Death’s Sweet Song (1955), one of a handful of noir novels written byClifton Adams. A loser running a fleabag motel thinks his big chance has come. It's a payroll robbery. He's driven by greed and his desire for a dangerous blonde. Excellent noir novel.

Here's my review:


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Strangers on a Train (1950) was Patricia Highsmith’s first novel. I love Hitchcock’s 1951 film (which departs radically from the book) but I very much disliked Highsmith’s novel. I'm not a fan of agonisingly psychological crime novels. YMMV.

Here's my review.


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Lawrence Block’s 1965 crime novel The Girl with the Long Green Heart is about a con and I’m inordinately fond of that crime sub-genre. Block describes the grift in great detail and it’s a delight to read.  Very noir and wildly enjoyable.

Here's my review.


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The Hunter (AKA Point Blank, 1962), the first hardboiled novel featuring his anti-hero Parker written by Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark. A very hard-edged roller-coaster ride with cold-blooded disturbingly casual violence. A great book.

Here's my review.


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Kiss for a Killer, a 1960 Honey West PI novel by Gloria and Forest Fickling (as G.G. Fickling). Honey investigates a nudist religious cult. Unashamedly violent, lurid, trashy and sleazy with hints of kinkiness. And extraordinarily enjoyable.

Here's my review.


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W.R. Burnett's 1949 noir novel The Asphalt Jungle. The story of a heist but mostly the story of the men carrying out the heist. The psychological complexity and the sense of yearning for a largely imaginary past make it a great crime novel.

Here's my review.


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Issue 6 of Men’s Adventure Quarterly focuses on heists and includes a fine collection of stories from 1960s/70s men's adventure mags. Plus a photo feature on Angie Dickinson and lots of great pulp illustrations. What more could you want?

Here's my review.


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Peter Marsh’s The Devil’s Daughter, published 1942. Unconventional noir with a femme fatale who doesn't fit the usual mould. A story of love and lust, of hate, of revenge and of suspicion and betrayal. Great stuff.

Here's my review.


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Walter Untermeyer Jr’s 1953 novel Dark the Summer Dies is noir melodrama rather than crime noir. It takes a long while for the real noirness to kick in but it is noir and has a genuine femme fatale. Worth reading if noir melodrama is your thing.

Here's my review.


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The Green Ribbon is a 1929 Edgar Wallace thriller involving an ingenious horse-racing racket with a large and varied collection of villains. And an elaborate system of caves and tunnel, a classic Wallace touch. Top-tier Wallace. Great stuff.

Here's my review.


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