Jack Q. (AlabamaJack) reviewed on 5/20/2006 + 170 more book reviews

From Amazon.com
Poor Swen "Swede" Nelson. A career sailor, all he wanted was to do was hang up his bell-bottoms and buy a farm in Hibbing, Minnesota. Find a wife, have a bunch of kids, and live happily ever after. Until, that is, he met Corliss Mason. A not-so-grieving widow and owner of a southern California seaside motor court, the sensual Corliss literally sweeps Swede off his feet, and all plans to return to the heartland are temporarily put on hold. Faster than you can say "big con", Swede and the witchy Corliss are married, and in the next heartbeat the hard-drinking, hard-punching sailor is a murderer.

This is classic pulp fiction - the kind of writing that invented "hardboiled" as a descriptor. Written in the early 50's, some of the sociology seems quaint and a bit dated in today's whacky politically correct culture, but that just adds to the fun. And while the careful reader will see the pieces falling into place a bit too early, neither will that detract from the well-paced, high-grit tale of blind love and deceit. But author Day Keene keeps a couple of neat tricks up his sleeve to make for an interesting climax. Kudos to Hard Case Crime for bringing these vintage masterpieces of crime fiction back to life.

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