Blackmail and murder, the abduction of a compulsive gambler, and a crook’s ambition to control the trafficking of ‘wetbacks’ across the U.S. border are among the trio of gritty tales first published in paperback by Lion Books in the 1950s and reprinted in this classic noir collection. Originally published in hardback by Mystery House in […]
Nicholas Litchfield in the Lancashire Post: Fredric Brown, who died in 1972 at age 65, was an accomplished American mystery and science fiction author of more than 30 books and 300 short stories and vignettes. His debut novel, The Fabulous Clipjoint, won the Edgar Award, and a number of his stories were adapted for the screen, including Martians, Go Home, Madman’s Holiday (filmed as Crack-Up), and The Screaming Mimi, which was the basis of a 1958 movie by Columbia Pictures and also an enormously successful Italian film titled The Bird With The Crystal Plumage.
Litchfield Reviews Fredric Brown’s Madball for the Lancashire Post Read More »
Published today in the Colorado Review is my review of Valerie Nieman’s novel To the Bones. Here is a snippet: “In this unusual tale of death and monsters and environmental devastation, horror, science fiction, romance, and satire bleed together to form a vibrant literary delight that is as powerful and imposing as the fearsome orange-hued river that runs through it.”
Litchfield reviews ‘To the Bones’ for the Colorado Review Read More »
Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Death and dark revelations surface when a visiting Chicago Homicide Department chief revives interest in an unsolved 20-year-old murder case, and a snooping Omaha businessman plays amateur sleuth while on holiday.
Litchfield Reviews Two Bernice Carey Novels for the Lancashire Post Read More »
“Although somewhat uneven and, at times, repetitive, Smoke City is a distinctive, emotionally rewarding story that moves and entertains. Rosson, whose debut novel, The Mercy of the Tide, netted strong critical reviews, once again shows his talent for creating authentic, sorrowful characters and rich, beautifully wrought prose.” Weaving between hope and destruction, fear and sorrow,
Litchfield reviews ‘Smoke City’ for the Colorado Review Read More »
Nicholas Litchfield in the Lancashire Post: Reprinted from the late 1950s comes a tautly plotted, gritty tale of gang wars, racketeering, police corruption, and the dangers faced by a murder witness who risks his life to give testimony against powerful mobsters. Late American author Ovid E. Desmarais, better known as Ovid Demaris, was a journalist and bestselling author of thirty books. Praised for his investigative reporting on organized crime, political and business corruption, gambling and the underworld, several of his nonfiction books enjoyed a combined 64 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and have been translated and published in twenty-two countries.
Litchfield Reviews Ovid Demaris’s The Hoods Take Over for the Lancashire Post Read More »
Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: American author Timothy J. Lockhart delivers a barrage of thrills, spills, and blood-soaked ferocity in his explosive action-adventure yarn set in the hazardous rough waters of the Caribbean.
Litchfield Reviews Pirates by Timothy J. Lockhart for the Lancashire Post Read More »
“Given the private nature of Adiós to My Parents, you would think that the book would prohibit a readership beyond those with a personal attachment to the author, but, in fact, this is an astute and absorbing, deeply emotional family tale that can move, intrigue, and interest a far broader audience.” First published in 2014
Litchfield reviews ‘Adiós to My Parents’ for the Colorado Review Read More »
Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: This triple dose of Carter Brown mysteries from 1957 finds homicide detective Al Wheeler investigating the deaths of two call girls, tracing a missing girl, and taking a job as a private investigator to clear a lawyer of a murder rap.No Law Against Angels, Doll for a Big House, and Chorine Makes a Killing are three light and lively entries in British-born Australian pulp writer Alan Geoffrey Yates’ phenomenally successful mystery series which spawned 300 books.
Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Absurdist humour and existential noir intermingle in Joseph Scapellato’s playful and intelligent debut novel about a soul-searching archaeology school drop-out who finds himself at the centre of a strange and risky performance art project in the Czech Republic. Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Scapellato, who now lives in Pennsylvania, is an assistant professor of English in the Creative Writing Program at Bucknell University. His previous work, the critically acclaimed story collection Big Lonesome, received high praise from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and the Lancashire Post, with the New York Times proclaiming: ‘Scapellato’s inventive, hallucinatory prose dazzles.’
Litchfield Reviews The Made-Up Man by Joseph Scapellato Read More »
