What a delightful too-long-out-of-print gem this is.
A good old-fashioned hardboiled PI thriller with all the
ingredients --- a tough loner private eye (Denver-based Rock Dugan, former
Hollywood stunt man), crooked cops, surly hoods, shootouts and fist fights, and
not just one, but two delectable dames thrown into the mix --- that have kept
this enduring sub genre alive for a century and counting. And on top of all
that there is what amounts to a locked room-type puzzle involving a flying
corpse who manages to land (albeit somewhat roughly) a glider airplane.
Written with the energy of a young writer clearly in love
with the genre and demonstrating the solid skill that would only be honed
sharper and sharper in works over the coming years, this was the first novel by
Stephen Mertz and it's a darn shame that more Rock Dugan mysteries didn't
follow.
An entertaining Afterward by author Mertz, detailing the
shenanigans of the novel's initial publisher, Manor Books, may explain part of
why that didn't happen.
At any rate, SOME DIE HARD is a fine hardboiled read and I
strongly recommend it.
(Oh, by the way --- the delicious-looking babe on the cover
[reminiscent of the McGinnis-type covers on the old paperbacks of the '60s and
'70s] doesn't hurt a darn bit, either.)
2 comments:
Thanks, Wayne. Livia said the McGinnis look was exactly what she was going for with that cover.
Doggone it, James, I should have mentioned that Rough Edges Press was behind the re-release of this book and credited Livia for the terrific cover --- which she does over and over again (create great covers, I mean) for a wide variety of books. Plus she's a fine writer, a carpenter, an inspirational "tractor girl" ... a real Renaissance lady.
I don't know about that character she's married to, though.
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