Category Archives: Hard-Bolied

Smooth Criminals, a Reading Challenge for 2012

Posted on November 23, 2011 by

I saw a link by Thomas Pluck @TommySalami about a reading review challenge led by Benoît Lelièvre @BenoitLelievre. You can find full details, and join in , on his Dead End Follies webpage. Smooth Criminals, a Reading Challenge for 2012 … Continue reading →

Posted in Hard-Bolied, Noir | 2 Comments

Review: Spike Milligan: His Part in Our Lives & Death of a Marseilles Man

Posted on November 3, 2011 by

Death of a Marseilles Man, Léo Malet Léo Malet is one of my favourite crime writers. He happens to have been a combination of things I admire: a member of the Surrealist group in the 1930′s and the instigator of … Continue reading →

Posted in Comedy, French Crime, Hard-Bolied, Leo Malet, Maxine Ventham, Nestor Burma, Noir, Non-Fiction, Spike Milligan | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Review: Eightball Boogie, Declan Burke

Posted on May 4, 2011 by

I really enjoyed this book: it’s dark, it’s gritty, and it’s funny. The main character is a detective (by any other name) hired to spy on a man’s wife. He is also trying to dig the dirt on a murder … Continue reading →

Posted in Declan Burke, Hard-Bolied, Humorous Crime, Irish Crime | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett

Posted on February 5, 2011 by

It’s impossible to read this book without visualising Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade. I gave up trying to see him any other way after the first page. Hammett seems to have described Spade’s face as forming a V about twenty … Continue reading →

Posted in American Literature, Dashiell Hammett, Hard-Bolied | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Tell-tale Body on the Plaine Monceau, Léo Malet

Posted on January 23, 2011 by

That’s it with Nestor Burma and the New Mysteries of Paris. One more of these books has been translated into English but I haven’t been able to find a copy. This one involves a murder and suicide. Leading to the … Continue reading →

Posted in French Crime, Hard-Bolied, Leo Malet | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Salazar, Second Draft

Posted on December 20, 2010 by

Finished the second draft last night. The word count now is 70,162 – up from 54,000 for the first draft. This is in Word. I previously used Open Office but the word count is way out. I am happy with … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime Fiction, Hard-Bolied, Historical Crime | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett

Posted on December 15, 2010 by

This is the first novel in a book of four. Enjoyed it – but then the man is a master. The arrival of some Leo Malet books will delay my reading of The Dain Curse – next in the book … Continue reading →

Posted in American Literature, Dashiell Hammett, Hard-Bolied | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Salazar

Posted on December 1, 2010 by

Mad Sunday is on hold for now – it becomes too hard to edit a draft straight after writing it. Instead the last two weeks have been spent re-writing Salazar. I have been inspired by reading The Pericles Commission by … Continue reading →

Posted in Hard-Bolied, Historical Crime, Paris, Writing Fiction, Writing targets | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment