Pulp(y) Fiction

Sassy, Brassy…& A Little Classy!

While it can’t be denied the paper that pulp fiction stories were printed on was dingy and cheap, hence the term, the covers were a sight to behold.  Bright and lurid portraits of pretty people in various stages of torment with a shadow of evil lurking on the edges screamed escapist fiction and attracted readers enmass, despite the unquestionable ridiculousness of the plots. 

Proliferate during the 1930’s through the 1950’s, they have had a recessutataion, of sorts, in recent years. Now we call them vintage.

Readers have come to expect certain traits from pulp fiction; fast paced plot, over the top characters, little ambiguity unless it’s of the moral sort and snappy dialogue.

Say what you will about these publications, credit must be given for their contribution in the evolution of genre fiction.  Without them there would be no noir, no crime, no hardboiled detective, no science fiction, no speculative fiction, and no horror.  Imagine that. 

These unmistakable guilty pleasures should not be considered in any way a lesser category of literature. We should not be classifying books as highbrow or lowbrow, which ultimately says more about the reader than what’s been read.

The Vintages…

Castle In The Air – Donald E. Westlake

When four groups of international heist artists team up to pull off the theft of the century, stealing an entire castle and the treasure hidden in its walls, what could possibly go wrong? Well, consider this: none of the master thieves speak each other’s languages, and no one knows precisely where the loot is stashed. And every one of them wants to steal it all for him or herself. A breathless caper where the criminals are only one step ahead of the law, and each other.

Cocktail Waitress – James M. Cain

Following her husband's death in a suspicious car accident, beautiful young widow Joan is forced to take a job serving drinks in a cocktail lounge to make ends meet and to have a chance of regaining custody of her young son. At the job she encounters two men who take an interest in her, a handsome young schemer who makes her blood race and a wealthy but unwell older man who rewards her for her attentions with a $50,000 tip and an unconventional offer of marriage. This is only the beginning…

Borderline – Lawrence Block

On the border between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, five lives are about to collide, with fatal results. You'll meet Marty, the professional gambler who rolls the dice on a night with Meg, the bored divorcee who seeks excitement and finds Lily, the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by Cassie, the redhead with her own private agenda and Weaver, the madman, the killer with a straight razor in his pocket, on the run from the police and determined to go down swinging!

Kiss Me, Deadly – Mickey Spillane

Mike Hammer gives a lift to a beauty on the run from a sanitarium, but their joyride is cut short by professional killers, who knock the detective out cold. When he wakes up, his car has been rolled off a cliff, with his mysterious passenger still inside it. The feds take his gun away on suspicion, but Hammer’s not about to let that stop him. He’s on the hunt for the men who wrecked his ride and killed a dame in cold blood, and he’s going to teach them that armed or not, crossing him is the last thing you should ever do.

Kiss For A Killer – G.G. Fickling

Starring Honey, a mashup of Mike Hammer and Marilyn Monroe, this installment of a famed series follows the story of a murdered football star found with a framed photo of Honey near his dead body. The authorities wonder what the connection is, setting off a series of dizzying twists involving an Academy Award-winning actress and a nudist cult. It’s as outlandish and insane a plot as you’ll find, and if you’re looking for a book that encapsulates pulp fiction, you need not look further.

Zero Cool – Michael Crichton

American radiologist Peter Ross just wanted a vacation. But when he meets the beautiful Angela on a Spanish beach, he soon finds himself caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact.  From Barcelona to the rain-swept streets of Paris, Peter Ross is an ordinary man in desperate circumstances: racing to uncover a secret lost for centuries, before he becomes its next victim.

Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore – Walter Mosely

In this scorching, mournful, often explicit, and never less than moving novel by the famed creator of the Easy Rawlins series, Debbie Dare, a porn queen, must come to terms with her sordid life in the adult entertainment industry after her tomcatting husband dies in a hot tub. Electrocuted. With another woman in there with him. Debbie decides she just isn't going to "do it anymore." But executing her exit strategy from the porn world is a far from simple process.

So Blue The Marble – Dorothy B. Hughes

Griselda is a fashion designer and Hollywood socialite with a lush lifestyle. Looking for a change of pace, she volunteers to apartment sit for her estranged husband. That’s when everything goes wrong. Mysterious twins appear and refuse to leave until she hands over the titular blue marble. Griselda doesn’t have it, but the menacing duo doesn’t believe her. The result is a scandalous and truly absurd mystery that’s as much fun as it is a classic portrayal of pulp fiction entertainment.

Out Of Sight – Elmore Leonard

U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco isn’t about to let an expert criminal like Jack Foley successfully bust out of prison. But there’s a major score waiting for him in Detroit, and a shotgun-wielding marshal isn’t going to stop Foley from getting it.  Neither counted on sharing a cramped car trunk, or on a sizzling chemistry that’s working overtime. As soon as Sisco escapes, Foley is already missing her. Not to worry, they will see each other soon!

Draw The Curtain Close – Thomas B. Dewey

Longtime PI Mac gets into a jam, this time even when he turns the job down. And all because of a book, an ex-gangster's patrician wife, and a red-headed cabaret singer.  When all the blood is washed off and the smoke clears away, Mac has a murderer pinned down, but he doesn't earn much more than a reputation as the most indestructible man in the business.

The Triumph Of The Spider Monkey – Joyce Carol Oates

Abandoned as a baby in a bus station locker, shuttled from one abusive foster home and detention center to another, Bobbie grew up angry, hurting, damaged. His hunger to succeed as a musician brought him across the country to Hollywood, but along with it came his seething rage, his paranoid delusions, and his capacity for acts of shocking violence. An eloquent and heartbreaking exploration of madness by one of the most acclaimed authors of our time.

The Up & Comers…

The Twenty-Year Death – Ariel S. Winter

A breathtaking first novel written in the form of three separate crime stories, each set in a different decade and penned in the style of a different giant of the mystery genre. 1931; A body found in the gutter in France led the police inspector to the dead man’s beautiful daughter, and to her hot-tempered American husband. 1941; A hardboiled private eye hired to keep a movie studio’s leading lady happy uncovers the truth behind the brutal slaying of a Hollywood starlet.  1951; A desperate man pursuing his last chance at redemption finds himself with blood on his hands and the police on his trail.

Queenpin – Megan Abbot

A young woman hired to keep the books at a nightclub is taken under the wing of the infamous Gloria Denton, a mob luminary who reigned during the Golden Era of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. Notoriously cunning and ruthless, Gloria shows her eager young protégée the ropes, ushering her into a glittering world of late-night casinos, racetracks, betting parlors, inside heists, and big, big money. Suddenly, the world is at her feet, if she doesn't take any chances, like falling for the wrong guy. As the roulette wheel turns, both mentor and protégée scramble to stay one step ahead of their bosses and each other.

Blacktop Wasteland – S.A. Crosby

A husband, a father, a son, a business owner, and the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi. Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be, known as one of the best wheelmen.  He thought he'd left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can't-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver's seat.

Ice Chest – J.D. Rhoades

Clarissa Cartwright, the planet's most famous beauty, is about to take the stage wearing a fortune in jewels, and not much else. In the wings, a motley crew of bumbling crooks is scheming to make off with the biggest heist of their careers: five and a half million dollars in precious stones, used to create the world's most expensive piece of lingerie. But mix the glitz and glamour of the highest of high fashion with a team of crooks that would have trouble stealing a sandwich from a deli, and all bets are off.

Beast In View – Margaret Millar

Thirty-year-old Helen is scared and all alone. The heiress of a small fortune, she is resented by her mother and, to a lesser degree, her brother. The only person who seemingly cares for her is the family’s attorney, Paul Blackshear. A shut-in, Helen maintains her residence in an upscale hotel downtown.  But passive-aggressive resentment isn’t the only thing hounding Helen. A string of bizarre and sometimes threatening prank phone calls has upended her spinster’s routine. She turns to the reluctant attorney to get to the bottom of it!

Trigger Mortis – Frank Kane

Johnny Liddell, private investigator, is not accustomed to a quiet life. But life was never less quiet for him than after he was called in by Celeste, a redhead who is giving several famous bosomy blondes a run for their money. Everything was going swimmingly for Celeste until she was blackmailed by Bare Facts. She is willing to pay for pictures and films, and Johnny sets off to get them back. Unfortunately for Johnny’s peace of mind, impetuous Celeste goes off herself to see the unattractive publisher of the unattractive periodical. Next day the publisher is found dead in his apartment and Johnny has forty eight-hours to figure out what’s what.

Secret Lives Of Married Women – Elissa Wald

Two identical twin sisters, one a sexually repressed defense attorney, the other a former libertine now living a respectable life in suburbia, are about to have their darkest secrets revealed to the men in their lives and to themselves.  As one sister prepares for the toughest trial of her career and the other faces a stalker who knows details of her life that even her husband doesn’t, both find themselves pushed to the edge, and confronted by discoveries about their husbands that shock and disturb them!

Are Snakes Necessary? – Brian De Palma & Susan Lehman

When the beautiful young videographer offered to join his campaign, Senator Lee Rogers should’ve known better. But saying no would have taken a stronger man than Rogers, with his ailing wife and his robust libido. Enter Barton Brock, the senator’s fixer. He’s already gotten rid of one troublesome young woman, how hard could this new one turn out to be?

Five Decembers – James Kestrel

December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever. Because the trail of murder he uncovers will lead him across the Pacific, far from home and the woman he loves; and though the U.S. doesn’t know it yet, a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor.