ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

Hardboiled Crime Fiction

Book Reviews

  • Hardboiled Coffee Childhood

    “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

  • Hardboiled Coffee Boss

    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

  • FRIDAY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: David Gordon on Mysteries

    “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

  • Hardboiled Coffee Customer

    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

  • Hardboiled Coffee Thoughts

    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

  • Hardboiled Coffee Visitors

    Jo-Anne had started pouring the coffee when the doorbell rang. After four in the morning, it would be either the milkman or cops. I was not betting on Louis Pasteur’s boy. We all deserted the kitchen for the front door. “Police Medical Examiner,” the stocky man with rimless glasses and a doctor’s satchel told us. Read more

  • HARDBOILED COFFEE DETECTIVE

    There they were, everyone with a coffee cup, lined up at the urn. Because I took my time with the smoke I had to join the end of the line, and it was a good thing I did. It gave me time enough to get the pitch. Everybody had been watching me covertly anyway, saying Read more

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “The Killers” by John D. MacDonald

    “I recently discovered John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series. Every time I finish one of those slender books, I tell myself it’s time to take a break and return to the pile on the night stand but then find myself deep into another McGee novel. Before there were Lee Child and Carl Hiaasen, there was MacDonald — as Read more

  • Hardboiled Coffee & Cigarette

    It wasn’t completely light when I woke up again, but the foggy, half-light that sometimes lingers along the coast in August. I got up and put some coffee water on and got under the shower. Pain leaped through my stomach and my head felt like a coconut that had fallen from a tall tree. I Read more

  • Hard-Boiled Coffee Beans

    “There was a pot of coffee perking in the kitchen. Real coffee. The aroma reminded me of a little store I used to know in Newark as a kid, where fresh coffee beans always spilled out of a grinder into the window. It was the only street in my neighborhood that didn’t stink.” (cf. Vorzimmer, Read more