Willeford, Charles Books

Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America) (Vol 2)

Robert Polito, Patricia Highsmith, charles Willeford, David Goodis, Chester Himes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The best American crime novels deserve their place in the pantheon of American literature, but they hold special interest for cinema enthusiasts, who can both compare them to the movies they became and can roll imaginary films of the stories in their minds. Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s is the second of Library of America's two-volume anthology of underground U.S. fiction. The first anthology featured works from the 1930s and '40s that had been made into classic films noir. This volume focuses on fiction written after the crime genre had acquired conventions that younger writers toyed with and sometimes broke. The movies made from such stories were equally radical.

Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is the source for René Clément's bristling Purple Noon, a movie that features Alain Delon's quintessential performance. David Goodis's Down There inspired François Truffaut's neo-noir masterpiece Shoot the Piano Player. Jim Thompson, the brilliant author who scripted The Killing and Paths of Glory for Stanley Kubrick, wrote several novels that have been turned into movies, including The Grifters and The Getaway. He is represented here by one of his most uncompromising works, The Killer Inside Me, which was filmed by Burt Kennedy in 1976. Charles Willeford's Pick-Up and Chester Himes's The Real Cool Killers have not yet been made into movies, but the blistering prose and nihilistic worlds of these authors, and of all the writers represented in this volume, is astonishingly cinematic. This lovely hardcover edition contains biographical, textual, and explanatory notes.

Sideswipe: A Hoke Moseley Detective Thriller

Charles Willeford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Sideswipe 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Loved it. I really enjoy Willeford's writing and the feel of seedy Florida in his books

Decadent Delight 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Overwhelmed by an abundance of cold cases, Miami homicide detective Hoke Moseley retreats into a fugue state, abandons his pregnant partner and housemate Ellita Sanchez and his two daughters to seek a simpler life managing his father's apartment complex in Riviera Beach.

Meanwhile, Stanley Sinkiewicz, an elderly Ford Motor retiree who spends a night in jail on a false charge which prompts his wife to leave him, makes the acquaintance of Troy Louden, a cold-blooded killer who adds a new dimension to his life.

Stanley does a favor for Louden, which results in his release from jail. The two then embark on an odyssey which can only lead to disaster.

Hoke soon finds the simple life is easier to envision than to envelop. Coping with a job offer from the local police, a string of local burglaries and a daughter with an eating disorder puts him back on the path home.

But--before he gets there--Louden, Sinkiewicz, a grotesquely disfigured stripper and an artist with questionable talent launch a crime spree that comes full-circle into his sphere for a surprising climax.

Like others in the series, Sideswipe is packed with action and wry off-beat humor. Elmore Leonard says no one writes a better crime novel. Who am I to argue with that?

Editorial Review:

Hoke Moseley has had enough. Tired of struggling against alimony payments, two teenage daughters, a very pregnant, very single partner, and a low paying job as a Miami homicide detective, Hoke moves to Singer Island and vows never step foot on the mainland again. But on the street, career criminal Troy Louden is hatching plans of his own with a gang including a disfigured hooker, a talentless artist, and a clueless retiree. But when his simple robbery results in ruthless and indiscriminate bloodshed, Hoke quickly remembers why he is a cop and hurls himself back into the world he meant to leave behind forever.

A masterly tale of both mid-life crisis and murder, Sideswipe is a page-turning thriller packed with laughs, loaded with suspense, and featuring one of the truly original detectives of all time.

Miami Blues

Charles Willeford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A great opening book to the best series I have yet come across 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Hey, is Willeford the man or what? I have spent the last few years devouring mystery/thriller/procedural books and had not come across Hoke Moseley until recently. I can't tell you how refreshing and cool it is to come across perhaps the greatest writer of this genre purely accidentally. Why isn't Willeford celebrated as the great author he is astounds me. Instead of millions reading James Patterson novels, it should be Willeford receiving the accolades. I just wish he were still around writing more books.

Miami Blues is a heck of a good novel; it's the first in the Hoke Moseley series and probably the worst, though it is still five stars all the way. If you have seen the entertaining movie Miami Blues with Baldwin, don't feel like this movie will compromise the reading experience, because it won't. Willeford's genius as an author comes forth here in the way that he plots the story line. Utterly original. His characters weave in and out of situations and conversations with a grace of a quick prizefighter. At one moment you are reading the very best of Bukowski and the next you are in an existential conversation mode ala McBain in his prime years. The opening gambit of a plot will resolve itself in the end, but the story here is about so much more, it's the journey along the way that brings the extra oomph.

I would not hesitate for a moment, buy this book, read the others in the series. You won't find a better mystery writer out there. Willeford is a god of prose and story telling.

Editorial Review:

After a brutal day investigating a quadruple homicide, Detective Hoke Moseley settles into his room at the un-illustrious El Dorado Hotel and nurses a glass of brandy. With his guard down, he doesn’t think twice when he hears a knock on the door. The next day, he finds himself in the hospital, badly bruised and with his jaw wired shut. He thinks back over ten years of cases wondering who would want to beat him into unconsciousness, steal his gun and badge, and most importantly, make off with his prized dentures. But the pieces never quite add up to revenge, and the few clues he has keep connecting to a dimwitted hooker, and her ex-con boyfriend and the bizarre murder of a Hare Krishna pimp.

Chronically depressed, constantly strapped for money, always willing to bend the rules a bit, Hoke Moseley is hardly what you think of as the perfect cop, but he is one of the the greatest detective creations of all time.

The Way We Die Now

Charles Willeford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

When Miami Homicide Detective Hoke Moseley receives an unexplained order to let his beard grow, he doesn't think much about it. He has too much going on at home, especially with a man he helped convict ten years before moving in across the street. Hoke immediately assumes the worst, and considering he has his former partner, who happens to be nursing a newborn, and his two teenage daughters living with him, he doesn't like the situation on bit. It doesn't help matters when he is suddenly assigned to work undercover, miles away, outside of his jurisdiction and without his badge, his gun, or his teeth. Soon, he is impersonating a drifter and tring to infiltrate a farm operation suspected of murdering migrant workers. But when he gets there for his job interview, the last thing he is offered is work.

In this final installment of the highly acclaimed Hoke Moseley novels, Charles Willeford's brilliance and expertise show on every page. Equally funny, thrilling, and disturbing, The Way We Die Now is a triumphant finish to one of the most original detective series of all time.

Wild Wives

Charles Willeford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Willeford was one of the best at Noir 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Originally entitled Until I Am Dead and published in 1956, Wild Wives' only blemish is its ending. I'm not saying that the ending is terrible, or even bad, but it did strike me as lazy. That being said, I can't find anything else wrong with this book and everything right. Willeford brings to the table a sophistication and class that most noir books are lacking. His knowledge of art, clothing and style strongly tempers his unforgiving toughness. I think Willeford was only rivaled in noir by Jim Thompson, but I must confess that Willeford's stories are tighter, more concise. This edition of Wild Wives weighs in at a light 102 pages. It's a fast, exciting read and Willeford packs a full, well-rounded story into what few pages he has given us here. This isn't as good as Pick Up, which was published in 1954, but not many crime books are. This book, as with most of Willeford's work, is very plausible. It's a quality that allows you to fall right into his stories. Jake Blake & Florence Weintraub are great characters. Despite their many quirks and abnormalities, Willeford manages to keep them consistant through the whole yarn. I highly recommend this one, Pick Up and Willeford's memoir- I Was Looking For A Street.

Editorial Review:

Jake Blake is a private detective short on cash when he meets a rich and beautiful young woman looking to escape her father’s smothering influence. Unfortunately for Jake, the smothering influence includes two thugs hired to protect her—and the woman is in fact not the daughter of the man she wants to escape, but his wife. Now Jake has two angry thugs and one jealous husband on his case. As Jake becomes more deeply involved with this glamorous and possibly crazy woman, he becomes entangled in a web of deceit, intrigue—and multiple murders. Brilliant, sardonic, and full of surprises, Wild Wives is one wild ride.

Burnt Orange Heresy

Charles Willeford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Unusual Mystery/Thriller 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

James Figueras is a talented and ambitious Miami art critic who has been slowly working his way toward the top of his field. He's always on the lookout for opportunities for advancement, although he likes to consider himself a basically honest professional. One night at an art gallery opening, he gets a shocking proposal from a mysterious lawyer, Joseph Cassidy. Cassidy has managed to gain the acquaintance of a legendary French painter, Jacques Debierue, who is so reclusive that his work hasn't been seen in decades. Interviewing Debierue would be a major, career-defining coup for Figueras, and he's prepared to do anything to get the information from Cassidy. However, when he hears Cassidy's proposal, Figueras has his doubts....

Many of Charles Williford's novels have gone out of print, which is unfortunate as his writing stands with the best noir writers. The Burnt Orange Heresy is a mean read, with shocks and twists galore. Some of the plot seems a bit far-fetched, but Williford writes so skillfully that the book withstands this flaw beautifully. Williford also has a real eye for detail and takes great advantage of the Miami and Florida settings. Overall, I highly recommended this novel, especially for fans of noir writers (e.g., Chandler, Jim Thompson).

Editorial Review:

A new paperback edition of the neo-noir novel book critics have called Willeford's best. Fast-talking, backstabbing, womanizing art critic Jacques Figueras will do anything - blackmail, burglary, fencing, assassination - to further his career. Crossing the art world with the underworld, Willeford expands his noir palette to include hues of sunny Florida and weird tints of Surrealism when Figueras takes a job for an art collector who doesn't care how his art is collected, even if it involves murder.

New Hope for the Dead

Charles Willeford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Miami homicide detective Hoke Moseley is called to a posh Miami neighborhood to investigate a lethal overdose. There he meets the alluring stepmother of the decedant, and begins to wonder about dating a witness. Meanwile, he has been threatened with suspension by his ambitious new chief unless he leaves his beloved, if squalid, suite at the El Dorado Hotel, and moves downtown. With free housing hard to come by, Hoke is desperate to find a new place to live. His difficulties are only amplified by an assignment to re-investigate fifty unsolved murders, the unexpected arrival of his two teenage daughters, and a partner struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. With few options and even fewer dollars, he decides that the suspicious and beautiful stepmother of the dead junkie might be a compromised solution to all of his problems.

Packed with atmosphere and humor, New Hope for the Dead is a classic murder mystery by one of the true masters of the genre. Now back in print, Charles Willeford’s tour de force is an irresistible invitation to become acquainted with one of the greatest detective characters of all time.

Wild Wives and High Priest of California (Wild Wives and High Priest of California (Pure Pulped Classix, No. 1)

Charles Willeford

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Editorial Review:

Two titles together in one book- Wild Wives and High Priest of California! A seedy glimpse into 50s San Francisco by an unsung master of the lowdown, Charles Willeford. Used car salesmen, two-bit detectives, and psychotic dames clash against one another in the city by the Bay. Pure Pulped CLASSIX is a garishly named effort on the part of Resurrectionary Press to provide works of pulp fiction in cleanly designed and properly typset editions.

The Machine in Ward Eleven

Charles Willeford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Six stories of madness 4 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Originally published in the early '60s, The Machine in Ward 11 is a collection of six short stories by Charles Ray Willeford. Though the six stories all stand independent from each other, a theme of madness and disillusionment runs through them. A brilliant film director goes insane when his artistic vision is curtailed by the demands of reality. A cocky air force pilot commits a senseless murder and finds himself assigned to the mountains of Tibet as an indirect consequence. A recovering alcoholic discovers that giving up drinking is possibly the worst thing he's ever done. These stories are filled with a wry sense of the macabre. Of these stories, three were previously published and three were written (I assume) specifically for this book. The three original stories -- A Letter to A.A., "Just Like On Television," and Jake's Journal are the strongest in the collection. I was especially enthralled by Jake's Journal (which deals with the unfortunate pilot in Tibet) which is a story that defies any easy interpretation. While at first, it seems that the story will be a rather standard tale of a man going insane in isolation, Willeford instead piles on more and more bizarre anecdotes and incidents before building up to a brilliant, tour-de-force ending.

Willeford, best known for writing Miaimi Blues, is often dismissed as an occasionally interesting but otherwise unremarkable writer of pulp fiction. This dismissal manages to unfairly underrate both Willeford's talent and pulp fiction itself. While the melodrama was often sordid and over-the-top, pulp fiction -- especially in the years immediately following World War II -- often served to give voice to a darkened and, at times quite critical view of the American Dream then one might find in more "respectable" books. Often that is why, while most of the previous decades' best sellers have since faded into obscurity, the works of Mickey Spillane, Chester Himes, Jim Thompson, Richard Stark, and others have continued to be reissued and read. At the heart of the best pulp fiction was a universal fear of the future and an ongoing debate between human desires and human society. These are concepts that remain universal to readers spanning both time and location. These are also the concepts that Willeford deals with in The Machine In Ward Eleven.

The Woman Chaser

Charles Willeford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

a fascinating yet nasty piece of literature.. 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I have read several novels by Charles Willeford. His latter works from the 1980s, such as Miami Blues, are a blend of crime/humour with a south Florida setting ... stuff that I like. His earlier works from the 1960s/1970s, such as Cockfighter, are rather broodingly serious pieces ... stuff that I don't like. The Woman Chaser is a very early piece from Willeford, written in 1960. To my surprise it is by a wide margin the best of Willeford I've read.

Firstly, The Woman Chaser is not about chasing women. The story is actually about a rather cruel, warped used car salesman who wants to break into films. He abuses everyone to achieve his goal. While this might sound like a trite story Willeford structures it very cleverly, and it is written in the style of Jim Thompson ... in the first person with brutal language. Fortunately the book is not too depressing, and at times there is some humour.

Bottom line: a terrific little book by Willeford. A must read.

Editorial Review:

Richard Hudson, woman chaser and used car salesman, possesses a pimp's understanding of the ways in which women (and men) are most vulnerable. One day Richard decides to make an ambitious film, which turns into a fiasco. Enraged, he exacts revenge on all who have crossed him. "No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford." -- Elmore Leonard