Dork Art: Darwyn Cooke's Fatale Variant!

I don't usually go for the scam of variant covers, but Darwyn Cooke's cover for Fatale #15 might see me break down for the extra price tag.  Dipping into its hard boiled roots, Cooke delivers an image straight from a Hard Case Crime paperback - that is to say, something not perfectly reminiscent of the era but pretty darn close.  Bravo, sir.

--Brad

Book Review: Double-D Double Cross

“I needed a cold shower.  Or a hot woman.”

    If you’ve read my reviews, you know one of my favorite active writers out there is Christa Faust.  I don’t remember when I stumbled across her blog, but I know it was quite a while back, ’cause I remember when she announced her first Hard Case Crime book (check out Money Shot!).  I was hooked wicked fast (still living in Maine at the time), and started grabbing everything I could.  Though I never did find that Snakes on a Plane novelization.  I gotta get on that.  Anyway, a couple years ago (I think it’s been that long), she put out hard boiled lesbian detective e-book. It meant little to me at the time, as I’m a lover of the printed page and had no ability or interest in the whole digital book business.  Buuuut, eventually, the e-book craze did capture my attention when I borrowed a friend’s Nook and was able to get a bunch of classic science fiction you just can’t find in print (at least, not at prices I’m ever going to be able to pay).  An then, I was able to get Faust’s crazy alternate world crime novel Hoodtown, which I’d been searching for in print for a dog’s age.  Anyway, fast forward a spell and I now possess a Nook myself, and my first book had to be something from Faust.  The first e-book adventure of Butch Fatale I got when I supported her Kickstarter project for book two.  That’s right.  I’m a patron of the arts.

    Again, if you’ve read much I’ve written, and certainly if you’ve ever met me, you know I’m a pretty square guy.  I once said of myself (and I think it’s still true) that if they ever ran out of vanilla extract, they could just use Matt extract and nobody would notice.  But I know it’s a big world out there, and while I don’t always understand it, I know there are a lot of different ways of living, and as long as everyone is legal and consenting, it’s all jake with me.  I don’t seek out LGBT material, because frankly, I just don’t care.  So, this marks my first excursion into the world of lesbian fiction, if there is such a thing.  That kind of implies that there might be lesbian earth science, or lesbian SAT guides.  Anyway, I mean, it’s fiction and it features a lesbian lead.  And a hefty amount of graphic, sweaty sex with no dudes present.  Does explicit sex push it into the realm of erotica?  I wouldn’t think so, but I don’t know how such things work.  Whatever the case, it also features all the gut-punching, ball busting, eye gouging violence and pulp flavored toughness fans of Faust should expect.  For me, Christa Faust is like reading Christopher Hitchens.  I’m not so much worried what she’s writing about, I just like the way she writes.

    I can never remember which author (was it Chandler?) had that great line about writers block.  Something like, ‘if you’re not sure what to write, have a hand come through the door with a gun and start shooting.’  It feels like Faust may have taken that idea and made it her First Commandment.  The book is not long.  Less than 200 pages.  And it moves at an extremely fast pace.  Part of the reason is that well before a scene begins to lull or a conversation starts to run long, something awful and violent happens.  Gun shots, saps, scary dudes with nice watches...Kevin.  Well, Kevin was pretty cool, actually, in that Mark Wahlberg/mentally challenged puppy kind of way.  It hurls at you like a speeding train.  There are a lot of twists and turns and action sequences packed into a small page count.  And though sometimes quite grim and bloody, the whole thing has a lighter, more wry tone than say, Choke Hold, which nearly put me in a depression (so good, but so relentlessly brutal).  The final beach chase of Double-D Double Cross would probably have me doubled up with laughter if it were a movie, which couldn’t be said for any part of Choke Hold (I’d need a shower, steel wool, and a healthy bosom to burry my face in and cry if I saw a movie version of that).  If you’ve enjoyed Faust’s other work, you should find plenty here to love.  And I’m looking forward to Butch Fatale’s next outing.

Double-D Double Cross: A Butch Fatale Caper
Author: Christa Faust
Format: e-book

-Matt

Kevin?

Christa Faust's New Book

Several years ago, I stumbled across author Christa Faust somewhere out there in the internet.  I think it might have been on MySpace or some such.  Anyway, I enjoyed the heck out of her blog posts, be they about her dog, or writing, or various fetish related stuff.  Now, I know my way around fetishes about as well as I do a car engine (ask my bicycle about that), but she always manages to make subjects, even those I don't know or care about, enjoyable to read.  And not long after, I was glad to see that she would be the first woman published on the Hard Case Crime label.  Normally I only purchased their reprints of older hard boiled stuff, but I couldn't resist Faust.  Thank goodness, as I enjoyed the heck out of Money Shot.

I've since enjoyed several of her other novels and stories.  Hoodtown was a great deal of fun, and a must for anyone with an e-reader.  However, since I returned the Nook I read it on to co-Dork Brad, I haven't had a chance to read her new e-book, Butch Fatale (hope to remedy that soon), but I trust it'll be a good read.  That brings me to her recently announced followup on Kickstarter (see details here).  I'm kind of fascinated by this whole Kickstarter thing which I first discovered through the Womanthology comic anthology.

I'm giving serious thought to doing the 50 dollar pledge.  I love the idea of getting an 'Ace Double' style copy of the two novels.  No, I'm not against e-books.  Not at all.  But I am a book person.  I like the actual physical thing.  I like the way it feels, the way it smells, the way it looks on a shelf.  And I guess as a 'struggling' 'author,' I see a certain potential in something like Kickstarter for my own work.  So for those looking to support authors in a more direct way, give it a go.  And if you haven't read Ms. Faust's stuff, do yourself a favor.  Get on it.

-Matt

Dork Art: Hard Case Crime

Yowza!  When Hard Case Crime fled Dorchester Publishing I was worried that their brilliant pulp revival would come to an end.  Well, today at Barnes & Noble I purchased their new Trade Paperback edition (looks like they're not doing straight-to-mass markets anymore) of Donald Westlake's Somebody Owes Me Money.  When I got home I jumped over to their website to look at the rest of their publishing schedule.  That's where I discovered the amazing art seen above.  Again, Yowza!  They've had some nice saucy covers in the past, but that one absolutely takes the cake.  When am I gonna get some Hard Case Crime posters?

--Brad