway and sets him up to take the fall, prompting Lee to travel back into the heart of swampy darkness to track her down!
I thought that the beginning of the book was great and the final act was pretty good, but the middle of the book that mostly consists of Lee traveling through the swamp did not have the same urgency that Brewer is known for, and it falls into a repetitive slog. I also thought that the desperate sheriff was a pretty annoying character. But even though it doesn't stand up to his best work, it's still entertaining enough, even if just for it's pulpiness and for Evis herself!
I cursed her and tore that dress to shreds.
It was like tearing us apart. I had to demolish every last stitch of cloth, scattering what remained of the dream across the floor of the room where a ghost of her still moaned and writhed in ecstasy.
December 4, 2016
THE BRAT is probably the best book I've read by Gil Brewer, and follows his often used theme of a woman that is deceitful and guilty of betrayal. Others have mentioned in their reviews of his books that they seem made up as he goes along - possibly after a night with the bottle, but this one felt very well put together and worthy of a 4 star rating in my book.. actually would be a 4-1/2 star since part of it takes place in a swamp.
March 4, 2019
I had a hard time getting into this swamp pulp. I think the problem was that it is just really slow. The main character drives around for a while, then he walks around, then he sails around on a boat. The end. Even the climax was pretty tame by pulp standards.
June 9, 2017
Gil Brewer is one of my favorite pulp writers. His stories are easy to read and highly emotional. He is such a good writer that, as a reader, you are drawn into the story before you ever know it. Many of his stories have familiar pulp motifs such as the evil seductress, the man being framed for a murder he did not commit, a man on the run from the law. The Brat is no exception to this rule and has at its source a femme fatale from the Florida swamps, a creature from the swamp. The narrator explains that the first time he saw her "she was sitting on the edge of a deserted wharf. The warm swamp air was tugging at her thin cotton dress. She was a fused explosion, a direct hit. Everything about her was boldly evident. It was like being struck - hot and hard." This is Evis. It is a story of greed and a story of obsession. It is, most of all, a damn good story.
Lee Sullivan's wife was killed in a car crash and he wandered around morose and dying inside and living off his savings until he met Evie in the Florida swamps. "A thick mop of ash-blonde hair. Long, tight roundings of thigh beneath scant, clinging white cotton." "it was like diving at her through the air. Nobody else around. No sound, save for the steadied and myriad swamp confusion. Like a dream, with the yes, yes, yes of her eyes and mouth and body under the too thin, too tight cotton - bare and ripe under the cotton." "Stranger, swamp-whore -- no matter what she was, I no longer cared. I had found her - and that did matter."
Evie was a backwoods girl and she was determined to get out. Sullivan wondered if she had fallen for him or if she would have fallen for anyone who had come along and been willing to take her out of there. They married and made a life in Tampa with Evie constantly wanting more, a bigger house, a nicer dress. He gets a job as a printer and she works for a savings and loan. Eventually, all they have isn't enough and Evie wants him to help her steal from the savings association. Sullivan wants to back out, but when he gets up from his drunk, she's gone. He explains that she was willful, overwrought, and he now knew crazy in a lot of ways. He had to reach her before she did this thing. "The little trigger in her brain that should scare her about the Law was missing. I loved her for that, too. I loved her, even knowing what she was."
And, at the savings association, he finds the president of the company shot, a note from Evie indicating he might stop by, and the gun wrapped up in Sullivan's jacket. "There was a round, blood-clotted hole in the side of his neck and he was dead."
Evie had set him up to take the fall and skeedaddled with $100,000 to the swamps and what's more she seems to have left with Sullivan's best friend in tow. "Right then," Sullivan explains, "maybe I died too. The whole thing was one great big thunderclap over my head."
At some point, Sullivan realizes what Evie is: "She was an animal. She'd done this to me. She'd ripped me apart ever since I'd known her." But his only chance to stay out of jail was to "find that crazy bitch and get the money back."
Sullivan tracks her to the swampland and, staying one step ahead of the sheriff, tries to catch her and the money before he takes the rap.
But, what's so terrific about the story is not necessarily the plot, but the incredible writing. Brewer takes you into Sullivan's world as he tracks Evie through the swamp and the backwoods world where she lived. He makes you feel the distrust and the betrayal as Sullivan catches up with her and realizes what she really was and that no man alive could ever trust her.
Brewer is at his best describing the hypnotic spell that Evie has Sullivan under. "She knew all I had to do was look at her, and if I touched her I'd go blind. It was like that. The juice was turned on. I didn't want to turn it off. I couldn't turn it off."
He also nails it with his description of Evie's family, spitting tobacco juice, discussing fish and Fords And Cadillacs and how her mother had gleaming black hair and uncurious eyes. Of course, then there's the cousin, a black-haired, rawboned man in a flannel shirt and dungarees, who had her bent back over a bracing two-by-four, sucking mouths, moaning like animals.
Lee Sullivan's wife was killed in a car crash and he wandered around morose and dying inside and living off his savings until he met Evie in the Florida swamps. "A thick mop of ash-blonde hair. Long, tight roundings of thigh beneath scant, clinging white cotton." "it was like diving at her through the air. Nobody else around. No sound, save for the steadied and myriad swamp confusion. Like a dream, with the yes, yes, yes of her eyes and mouth and body under the too thin, too tight cotton - bare and ripe under the cotton." "Stranger, swamp-whore -- no matter what she was, I no longer cared. I had found her - and that did matter."
Evie was a backwoods girl and she was determined to get out. Sullivan wondered if she had fallen for him or if she would have fallen for anyone who had come along and been willing to take her out of there. They married and made a life in Tampa with Evie constantly wanting more, a bigger house, a nicer dress. He gets a job as a printer and she works for a savings and loan. Eventually, all they have isn't enough and Evie wants him to help her steal from the savings association. Sullivan wants to back out, but when he gets up from his drunk, she's gone. He explains that she was willful, overwrought, and he now knew crazy in a lot of ways. He had to reach her before she did this thing. "The little trigger in her brain that should scare her about the Law was missing. I loved her for that, too. I loved her, even knowing what she was."
And, at the savings association, he finds the president of the company shot, a note from Evie indicating he might stop by, and the gun wrapped up in Sullivan's jacket. "There was a round, blood-clotted hole in the side of his neck and he was dead."
Evie had set him up to take the fall and skeedaddled with $100,000 to the swamps and what's more she seems to have left with Sullivan's best friend in tow. "Right then," Sullivan explains, "maybe I died too. The whole thing was one great big thunderclap over my head."
At some point, Sullivan realizes what Evie is: "She was an animal. She'd done this to me. She'd ripped me apart ever since I'd known her." But his only chance to stay out of jail was to "find that crazy bitch and get the money back."
Sullivan tracks her to the swampland and, staying one step ahead of the sheriff, tries to catch her and the money before he takes the rap.
But, what's so terrific about the story is not necessarily the plot, but the incredible writing. Brewer takes you into Sullivan's world as he tracks Evie through the swamp and the backwoods world where she lived. He makes you feel the distrust and the betrayal as Sullivan catches up with her and realizes what she really was and that no man alive could ever trust her.
Brewer is at his best describing the hypnotic spell that Evie has Sullivan under. "She knew all I had to do was look at her, and if I touched her I'd go blind. It was like that. The juice was turned on. I didn't want to turn it off. I couldn't turn it off."
He also nails it with his description of Evie's family, spitting tobacco juice, discussing fish and Fords And Cadillacs and how her mother had gleaming black hair and uncurious eyes. Of course, then there's the cousin, a black-haired, rawboned man in a flannel shirt and dungarees, who had her bent back over a bracing two-by-four, sucking mouths, moaning like animals.
April 17, 2021
Surprised this one was never made into a movie because it has everything: robbery, murder, double-crosses, car chases, boat chases, gun fights, hot babes and hunky guys. The title is one of those misleading Gold Medal marketing ploys common in the 50s: Evis is no brat, but she is all femme-fatale, going at things “like a blitzkrieg in tight nylons.” The novel starts right in the middle of the action with Lee Sullivan showing up late for the robbery planned by his wife Evis and he quickly realizes that she is framing him for both the robbery and the murder of her co-worker. After a back story chapter describing how they met and the progression towards the robbery, the chase is on as Sullivan tries to track down Evis and the $100,000 with the police in pursuit. Plenty of action in this one with a fully realized narrative arc that is propelled by Brewer's relentless pacing.
July 7, 2009
If ever Gil Brewer were guilty of understatement, it was when he titled his twelfth novel. Calling Evis Helling a brat is something like calling Michelangelo a doodler. Evis is one of Brewer's most memorable femmes fatale. Lee Sullivan, The Brat's narrator, has no idea what he is getting himself into when marries Evis and takes her away from her home in the Florida swamp. His first clue comes when Evis announces that she has a plan for them to rob a bank together. . . .
February 16, 2011
I was in the mood for a good GM PBO and this fit the bill. A good, refreshing dose of swamp lit at that. Would have given this five stars, but for the fact that the characters were a little two dimensional and a lot of the dialogue trite. But it's all there--a femme fatale, double-crosses, lots of shooting.
June 16, 2016
An excellent over-the-top Brewer romp with plenty of action and a memorable "Brat" who uses her considerable charms to get her way.
July 28, 2013
You can read the full review on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
An attractive dame (Evis Helling) with a lot of sass and a little bit of mystery behind her wanton ways lands her man hook line and sinker after easily seducing him in a swapland hear her home. Lee Sulliven is a sucker for curves, and a falls too quickly for Evis. They return to Lee's hometown where Lee panders to Evis' every demand. Eventually the financial and relationship stability make way for greed as Evis' real intentions come to light.
THE BRAT is a game of cat and mouse with so many variables impacting upon Lee's success in clearing his name. Evis' cousin Kaylor is an interesting character who shows up in the early stages of the novel and plays a big role in the later stages, Rona (Evis' sister) has motive and determination to land Lee for herself, while Sheriff Degreef is at once lawful and shady - I never did work out which one overshadows the other.
I've read a couple of other books by Gil Brewer but this one is a real gem. Apart from a lull when Brewer goes into the backstory earlier in the piece, THE BRAT held my attention. The chase through the swampland and ensuing confrontation is top notch, the characters surprisingly well rounded with their own unique voice, and the plot entertaining and believable. It's the sort of story that would stand firm amongst today's modern crime fiction.
An attractive dame (Evis Helling) with a lot of sass and a little bit of mystery behind her wanton ways lands her man hook line and sinker after easily seducing him in a swapland hear her home. Lee Sulliven is a sucker for curves, and a falls too quickly for Evis. They return to Lee's hometown where Lee panders to Evis' every demand. Eventually the financial and relationship stability make way for greed as Evis' real intentions come to light.
THE BRAT is a game of cat and mouse with so many variables impacting upon Lee's success in clearing his name. Evis' cousin Kaylor is an interesting character who shows up in the early stages of the novel and plays a big role in the later stages, Rona (Evis' sister) has motive and determination to land Lee for herself, while Sheriff Degreef is at once lawful and shady - I never did work out which one overshadows the other.
I've read a couple of other books by Gil Brewer but this one is a real gem. Apart from a lull when Brewer goes into the backstory earlier in the piece, THE BRAT held my attention. The chase through the swampland and ensuing confrontation is top notch, the characters surprisingly well rounded with their own unique voice, and the plot entertaining and believable. It's the sort of story that would stand firm amongst today's modern crime fiction.
July 17, 2012
Short crime chase type book.
Not bad! Even though the Nook edition is only 136 pages, it really did seem to drag in some parts.
To sum it up, a woman plots a bank heist and frames her husband - even though other gentlmen companions are her accomplices. What results is a wild goose chase through the Everglades in Florida.
Not bad! Even though the Nook edition is only 136 pages, it really did seem to drag in some parts.
To sum it up, a woman plots a bank heist and frames her husband - even though other gentlmen companions are her accomplices. What results is a wild goose chase through the Everglades in Florida.
August 8, 2023
A completely preposterous plot about a guy, Lee, who meets a girl, Evis, in the Florida swamps and then both of them hook up and move to coastal town on the Gulf where Evis decides they should rob the bank she works at. Something like that. She's got Lee all worked up with hot swampy sex but he's still got enough wits about him to think it's a bad idea. But some dames do that to you, get you all torqued up into a place where you make bad choices. This one reads like a dream where people pop in and out of Lee's chase with Evis at seemingly the worst opportunity. Evis even has a beautiful sister who's got the hots for Lee, making him half crazy. Must be the heat, or the humidity, or the water in Florida in the 50s. I grew up there expecting I'd get puncture scars on my chest from high-heeled dolls with bad reputations from reading stuff like this at an impressionable age. I guess I can consider myself lucky that I never got talked into anything worse than heisting a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill from the 7-11 for a skirt.
July 16, 2018
Really enjoyed this read. Lighting fast and fun. Classic Brewer. Highly recommended.
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August 10, 2016For a while, Prologue Books was giving away several of their books, including Gil Brewer’s The Brat, originally printed by Gold Medal Books, a 1950s Fawcett imprint for paperback originals. Now, I’m not gonna say that Gold Medal Books leaned towards the risque, but they’re a pretty pulpy outfit.
I’d never heard of Brewer before, but he seems like a good—and bad—fit for Gold Medal: good, in that his books (by all accounts) tend towards the tawdry, steamy, noir-inflected thrill-ride; bad because he may have had hopes for literary fame and, by all accounts, drank himself into an early(ish) death at 60, disappointed.
And so, because I’m thinking about how someone could be driven to writing money-making potboilers while anesthetizing himself, I’m hesitant to really lambaste this novel—but I’ll do it anyway, because it really could use a lambasting.
That is, when reading a steamy, noir-inflected thriller, the last thing one expects is to be bored. And yet, when the main character gets framed for murder and chases after his erstwhile wife—a girl from the swamp back-country who wants it all—we get so many repetitions and are treated to so little excitement from the first-person POV of the husband, that I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to finish this book. (I made myself just to see if there was something there that I was missing. Not really.)
(That said, and for a dissenting POV, you can google Gil Brewer and The Brat and find several admiring reviews.)
Chris Morgan, in a retrospective for the LA Review of Books, gives an overview of Brewer’s oeuvre that makes this one seem typical: average Joe pushed too far, untrustworthy femme fatale, lots of off-screen sex. Even the other titles that Brewer used sound like they could have been used for this: The Angry Dream, Appointment in Hell, The Bitch, Backwoods Teaser. Brewer might not have created the titles, but the themes are all his.
On top of it all, the writing came across as overdone:
or just plain silly:
That said, despite the repetition and the general boredom of being stuck with his below-average narrator, there were still some moments and characters that shine through, like the almost smart northern detective who has come to live in the swamps and has one chance to make good; or the lunatic way the femme fatale deals with money.
I’d never heard of Brewer before, but he seems like a good—and bad—fit for Gold Medal: good, in that his books (by all accounts) tend towards the tawdry, steamy, noir-inflected thrill-ride; bad because he may have had hopes for literary fame and, by all accounts, drank himself into an early(ish) death at 60, disappointed.
And so, because I’m thinking about how someone could be driven to writing money-making potboilers while anesthetizing himself, I’m hesitant to really lambaste this novel—but I’ll do it anyway, because it really could use a lambasting.
That is, when reading a steamy, noir-inflected thriller, the last thing one expects is to be bored. And yet, when the main character gets framed for murder and chases after his erstwhile wife—a girl from the swamp back-country who wants it all—we get so many repetitions and are treated to so little excitement from the first-person POV of the husband, that I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to finish this book. (I made myself just to see if there was something there that I was missing. Not really.)
(That said, and for a dissenting POV, you can google Gil Brewer and The Brat and find several admiring reviews.)
Chris Morgan, in a retrospective for the LA Review of Books, gives an overview of Brewer’s oeuvre that makes this one seem typical: average Joe pushed too far, untrustworthy femme fatale, lots of off-screen sex. Even the other titles that Brewer used sound like they could have been used for this: The Angry Dream, Appointment in Hell, The Bitch, Backwoods Teaser. Brewer might not have created the titles, but the themes are all his.
On top of it all, the writing came across as overdone:
What was inside her? What was it you missed?
Hell, Sullivan. Hell. THat’s what’s inside her.
or just plain silly:
Traffic was thick tonight, crawling along the streets like gleaming robots.
That said, despite the repetition and the general boredom of being stuck with his below-average narrator, there were still some moments and characters that shine through, like the almost smart northern detective who has come to live in the swamps and has one chance to make good; or the lunatic way the femme fatale deals with money.
July 7, 2013
The Brat (1957)
This a splendidly paced Gil Brewer noir crime novel, but the title is something of a misnomer. You’d think, from the title and knowing Brewer, that the title character is a hot spoiled rich girl who leads men to their doom. But in fact, it’s a hot poor rural girl who leads men to their doom. There are some wonderful chase and action scenes in the Florida swamps. A better title would have been Swamp Girl, but it turns out there were already numerous pulp novels with that title. Brewer knew Florida and writes it well. This starts very strong, with narrator Lee Sullivan realizing his hot young wife has framed him for a murder and bank robbery. Then flashback shows us how he came to marry this poor girl with a great body and high ambitions. I don’t like to spoil the ending, so I won’t do that but suffice to say that this is one of those novels where Brewer pulls away from the kind of dark ending that seems to be in the cards. M514 7/7/13
This a splendidly paced Gil Brewer noir crime novel, but the title is something of a misnomer. You’d think, from the title and knowing Brewer, that the title character is a hot spoiled rich girl who leads men to their doom. But in fact, it’s a hot poor rural girl who leads men to their doom. There are some wonderful chase and action scenes in the Florida swamps. A better title would have been Swamp Girl, but it turns out there were already numerous pulp novels with that title. Brewer knew Florida and writes it well. This starts very strong, with narrator Lee Sullivan realizing his hot young wife has framed him for a murder and bank robbery. Then flashback shows us how he came to marry this poor girl with a great body and high ambitions. I don’t like to spoil the ending, so I won’t do that but suffice to say that this is one of those novels where Brewer pulls away from the kind of dark ending that seems to be in the cards. M514 7/7/13
October 16, 2012
Adequate but unexceptional noir mystery from ?- not sure of the date. It dragged in middle, but was interesting enough.
August 18, 2013
This book falls somewhere between bizarre and great. While it was an unusual story line it was also hard to follow at times.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews