Savage Night by Jim Thompson (1953)

A hit man watches his plan and his life fall apart.

Mystery Review: Savage Night presents a typical Jim Thompson protagonist: he takes foolish risks, has little forethought but an evil temper, has little concern for others, and kills easily. Our anti-hero is a tubercular homunculus, and willing to kill a friend faster than a rational person would ghost them. This may be heresy, but Thompson's characters can get repetitive. They're diseased, twisted, stunted, soiled losers who fully bring retribution upon themselves. They get what they deserve despite all their constant self justification and self deception. They're not the classic noir character, an innocent who gives in to sudden and often minor temptation that then leads down a path of growing danger and desperation. But Thompson's genius is in getting readers to buy into his characters, to somehow root for them, and hope that they get out of their mess -- often with the idea that they'll give up their life of evil. But, as in Savage Night, no matter what a Thompson character tries: "It didn't make much difference. I couldn't win." Of course he doesn't deserve "to win" either. Thompson's books aren't for the suicidal, easily depressed, or those prone to serious anxiety. Bound to be exacerbated. So what's the attraction of this genre of books, noir and noir adjacent, about the seamy side of life, the sordid underbelly of society extolled by such writers as Nelson Algren, John Fante, Hubert Selby, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, Denis Johnson, even Françoise Villon and Jean Genet. Tales of the lives of petty criminals, hookers, junkies, and alcoholics, often with an emphasis on twisted sex and violence. There must be a certain sorry voyeurism in watching the lives of those who are often unfortunate, unfulfilled, and ultimately unhappy. Shouldn't readers prefer to focus on something more positive. Perhaps the genre is considered somehow more real, daring, gritty. A slice of life many of us never get to see. Maybe there's something such writers can teach us, but beyond a few hours of uneasy entertainment, I'm unsure what Savage Night taught me.  [3½★]

The Paris Review Interviews, vol. I by the Paris Review (2006)

Sixteen interviews about writing with some of the notable authors of our time.

Nonfiction Review: The Paris Review Interviews is a treasure to the curious reader and a handbook for the aspiring writer. This phenomenal collection of interviews focusing on the art and craft of writing covers a 50 year period stretching from 1956 to 2006 with something for almost everyone who reads or writes. The company including some of the biggest names in writing such as Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, or Jorge Luis Borges, to personal favorites such as Dorothy Parker, Kurt Vonnegut, and James M. Cain, to writers I'd never heard of such as Rebecca West and Robert Stone. The book focuses on fiction writers and poets but also includes book and magazine editor Robert Gottlieb (unknown to me), legendary film director and screenwriter Billy Wilder, and essayist Joan Didion. Some interviews are more expansive or interesting than others, but all include valuable information, autobiographical or gossipy or insightful, about themselves and other writers (fascinating) and influences. The centerpiece of The Paris Review Interviews is the one with editor Robert Gottlieb, which is structured as a dialogue with some of the authors whose books he edited over the years, including Toni Morrison, Joseph Heller, Doris Lessing, John Le Carre, Cynthia Ozick. But all the interviews are valuable, each with a small helping of ego and a clear personality: Vonnegut's interview seems just like one of his books, Dorothy Parker is generous to others and immensely self-deprecating, Hemingway demands boundaries, Borges is more approachable than I expected, Elizabeth Bishop is shy and retiring, Richard Price talks about addiction and writing. Poet Jack Gilbert actually lived the life that Jack Kerouac wanted. The great film director Billy Wilder tells more war stories about Hollywood than secrets about writing. Just by the numbers, four of the 16 interviews are of female authors, and one, perhaps, is of a person of color. After reading the interviews it's clear that there are no rules for writing, or at least the rules are different for each writer. The Paris Review Interviews is a joy to read, a treasure on many levels. All these people are aware, intelligent, with an informed and individual perspective on life, books, and writing. And there are three more volumes in the series.  [5★]

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (1941)

A well-known actress is strangled on a beach, but which of the island's residents is a murderer?

Mystery Review: Evil Under the Sun presents Hercule Poirot once again on vacation, and once again someone is murdered in his vicinity. Perhaps M. Poirot needs to stay home. The events take place on an isolated island off the coast of Devon (the southwest of England, east of Cornwall) just as in And Then There Were None (1939). The plot makes the island the equivalent of a great manor house in the country, limiting the suspects to known residents. Of course several candidates are presented, seemingly none could have done it, but Poirot solves the mystery in good style. When asked late in the book who he suspected the little Belgian replies: "Madame, I reserve the explanations for the last chapter." Which he does. While most of the book seemed only average Christie (always better than average) the solution was a clever twist on an old trick and surprised me pleasantly. There are interesting attitudes toward women in Evil Under the Sun. For much of the story one character is widely castigated as an evil and wanton female, an actress not a lady, yet her married paramour gets only sympathy as the bewitched innocent. Christie straightens it out at the end. Another character is presented as a highly successful business woman with a rewarding career, who I took as a stand-in for the author. The character says she makes "a very handsome income out of my business ... it's my business ... I created it and worked it up, and I'm proud of it!" Yet out of nowhere and completely out of character Christie has her inexplicably give it all up in a second. I don't think Christie ever gave up her successful business. Despite this quibble, Evil Under the Sun is typical solid Christie with a better than clever resolution.  [3½★]

The Hot Beat by Robert Silverberg (1960)

A newspaper reporter and an actress try to prove a suspect innocent of the murder of a B-girl. 

Mystery Review: The Hot Beat is genuine of-its-time pulp fiction. Carefully detailed sexual pawing, sometimes verging on rape, is inserted into the story whenever possible, as part of a generally unhealthy obsession with women's breasts. No doubt that's what readers expected. Along with some sadistic violence. The plot is basic: our heroes try to prove their friend innocent of murder while the police railroad and repeatedly beat the suspect. The police don't come off too well. On their way to the big finale there are a couple of twists with clues subtly placed, but none of the characters are impersonating Sherlock Holmes. Ultimately, for me this raised the question of disposable entertainment: what's the difference between a book you'd want to read again and again, and one you'd never think of picking up again (like this). Both Raymond Chandler and Jane Austen are still in print long after their sell-by date, so both have something on offer beyond simple enjoyment. Also notable is that a science fiction grandmaster wrote pulp noir back in the day (during a downturn in the science fiction market), which is the only reason The Hot Beat was resuscitated. The book also includes three short stories by Silverberg: "Naked in the Lake" (1958), the longest of the three, is basic and predictable (I expected the twist to be better than the one Silverberg gave us); "Drunken Sailor" (1958), again predictable and just a few pages long with a trick ending that could be seen coming halfway through; and "Jailbait Girl" (1959), again just a few pages long with an unsurprising twist at the end. The stories are just brief entertainments, written well enough but with little depth or anything other than historical interest. The Hot Beat is a good diversion while riding the train or waiting in a doctor's office, but won't compel you to reread it later in life. On the other hand, a throwaway book from 63 years ago was just republished, so what do I know?  [3★]

Sleep with Slander by Dolores Hitchens (1960)

A child is missing and P.I. Jim Sader is going to find the kid even if everyone in Long Beach refuses to cooperate.

Mystery Review: Sleep with Slander effectively establishes a sense of urgency from the first page that carries through to the last. The second (and final) novel in the Jim Sader series follows the earlier Sleep with Strangers (1955), but here his partner is out of the picture, he doesn't fall in love, and at 50 years old everything is that much more difficult than before. Sleep with Slander is just as good and maybe a bit better than the first. Again there are surprise twists and turns, bodies appear unexpectedly, and every character introduced seems suspect and untrustworthy (though interesting and well-sketched). The witnesses often have competing motives and Sader hits many dead ends as the frustration and urgency mount. As in the first novel, it's only dogged persistence that pays off, though here there's an even heavier emphasis on artful psychological elements. Sleep with Slander would've been a good movie. As good as they are, the two Sader novels just don't have the existential dread and ennui of the best noir fiction, though they had the makings of an excellent series of detective novels, if we'd just had the chance to see where Dolores Hitchens might've taken her ideas.  [4★]

Sleep with Strangers by Dolores Hitchens (1955)

A young woman's mother is missing and an aging P.I. starts down a long, oily road.

Mystery Review: Sleep with Strangers, featuring P.I. Jim Sader, is similar to some classic hard-boiled detective novels, with a plot similar to The Big Sleep and the name of the client, Miss Wanderley, oddly similar to femme fatale Miss Wonderly from The Maltese Falcon. Set in Long Beach, California (as opposed to L.A. or San Francisco),  Sader is a mid-life, dry alcoholic, world-weary as Marlowe but not quite as tough as Spade. On the other hand, he falls in love more easily. His investigation into a missing socialite includes baby pigs, shady real estate transactions, oil wells, several people who lose their temper quite easily, a generous number of murders, and the requisite number of beautiful women. Engaging, compelling, with plenty of twists and turns, Sleep with Strangers has a few too many coincidences but that's par for the course and doesn't louse up the story. Hitchens also adds a psychological underlay unusual in tough guy detecting. Though P.I. Sader is actually more soft-boiled than otherwise (he loses his only fistfight), but that, his fatal flaw, and a mid-life crisis make him all the more interesting. This is a highly readable detective novel by the prolific Dolores Hitchens (1907-73) who's better known (under the pseudonym D.B. Olsen) for her "cat" series featuring little old lady sleuth Rachel Murdock, beginning with The Cat Saw Murder (1939). Sleep with Strangers is a reprint by The Library of America, as is the second and final Jim Sader mystery, Sleep with Slander (1960). Too bad there weren't more.  [4★]

A Swell-Looking Babe by Jim Thompson (1954)

A night-shift hotel bellboy's troubled past collides with his difficult present.

Mystery Review: A Swell-Looking Babe is a misleading title, but not in the way readers might think. Bill "Dusty" Rhodes is just a night shift bellboy, a college dropout, caught in a red-baiting lawsuit, has no interest in women, an invalid father, a dead mother, and things are about to get a whole lot worse. He's not a bad guy so much as just a not very nice guy with a certain moral ambivalence. It's hard to root for him to get out of his mess. He's about to make a few mistakes, have a few accidents, and he's soon spinning into the vortex of oblivion. The more he struggles to get out of his predicament the tighter the coils entwine about him. While passable, A Swell-Looking Babe is not as good as some of Jim Thompson's other books, lacking a strong narrative through line, the usual obsessive menace, or any characters to care about. He also throws in certain psychological elements as a wild card. The reader, as does Dusty, gets tossed about from one plot point to another without being too certain what's going on at any given time until all embroils in an existential ending. Thompson fans will certainly find something to enjoy in A Swell-Looking Babe, but it won't make too many top-ten lists.  [3★]

Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton (1947)

An aging spinster tries to survive the Second World War in a boarding house outside of London.

Book Review: Slaves of Solitude is about the loneliness that leads to hopelessness, so that eventually one no longer attempts to escape the solitary island, to take action, to try. Hamilton goes deep into the human condition focused on our Miss Roach (a Kafka reference?). The various characters, residents of the boarding house, have their own layers of personality, but all play off Miss Roach as seen through her multifaceted eyes and fear of life. She's sensitive to the point of paranoia. She has too little skin between her and the world. Although she tries to stay safely insulated to avoid hurt, the rough and tumble of life (all during war-time) somehow pokes through in the forms of a German expat, an American soldier, and an old bully of an English pensioner. The etiquette of the boarding house is shown in stark relief against the chaos of the war-time pub culture. Miss Roach dwells and obsesses about comments, actions, circumstances, soon becomes caught inside her own head. She doesn't act the way the reader might, she's not highly intelligent or educated or traveled, has led a limited life. But as do most people she does the best she can at the time. Which is the point. Other people do not do as any other person might, they do their best and do what their life up to that point has led them to do, and that action continues to lead them down their path. She can only follow her own path, not that which the reader would choose for her. For a novel about lonely Britons, Slaves of Solitude is a riveting, quick read with a fair coating of humor over its serious heart, laughing to keep from crying. I suspect many readers will find it easy to identify with Miss Roach. I'd never heard of Patrick Hamilton (1904-62) until I watched a film, the demented Hangover Square (1945), on late night television and saw he was the author of the source novel. Then I found Slaves of Solitude, a (to me) lost masterpiece. Most lost classics aren't. Whether songs, books, or movies most championed obscurities are unknown for a reason. Patrick Hamilton is the rare exception. Hamilton was a classic troubled author who wrote the original works on which the films Rope, Gaslight, as well as Hangover Square were based. All three reeking of paranoia,  murder, and madness. All redolent of loss.  [5★]

The Necklace of Pearls by Dorothy L. Sayers (1933)

A marvelous pearl necklace is stolen at a Christmas party.

Story Review: "The Necklace of Pearls" is saved only by the wonderful writing. As a mystery it's something of  a dud. Lord Peter Wimsey is invited, the hostess needing an eligible bachelor, to a wealthy family's traditional Christmas party during which, of course, a necklace is stolen. The mystery is soon solved in uninspiring fashion. The writing, however, is sparkling, giving a sense of the time, the spirit of the party, and of those who frequented such affairs. My thought is that the talented Sayers really just wanted to write a Christmas story and tacked on the mystery to fit into the Wimsey oeuvre and make it salable. An enjoyable read that fizzles rather than flares.  [3★]

Shadow Boxer by Eddie Muller (2003)

A boxing columnist gets dragged into the murder trial of the man who framed him, and then gets dragged even deeper.

Mystery Review: Shadow Boxer is the second novel featuring Billy Nichols, a San Francisco boxing writer in the 1940's. Written by the host of Noir Alley on the Turner Classic Movies channel, Eddie Muller is an acknowledged expert in film noir, writing several books on the genre. This, his second novel, is historical fiction set in the heart of the first noir era, 1948. Shadow Boxer is well and cleverly written. It's entertaining, featuring a decent Chinatown-type story with some good patter. Almost too good, too clean, too perfect, without the rough edges seen in novels of the time. Although set in the 40's it doesn't really have the feel of an old hardboiled detective novel, too smart and too slick. Of course our hero is not a detective, nor particularly hardboiled. As Billy Nichols is a boxing columnist (as was Muller's father) I kept thinking at some key moment he was going to pull a right hook out of left field, but nope. Shadow Boxer just didn't quite touch the heart, didn't stir my emotions. I may well be missing something, however, as the story apparently follows directly after the narrative in Muller's first novel, The Distance (2002), which I haven't read. But for which I'm now scouring the charity shops.  [3½★]