Rudolph Fisher’s 1932 novel The Conjure Man Dies evokes both the Harlem Renaissance and Golden Age mysteries as well as embodying in important ways the more authentic voice of the streets that Dashiell Hammett had begun to make sing. Of course Fisher’s voice remains distinct from all of these: a polymath who studied to be…
Tag: crime
Recent Reads
I have been diving into eighteenth century France for some reason (…circumspice) and my reading has veering into the historical, albeit through fiction. No surprise: I learned most of my history from fiction — books, television, films — because Americans are not generally taught history so much as a narrative of Manifest Destiny. Which is…
Matinee: Quiet Please, Murder (1942)
Among the more obscure of films noir: George Sanders (although too little of him), Gail Patrick as the femme fatale she’s always meant to be, and Richard Denning with some well floppy hair. A winner because it’s set in the stolen/forged book racket and mostly in a library. Some library! Not only does it have…
Madonna of the Wasps
MADONNA OF THE WASPS My neo-giallo novella is out as an ebook with a spanking new cover by S. L. Johnson (AKA the Queen of Everything including cover art). Madonna of the Wasps involves a cult, an ancient knife, some art students, and a woman who thinks she may have found a way to live forever….
Review: The Get Off – Christa Faust
The thriller killer trilogy ends with The Get Off. Angel Dare’s adventures began with Money Shot and continued with Choke Hold, the latter I read on a train ride in Finland and was so captivated with its breakneck pace that I immediately read it again. It’s hard to believe that Christa Faust can get even…
Surreal Noir Ep6 on YT
EPISODE SIX Original Audio 23 Dec 21 Episode Six: In the darkest days of the year we tend to hide; with good reason – who knows what might lurk in the dark. Even if it’s only a couple of teenage girls…but wait. Why are their hands so bloody? This episode explores the fact, fiction, and…
Surreal Noir Ep 5 on YT
EPISODE FIVE [Original air date 24 Nov 21] Episode Five: Noirvember musings include stalkers, loneliness, travel and cows. Well, one cow anyway. This month noir fans watch the whole range of films that fall under that capacious umbrella, often including neo-noir along with the traditional black and white films from the 40s and 50s. *Content cautions for…
Surreal Noir: Ep4 on YT
EPISODE FOUR Original Airdate 20 Oct 21 Episode Four: Folk Horror – This episode takes as its text Dorothy B. Hughes’ desert noir classic Ride the Pink Horse. A gangster follows a man from Chicago to a small town in New Mexico, seeking revenge. He finds another world in the midst of a distinctly folk…
Surreal Noir: Ep16 New Fiction!
Episode Sixteen is now live! New fiction to celebrate #Noirvember and go out with a bang. Or maybe just a hum (you’ll have to listen to the story to figure that one out). Les grands transparents was inspired by a concept of André Breton’s. There are little nods that the cognoscenti will pick up on…
Surreal Noir: Ep3 on YouTube!
Episode Three is now live! Original airdate 22 Sep 21 Episode Three: Traveling – Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith introduces the concept of criss-cross for the perfect murder. As these things always go, it’s not so perfect after all. Highsmith is seldom interested in ‘whodunit’ and instead follows up on what happens next. Traveling…