“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.”

– Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.

Grand Theft Auto has been a hugely successful video game franchise for almost thirty years. From Rockstar Games, I’ve never played it. They also make Red Dead Redemption, which I tinkered with a little. It’s pretty high quality and I’ll get to it some day. Among their other titles, the one I have jumped into is L.A. Noire.

Set in 1947, you are Cole Phelps, an LAPD uniformed patrolman, and a WW II Marine veteran. You are assigned cases, and you go to scenes, collect clues, and talk to people. The goal, of course, is to collect enough information to catch the culprit. It’s open-world, but the path to solving a case is rather straightforward. I’ve only failed once so far, and it was clearly trying to tell me what I was missing, but I couldn’t pick up on it. I’m currently assigned to the Traffic division, which is way more than going out for fender benders.

There are also regular side quests which come in as radio calls. You can take the call and go take care of it. This often involves chases and shootings.

I have killed quite a few folks so far. It is frowned upon if you shoot someone that didn’t need shooting. But I’ve been killed (you restart the mission), so it can get tough out there for your and your partner.

I ALWAYS take a side quest. And that’s because I love driving. No singular aspect of a game has grabbed me in years, the way driving around in L.A. Noire has. I love it! I’m bad at it, and I often hit other vehicles and damage property. There’s a running tally of damage you’ve done each case.

I really like driving around here. The game has a forties soundtrack, with songs from the era, and appropriate commercials. And man, do I hate sitting at a red light. I will put on the siren, go through the intersection, then turn it off. I understand the appeal in real life to do that.

On the PC at least, you can’t use your horn. You just turn the siren on. I DEFINITELY want to lay on the horn. I also want to use my turn signal because I always do in real life, but that’s not an option, either. I have tried to get to a non-urgent location by following the rules, driving at a reasonable speed, and not hitting anyone or anything. A couple times. It’s more fun driving wild and still trying not to hit anything. I have just driven around, enjoying the scenery, before getting to my destination. It also shifts to night, which is cool.

The only other driving I do in games is in Fortnite, and that’s like Twisted Metal on steroids for me. I would play some L.A. Noire just for the driving.

If you read my column, you know my Pulp area is hardboiled/private eye stuff. Years ago, I went through a real James Ellroy phase. That dude is DARK. But he’s a fantastic writer. LA Confidential is a great book, and a great movie.

In this game there’s a story line developing with cut scenes involving Phelps’ time in the Marines, but the game doesn’t have the dark vibe of an Ellroy novel. That aside, it does have an Ellroy feel. Forties LA. Cops and crimes. Some darker story underneath (just not gruesome level, I think).

BONUS – You should know by now that I love Psych – it’s in my Top Five, and is my most re-watched show. One mission case involves a used car dealer named Richard Coombs. He is voiced by Kurt Fuller – Coroner Woody Strode in Psych. He looks like Woody. He ACTS like Woody. And of course, it’s Fuller’s voice. I frigging love that! John Noble, who wonderfully played Denethor in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, is also in the game.

I love the atmosphere, ambiance – the vibe – of L.A. Noire. It’s a hardboiled cop game. You can even switch it to black and white, though I like it in color. And the driving really is THAT fun. I’m pretty sure I’ll play this through to the end.

As for a sequel: Team Bondi developed the game. Apparently the management style was so egregious (unethical working practices) that the company went out of business after the game was released. They had been working on a similar style game set in Shanghai, Whore of the Orient. There were attempts to complete it, but they came to naught and the game was canceled.

Frogwares makes a line of action-adventure Sherlock Holmes games, including The Awakened, which pitted Holmes against the Cthulhu mythos. They made an open-world Cthulhu game called The Sinking City, which is very much a Weird Menace Pulp video game. I have it, and it’s on my To Play list.

It received okay reviews, and a sequel is said to be in development now.

Prior Posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2025 (6)

Shelfie – Dashiell Hammett
Windy City Pulp & Paper Fest – 2025
Will Murray on Who was N.V. Romero?
Conan – The Phoenix in the Sword in Weird Tales
More of Robert E. Howard’s Kirby O’Donnell
More Weird Menace from Robert E. Howard – Conrad and Kirowan

Prior Posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2024 Series (11)

Will Murray on Dashiell Hammett’s Elusive Glass Key
Ya Gotta Ask – Reprise
Rex Stout’s “The Mother of Invention”
Dime Detective, August, 1941
John D. MacDonald’s “Ring Around the Readhead”
Harboiled Manila – Raoul Whitfield’s Jo Gar
7 Upcoming A (Black) Gat in the Hand Attractions
Paul Cain’s Fast One (my intro)
Dashiell Hammett – The Girl with the Silver Eyes (my intro)
Richard Demming’s Manville Moon
More Thrilling Adventures from REH

Prior Posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2023 Series (15)

Back Down those Mean Streets in 2023
Will Murray on Hammett Didn’t Write “The Diamond Wager”
Dashiell Hammett – ZigZags of Treachery (my intro)
Ten Pulp Things I Think I Think
Evan Lewis on Cleve Adams
T,T, Flynn’s Mike & Trixie (The ‘Lost Intro’)
John Bullard on REH’s Rough and Ready Clowns of the West – Part I (Breckenridge Elkins)
John Bullard on REH’s Rough and Ready Clowns of the West – Part II
William Patrick Murray on Supernatural Westerns, and Crossing Genres
Erle Stanley Gardner’s ‘Getting Away With Murder (And ‘A Black (Gat)’ turns 100!)
James Reasoner on Robert E. Howard’s Trail Towns of the old West
Frank Schildiner on Solomon Kane
Paul Bishop on The Fists of Robert E. Howard
John Lawrence’s Cass Blue
Dave Hardy on REH’s El Borak

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2022 Series (16)
Asimov – Sci Fi Meets the Police Procedural
The Adventures of Christopher London
Weird Menace from Robert E. Howard
Spicy Adventures from Robert E. Howard
Thrilling Adventures from Robert E. Howard
Norbert Davis’ “The Gin Monkey”
Tracer Bullet
Shovel’s Painful Predicament
Back Porch Pulp #1
Wally Conger on ‘The Hollywood Troubleshooter Saga’
Arsenic and Old Lace
David Dodge
Glen Cook’s Garrett, PI
John Leslie’s Key West Private Eye
Back Porch Pulp #2
Norbert Davis’ Max Latin

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2021 Series (7 )

The Forgotten Black Masker – Norbert Davis
Appaloosa
A (Black) Gat in the Hand is Back!
Black Mask – March, 1932
Three Gun Terry Mack & Carroll John Daly
Bounty Hunters & Bail Bondsmen
Norbert Davis in Black Mask – Volume 1

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2020 Series (21)
Hardboiled May on TCM
Some Hardboiled streaming options
Johnny O’Clock (Dick Powell)
Hardboiled June on TCM
Bullets or Ballots (Humphrey Bogart)
Phililp Marlowe – Private Eye (Powers Boothe)
Cool and Lam
All Through the Night (Bogart)
Dick Powell as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
Hardboiled July on TCM
YTJD – The Emily Braddock Matter (John Lund)
Richard Diamond – The Betty Moran Case (Dick Powell)
Bold Venture (Bogart & Bacall)
Hardboiled August on TCM
Norbert Davis – ‘Have one on the House’
with Steven H Silver: C.M. Kornbluth’s Pulp
Norbert Davis – ‘Don’t You Cry for Me’
Talking About Philip Marlowe
Steven H Silver Asks you to Name This Movie
Cajun Hardboiled – Dave Robicheaux
More Cool & Lam from Hard Case Crime

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2019 Series (15)
Back Deck Pulp Returns
A (Black) Gat in the Hand Returns
Will Murray on Doc Savage
Hugh B. Cave’s Peter Kane
Paul Bishop on Lance Spearman
A Man Called Spade
Hard Boiled Holmes
Duane Spurlock on T.T. Flynn
Andrew Salmon on Montreal Noir
Frank Schildiner on The Bad Guys of Pulp
Steve Scott on John D. MacDonald’s ‘Park Falkner’
William Patrick Murray on The Spider
John D. MacDonald & Mickey Spillane
Norbert Davis goes West(ern)
Bill Crider on The Brass Cupcake

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2018 Series (32)
George Harmon Coxe
Raoul Whitfield
Some Hard Boiled Anthologies
Frederick Nebel’s Donahue
Thomas Walsh
Black Mask – January, 1935
Norbert Davis’ Ben Shaley
D.L. Champion’s Rex Sackler
Dime Detective – August, 1939
Back Deck Pulp #1
W.T. Ballard’s Bill Lennox
Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Phantom Crook (Ed Jenkins)
Day Keene
Black Mask – October, 1933
Back Deck Pulp #2
Black Mask – Spring, 2017
Erle Stanley Gardner’s ‘The Shrieking Skeleton’
Frank Schildiner’s ‘Max Allen Collins & The Hard Boiled Hero’
A (Black) Gat in the Hand: William Campbell Gault
A (Black) Gat in the Hand: More Cool & Lam From Hard Case Crime
MORE Cool & Lam!!!!
Thomas Parker’s ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’
Joe Bonadonna’s ‘Hardboiled Film Noir’ (Part One)
Joe Bonadonna’s ‘Hardboiled Film Noir’ (Part Two)
William Patrick Maynard’s ‘The Yellow Peril’
Andrew P Salmon’s ‘Frederick C. Davis’
Rory Gallagher’s ‘Continental Op’
Back Deck Pulp #3
Back Deck Pulp #4
Back Deck Pulp #5
Joe ‘Cap’ Shaw on Writing
Back Deck Pulp #6
The Black Mask Dinner

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.