Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The Crimes of Jordan Wise -- Bill Pronzini


There's no doubt in my mind that if Bill Pronzini had been writing in the 1950s, he'd have been writing for Gold Medal Books. Check out his recent standalone novels for Walker and see. A case in point is the most recent, The Crimes of Jordan Wise.

The book's narrator is an ordinary guy, with an ordinary job. Then he meets a woman who wants an extraordinary guy, and he's changed. He commits the perfect crime, embezzling more than half a million bucks. He and the woman move to the Virgin Islands where they live happily ever after.

Except, of course, they don't. That's not the way things go in the world of noir. One crime leads to another, and in this case to another. Three perfect crimes that lead the narrator to the dead end where he spends the rest of his life.

Prime stuff. Check it out.

3 comments:

Cap'n Bob said...

Walker? I thought they got out of the fiction business long ago.

mybillcrider said...

They still publish Pronzini and Sallis.

Anonymous said...

Two fine choices, if you are only barely going to keep a hand in.