“A rugged Chicago fixer wrestles with his moral compass as he attempts to tarnish the reputation of a local attorney in The Face of Evil, a gritty 1950s pulp fiction tale, steeped in extortion, corruption, and counter-blackmail.
Originally published as a Gold Medal Books paperback original in 1954, John McPartland’s hard-hitting standalone novel of redemption has resurfaced this month as part of Stark House’s Black Gat mass market editions, having been long out of print.
McPartland, a former staff writer for Life magazine who died at the age of 47 in 1958, carved out a niche for himself in the realm of pulp fiction crime, writing four screenplays and a dozen gangster-style thrillers. But he is perhaps best remembered for his dramatic novel No Down Payment, which was adapted into a film featuring Joanne Woodward and Tony Randall, garnering two BAFTA nominations.
Set during a sultry summer in Newport Beach, California, The Face of Evil introduces us to hard-nosed Bill Oxford, depicted as ‘a smart, tough fixer whose soul has rotted away.’”
My review of the hard-hitting crime novel The Face of Evil, reissued by Black Gat, was published today in the Lancashire Post and syndicated to these UK newspapers: Blackpool Gazette, Burnley Express, Lancaster Guardian, Sheffield Star, Wigan Today (Wigan Post; Wigan Observer), and Yorkshire Evening Post. Archived online access to these reviews as they originally appeared on July 21, 2025, featuring my byline, can be found at these weblinks:
Blackpool Gazette, Burnley Express, Lancashire Post, Lancaster Guardian, Sheffield Star, Wigan Today, Yorkshire Evening Post.