Customer Reviews

Blackmailer (Hard Case Crime)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In the middle of an ordinary day, something extraordinary happens to publisher Dick Sherman: a beautiful woman mysteriously offers to sell him the last manuscript of the late Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Anstruther (a thinly veiled Ernest Hemingway). Mere moments later, an unknown literary agent offers to sell him the very same manuscript. That afternoon, he sees his old flame accompanying the literary agent to lunch.

Many questions are posed in the opening to George Axelrod's Blackmailer: Why do both people have access to the same book? Why are they offering it to Sherman, whose company's best-selling book is a collection of modified crossword puzzles? How is his old girlfriend connected to it? And why do people keep beating him up over it?

George Axelrod was best known for his screenplay work, specifically his work adapting other writers' novels into two indisputable classics: The Manchurian Candidate and Breakfast at Tiffany's. The latter led to an Academy Award nomination, which you'll understand if you've both seen the film and read the novel. Axelrod also wrote the play (his first) that he later adapted with Billy Wilder into The Seven-Year Itch (which led to work on Marilyn Monroe's next film, Bus Stop).

Surprisingly, the character who suffers (if you can call it that) from the title "itch" is none other than publisher Dick Sherman (If you're lost, read the first sentence of this review again.), which makes this book a kind of sequel to one of cinema's most famous films (certainly the source of one of its most iconic images). Combine that with the sensational opening and the author's pedigree, and Blackmailer begs to be read by fans of the stage, screen, and both mainstream and genre fiction. It's a can't-miss proposition -- so here's another question: Why hasn't this book been reprinted since it was first published?

I don't know the answer to that, but I imagine that it is, at least in part, because Blackmailer doesn't really take off until the second half. The first hundred pages are filled with the aforementioned questions (among others) and exposition that could have easily been set up in less space. Luckily, Axelrod's voice and style make Dick Sherman an engaging fellow who I didn't mind following along.

As the novel wraps up, answering all the questions and then some, and revelation after revelation take place, the proceedings border on the unbelievable, but Axelrod keeps things well in hand and even serves up emotional depth along the way. Though Blackmailer has its ups and downs, the whole experience was generally positive, and I feel it fits securely into the Hard Case Crime canon.

Blackmailer overflows with colorful characters and a suspenseful plot with a well done twist at the end. The protagonist is a publisher in a down and out New York shop who is offered the chance to publish a sure fire best seller which would catapult his firm into the top ranks.

Twice. And that's just in the first few chapters.

After that, we get the usual goons, gams, and gunsels so popular in 1950's noir. However, there is a lot more here than just a clever plot. The author understands the publishing business and wiretapping quite well, and the reader will learn a bit about both in several well-turned passages.

The plot moves quickly enough to keep us from not questioning it too much. The profusion of unusual characters keeps the book interesting all the way through. And just when we think we know what's going on, we get another twist.

This is not great literature, but it is a fine way to while away a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Hapless publisher Dick Sherman stumbles into a story straight out of Hollywood noir. He gets beaten up, knocked out and pushed around and manipulated, but he doggedly tries to get to the bottom of the labyrinthine case of the missing last masterpiece of a Nobel Prize writer.

Axelrod's story moves with a fast pace and is peppered with all the wisecracks you could hope for in this type of novel. My only complaint was that too much of the story was verbal exposition, which is not what screenwriters should be doing - they should be showing, not telling. Still, plenty of good moments, a couple of rather unpleasant characters and the likeable Dick playing at private dick. The cover by Glen Orbik is a classic too.

Definitely an old-fashioned pulp thriller from the noir era, and that's a good thing. Immerse yourself in the atmosphere, not 1 but 2 beautiful deadly dames, a valuable last manuscript from a deceased Hemingway-esque blowhard author, thugs and goons, and a well-meaning but outgunned 'everyman' hero. No HEA here but what did you expect?

George Axelrod wrote the screenplays for Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Manchurian Candidate. Here he takes on the classic noir story of a New York publisher who is offered the manuscript of the century--the last novel of a Hemingway-like novelist. But complications soon arise--there may be more than one manuscript, a shady agent becomes involved, and a beautiful woman reenters the publisher's life. There are a lot of twists and turns in this story, some more believable than others, but it unfolds along the pulp fiction line and wraps up nicely in the end. In sum, another winner from Hard Case Crime.

Author George Axlerod gives Nostradamos a real run for his money in this short, fast paced example of pulp fiction at its unabashed pulpiest. The plot to Blackmailer revolves around locating an unpublished manuscript by a Hemingwayesque writer, recently deceased ostensibly because of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. As it so happens, the real Ernest Hemingway died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head....only that tragedy took place 9 years after Blackmailer was first published. Creepy.

Dick Sherman, partner in a second rate New York publishing house, serves as first person narrator and protagonist. The cast of characters includes a beautiful blond who turns out to be a member of the oldest profession and I don't mean farming. A two bit gangster now passing himself off as a literary agent. A rich patron of the arts with ambiguous sexual proclivities. And Janis Whitney, a former girlfriend of Sherman who is now a famous screen star raking in $60,000 per picture.

There's plenty of hardboiled action and witty dialogue as Dick Sherman goes about the business of finding and authenticating the aforementioned manuscript. (While simultaneously trying to rekindle his romance with Miss Whitney, who coincidentally has a vested interest in the same manuscript.)

Blackmailer is fast paced, clever and sufficiently hardboiled to satisfy fans of the Hard Case Crime series. A quick, effortless read, worthy of of a 4 star rating.

"This is the Jungle. You have to fight and lie and cheat to get to where I am. You have to knife your friends and go to bed with your enemies." This fantastic quote from femme fatale Janis Whitney (p.188) typifies and sums up the language and the theme of the hard-boiled expose of the entertainment industry in 1952. While this thriller is dated, it is also prototypical noir, just what Hard Case Crime fans expect. The characters are stereotypes but nonetheless intriguing. I found the narrator, Dick Sherman, reminiscent of The Great Gatsby's Nick, high praise for an author known for his Academy Award nominated screenplays.

This novel is not my favorite in this series but highly recommended for any fan of this genre.

Anyone who is going to embrace this story as classic pulp fiction is deluded. Sure, it has the drinking, the broads, the fights, and the big city setting, but there is not enough in the tale or any of the characters to make the book matter. I have collected the Hard Case Crime series and am reading through them. THere are a lot of hits, but I'm telling you that when the miss there is no middle ground: they miss by a mile.
The only interesting thing was seeing characterizations of Truman Capote and the legacy of Hemingway.
Forget this one. Pass it by.

Classic, while the scenes may seem dated today, George Axelrod creates a thriller that ranks with the best of the noir genre. A valuable manuscript,beautiful women, and a hapless hero thrust into violence combine into a great read.

Wonderful series of books some old some new but all tremendous.
up to book 50 so far in the series every one a winner