Finally, I get to the post where I talk about Hard Case Crime. If you are a Noir/Pulp fiction fan like myself, then you need to check out the imprint/publishers of the Hard Case Crime series.
The Covers!!! Need I say more? The cover art is reminiscent of the old days of pulp fiction paperbacks. Of course, there is nothing like the actual old covers, but the artists for these books have come about as close as humanly possible to capturing the spirit. I’ve been trying to pinpoint the subtle differences between the actual old covers and the new ones. I can’t figure it out. Perhaps it is just the fact that I know these books are new. Maybe the difference is only in my mind. Maybe if the covers were a little more creased and worn, and I didn’t actually know the titles . . .
Anyway, here are a couple of old covers for you to compare:
It was a tough choice for me to decide on which old covers to put up as examples. Out of my large collection of John D. MacDonald paperbacks of various editions, etc. I had a really difficult time trying to decide. I could have gone with any of the covers from the Travis McGee series, but I really could not make up my mind. I did want to find a cover photo that would be similar to the Hard Case cover photos that I had on hand. I think Slam the Big Door fits pretty well. I thought the A. A. Fair, Crows Can’t Count, was in the HCC reissued releases, but it wasn’t. I was going to have a photo of the HCC one and the old one to compare. HCC does have a couple of A. A. Fair books listed, just not this particular one. Erle Stanley Gardner, of course, is the author of the Perry Mason series. I have some very cool copies of a few of the old Perry Mason books that I could have used. And I will say that some of the covers of even the newest editions of the Travis McGee series are pretty neat looking though they don’t necessarily capture the old style.
Okay, so I’ve decided to show you the covers of a couple of the old McGees:
I just couldn’t resist.
And here is a copy of the newest release of The Deep Blue Good-By (Book #1) from the Travis McGee series:
The newest copy of Darker Than Amber was pretty much a let-down. I’m talking about the cover only, of course. It is the same great novel that it always was. Darker Than Amber is #7 of the series, and it is one of my favorites. How is this for an opening line (from Darker Than Amber):
We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge.
The books are a little dated. They were written in the sixties (the earlier ones). However, the stories are great. If you are looking for some good reading, I highly recommend anything by JDM.
All right. I got sidetracked a little, as I always do. So, now, back to Hard Case Crime series. The series is a compilation of new and old authors. As you can see, Stephen King is in the mix. And I just a few minutes ago ordered a Michael Crichton (writing as John Lange) book, Grave Descend (from Amazon).
I’ve read everything I’ve got photos of here with the exception of Crows Can’t Count (It’s on my list).
The Stephen King book, The Colorado Kid was good, but the ending was . . . well, I can’t really say much more without disclosing too much. Let me just say, King explains things in an afterward to the book. Of course the characters were excellent, as usual.
Little Girl Lost was a really great read. I don’t know if you are familiar with Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series, but this book was very similar. As a matter of fact, if you have read my reviews on Amazon, or Goodreads, then you know that I mentioned this: I kept getting the impression that every NYC bar or strip club the main character went into, Matthew Scudder had just walked out of. I even had the impression that a barstool, or chair at one of the tables had just been vacated by Scudder. I could picture his alcohol-laced coffee cup still sitting on the table (almost completely empty, of course). Or perhaps Scudder, on his way out, had passed the main character of this book as he (John Blake) came into the place. That was kind of weird. Maybe I was thinking this because I had just recently reread The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder #1) and the two stories are kind of similar. And the streets of NYC are Scudder’s stomping grounds. Nobody moves through the streets like Scudder. And this new guy–this kid–was working his way through the seedy underbelly of NYC strip clubs, searching for this missing girl. The reason I say “kid” is that this is literally what he is, kind of, a 27 year old. Not that all 27 year old’s are kids, by any means; It’s just that the author talks about how young and clean looking the character is. He even has Blake get carded when he tries to enter a strip club. So my saying this isn’t my knocking the character. Though Blake looks like a college boy (again, the author’s description), he does seem to hold his own when he crosses paths with a few hard characters in the book. Though because of the author’s description of him, this was a little off to me. I enjoyed the story and it was well written; and maybe Blake being so young and clean kept the story from being just like every other P.I. story out there. Also, Blake has to be somewhat young due to the fact of his past relationship with the missing girl.
I will say that for some very strange reason (and this is going to sound derogatory, though I can’t help it) I kept feeling like I was reading a Kinsey Millhone (from Sue Grafton’s “A is for . . .”) story. The only difference was that Blake didn’t have a ‘little black, all-purpose dress’ tucked away. I think what I’m getting at, since he obviously isn’t a female and can hold his own (and not that Kinsey couldn’t), is that for some reason I felt that he was going to skate through the underbelly of the tough and gritty streets (even slimy strip club scenes) and come out unscathed. I felt as though, even though he took a few serious beatings in the book, it was like a T.V. show and there weren’t really going to be any long-lasting bruises, or any real damage. There were also a few scenes where Blake sort of reminded me of Dennis Lehane’s character, Patrick Kenzie (in which case any bruising would seem real). Now, let me just say, it has been a few years since I’ve read a Kenzie and Gennaro novel, so I could be off a little. So I’m not sure how much sense I’m making here. I don’t know if Blake just floated back and forth between Kinsey and Kenzie, or it was more like his character was like Kinsey (in that I knew he wasn’t gonna get hurt); and yet, he had the general cloudy fuzziness of a bit of tough-guy floating about him sometimes (a cloudy scruffiness) akin to Patrick Kenzie. And all this while he was moving through the tough and gritty streets of NYC (Scudder turf).
And, the author did show periodic hints of Raymond Chandler style writing through wit and dialogue of the main character. That was a definite plus, and something that isn’t easy to do. He only did this a handful of times, but it was truly enjoyable when he did it.
There is a second book in the Blake series called Songs of Innocence that has very high praise. I’ll read it at some point.
I guess I should state here that Richard Aleas/Charles Ardai (I can’t remember which is the pseudonym and which is his real name) is one of the founders of Hard Case Crime. At least I believe I remember reading this somewhere on the site.
I’m not sure what the criteria is for the books they choose to put out. Maybe it has to do with copyright. There are no John D. MacDonald books listed; which is okay because these books can easily be found elsewhere. There are, however, a ton of pulp authors that are rare or whose works are almost entirely lost that I wish Hard Case would pick up.
I would personally like to see them pick up (though he is certainly not a rare author) James M. Cain’s The Magician’s Wife (which is sort of sometimes hard to find).
And though they have A Touch of Death, by Charles Williams, I would absolutely love for Hard Case Crime to pick pick up Scorpion Reef. If you’ve read my earlier post, you know I was reading SR then. It is one of the best books I have ever read. Definitely my number one (or possibly number two–just in case I’ve forgotten one) top favorite noir book of all time.
In any case, I highly recommend you check out the site, even if you only do it to view the covers. I don’t make anything on this recommendation. I’m not even sure they have an affiliate program. I just like the fact that someone is promoting noir/pulp novels . . .