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Too Soon Dead
Michael Kurland has started a fascinating new crime series with TOO SOON DEAD, featuring newspaper columnist Alexander Brass. Set in mid-Thirties New York City, Brass is a syndicated columnist for the...
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4 Recent Film-Related Books Awaiting Your Holiday Gift Card Redemption
Like a less pretentious (and thereby more bearable) Chuck Klosterman, Ryan Britt mines pop culture for freakishly accessible essays — a full 14 of them soaked and sautéed in sci-fi for LUKE SKYWALKER...
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Quarry’s Deal / Quarry’s Cut
With the Cinemax series debuting later this year, Hard Case Crime continues reissuing Max Allan Collins’ novels starring the hit-man character Quarry. As 1976’s QUARRY’S DEAL, the third book in the...
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Backshot: 1902
Ed Gorman has never had that breakout hit to propel his name into the public’s consciousness. That’s not meant as a slight against the author, by the way. Regular readers of crime fiction and mysteries...
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Where It Hurts
Perhaps Reed Farrrel Coleman felt readers would forgive him for concluding his superb Moe Prager series if he immediately started a new and equally engaging series. Whatever the motivation, WHERE IT...
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Pimp
The trans-Atlantic writing team of Ken Bruen and Jason Starr are back with PIMP, the fourth novel in their Hard Case Crime comic-caper series featuring Max Fisher. This latest entry, which marks the...
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The Preacher
Journalist and biographer Ted Thackrey, Jr.’s fictional debut of the late 1980s introduced the enigmatic character known only as The Preacher (not to be confused with the long-running comic book...
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Graven Images
Jane Waterhouse takes us inside the little-explored world of a true-crime author in GRAVEN IMAGES, the debut title of her Garner Quinn series, now reissued in trade paperback. It’s a complex story of...
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Declare Independence from Boredom with These 5 New Film Books
More creatively satisfying than World Gone Wild, his 2014 survey of postapocalyptic films, David J. Moore’s The Good, the Tough & the Deadly: Action Movies & Stars 1960s-Present is in reach of...
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Dark Horse
DARK HORSE is the second novel in Rory Flynn’s crime fiction series featuring Boston narcotics detective Eddy Harkness. Like its predecessor (THIRD RAIL), the title refers to the street drug featured...
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Revolver
Crime author Duane Swiercznski toned down the wild imagination that distinguished his Charlie Hardie trio (FUN & GAMES, HELL & GONE and POINT & SHOOT) with his last novel, CANARY, published...
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The Lost Boy
Grim. But with realistic scenes. Dour. But altogether far too plausible. Why, whatever could we be talking about? Nordic noir, of course! Scandinavian mystery writers have practically dominated the...
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Mad Dog Barked
Rick Ollerman’s latest, MAD DOG BARKED, starts out like a typical detective novel. Before long, however, the Stark House Press release becomes something way beyond typical. Truth is, Ollerman has...
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Quarry in the Black
Max Allan Collins continues to chronicle the career of Quarry, the assassin-for-hire star of Collins’s long-running series (and recently a TV series on Cinemax). The latest title, Hard Case Crime’s...
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Sinner Man
Since its inception, Hard Case Crime has mined the long backlist of early works by crime fiction Grand Master Lawrence Block (previously published under his own name and one of his many pen names)....
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Snatch
The late Gregory Mcdonald is remembered primarily for his popular Fletch and Flynn series. So much so that only his most devoted readers know that he also wrote several stand-alone crime novels. Hard...
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Just the Way It Is / Blonde’s Requiem
Stark House’s Crime Classics continues to reintroduce readers to the works of prolific thriller and mystery author James Hadley Chase with this duo of novels, JUST THE WAY IT IS and BLONDE’S REQUIEM,...
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Hap and Leonard: Blood and Lemonade
BLOOD AND LEMONADE, the latest collection of stories about Hap Collins and Leonard Pine – Lansdale’s odd but irresistible duo of East Texas crime-fighters – is a companion to both the Sundance TV...
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4 Film Titles for Summer Reading
I suspect I’m not the only one who, upon the death of Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert in 2013, bought his 2006 collection, Awake in the Dark, thinking it to be the definitive summation...
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Forever and a Death
Hard Case Crime is promoting FOREVER AND A DEATH as both the Donald E. Westlake novel that was never before published and the James Bond movie that was never made. So explanations are in order. In the...
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Murder in Saint-Germain
With MURDER IN SAINT-GERMAIN, author Cara Black gives us her 17th (17th!) novel featuring Aimée Leduc, a private investigator handling discreet cases in the heart of France. Two cases present...
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EURO COMICS ROUNDUP >> Weapons of Choice
With Luc Besson’s VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS still making headlines, there’s no better time to catch up with the latest volumes in the series. We’ve covered every volume here, in fact...
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Quarry’s Climax
From the Hard Case Crime banner, this 14th title in Max Allan Collins’s long-running series has everything you’d expect from a Quarry novel: hard-boiled dialogue, effective period recreation, and an...
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The Hollywood Op
This collection (or “casebook” as the author calls it), originally published in 2011, features eight short stories showcasing Scott Elliott, the protagonist of one of Terence Faherty’s ongoing series....
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The Wench Is Wicked / Blonde Verdict / Delilah Was Deadly
During the 1950s and ’60s, you couldn’t walk past a spin rack or bookstore without seeing several paperbacks bearing the name Carter Brown. In the early days of the paperback original, Brown was one of...
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Turn on the Heat
TURN ON THE HEAT is the second novel in Gardner’s mystery series featuring the duo of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam (written under Gardner’s pen name, A.A. Fair) republished by Hard Case Crime. Like last...
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Help I Am Being Held Prisoner
It’s been 30 years since HELP I AM BEING HELD PRISONER, a 1974 novel by the late Donald E. Westlake, was first published. Now, thanks to Hard Case Crime, readers can discover (or rediscover) this...
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Black and White Ball
In his latest novel, BLACK AND WHITE BALL, prolific author Loren D. Estleman – perhaps taking a cue from the likes of Michael Connelly – unites his two popular crime series characters: private...
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The Last Stand
2018 marks the centennial of the birth of Mickey Spillane, the author whose gritty and popular Mike Hammer mysteries changed the face of crime fiction and revitalized the paperback publishing industry....
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CAPSULES OF FILM >> 4.25.18
In case Stephen Thrower’s recent two-volume look at the man’s filmography is too pricey for your tastes, Jess Franco: The World’s Most Dangerous Filmmaker may be more your wallet’s speed, particularly...
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No Harp for My Angel / Booty for a Babe / Eve, It’s Extortion
Here are three more mysteries featuring Police Lieutenant Al Wheeler, the series character created by the incredibly prolific Carter Brown. All three were originally published in Australia in 1956;...
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The Count of 9
In over 40-plus years of reading and collecting mysteries, I must admit I’ve never read any Erle Stanley Gardner. Oh sure, I’m familiar with his most famous character, the investigative lawyer Perry...
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Atlanta Deathwatch
Ralph Dennis and his Hardman series are finally getting the respect many readers and collectors feel they deserves. First published as paperback originals during the 1970s, the Hardman series, appeared...
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Pirates
Timothy J. Lockhart employs a classic plot for his second novel, PIRATES. But thanks to striking characterizations and unfamiliar settings, Lockhart makes the story his own. Hal Morgan, is a former...
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CAPSULES OF FILM >> 10.26.19
Let’s get something straight: The Rotten Tomatoes website is a tool of evil. And yet, its editors sure have put together one helluva fun book in Rotten Movies We Love: Cult Classics, Underrated Gems,...
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Killing Quarry
Quarry, the hit man star of Max Allan Collins’s long-running series, has found himself in many unusual situations. But none like the one in KILLING QUARRY, the latest addition to the Hard Case Crime...
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Double Feature
Donald E. Westlake. If the name doesn’t mean much to you, then you have a lot of catch-up reading to do. And Hard Case Crime, an imprint of Titan Books, is making that easier for you by reprinting some...
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Are Snakes Necessary?
The 144th installment in the Hard Case Crime series (you are collecting these books, right?) is a new book from Brian De Palma and Susan Lehman entitled ARE SNAKES NECESSARY? Yes, it’s that Brian De...
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Fair Warning
In his latest crime novel, FAIR WARNING, Connelly returns to Jack McEvoy, the hero of THE POET and THE SCARECROW. This time McEvoy get involved in several contemporary issues while tracking the...
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Shills Can’t Cash Chips
SHILLS CAN’T CASH CHIPS is the 145th (!) entry in the Hard Case Crime series, an imprint of Titan Books. This Erle Stanley Gardner book (written under his pseudonym of A.A. Fair) features private...
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Light into Ink: A Critical Survey of 50 Film Novelizations
Any longtime reader of this site, now 15, knows novelizations run in its blood. I suspect for many of us, movie novelizations were among the first non-children’s novels we read for pleasure. Being born...
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The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman’s debut novel, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, is noteworthy for its unusual setting and characters, as well as its complex murder mystery. But it is Osman’s empathy for his characters that is...
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Later
It’s official: Stephen King has written so many books, he’s run out of titles. The prolific author has now resorted to mundane one-word titles, and in the future, we can look forward to BECAUSE, MAYBE...
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Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies That Made It
I’ve been a fan of Jason Bailey’s work for several years. To tie me over waiting for his next “real” book, I bought both of his self-published books — extended essays, really; physically thin,...
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The Dark Hours
Michael Connelly reunites Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch in THE DARK HOURS, a story of mistaken identity murder and various related crimes. It is another triumph for this popular and prolific author. At...
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Denver Noir
I’m not sure what rock I’ve been living under, but DENVER NOIR, edited by Cynthia Swanson, is the first in the [Placename] NOIR series I’ve seen — which is remarkable, because Akashic Books has now...
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Quarry’s Blood
Max Allan Collins brings his long-running series about professional hitman Quarry to a close with QUARRY’S BLOOD, published by Hard Case Crime. It’s a tale that forces Quarry to confront his past, as...
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The James Bond Films 1962-1989: Interviews with the Actors, Writers and...
Goldberg. Lee Goldberg. The prolific crime novelist began his professional writing career as many scribes do: at the college paper. Whereas I had to report on the facility management department at the...
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The Hot Beat
I always consider Robert Silverberg one of the classic science fiction writers, but he also wrote a considerable amount of mystery fiction, often under a pseudonym, in the early years of his career....
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The Big Bundle
The ultra-prolific Max Allan Collins has released yet another entry in his historical detective fiction series starring Nathan Heller (by my count, this is the 23rd). This comes out from Hard Case...
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