A Review by Sam Wiebe The sanitized, bland, and distinctly un-evocative covers for the newest iteration of Black Lizard inspired me to read a few more old pulp novels recently—the kind that usually feature lurid covers by artists like Robert McGuinness. It’s my small, silent and utterly meaningless pushback against the “downplay the ugly and … Continue reading This is a Wild One: Solomon’s Vineyard by Jonathan Latimer
Tag: Review
Crime Fiction… With GUITARS!
Steve Wynn's Riding Shotgun Review by Kevin Burton Smith Okay, Riding Shotgun by singer/songwriter Steve Wynn is NOT a CD loaded with songs about private eyes. That would be too easy. Still, with its pulpy artwork and the name-dropping of every hard-boiled crime writer from Dashiell Hammettto James Ellroy, you don't have to be a great detective … Continue reading Crime Fiction… With GUITARS!
“I Was Filled With a Sense of Loss and Longing.”
Chinatown Remembered By Fred Zackel June 20, 2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Chinatown in the USA. It is the finest private eye story that never came from a book first. A clue to any town, any city, any culture, any nation, is the stories it tells about itself, what stories it appropriates … Continue reading “I Was Filled With a Sense of Loss and Longing.”
With Autumn Closing In…
Night Moves Remembered By Daniel Moses Luft "Ain't it funny how the night moves When you just don't seem to have that much to lose? Ain't it funny how the night moves With autumn closing in?" - Bob Seger Arthur Penn’s 1975 film Night Moves is a mostly forgotten work of both pulp and 70s-style, … Continue reading With Autumn Closing In…
Magnum P.I. (v 2.4)
Dr. Goldberg Delivers His Diagnosis—and it’s Murder March 2023: Watching MAGNUM P.I. this season has been interesting from a story-telling and budget standpoint. I was hoping when the show moved from CBS to NBC, we'd see a creative retooling that abandoned the terrible bifurcated storytelling that I assumed was a side effect of COVID social-distancing … Continue reading Magnum P.I. (v 2.4)
A Drink Before the War: A Review
Review by Christopher Friesen Never judge a book by its cover? I always do. The book is always better than the movie? Not always. On a related front, I would offer this piece of advice: never judge an author by a movie made out of one of his books. Had I gone with my gut … Continue reading A Drink Before the War: A Review
Night Moves: An Introduction
Sam Wiebe Introduces the 1974 Classic Slated to introduce Night Moves at the Vancouver Film Center in August 2022, Canadian crime writer Sam Wiebe, the creator of private eyes Dave Wakeland and Michael Drayton, confessed that "It’s one of my favorite PI films and neo-noirs, and a million times better than Altman’s very good The Long Goodbye, … Continue reading Night Moves: An Introduction
The Donald Strachey Series by Richard Stevenson
An Overview by Sam Phillips For those of you who haven't read the Donald Strachey series by Richard Stevenson, they are, for my money, some of the funniest, smartest PI novels around. The guy is just a terrific writer! Maybe even brilliant. Death Trick (1981) In the series opener Albany PI Donald Strachey takes … Continue reading The Donald Strachey Series by Richard Stevenson
A Conversation About The Conversation
Sam Wiebe Introduces the 1974 Classic Slated to introduce The Conversation at the Vancouver Film Center before the pandemic, Canadian crime writer Sam Wiebe, the creator of private eyes Dave Wakeland and Michael Drayton, finally got to do it in April 2022. The screening was part of a free day of programming in memoriam for VIFF staff … Continue reading A Conversation About The Conversation
“No Chance in Hell” by Nick Quarry
A Review by August West Marvin H. Albert used his Nick Quarry pseudonym for all six of his Jake Barrow private eye novels. We're not breaking new ground here, but all the novels have hair-trigger action and are excellent. And No Chance in Hell, published in 1960, is one of the best from the series. It starts … Continue reading “No Chance in Hell” by Nick Quarry