Forgotten Books: DEATH BY THE DAY -- Lawrence Fisher

Okay, let's start with the cover. It's a nice cover, but it has nothing at all to do with the book. The femme fatale in the novel is a redhead, as is emphasized again and again. There's another woman, but she has hair the color of wheat. So who's the woman on the cover? Not that it matters, since there are also no rifles or revolvers in the book. Aside from those minor quibbles, it fits perfectly.

Oh, wait. I forgot one thing. The million bucks. There's no million bucks. Nobody even mentions a million bucks. But aside from that, it's a fine cover.

The narrator of the story is Nick Paulson, a tough young punk who's out for all he can get. He and his softie younger brother work at a down-at-the-heels resort hotel. The brother's a hard worker who believes in education and doing the right thing. Nick believes in doing unto others before they do unto him. He's out for himself and for money, and when he gets the chance to join in on a jewel heist, he's all for it. I don't want to spoil the plot for you, but things do not go as planned. Everybody's double-crossing everybody else, and this is one of those books that seems headed for a downbeat ending before the author starts sprinkling fairy dust. The ending seems fake. It fits the novel about like the cover does. Still, if you don't have a Gold Medal book at hand and you want to read something in the GM mold, this one might be okay.

I have no idea who Lawrence Fisher was or what happened to him. I see that someone by that name wrote a couple of crime novels for Random House, but that's about. Truly a forgotten writer, I suppose.

By the way, if you're a dog or cat lover, I recommend that you forget this book. It has a scene or two that will really upset you.