Since Dave brought up Hard Case Crime, I thought I'd add how
much I enjoyed Lawrence Block's The Girl with the Long Green
Heart. It reminded me a lot of a Charles Williams novel
although it didn't have his ironic twists of fate that
maintain the suspense it still kept my interest. I guess for
just the opposite reason, that throughout the long con,
everything goes so smoothly--no glitches--that you begin to
suspect things will go badly at the end, but you have no idea
how or why.
I kept wondering as I read Long Green Heart, how Charles
Williams would have the written the story and whether it
would end like one of his novels. Ironically, the next book I
picked up off my TBR pile was Charles Williams' All the Way,
which has starts off with exactly the same story. Okay, I
thought, let's see how he ends it. As you might suspect the
endings were completely different, but both very noir-like
and I enjoyed both of them I would recommend both.
The basic setup was the same in both novels. A woman, the
femme fatale of the story, works as a secretary/administrator
for a businessman for many years, contributing significantly
to his success. She carries on an affair with him during the
entire time, while he remains married. Eventually, the wife
dies leaving him free to marry, but instead he marries an
even younger woman. The action of both novels begins with how
the woman plots to get even with the businessman.
Long Green Heart was the last of a bunch of the HCC novels I
read, trying to get caught up. One of the novels I read was
Stephen King's Colorado King. There's really nothing about it
to recommend it--not an interesting story, certainly not
hardboiled or noir. It felt like a short story stretched out
to novella length. At least it was a quick read.
Jeff
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