Sugar

by Gil Brewer

159 pages

First published January 1, 1959

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

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brewer's books come in two varieties only--good and bad. The good ones might not be great novels, but they sure are fun and quick to read. The bad ones just drag.

Sugar is a good one. Not the best Brewer, but a damn good read.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven - at times exciting and propulsive, yet also frustrating because I can feel Brewer making this up as he goes. Was starting to lose interest and then just before the midpoint, in pages 60-68, blammo! Two major plot twists and Brewer has the story off and running again. Not without some more wheel-spinning though, as if Brewer couldn’t quite figure out where to take things - including a scene that literally involves a car stuck in the mud spinning its wheels (yes, the unconscious is a cruel master!) - but the last 70 or so pages (160 total) really rip as it is one complication after another and the first-person narrator is in a constant state of agitation. Brewer at his best brought the hallmarks of Woolrich and Poe - narrators consumed with obsession, paranoia, agitation, all converted to tension and suspense - to noir. His style tends more to short paragraphs than Woolrich and Poe, and that gives a propulsive pace to Brewer's books. This style is ever-present in Sugar as we have Jess Cotten, who owns a business selling and installing air-conditioners, in the throes of desperation because he needs money, money, MONEY. He's the everyman who crosses the line into crime when he meets the minx Selma and she asks for his help to get the MONEY she and her murderer boyfriend stole and hid. Brewer is so good at describing the sexual tension when he has his everyman and femme-fatale alone in a room, but rarely is this tension consummated. There are 4 or 5 of these tease and deny scenes in Sugar. Too bad Brewer didn't write for Midwood or Beacon or some of the other sleaze publishers!

[Chris Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lolita...Brewer style...the power of a girl's body over men.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gil Brewer's novels of the late 1950s are sort of like a bag of Hershey bars: As you're eating them, you know they're not the best chocolate in the world, but they're consistent, and you'll like them just fine if you don't eat them all at once. Like Brewer's other novels of the period, Sugar is noir from the Everyman school: Jess Cotton is an ordinary guy, struggling to make a living sell air conditioners. But even before temptation falls into his lap, he has already decided that he will do anything, legal or not, that has a big enough pay-off. Then comes the title character, a missing suitcase full of money, and noir. Of Brewer's novels published in 1958-1959, Sugar is a cut slightly below The Bitch, The Vengeful Virgin, and Wild to Possess. A somewhat scare Brewer title, but worth it if you can find a reading copy.