FFB: Cut Me In -- Ed McBain

Back in the middle '50s, Evan Hunter hit the Big Time with The Blackboard Jungle.  By that time he'd written a lot of stories and other novels under various names.  In his introduction to Learning to Kill, a collection of his early short stories, Hunter mentions Cut Me In, an "as-yet-unpurchased novel" that his agent submitted to Pocket Books.  Pocket didn't buy the novel, but it eventually sold to Abelard-Schuman and was reprinted by Pryamid books.  The pen name Hunt Collins was used in both cases.  And that was the end of it.

Until now.  Hard Case Crime has brought back Cut Me In after it's languished in obscurity for nearly 60 years.  Hard Case will be releasing the novel under the Ed McBain byline, which is more marketable than Hunt Collins, I suppose.  And it also allows them to use the "McBain is a master" blurb from Newsweek.

The book's narrator is Josh Blake, a literary agent.  Right there, I'm hooked.  I'm ready for some inside scoop on literary agencies in New York in the '50s, since Collins/McBain/Hunter would know plenty.  I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more of that kind of thing in the book, but what is included is both amusing and interesting.  

The book is a mystery novel, though, so publishing info wasn't the main reason for its existence.  Sometimes, when the info does come, it feels almost as if it's being shoehorned in.  Blake's partner in the literary agency is murdered, and while the cops are perfectly capable of solving the crime, Blake gets involved, not necessarily because he wants to but because of the McGuffin in the case, a copy of a contract with a writer.

Cut Me In is a long way from an Evan Hunter novel of the middle '50s.  It's more like a paperback original by Richard Marsten, with beautiful women seducing or trying to seduce Blake every time he meets them.  Lots of fisticuffs, too.  Even some shooting.  I think most readers will be way ahead of both the cops and Blake as far as the mystery goes, but I still had a lot of fun reading the book.  It's fast and smooth, and it's even funny in parts.  When I read about the book in Learning to Kill, I immediately went on the Internet to search for copies.  I found some, too, but they were priced at a lot more than I was willing to pay.  I'm glad Hard Case has reprinted it so I can read it at last.

But wait.  There's more.  Also included in this edition of Cut Me In is "Now Die in It," a long-lost novelette about alcoholic p.i. Matt Cordell.  You can't go wrong, so order your copy now.