The Murderer Vine by Shepard Rifkin

Preface:

When I first came onto Hard Case Crime books, this one was actually the second book I ever read under the imprint. When asked for recommendations into the books that Hard Case Crime has published over the years, this is the first one I recommend.

 

 

The Murderer Vine by Shepard Rifkin (original pub. 1970; HCC pub. 2008):

Joe Dunne, the protagonist of this story, is an expat American living in the boondocks of  South America. He is talking to a priest he has met, and begins explaining how he came to be living out in the far reaches of civilization.

In his previous life, Dunne was a private eye in New York. He took basically any job that came along, not much caring for the moral implications of what he did to get the job done successfully. After a successful job of convincing a drug dealer to take his business elsewhere instead of his client's local high school (which involved beating the crap out of the dealer), Dunne is recommended to another potential client.

This guy is rich. He is also the father of a young boy who was working with Voter Registration in the 60's racist South. He knows for a fact that his son and two black men he was working with have been killed. He also has information that 5 racist Southern men were responsible. What the man, named Parrish, wants to hire Dunne to do is to go down to the town where it all happened, find information that would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the 5 men were guilty, enough so that they could be convicted in a court of law. But Parrish also wants to be the judge, jury and executioner in this endeavor. After Dunne has gathered evidence, Parrish wants the guilty men killed.

Parrish, being rich, is not expecting Dunne to do this at his regular rates. He is willing to pay what is essentially a LOT of money (at least by 60's standards) to be the executioner part in his stead. 

If you are reminded here of the film Mississippi Burning, I don't think you'd be too far off the mark. The movie was based on a real event and, although the main characters on the side of good were federal agents, and wholly committed to doing the right thing legally, the book, written in 1970, and the movie, filmed in 1988, both involve an investigation into a despicable act. Both have their main protagonists trying to get to the bottom of a murder of three innocent civil rights workers, and the basic coverup by the established local authorities. 

Dunne, with the help of his secretary, Kirby, pose as a married couple; she a devoted wife, and he a university professor seeking a PhD in spoken languages. This PhD ruse allows him to go around talking both with white and black people in the community. What he is really hoping for most of all is to get some of the black people to open up and reveal some hidden knowledge they would be afraid to express to most white people. Especially local whites.

After all, this was the 60's when a black person might get hanged just for looking at a white woman. Dunne ingratiates himself with the local whites, sometimes even resorting to doing something he hates: expressing an affinity for the racist prejudices of a major portion of the white community.

Eventually he manages to get invited to the local "racist country club", the crowd of "good ol' boys" whom he suspects were behind the disappearances. He also finds the bodies of the victims. After a meeting with Parrish showing him the evidence he goes back to the town to earn his keep. And, of course, that involves killing the 5 men who were responsible.

This book does tend to drag just a bit at times, but you tend to ignore it, because Rifkin kept up the interaction between the characters rather well. My personal opinion is that it was a good decision to write this book in the first person narrative. If this had been written in the third person omniscient narrative I think I might have bogged down during those parts where the main character debates with himself on the project he has mapped for himself.

Quiggy's Rating: 8 out of 10 

Happy reading

Quiggy 

 

Return of The Maltese Falcon by Max Allan Collins

First, a preface:

Max Allan Collins has been around for decades. He was publishing stories before I even graduated high school. But I admit I never heard of him until I picked up his novelization of the 1990 Warren Beatty film Dick Tracy. I have since become a big fan.

 

Return of the Maltese Falcon by Max Allan Collins (pub. 2026):

The novel picks up the story of The Maltese Falcon, as originally published by Dashiell Hammett back in the late 1920's. You really SHOULD read the original novel before picking up this one, otherwise you might be a little lost. (Or, you could just watch the Humphrey Bogart film version, but if you wanted to take the easy way out, why are you on a book review blog???)  

But before you go any further in this review, I highly suggest you do one or the other.  

In the sequel, Sam Spade, the San Francisco detective who had recently spent a week in the trenches with the likes of such characters as Brigid O'Shaugnessy, Joel Cairo and Caspar Gutman, searching for what was described as a fabulous treasure from the past, was now just trying to get on with business as usual.

Into his office comes Rhea Gutman, the daughter of Caspar Gutman. She wants to hire Spade to find the real falcon. (The Maltese falcon that Spade an company found in the first novel turned out to be fake.)  A note on what the "dingus", as Spade calls it, is: It's an elaborate relic, made of gold, with valuable gems inlaid into it's surface. It is almost a sure bet that there is a real one somewhere, at least according to the principal characters. So Rhea gives Spade a retainer to continue the investigation into finding it.

In the process of his search, Spade also comes across various other characters also interested in finding said bird. One is Dixie Monahan, a Chicago gangster who had been directly involved with Floyd Thursby, one of the original novel's gang of thieves. 

He also meets a figure who claims to represent the British Museum, Steward Blackwood. Blackwood claims he has proof that the falcon had been purchased in good faith from the previous owner, and pays Spade a retainer himself to find the artifact. 

Also appearing on the scene is Corrine Wonderly, who claims to be the sister of Brigid, and is also seeking the falcon. (Brigid, BTW, had first appeared on scene in Spade's offices as "Miss Wonderly" with a story about a sister named "Corrine", but Brigid later told Spade it was all made up, including the part about having a sister in the first place.

Also on the trail of the falcon, and giving Spade fits, is a gunman named Wilmer Cook, an impulsive and violent kid with whom Spade had already dealt with in the first case.

Over the course of the novel, many twists and turns occur to keep you on the edge of your seat. I have to admit, however, that the ultimate reveal of who all these new characters on the scene came off as a bit contrived.. Without going into detail and spoiling it entirely, some people turn out to not be who they CLAIM to be. 

So the main question for me going in, was; would Collins write this in  his own style, or would he try to write this as if Hammett himself had written the sequel?  Sometimes it seemed he had the Hammett touch, and occasionally it came off as if someone else might be writing it. Be that as it may, it is still an entertaining read. I have to admit that I appreciated his not shying away from the negative slant that Hammett originally cast on the personality of Joel Cairo, and his relationship with Wilmer Cook. I half expected a re-editing of Spade's view in light of today's PC approach to that issue.

So I highly recommend this one. Quiggy's Rating: 9

Happy reading.

Quiggy  

 

New Beginnings

 

 

Over the years I have begun and abandoned this project several times. As you can see above, I am an avid fan of the Hard Case Crime imprint. 

Just in case you logged on to this blog with no prior knowledge, let me give you a little background. Hard Case Crime was launched a little over 20 years ago. Over the years the publishers have released over 160 or so novels, in the classic hard boiled crime genre that became popular in the 60's and 70's. These releases are a mix of reprints of those classic novels as well as some new novels written in the same style.

When I am describing the Hard Case output to the neophyte, I often tell them it's something like film noir in print. (Sometimes I have to tell them what "film noir" is...) Now, admittedly, that may not be the same impression that others get from reading these volumes, but in my defense, the current newest book from the imprint, The Return of the Maltese Falcon by Max Allan Collins is a sequel to the original The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, and I defy ANYONE to tell me the movie version of  The Maltese Falcon isn't film noir...  

So here's the deal. The last couple of times I tried to launch this blog I tried to do it by chronological order of the issue of each novel. This time, instead, I am going to do it in a somewhat random order. For instance, the first review will be the previously mentioned Max Allan Collins book, which was just released. Subsequently I will be rereading some of my favorites that I have read, in no set order.

If you like what you read in the blog article, I encourage you to seek them out.

Happy reading.

Quiggy