Sorry not to have been here almost for all of the Fall. Been too stressful, with everything flying in air at the same time - and I literally mean it. (Umm, no, not the things flying in the air part... That hasn't happened. Yet. We'll keep our fingers crossed.)



The paperback line was delayed, but Duane's and Al's books are coming out in March and April. Kevin Wignall's Who Is Conrad Hirst? (which is one of the best thrillers I've ever read) should follow in June. Then come James… Continue

Again, sorry for the absence. I've been swamped with work for two months and haven't really had the time to do any side stuff.



I'm editing the Finnish translation (my own) of Duane Swierczynski's The Wheelman. The translation will be out in October and will start a new paperback line I'll be editing - handpicking the best of the new hardboiled and noir. Al Guthrie's Kiss Her Goodbye will be the next novel in the series. Arrangements have been made for another three… Continue

I posted more stuff on Nordic private eyes, this time with the help of Anders Engwall, who's the premiere hardboiled aficionado in Sweden. Here's his lengthy comment:

http://pulpetti.blogspot.com/2008/04/swedens-private-eye-novels.html

Check out my long blog post at Pulpetti:

http://pulpetti.blogspot.com/2008/04/jorma-napolas-one-off-private-eye-novel_13.html

After having finished editing my porn book and writing another one (both, sadly (?), non-fiction), I've been reading Bill Granger's Schism from 1981. It's one of his Devereaux spy novels. I'm not big on spy novels, but I find myself liking this very much. It's about a Vatican spy that worked as a missionary in Vietnam and Laos in the fifties, disappeared and gets back around 1980. CIA, Vatican and other people are of course interested in him and Devereaux is hired to find out what the man… Continue

Sorry for the absence. Just haven't really had time to read anything crimeish lately - been focusing on porn and erotica for a book (or actually two; I have an anthology of vintage Finnish porn writing coming out).



I'm translating one of the most important debuts in American crime writing in Finnish, though. I'll be posting about this soon in every venue I can think of, but now it's still very much hush-hush.



As for films, I watched Plunder of the Sun by John Farrow from a… Continue

A private eye series Kevin Burton Smith doesn't know about? Really? Check it out at my blog:

http://pulpetti.blogspot.com

I posted this list to the Rara-Avis e-mail list earlier today and thought I should repost it here:

The strongest novel I read during the last year was Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND from 1954 that was translated in Finnish for the first time. It's hardboiled and it's noir and I really think everyone on this list should read it, even though it's also science fiction and horror. Forget the films.



Other noirish and hardboiledish novels I enjoyed during…

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There's only one magazine in Finland that concentrates on crime fiction, Ruumiin kulttuuri / Body Culture. I contribute to the mag quite regularly and have for example interviewed people like Michael Connelly, Vicki Hendricks and Jason Starr and written articles on David Goodis, Hank Janson, the female noir fiction of the fourties and fifties (Margaret Millar, Dorothy Hughes, etc.) and James Hadley Chase. I've always tried to avoid a fanboy attitude and concentrated on the content of these…

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Just posted the latest issue of Isku to the printers. It's a small press crime fiction magazine that I edit and publish (and also do the layouts for). You can see the cover by Henri Joela in my photos. It's an illo for the story by Timo Surkka, who's one of the last real pulp writers working in Finland, having penned dozens of Jerry Cottons and other stuff for various magazines. It's a nasty revenge story. In translation I have Ed Lynskey, David Terrenoire and Barry Ergang. Other writers are…

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Finished late last night Al Guthrie's Hard Man. Man oh man. Pretty rough stuff. Recommended if you can take it. I can see why some people have been so critical about this (and how it's all connected to the neo-noir discussion), though. Is there some sociological truth hidden in there? Or even questions?

My reading's been pretty vicious as of late. First Marquis de Sade, then Al Guthrie. I've also been reading collections of readers' letters from old porn magazines. They can be…

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Finished couple nights back the ultimate crime novel: Justine, by Marquis de Sade. From every social misdeed imaginable to every sexual misdeed imanigable. Someone could use the novel's plot and rewrite it in a modern setting. Now, that would be noir.

I'm currently reading Richard Matheson vampire/zombie classic I Am Legend from 1954. It's just recently been translated in Finnish - for the first time! I'm enjoying the book immensely and am wondering what kind of a shock it must've been to readers of 1954. It came out as a paperback from Gold Medal and people must've picked it up more from a habit than from really knowing what it's about. No wonder it's been so influential - there's lots of stuff that George Romero picked up from this (and I… Continue

I'm not too eager to seek out new crime thrillers and blockbuster movies, but as I was tired last night I decided to watch Hostage from the Finnish tube. Based on Robert Crais's novel, the movie is fast-moving and gripping, but the finale was way too much for me. Too conscious of the fireworks, if you know what I mean. The bad guy was also too bad - he became one-dimensional in the end (especially when he moved like Alien in the tunnel system of the house!). Bruce Willis was also a bit…

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There's some wild discussion about what's noir over on Rara-Avis e-mail list. My definitions for everything are always too loose, but this is noir: H.A. DeRosso's western paperback from 1953, .44. Check my blog post here:

http://pulpetti.blogspot.com/2007/10/1000th-post-ha-derosso.html

Two more books finished: Laura Lippman's Charm City (pretty much okay, but from the two Lippmans I've read, The Sugar House was the better one) and H.A. DeRosso's gritty noir western .44 from 1953. Highly recommended, even though there was some clumsiness in the rhythm and choice of words from time to time. Also very much like a crime novel and not a typical western with cattle drives and injuns.

Finished reading Arthur Maling's From Thunder Bay. Check it out if you can and have time. Not a masterpiece and actually it seems like a mainstream novel with a crime in it, but it was still enjoyable. I started Laura Lippman's Charm City after that. Have to start working again and stop reading no-job-related crime.

Vampire as a private eye? Yeah, right. It works, though, in Charlie Huston's Already Dead which I completed last Friday. It's a bit too long and there's not enough plot for me, but Huston's style is quite good and moody at times and he also shows being capable of Ross Macdonaldish moments that seem quite essential when we talk about private eye fiction.

Just now reading Arthur Maling's From Thunder Bay (1981). Anyone? It seems pretty good, a bit Dortmunderish, but not as funny. Lots…

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Add into my likings: Ross Macdonald, one of the biggest heroes. And Stephen Greenlead whom I recently rediscovered.