It’s mid-May, and I’ve been in something of a hardboiled mood lately. So with Summer looming, here’s a Black (Gat) in the Hand. More Pulp is coming, like a gumshoe with a gasper and a rod.

I am fortunate to be part of a star-studded roster of writers who provide intros to Pulp reprints from Steeger Books. More and more classic, and forgotten, Pulp is continually being brought back to print – and electronically as well. I just finished my tenth intro, and that will roll out with number eleven, later this year.

Below you can find links to all nine of the intros that have been printed so far. Plus a bonus one that didn’t quite make it. If you like what I had to say, you might be interested in checking out the books themselves. You’ll likely recognize at least a couple of the names below. But I cannot praise the Max Latin stories by Norbert Davis, enough. I have the audiobook, and that’s my bedtime listening multiple times a week, all year long. Love those stories.

FAST ONE (Paul Cain)

Lead Party has all of Paul Cain’s short stories, as well as his lone novel, Fast One. Mine is one of five essays in this deluxe hardback. And I got to write about Fast One!

Raymond Chandler referred to it as “some kind of high point in the hardboiled manner.” I think this is a nearly flawless book, and it rivals The Maltese Falcon as my favorite Hardboiled novel. If you haven’t read it, you’re missing out on one of the best works in the genre.

Cain had somewhat of a mysterious life, and he wrote screenplays under the name Peter Rurik. While his legal name was George Sims. He died living quietly, his past largely buried.

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