This week’s column easily could have been subtitled “Guaranteed Good Reads: Take Two,” because I’m treating myself – and you –  to three authors who don’t stink. With this installment, I’m covering two books I’ve been meaning to get to for a while, plus a familiar face of one of our favorite criminals. Yeah, these are the bad guys, and the worlds in which they live.

KILLTOWN by Richard Stark – My favorite anti-hero criminal is back on another job. Where does Parker find these people? Oh, that’s explained early on in the 1964 book. But where does Donald E. Westlake – er, I mean, Stark – come up with these stories? This is the fifth in the Parker series, and a great one.

Parker has been asked to join a group of “friends” in Jersey City to discuss a project in which he might want to take part. But right away, Parker feels like it’s already gone to shit, with him killing a guy who’s been tailing him since he got into town. Once he gets to the meeting, he is none too pleased to find out the brains behind the operation is a total novice by the name of Edgars, who thinks he needs 25 men to pull off this massive job.

Again, the no-nonsense Parker is getting frustrated by this runaround. That is, until he finds out the score. It’s not just some rinky-dink bank vault; Edgars has a plan to rob a whole town for personal reasons. At one point, Stark makes it clear who Edgars might be once the robbery goes down, but there are more surprises to come.

The story crackles with that pitch-perfect writing you find in the other Parker novels. I just wish my copy didn’t fall apart literally as I turned its pages. I still get mad at myself that I never picked up those Stark reissues from a few years ago that are out-of-print. Hey, Stark House or Hard Case Crime: reprints?

LITTLE BOY BLUE by Edward Bunker – Resembling most of Bunker’s early life history, this 1981 book follows 11-year-old Alex Hammond – highly impressionable and too smart for his own good – on his way to a life of crime. Alex is a total hothead who can handle any authority figure. It becomes obvious that his life is doomed from the start, with him going from juvenile hall to being involved in a robbery, where the youth shoots a man.

From there, he is sent to a state mental hospital, where is taken under the wing of two older cons who teach him how to play cards and box. He figures he can come and go as he pleases on the grounds with no one noticing, and meets up with another young inmate who teaches him how to hot-wire cars. As Alex gets older, he just gets himself into more trouble, escaping another juvenile hall with a pal, JoJo. They hide out at his Jojo’s home, where he becomes infatuated with the older sister and her boyfriend, Wedo, a grifter-in-training.

The book follows Alex throughout his troubled youth with no sugar-coating at all. You feel as though a good amount of these stories are from Bunker’s personal history, which makes even a more fascinating read. This is the real deal when it comes to crime fiction and the real criminal life. Bunker tells such a gripping story of a brutal and wasted life, you won’t be able to put it down.

And let’s not forget some of Bunker’s other work, particularly NO BEAST SO FIERCE, which could be considered a quasi-sequel. Plus, it was made into a great Dustin Hoffman film called STRAIGHT TIME – see it!

RUM PUNCH by Elmore Leonard – I’m going to take a wild guess and say most people have probably seen Quentin Tarantino’s JACKIE BROWN, which was based on this top-notch Leonard read from 1992. So most people know the basics of the plot, that of a stewardess picked up for bringing money over the border, which leads her to bail bondsman Max Cherry; two old criminal buddies, Ordell and Louis; and of course, one loudmouthed blonde named Melanie.

But I’m going to cover some of the differences from the book to screen, some of which I knew before I even saw the movie. First of all, in the novel, the woman is named Jackie Burke, she’s white, and the setting is Florida. Still, you can’t help reading the book without imagining Pam Grier.

For some of the little changes that surprised me: Louis actually worked for Max Cherry at the start of the book, and still has issues with Ordell from their previous job together – that would be THE SWITCH, which is discussed here, giving away some key plot points. So if you still have not read either, start with that one.

Then there is a subplot of the white supremacists – again, a bit of a tie to THE SWITCH. The character of Beaumont was actually a Jamaican immigrant. Then there is the whole plot of Ordell’s gun business that we hear about in the film, but never really see; in the book, it’s made quite clear how he operates.

But what really surprised me is how much of the actual dialogue from the book is in the film. I’m not talking a sentence here and there, but long passages of dialogue word for word, which just shows how great of a writer Leonard is.

So if you’re a fan of the movie and have been hesitant to read the book since you felt like you’ve seen it all, trust me on this one. Sure, JACKIE BROWN got a lot of it right, but it also left enough out that you won’t feel cheated by devoting your time. Now off to rewatch the movie again.

Next time: Apocalypse then. –Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS:
• ASK THE PARROT by Richard Stark
• LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark
• THE MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE by Richard Stark
• POINT BLANK by Richard Stark
• THE SOUR LEMON SCORE by Richard Stark
• THE SWITCH by Elmore Leonard
• 361 by Donald E. Westlake
• WHAT’S SO FUNNY? by Donald E. Westlake