Friday, July 17, 2009

Weekend Reading - Hard Case Crime

It looks like it's going to be a busy weekend, so I need some good, quick reads to squeeze in between happenings. Hard Case Crime is perfect. They publish pulp novels, some new some old, but all of them are gritty crime fiction you can stick in your back pocket. Here are the ones I'm picking up this weekend:

HOUSE DICK by E. Howard Hunt. Hunt used to be a spy in the CIA and was the inspiration for the Ethan Hunt character played by Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. He writes this detective novel with insider knowledge of what goes on in Washington DC.

PASSPORT TO PERIL by Robert B. Parker. This is a cold war novel originally published in 1951 by "the Original" Robert B. Parker. No, it's not the same Parker who penned the Spenser series; this Parker is a little known pulp novelist who spent three years crossing borders without a passport and evading arrest by the Gestapo. He's another author who has the background to give this fictional story authority.

CASINO MOON by Peter Blauner. This too is a reprint, but it's a reprint of a novel which was published only 15 years ago. It's also twice as long as the typical Hard Case Crime novel. But the premise is intriguing: son of an Atlantic City Monster tries to escape the life of crime by creating a comeback for a washed-up boxer (and of course sleeping with the round card girl).

More books can be found on the Hard Case Crime website. I'm also a fan of THE CUTIE, KILLING CASTRO, and MONEY SHOT.

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