Noir fiction for the modern reader.

Christina Irelan over at IntoxicatedByBooks.blogspot.com has reviewed Setup On Front Street and has said some very kind things about it. I would urge everyone to check it out here and please leave a comment, okay? It would not only help me, but it would help Christina as well. She’s definitely one of the “good guys”.

Michael Lipkin’s respected Noir Journal has reviewed Setup On Front Street. I have to say the reviewer, MC Pastoret, totally got it. Nothing could please me more. A big thanks to Michael and MC for giving my novel the opportunity to be seen on that great site.

Check out his review here. And then, please leave a brief comment, okay? Michael’s site is a haven for noir fans, and it deserves plenty of support. In fact, I’m adding a permanent link to it here under “Other Hotspots”.

Dana King has done a review of Setup On Front Street in the “monthly best reads” edition of his blog, One Bite At A Time. He said some very nice things, which I truly appreciate. I would further appreciate it if all readers of this post would go to his blog right now and check it out, then leave a brief comment. Dana’s one of the good guys.

Hey, how can he not be? He’s a former musician.

Big Al, over at BooksAndPals.blogspot.com, has reviewed my short story collection, Bloodstains On The Wall, and given it 4 stars (out of a possible 5). You can check it out here. It’s clear to me from his review that he totally gets noir and has therefore earned a place in my pantheon of Guys With Great Insight. If you have a moment, please go there and leave a brief comment.

And while you’re there, check out some of his other reviews, equally insightful, including a now-classic review of The Greek Seaman by Jacqueline Howett. That one has so far attracted 309 comments. That’s not a misprint. 309! Believe me when I tell you, all of cyberspace was buzzing about this review and the subsequent comments. It’s worth a look.

The folks over at LoveThyAuthor.com have reviewed Setup On Front Street, and have seen fit to give it 4.7 stars (out of a possible 5). You can check out the review here. When you go there, please check out the rest of the site. It’s pretty impressive. And if you have a moment, please leave a brief comment. Thanks.

Now that I have several books out, they’re starting to get some reviews. So far, most of them have been pretty good, if I do say so myself. And to those reviewers on the various websites that looked at my books, as well as to those readers who wrote their own reviews and put them up on Amazon, I offer my heartfelt thanks. I truly appreciate the kind words, but more than that, I appreciate that you took the time from your own schedules to write those reviews, no matter how brief.

It’s to the readers that I now speak. You bought my book(s), whether in ebook or paperback form, with your hard-earned money, and I hope you felt it was well-spent. Some of you are in the group I mentioned above, that is, you put your thoughts and impressions of the book into a review and put it up on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or LibraryThing or whatever.

Some of you, however, have elected not to write a review. I know your time is valuable and perhaps you just don’t care to do it. I get it. But I want to ask you to reconsider for the following reasons.

I don’t seek reviews for ego purposes. Yes, it’s uplifting when someone I don’t know writes something nice about my novel. That, however, is not the purpose of a review. The more reviews any of my books get, especially if they’re good reviews, it will show potential readers that other folks just like them have tried my books and (I would hope) liked them. The greater the number of reviews a book can display on its Amazon page, the greater the chance that someone will buy that book. It’s really that simple. That’s one of the best ways to create buzz.

So I would humbly ask, if you liked any of my books, please go to Amazon and write a brief review of it. It can be as long or as short as you want, and it doesn’t matter that you’re not really a book reviewer. Neither are 99% of the people who write Amazon reviews.

Here are the pages you can go to. Find the page for the book you read and go there. On Amazon, you just scroll down and you’ll see “Create Your Own Review” on the right side. On Barnes & Noble, scroll down and you’ll see “Write a Review”. If you can spare a couple of minutes to do this, it would mean a lot to me. I thank you in advance.

Setup On Front Street / Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Bloodstains On The Wall / Amazon, Barnes & Noble

The Take / Amazon, Barnes & Noble

There’s an excellent website called whatbookisthat.com, which is primarily a review site. They review many different genres, and I was very pleased when they agreed to have a look at my noir novel, The Take. They gave it an A- and I’m delighted. You can check it out here and when you do, please leave a comment. It will really, really help out.

For the first time in years, I watched The Damned Don’t Cry (1950), and I had forgotten how truly great a film it is. How can you not like something that carries a tag line like, “Ambition. Betrayal. Murder. Don’t let the little things stop you.”

Joan Crawford stars as Ethel Whitehead / Lorna Hansen Forbes, but gets plenty of top-drawer support from David Brian (always underrated, in my opinion) as George Castleman and Steve Cochran, who turns in yet another stellar performance as the conniving Nick Prenta.

The DVD included an interview with, of all people, director Vincent Sherman. The date on the DVD is 2005, so the interview was conducted not too long before his death, which occurred the following year right before his 100th birthday. A veteran of Hollywood’s golden age, Sherman directed other films noir, such as Backfire and The Garment Jungle, as well as mainstream efforts like The Young Philadelphians, one of Paul Newman’s early efforts.

The Damned Don’t Cry, however, was his best. And it is arguably Joan Crawford’s finest hour, too, her Oscar-winning turn in Mildred Pierce notwithstanding. Her scenes with Brian and Cochran crackle with intensity. She worked well with them and they were both up to it. The story of a woman rising up from deep blue-collar roots to the top of society mirrors Crawford’s own life, enabling her to crawl into the skin of her character with ease. But Lorna Hansen Forbes’ meteoric rise is only a prelude to her introduction to the world of organized crime.

Brian runs the show and he sees in Crawford the kind of grit and tenacity that he had within himself during his own trip to the top. He finds her irresistible and eventually figures out how to integrate her into his empire. But of course, Cochran has other plans.

The film’s first half is set in Texas oilfields and New York back streets, but appears to have been shot primarily on the Warner Bros back lot. The second half, however, shifts to a Palm Springs-ish locale, where Cochran is plotting his next move. The look is so authentic, I almost felt as though I were watching a different film altogether. I don’t remember any film of that era with a Palm Springs setting, but this one was very effective.

If you haven’t seen The Damned Don’t Cry, or haven’t seen it in awhile, go find it. You won’t be sorry.

The good folks over at DailyCheapReads.com have posted a little feature on my noir novel, The Take. This is pretty amazing, since they usually feature only very inexpensive books. The Take weighs in at $4.79 for the digital version and $12.95 for the paperback (both prices set by my publisher). They’ve got a great site going over there at DailyCheapReads. Check it out here.

The Caffeinated Diva has weighed in on Bloodstains On The Wall, and she…well, I’ll let her tell you. Go here.