The Gutter and the Grave (Hard Case Crime)

Here's Some Crime for Your Pocket

First, there are the men: classic noir anti-heroes, narrating their own stories with bleak turns and wise-cracks. They are a regular Greek chorus of blown fuses, failed marriages, jobs gone wrong. Just take Matt Cordell, ex-P.I., Bowery bum, prone to sardonic pronouncements like, "It's great to be alive, I guess," just when he's looking to go on another bender. Cordell is the voice of The Gutter and the Grave, an early Ed McBain novel originally published under one of his many pseudonyms, now republished by the Hard Case Crime series. And then there are the dames, usually damaged goods, like Rebecca LaFontaine of Max Phillips' Fade to Blonde, whose "nipples stood out like a pair of steel pegs," but whose motives shift as the pages turn. The dames are always part of a web of lies that the gumshoes stumble into, leaving them to bleary conclusions of the "None of this tied in… Or maybe it had been too long since I'd had a shot of whiskey," variety.

The books of the Hard Case Crime series are short and sweet, nicely priced and a nice fit for the back pocket of a worn pair of jeans. They include reprints like McBain's contribution, and new works like Stephen King's short crime novel The Colorado Kid. They are encased in comely neo-pulp covers (see Touch of Evil author Wade Miller's The Branded Woman). Taken together, they demonstrate extraordinary efforts in the Give-The-People-What-They-Want department; the cases may be hard, but the stories go down real easy.

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