The mighty Stark House Press has done it again with LOOK BEHIND YOU, LADY / THE VENETIAN BLONDE, two novels by A.S. Fleischman. This time out, we are treated to probably the most cinematic of writing styles. While reading these stories – one in the Far East, the other in Venice, Calif. – I could swear I was hearing a film projector running faintly in the background.
The bonuses in this twofer are right up front, with a essay by Steve Lewis – mainly about the first novel in this collection – and the second being an introduction by Fleischman himself, who explains that he is more known for his children’s books than his time with Gold Medal.
Sometimes, the hero in this type of book – like 1952′s LOOK BEHIND YOU, LADY – might be too stupid for his own good. Bruce Flemish, a second-rate magician working the Asian circuit, waits for his next show to start when a lovely American woman named Donna Van Deerlin makes his acquaintance.
If Bruce were smart, he would get up from the table and leave. But since this is noir, you know the storm is about to hit like a typhoon. Bruce is even warned to stay away from her. So while prepping for his night show, the casino owner pops in and asks Bruce to plant some money on a false British customer. For his trouble, he’ll get a nice little packet of dough.
Again, Bruce just follows along like a big dope. (Don’t these people read books?) Of course, all of this ties together, with an opium ring and Communists being thrown into the mix. The story is breezy, offering plenty of twists and double-crosses. You won’t be disappointed by the outcomes or who is really playing who. It’s yet another winner in the long line of reissue greatness from Stark House.
And in 1963′s THE VENETIAN BLONDE, Skelly – a card cheat on the run from some gamblers – ends up on the West Coast looking for an old partner to grab some quick cash that is owed to him. Instead, he meets his old partner’s current wife Maggie.
She tells Skelly that her hubby is off in Mexico and won’t be back. But she has her own scheme brewing and needs Skelly’s help, and she won’t take no for an answer. Throw in another girl by the name of Victoria – a beatnik wannabe who has eyes for Skelly herself – and what’s a man to do?
Well, if you’re Skelly, you figure you grab some quick cash and see where it will take you. It seems that Maggie has a long con worked out to swindle an old lady out of millions, by pulling some phony psychic bit where they resurrect a dead nephew. But that’s when the other shoe drops in this little novel…
For a book I was planning on just reading a few chapters before bed, VENETIAN excels; I read the whole thing in one sitting. Again, Fleischman writes as if you can see the action so clear, as if it were on the big screen. I’ve got to hand it to Stark House for bringing to the forefront books I never would have grabbed for myself. So for those keeping score, Stark House is batting 1,000, with no end in sight. –Bruce Grossman
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- Stalking the Puzzle Lady
- Wild to Possess / A Taste for Sin
- My Lovely Executioner / Agreement to Kill
- The Deadly Dames / A Dum-Dum for the President
- The Cleanup
