It isn’t easy going to jail for a practical joke. Of course, this particular joke left 20 cars wrecked on the highway and two politicians’ careers in tatters – so jail is where Harold Künt landed. Now he’s just trying to keep a low profile in the Big House. He wants no part […]
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I knew I should have written this up right after I saw the movie, or at the very least, the next day. But I didn’t, and now it’s been almost a week since I’ve seen it, and I really wish it were completely fresh in my head because I don’t think I’m going […] 
What would we do without Hard Case Crime? Wither away and die, I suspect. Excerpted from publisher Charles Ardai’s e-mail: After more than 9 years of detective work and negotiation, we’ve tracked down a lost novel by James M. Cain, the author of the noir classics MILDRED PIERCE, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and […] 
The latest news from Hard Case Crime. Hard Case Crime has published books by a number Mystery Writers of America ‘Grand Masters’ over the years — Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake, Mickey Spillane, Ed McBain, Stephen King — but in 2012 we’re going to add to this illustrious list a Grand Master from the […]
We’ve been following the story of this book for awhile now, and now its release is officially scheduled for February 21, 2012. From Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai: A bit of exciting Hard Case Crime news this morning: we’re going to be bringing out a never-before-published novel by the great Donald E. Westlake. Don began work on it in the late 1970s, but ultimately decided not to publish the book after Martin Scorsese released his movie “The King of Comedy” since Don was apparently concerned that the premise of his novel and Scorsese’s film were too similar. He shouldn’t have worried — aside from both having to do with kidnapping a television comedian, the two are completely different. But he did, and the result is that there’s a Westlake novel that’s been sitting unpublished in manuscript form for the past 30+ years. The title is THE COMEDY IS FINISHED and it’s going to be our lead title for 2012 — only the second book ever to be published in hardcover by Hard Case Crime. (Our first hardcover is our lead title this year, GETTING OFF by Lawrence Block, which comes out on September 20.) Here is the book blurb from the Hard Case Crime website: BUT SERIOUSLY, FOLKS. The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go. Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck up American troops in the field. And not the five remaining members of the self-proclaimed People’s Revolutionary Army, who’ve decided that kidnapping Koo Davis would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life… The great-looking cover art is by Greg Manchess. Below the fold is the full press release from Hard Case Crime’s new publisher, Titan Books. 
Do not miss the January 10, 2011 SFFaudio podcast, featuring guest Charles Ardai. It’s loaded with great information on the future of Hard Case Crime, the Gabriel Hunt series of pulp adventure novels, and much more. Interviewer Jesse Willis is to be congratulated for getting tons of stuff not yet revealed in the […] 
LITTLE GIRL…FOUND. Three years ago, detective John Blake solved a mystery that changed his life forever–and left a woman he loved dead. Now Blake is back, to investigate the apparent suicide of Dorothy Louise Burke, a beautiful college student with a double life. The secrets Blake uncovers could blow […]
Full text of today’s Hard Case Crime newsletter below the fold. In addition to the great news that they’ll continue publishing, we also learn that Charles Ardai’s John Blake novels (written as Richard Aleas) Little Girl Lost (which I just reviewed) and Songs of Innocence (which I’ll be posting on in the next couple of days) have been optioned for the movies. This doesn’t mean they’ll actually get made, of course–just ask The Green Eagle Score. But if the project moves forward in the right hands, it could result in a fascinating couple of films. 
Little Girl LOST Miranda Sugarman was supposed to be in the Midwest, working as an eye doctor. So how did she wind up dead on the roof of New York’s seediest strip club? Little Girl LOST Ten years earlier, Miranda had been P.I. John Blake’s girlfriend. Now he must […]
I found an error (thanks to Charles Ardai’s excellent introduction to Deadly Edge, Slayground, and Plunder Squad), that’s likely been here since this site went up in rudimentary form eleven years ago. The Blackbird was not published in 1971. It was published in 1969. It predates Deadly Edge and Slayground. This […] |
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