PULP ORIGINALS
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Read biographical note on Day Keene
Let us now praise Gunnar Hjerstedt, or Day Keene as he’s known to those of us who like nothing better than to settle down with a paperback original from the great days of the 1950s. Keene, who also wrote for the pulps and for radio, as well as publishing a hardcover novel now and then, was one of the solid professionals of that era. Much like his friend and fellow Floridian Harry Whittington, Keene’s books appeared from a wide variety of publishers: Gold Medal, Phantom Books, Original Novels, Ace, Graphic, Berkley, Pyramid, Avon, Zenith, McFadden, Lion, and Dell among them. Those books don’t turn up with any frequency these days, not even on Internet auction sites, and when you do see them, they often command premium prices. But you can download two of them right here on Pulp Originals for a mere three bucks each.
One of the offerings here is Who Has Wilma Lathrop?, originally published by Gold Medal Books in 1955. In this one, Jim Lathrop, a teacher who knows very little about the woman he’s recently married, is confronted by two men who give him $5000, tell him the money’s for his wife, Wilma, and then proceed to beat him up. When Lathrop gets home, his wife, who happens to be cooking their dinner in filmy negligee, pretends ignorance and distracts Jim in the bedroom. Then she disappears. Lathrop, of course, tries to find her, and in the course of his search he discovers not only that his wife is not who he thought she was but that hardly anything he encounters is what it appears to be. (I’ll leave it to some future doctoral candidate to discuss the fact that Lathrop loses his glasses in the fight with the two men, just before he starts to see everything differently.) Before the end, Lathrop has absorbed (and administered) more beatings, been accused of murder, and found out a number of surprising things about his wife, her family, and her past. Neither Jim nor Wilma will ever be the same.
Sleep with the Devil (originally published by Lion Books in 1954) is a very different sort of story from Who Has Wilma Lathrop? The main character, Les Ferron, is a self-admitted heel, and as he defines it, "The heel [is] the lowest thing in the human nervous system and, consequently, ha[s] no conscience." There is nothing at all to admire about Ferron. We learn in the first sentence that he’s planning to commit murder, and we learn a little later that "the so-called false appetites of life [are] as much a part of his life as breathing." He works as an enforcer for a loan shark, and if he kills someone in the course of his job, it bothers him not at all. He’s also a model for sleazy photographs in true detective magazines and a bit player on radio. (As Keene worked in radio, and it’s too bad he did nothing in the novel about this part of Ferron’s life.) We watch Ferron as he goes about setting up the murder, using (and lying to) everyone he meets. We’re sure he’s not going to get away with it, but everything’s planned perfectly. What could go wrong? The answer, as anyone who’s read this kind of book before knows, is "plenty." But telling any more would spoil a dandy crime novel in which irony piles on irony until the devastating conclusion.
If you’ve never read Day Keene before, either of these books would be a good place to begin. And if you’re already familiar with Keene’s work but haven’t read either or both of these, well, you’ve probably already begun the download. It’s about time.
READ CHAPTER OF SLEEP WITH THE DEVIL
READ CHAPTER OF WHO HAS WILMA LATHROP?
READ BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON DAY KEENE
Link to: Crimeculture Noir Originals
