I'm not a noir or Gold Medal Books expert, so it's hard to know if that moldering paperback with a lurid cover will be any good. You can bet on some authors -- e.g., Charles Williams -- but others haven't aged well or were never very good to start with. Fortunately, there are experts like Bill Crider and Ed Gorman, and imprints like Stark House Noir Classics.And so, a single volume with two pretty great titles -- One is a Lonely Number (1952) by Bruce Elliott and Black Wings Has My Angel (1953) by Elliott Chaze -- found its way into my hands. Each novel tells the story of a man on the lam who falls for a dame. In its way, Lonely Number seems the more transgressive because the dame is a 14-year old with epilepsy. But antihero Larry Camonille is a nice guy who is willing to take the extra step to see that she gets the medical care she wants.
Black Wings is the longer, more romantic, introspective book. Kenneth McClure -- alias Tim Sunblade -- is smart, disciplined, and brutal. He hooks up with a mysterious, high-class call girl who likes it rough. He puts together a great heist, but this is a Noir Classic, so...
In today's era of heroes, series books, and good luck, it's refreshing as hell to read grim, nasty, feverish, morally unhinged novels of men and women who don't seem particularly destined to make it to a sequel.
8 comments:
My, what good taste you have, sir.
I should 'fess up that Mr. Lewis was the one who scored this book and let me have a taste.
Always trust Evan in matters like this! If you liked this volume, check out the rest of the STARK HOUSE offerings. There are plenty of good books there waiting to be read!
Thanks, George! I should look into more Stark House books. I might even hole up in Eureka when I'm on the lam.
Wow, I'd never heard of Elliott
Chaze until I received a copy of BOOKS TO DIE FOR, which I posted about today.
Bill Pronzini has an essay on him inside which I just read. Then I took a look at the other FFBs and now I see this.
Pretty amazin' stuff. Thanks.
Sounds like a good book. Which Chaze title did Pronzini call out? Did anyone write about Willeford?
He wrote about BLACK WINGS WAS MY ANGEL.
Scott Phillips, the author of THE ICE HARVEST, wrote a five-page essay on Willeford's THE WOMAN CHASER.
Which Willeford would you have chosen?
I would've written about "The Woman Chaser" too, probably. I presented an academic paper about "The Woman Chaser" in about 1996. The Library of America selected "Pick-Up," which is a good choice but not as representative because it's not as funny.
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