Really nasty nihilistic noir. Turns out Marlowe brought back the anti-hero later and built a series of spy novels around him but for now he's a determined sociopath and possibly the better for it. ( )

Dan Marlowe packs more action and intensity into the first five or six pages of this novel than most writers pack into a lifetime of work. It is the story of a bank robbery gone bad. But, what a robbery! "Two guys with guts and go-to-hell-with-you-Jack regard for consequences have about three chances in ten of pulling off a well-planned smash-and- grab. If one of them can shoot like me and the other one is Bunny, the odds are a damn sight better." Bunny is six foot four or more. They walk in and slam a solid chunk of Smith and Wesson into the guard's neck. A few well placed shots later and a huge canvas bag of dough walks out with them and all the bank's employees and customers are in shock.

The principals are forced to split up. The narrator (Drake/ Roy Martin) who goes by several aliases is wounded and sends his giant friend ahead to Florida with instructions to send him $1000 at a time general delivery. But when the money stops coming and it appears that Bunny got into some kind of trouble, then what follows a cross-country adventure, seductive women, untrustworthy allies, and the like. This short novel is one of Marlowe's best and it is full-tilt pulpy writing through and through.
Though, in some ways similar in feel and temperament to Westlake's Parker character, the narrator here is rougher, more prone to violence, less worried about leaving a trail of bodies, and more determined to avenge any wrong.

The narrator, at some points, offers some background as to his upbringing and his cold, ruthless soul. Especially of note is how he deals with the fat kid at school who wronged him and how he deals with the police force in his small town.

This character created by Marlowe is nasty and hardboiled. This is a book filled with pure fun for the hardboiled enthusiast. Marlowe eventually continues on with the Drake character through a number of other novels. ( )

Dan Marlowe packs more action and intensity into the first five or six pages of this novel than most writers pack into a lifetime of work. It is the story of a bank robbery gone bad. But, what a robbery! "Two guys with guts and go-to-hell-with-you-Jack regard for consequences have about three chances in ten of pulling off a well-planned smash-and-grab. If one of them can shoot like me and the other one is Bunny, the odds are a damn sight better." Bunny is six foot four or more. They walk in and slam a solid chunk of Smith and Wesson into the guard's neck. A few well placed shots later and a huge canvas bag of dough walks out with them and all the bank's employees and customers are in shock.

The principals are forced to split up. The narrator (Drake/ Roy Martin) who goes by several aliases is wounded and sends his giant friend ahead to Florida with instructions to send him $1000 at a time general delivery. But when the money stops coming and it appears that Bunny got into some kind of trouble, then what follows a cross-country adventure, seductive women, untrustworthy allies, and the like. This short novel is one of Marlowe's best and it is full-tilt pulpy writing through and through.

Though, in some ways similar in feel and temperament to Westlake's Parker character, the narrator here is rougher, more prone to violence, less worried about leaving a trail of bodies, and more determined to avenge any wrong.

The narrator, at some points, offers some background as to his upbringing and his cold, ruthless soul. Especially of note is how he deals with the fat kid at school who wronged him and how he deals with the police force in his small town.

This character created by Marlowe is nasty and hardboiled. This is a book filled with pure fun for the hardboiled enthusiast. Marlowe eventually continues on with the Drake character through a number of other novels. ( )

I’m more of what you’d call a casual fan of the noir genre. Sure I love Chandler, respect Hammett and pick up a MacDonald now and again, but I don’t follow the type and it doesn’t make up a lot of my reading. I can’t remember when I first heard about Dan Marlowe; it might have been as a result of a mention by Stephen King on his first Hard Case Crime offering. That must have generated a flurry of interest into who this unknown writer was to deserve such an accolade. King called him the “hardest of the hardboiled” and it is not misplaced.

What is our fascination with criminals? Psychopaths, sociopaths, devious thieves, liars, cheats, murderers...all’s jake with us if they do these things from a good place. Righteous revenge for example. If someone goes on a bloody rampage, leaving bodies in his wake like piles of twisted rack on a beach, and it’s in the name of righting a wrong, why is that something we can get behind? Why the hell did I root for Chet Arnold (aka Roy Martin, aka Drake) all during this book? Why could I not wait to see how those who deserved it got what was coming to them? Why could I overlook a brutal and sadistic rape (which wouldn’t have happened to the male party of this particular duo)? Why indeed. I don’t know if I want to probe my own psyche that deeply to find out.

Marlowe plunges us right into the set up on page 1 and he never lets up. In a few paragraphs the bank job is in the rear view and Bunny and Roy get their heads down. Not a long time goes by and Roy gets evidence that Bunny is no longer in the picture. Through shrewd planning, luck and a ruthless disposition, he sets himself on a path of revenge. Properly outfitted his road trip goes smoothly and he even turns the bumps in the road to good use and soon arrives where Bunny was holed up. As a nominal tree surgeon, he garners good will in the small town and soon has friends and contacts enough to suss who killed Bunny. With the pair in his sights, he stalks them like any predator would and his revenge is anything but served cold.

Interspersed with the present day action are flashbacks to Drake’s past. With these flashbacks Marlowe builds sympathy and even empathy for his anti-hero. True to the “show a cat in act 1 and it must die in act 3” meme, we’ve got Drake’s number now. His eventual descent into a rage-driven psychopath seems right and proper. The subsequent flashbacks about how he tried to straighten up and fly right only to become the subject of police brutality and abuse, make his plight even more sympathetic. What else could a poor boy do except turn master criminal? Only to be expected.

Even in present day, Drake is a man with two distinct sides. He’ll casually plot your death and execute you with cold precision, free of detection or guilt and the next minute he’ll be rescuing a dog from certain death or making love with abandon and skill. Marlowe made him so likable that I was able to overcome one of my triggers in fiction that usually makes me stop reading (I definitely stop watching a movie with a rape in it). Because the book is told in the first person, it’s obvious that Drake lives to tell his tale, but the ending is quick, mysterious, precarious and open. A sequel didn’t appear for another 7 years, but Drake comes back and drives hard for another dozen books or so. Goody. ( )

Another winner from Marlowe, who wrote this hard boiled stuff as well as anyone ever has. Some very memorable scenes, and a great ending. ( )