Coming back fighting after a dormant period is the mighty Stark House Press – for me, probably the one publishing house where I know whatever book I grab from their crime line won’t disappoint. With THE VENGEANCE MAN / PARK AVENUE TRAMP / THE PRETTIEST GIRL I EVER KILLED: A TRIO OF GOLD MEDALS, they took it upon themselves to issue a low-priced anthology of three classic Gold Medal novels of great talent. Each is introduced with an opening essay about the author – the first two written by Charles Kelly, and the final one by Ed Gorman.

The informative essay about Dan Marlowe tells us that his writing was so authentic, even criminals were fans. Now that’s a compliment, and 1966’s THE VENGEANCE MAN is considered his second-best book, behind THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH. To sum up VENGEANCE in three simple words: career of evil.

Jim Wilson is a contractor who specializes in road work in the burgs of South Carolina. His home life is not pitch-perfect, and he knows this, but just lets it simmer until he can unleash his revenge at the right time. That time, of course, is to catch the wife in the throes of passion with her boyfriend.

Jim is very shrewd in how he deals with situations throughout this story, since his now-dead wife was the daughter of one of the more powerful men in town. So when the trail comes up, Jim worked it out that he will be proven innocent. This is only the first step on his rise to power, using people into what needs be done, whether it’s threatening the wife of a bank president with the mention of a certain home movie Jim has tucked away, or simply sleeping with a lawyer’s secretary to get an in.

But this town is filled with nothing but backstabbers who will use anything to get ahead. Marlowe crams so much into this taut little tale, you’ll feel like you need to gasp for air, since all the characters are so well-defined in such a short amount of time. This is a great way to kick off a collection like this.

Holding the middle slot of this monstrous effort is Fletcher Flora
s aptly tilted 1958 novel PARK AVENUE TRAMP. (I can only imagine the original artwork for that: some painting of a women half-undressed, perhaps?) Kelly’s introductory essay serves as a history of Flora’s writing career, with how his books are the one-sitting type filled not with situations per se, but more about the characters who reside in them.

This story is as if Harold Pinter wrote a screenplay for John Cassavetes. It’s a brutal look at the lives of four people, all of whom have crosses to bear. First, we have Charity, the tramp of the title who lives her life like a never-ending bender, going to party to party with no regard of her actions. She’ll sleep with anything that catches her eye, even though her husband takes actions to stop them.

Hubby Oliver is a rigid, by-the-numbers man who lives his life like clockwork. He puts up with Charity’s indiscretions, then makes sure that these men remember who’s really in charge. Then there is Sweeny, the private eye who works for Oliver. He does the job he is paid for, but lives in a fantasy world. Charity’s current obsession is Joe Doyle, a down-on-his-luck piano player with a bum ticker.

If you’re expecting some giant crime caper or a murder plot, sorry – this is more about how these characters affect each other and the consequences that they will pay. But what truly stands out is how callous one of them really is at the end. This is a terrific introduction to a writer that needs greater exposure in this world of reissues. Hopefully, Stark House will put out more of Flora’s work.

For the final novel, we have 1965’s THE PRETTIEST GIRL I EVER KILLED, considered Charles Runyon’s best. After a very humorous essay by Gorman, who points out that Runyon wrote just so he could pay the bills, we get a Q&A with Runyon’s old editor and what little information Gorman could find about the author.

GIRL brings to mind Jim Thompson’s like-minded THE KILLER INSIDE ME, since both are set in a small town with mysterious deaths. A prologue is told from the killer’s perspective, then switches to many years later when a man returns to his hometown to not only find out who the real killer is, but to also clear his brother who was wrongly accused of the murder.

Curt Friedland is determined in his investigation; like a precursor to COLUMBO, he’s a man who won’t rest until he is proven right. He makes no bones about why he is back in the town and he doesn’t care whose feathers he ruffles, which looks like the whole town. His confidant is Velda, a local woman who relates the story after the prologue, since it was her sister who was killed by being hit over the head and dumped in a well.

Velda feels that the right man was prosecuted and that Curt is on some lost vendetta … until Curt slowly reveals that he has done research into various deaths in town, where it seems more then likely that all of them were not the suicides or accidental deaths they seemed to be. All the while, Runyon plays with the reader like Curt plays with the killer.

To be honest, I thought the killer was a certain party, only to be wrong. Now that is the work of some great bait-and-switch writing. You don’t feel gypped. Toward the end of the story, we get what is called the “Killer’s Interlude,” where it’s made clear who is behind it all and how easily he or she has been getting away with it. It’s a fine way to end a trio of top-notch Gold Medal reissues. –Bruce Grossman

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