26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another excellent Hard Case offering, September 15, 2004
This review is from: Fade to Blonde (Hard Case Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)
Ray Corson is a wannabe-screenwriter, ex-boxer, and odd job man. Now he's about to get involved in his oddest job yet: protecting ex-porn actress Rebecca LaFontaine from Lance Halliday, pretty-boy mobster, stag film producer, and lye enthusiast.
Max Phillips is the co-founder of the Hard Case Crime imprint, but any publishing house with an eye for the future would have taken on Fade to Blonde. When an author like Phillips -- who usually writes meaningful mainstream fiction like The Artist's Wife and Snakebite Sonnet -- tries his hand at hard-boiled genre fiction, the end result is either going to be a joke or a classic. My wager is on the latter.
Rebecca LaFontaine turns out to be one of the more interesting femmes fatales I've met lately, if only because she's so full of surprises. Just when you think you've got a bead on her, Corson discovers something else about her -- or she confesses it, and this girl just aches to confess things, especially if they're only tangentially related to the truth and will assist in her use of her physical attributes to get her way -- that changes key perceptions about her character. (For another take on this type of sexually manipulative woman in a different setting, and from her own viewpoint, see the abovementioned The Artist's Wife.)
You can tell Phillips is a literary novelist because that little piece of story I described at the beginning is just that: the beginning. In the course of Corson's travels, he comes across more people and gets himself involved in more difficult situations than should be able to fit in these 220-odd pages. What keeps Fade to Blonde from being 500 pages is Phillips' economy with words (I'll skip the Hemingway reference, though, if you don't mind). This keeps the story moving because there are often two or more things going on at once; even when Ray is just sitting on a stool in a restaurant -- or holding one of Rebecca's marketable breasts in his hand -- dialogue (and often money) is being exchanged that moves the plot forward.
Everything eventually comes together, though in a typical "mystery" ending, where Corson discovers the mysterious thread that ties all the information together. In the end, when he goes back to his previous way of life, it's a little disappointing, but you know that he isn't likely to keep minding his own business for long. Fade to Blonde may be a little high-toned for the average pulp aficionado, but those who appreciate it will enjoy Phillips' depth of characterization and especially his ability to stick to the rules of the genre while giving it his own stamp of intellect.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hard Case Crime's First Original, September 9, 2004
This review is from: Fade to Blonde (Hard Case Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)
So, I picked up the first pair of Hard Case Crime novels (this and Block's Grifter's Game), expecting a good read. Let me tell you, brothers and sisters, I more than got it.
This is a fast read, a white knuckle story of gangsters, hoods and a femme fatale who all suck the loner/outsider protagonist into a tough underworld. It is a trip to hell.
One of the main strengths of the novel is its author's voice, who brings something of a modern sensibility to material that could otherwise be dated. Still, the book has a vintage feel to it. The piece works and works well. If you like James Ellroy's Bop Quartet, you'll probably dig this.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
hard boiled neo classic, October 29, 2004
This review is from: Fade to Blonde (Hard Case Crime) (Mass Market Paperback)
When I was a child I used to sneak and read my father's pulp novels. Max Phillips has written a book that can stand in with the best of them. The hero, Ray a would be writer, has had a knock around life. He's a tough guy who doesn't mind doing what needs to be done but only if it squares with his personal code of honor. Rebecca LaFontaine is one of the most interesting heroines I've read about in a very long time. She's got so many sides to her character and all are complicated. The more Ray learns about her, the more he wants to know.
The side characters are all what you'd expect from a 1950s crime novel. There are gangsters, small time hoods, wise cracking girl Fridays, world weary loyal friends and of course, stooges. All of these characters are written beautifully. None of this is cliched or fake. I kept looking at the copyright page to find the orignial publication date and was amazed to find that this is a newly published original novel. THis is an exciting book that never lets up the suspense. You will be shocked by the ending. It's the last think you'd suspect. I had a lot of fun reading Fade to Blonde and I'm going to look for more in this series.
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