Hardboiled Crime Fiction
Book Reviews
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I placed the gun down on the table, went to the stove and poured myself a cup of coffee, returned to the table and sat down. My eyes remained fixed on the gun because there was something I had to remember about it. I’m not a gun fancier; I’ve had too much experience with them. Read more
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“Like a touch of bourbon—or some coffee?” “Coffee, please.” So we had what I had asked for, and chewed things around a while. Since he knew something about Fay’s background, I didn’t object when he started in—but some of it hurt. Her father had been a shack-town drunk and bootlegger and a few other things. Read more
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Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on May 25, 2016 Summer has returned to the North Country with days of green and growing trees and grass. Mornings are filled with the songs of birds. At night, we go to sleep to a Read more
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He looked over at the light burning in the Coffee Shop and knew it would soon open for business. That gave him the idea. “What time does it open?” he asked. “At seven,” she said, following his glance. “What time is the coffee ready?” “About a quarter of.” She sighed. “Which means it’s almost time Read more
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“A crime disturbs the status quo; we readers get to enjoy the transgressive thrill, then observe approvingly as the detective, agent of social order, sets things right at the end. We finish our coca and tuck ourselves in, safe and sound….But what this theory fails to take into account is the next book, the next Read more
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I woke the next morning, Friday, with about two hours’ total sleep during the preceding night. My stomach was jerky, and I nicked myself while shaving. I had a cup of coffee for breakfast. I walked around the block twice, waiting for the hardware store to open. Inside, I had the bank deposit prepared in Read more
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I got up and went to the coffee maker and poured myself half a cup. Steam rose off the dark surface, and I watched the wisps twist and dissipate before I turned back to Missy. “You’re right,” I said. “It took me a few extra years to figure that one out.” “ Why? I thought Read more
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I put the phone to bed and turned into the bathroom for a shower and a shave. I cooked water for coffee and drank it scaldingly black until things settled down between my ears. I put on a new suit and a sincere tie, and went downstairs. I slipped into a restaurant around the corner Read more
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He roamed around the apartment after breakfast. He hadn’t eaten heavily because he was afraid it wouldn’t stay down. He drank a small glass of orange juice and a cup of hot coffee. He washed the glass, the cup, and the saucer, and then began waiting for Babs to return. (cf. McBain, Ed. So Nude, Read more
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Saturday noon he was moved in. He ate lunch out of his newly stocked double-door refrigerator, enjoying the manufacture of a jelly omelet and coffee black as his Homburg. (cf. Cox, William R.Make My Coffin Strong: A William R. Cox Hardboiled Mystery. Read more
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