Prolific novelist René Brabazon Raymond was one of the most famous thriller writers of all time. He adopted several pen names, but James Hadley Chase is the most well-known. His debut, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, caused a sensation upon its publication in 1939, selling so well that it became one of the biggest bestsellers of the decade.
Eighth James Hadley Chase Collection Read More »
This month, Stark House Press reissued two of Fischer’s paperback originals from the Fifties—Fools Walk In, published in 1951, and So Wicked, My Love, from 1954. The novels are essentially two variations on a theme. The first is a bizarre and twisty drama wherein a college professor gets involved with a gang of thieves, and the latter is a powerful and extremely well-written love story with darkness and villainy at its core. My essay, “Fischer’s Foolish Teacher and the Wicked Redhead,” introduces the collection.
Bruno Fischer’s Wicked Fools Read More »
In Bandit Heaven, published by St. Martin’s Press last month, New York Times bestselling author Tom Clavin offers an interesting analysis of three secluded hideouts nestled in Wyoming and Utah that for many decades provided a place of refuge and protection for hordes of robbers, killers, and fugitives. These hangouts—Robbers Roost, Brown’s Hole, and Hole-in-the-Wall—sufficiently
Review of Bandit Heaven by Tom Clavin Read More »
My short story, “Paris Pickpockets,” a wry tale of theft at the Châtelet-les-Halles metro station in Paris, was published recently in the Summer 2024 (Vol. 2, No. 3) edition of Washington Square Review, a literary journal produced by Lansing Community College in Michigan that’s been around since 1972. The story was written earlier this year,
Story “Paris Pickpockets” in Washington Square Review Read More »
My review of Mark Jacobs’ literary fiction novel Silent Light was published this week in the Colorado Review. Here is a snippet: “In this epic journey through brutalized, fractured communities within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, award-winning writer Mark Jacobs presents an intense and poignant novel of vulnerable outsiders at the peripheries of hell navigating inter-ethnic quarrels,
Litchfield reviews Silent Light by Mark Jacobs for the Colorado Review Read More »
Coy Hall’s largely overlooked series opener, A Séance for Wicked King Death, published by Shotgun Honey Books last November, is an engrossing 1950s crime story that flaunts scrupulously distilled prose and memorable rogues. Set in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Huntington, West Virginia, it introduces Royce Pembrook, a smart, articulate ex-con with a talent for deception. A
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The latest issue of the Lowestoft Chronicle, published today, includes my interview with Canadian short story writer Jerry Levy. Years ago, Levy contributed an excellent short story to issue #9 of the magazine (“Paris Is A Woman”). Since then, Levy has published three story collections, including his superb The Philosopher Stories. This interview with Levy focuses on his story collections, his literary influences, and the real-life inspiration behind his intelligent, socially awkward philosophy hack protagonist, Karl Pringle, the star of his newest book.
Interview with Jerry Levy for Lowestoft Chronicle Read More »
The new issue of the Lowestoft Chronicle contains my interview with novelist Adam Berlin, in which he discusses his writing career, the backstory of his early novels, his first literary agent, and some of the stories in his newly published fiction collection.
Interview with Adam Berlin for the Lowestoft Chronicle Read More »
The heavily populated saga, involving a shady FBI operation, lies, deceit, misplaced trust, and numerous vendettas, requires intricate plotting and careful attention to character. Many have said it before, but there’s a blunt realism to Stella’s dialogue and a compelling rationale for his underworld characters’ pitiless behavior. Richard Lipez writes in an article in The Washington Post: “It’s too bad that virtually none of Stella’s best dialogue is repeatable in this newspaper. Like “The Sopranos” writers, Stella is a kind of obscene Ring Lardner, finding a lean, rancid poetry in his characters’ vernacular, and rendering it with flawless precision and humor.” With Joey Piss Pot, the prose is spare, the conversation sharp and colorful and thick with profanity, and when the action kicks in, the slick, graphic violence leaves a mark. Fans of underworld fiction will drink this up and hungrily hold out their bowl for more.
Review of Joey Piss Pot by Charlie Stella Read More »
The impressive The Philosopher Stories, published a few months ago, is the third story collection from Canadian writer Jerry Levy. As with his 2020 collection, The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness, it’s released by the independent publisher Guernica Editions. Dissimilarity, this book might almost pass as a novel.
Segmented into twelve stories, it covers the ever-interesting ups and downs of Karl Pringle, an intelligent, socially awkward outsider “full of contradictions and insecurities, carrying around an entire Louis Vuitton set of heavy baggage.” A voracious reader, aspiring writer, philosopher, and guru, he’s also a slovenly layabout incapable of holding down a job.
His life takes a downward spiral when he’s thrown out of college for assaulting his professor, and a succession of poor decisions and disappointments push him further into the abyss. But then he’s thrown a lifeline when he meets the joyful and inquisitive Solange, a French woman in her thirties looking for love. Suddenly, there’s hope and a world of possibilities. But Levy’s narrative never goes in the direction you imagine it will, and maybe that’s just as well.
Articulate and original, The Philosopher Stories is an imaginative, thought-provoking pleasure that’s filled with equal parts humor and pathos.
The Philosopher Stories by Jerry Levy Read More »
