Lately my reading habits have gone through the roof. I'd, sort of cooled for a bit until I discovered Hard Case Crime. I currently get their monthly(now bi-monthly) new releases as well as taking good advantage of their twice yearly sales and have almost collected the entire works. On top of that I've been digging into my collection of original pulps that I've always sought out for the cover art, looking for lost treasures as well as providing a bit of a relief from the crime and noir genres. I've been reading so much, sometimes a book a day, that I decided to start writing some reviews here for the noir pulps and over at Mutant Family Values for everything else. First up here is The Peddler by Richard S. Prather. Many may recognize his name in connection with the Shell Scott detective novels. I've only read one of the Scott novels, Way Of A Wanton, I believe. Didn't really do much for me so I wasn't sure what to expect from this venture. Well, it's truly a bird of a different feather. The story itself isn't anything new. A tenacious young man rises within the ranks of the local organized crime ring, specializing in whorehouses, until it all blows up in his face. Kind of a predictable story, but the
telling of it is quite well done. Full of beautiful hard boiled dialogue and it's a dialogue that flows well. I don't know about you folks but sometimes I find, in crime novels from the 40's and 50's particularly, the dialogue isn't right, it doesn't flow properly. People just don't talk like that. But here it works really well.
telling of it is quite well done. Full of beautiful hard boiled dialogue and it's a dialogue that flows well. I don't know about you folks but sometimes I find, in crime novels from the 40's and 50's particularly, the dialogue isn't right, it doesn't flow properly. People just don't talk like that. But here it works really well. "He just went off his nut, see? We were playin' poker and the guy was drinkin' heavy. All of a sudden he goes off his rocker and yells at Sharkey 'Get away from me-don't let him get me.' Then he yanks out the barker and bangs him. Smack in the biscuit. Then Romero flopped down on the floor, cold. I guess the sight of poor Sharkey's think-pot flyin' through the air like that put him under a strain."
Wouldn't it be great to be able to just effortlessly talk like that all the time? Anyway, The Peddler is certainly worth a look. Very entertaining and every bit as brutal as something Jim Thompson would have written.
I read the Hard Case printing but the original cover scan shown above comes from Hang Fire Books
