Customer Reviews

Say It with Bullets (Hard Case Crime)

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

 

 

"At the overnight stop in North Platte, Nebraska, Bill Wayne didn't copy the other tourists in the party when they bought postcards to mail to friends. He was running a little low on friends these days. Once he had classed five guys as friends but they had picked up a habit of doing things behind his back, like shooting at it. The only wish-you-were-here postcard he wanted to send them was a picture of a cemetery." -- from Say It With Bullets

Bill Wayne is on a bus tour of the Old West, but he's not in it for the advertised relaxation. Conveniently, the Treasure Trip makes stops in the five cities where his five Army buddies live. At least, they were his buddies until one of them shot him in the back and left him for dead.

Now he's going from city to city (Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Reno, San Francisco, and Los Angeles) to talk with each of the men (Russ, Ken, Frankie, Cappy, and Domenic) to try and find out who did the shooting. Of course, if the first one doesn't spill, Bill will just have to kill him, and each one in turn until he gets to the bottom of things. A pretty simple plan, really.

It's too bad he didn't take into account pretty blonde tour guide Holly Clark, a girl from his past who is very interested in getting reacquainted. Interested enough to dog his every footstep, and observant enough to eventually put some pieces together.

And if that weren't bad enough, Holly's latest suitor is Cheyenne deputy sheriff Carson Smith, who has taken to following her throughout the tour. How is a man supposed to get anything done in this kind of situation?

Author Richard Powell (A Shot in the Dark and the Andy and Arabella Blake series) is not Dick Powell the actor, but Say It With Bullets would have been an ideal vehicle for the actor in his heyday (see Murder, My Sweet and others). It has a great blend of humor and tension in almost equal amounts (Bill Wayne is a terrific narrator, very self-aware and quick with a quip) that more than makes up for its somewhat predictable conclusion. And the characters all have wonderfully human foibles, including a dash of unexplained jealousy that even the jealous person doesn't quite fathom.

A descriptive taste of each of the cities adds to the experience, and Say It With Bullets is also incredibly fast-paced. In fact, I had intended on it being my current coat-pocket paperback, savoring it intermittently in waiting rooms and in line at the checkout. But Richard Powell's tale, to paraphrase a pop standard, "made me [finish it]. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do it...." (My only quibble has to do with its being the fifth reprint in a row to come from the Hard Case Crime archives. I preferred the previous mix of old and new -- even though they're all new to me.)

Hard Case Crime successfully recreates the excitement of a time when print was the primary source of entertainment. The covers, the design, and the engaging stories, take the reader back to a time when crimes were solved by guts, brains, brawn, and the occasional beauty mixed in just for inspiration. I can't wait until the end of the day to escape into the shadows these writers imagined so well in these stories.

Richard Powells "Say it with Bullets" is not only gripping, and entertaining, but the author has a sense of humor that just doesn't quit. I found myself chuckling and laughing out loud as I made my way through the mystery.

Turn off the television and get comfortable for this one. you won't want to put it down.

Say It With Bullets is one of those books mystery lovers have talked about since it first appeared 50 years ago. Because it has been out of print so long, copies were extremely hard to come by, making this one something of a Holy Grail among mystery fans.

Well, now, courtesy of Hard Case Crime, the book is back in a handsome paperback edition. This is a great story of revenge yet told with many humorous touches. Bill Wayne, the avenger of the story, returns to the States to determine which of his army buddies shot him in the back and left him for dead. On a bus tour through the states, he tracks down each of his friends and has his revenge. The only problem is he has to cover his tracks from a nosey sherrif and the tour guide whom he is falling in love with. The tension builds nicely in this one, there are moments of great humour although the novel is not the comic romp it is touted as being, nor does it intend to be. The return of Bullets has already garnered much attention. In fact, Hollywood has just optioned it as a movie. So, don't miss this one. If you're a mystery fan, this one will scratch you right where you itch.

As noir goes, there's a bit to enjoy about SAY IT WITH BULLETS, Release Number 16 (with a 'bullet' at least in the title) in the largely stellar run of Dorchester Publishing Company's "Hard Case Crime" imprint. There's Bill Wayne, a wronged man left for dead with a bullet to the back who's come back to the post-War states after his fellow servicemen who were guilty of the crime. There's a shifty girl-from-his-past named Holly Clark, a teacher-and-tour-guide who willingly (but unwittingly) becomes his sidekick and probable partner-in-crime-of-vengeance. And there's even a fortune in buried treasure at the bottom of a mountain lake for the first sucker willing to risk all odds to find it.

Outside of that, "Bullets" fails to fire. Hawked by Hard Case editors as their first 'comic' entry in the series, the novel fails to really reach the level of comedy but admirably achieve smartaleckyness early on and never loses touch. Through Wayne's eyes, the world is a place where nothing is quite as it seems when the men he's hunting start dropping off like flies ... but not by his doing (though, in noir stories, he's bound to get blamed for it ... and he does!). With the sole exception of some terrific zaniness in the book's second half (Wayne visits a small-time casino to hide out from all of the local folks chasing him only to find he can't lose at games of chance, bringing only more and more eyes on him), author Richard Powell does steward's work of keeping this tale quick but only slightly dirty.

The book's cover advertises "first publication in 50 years," and, after reading it, one might be able to figure out why. It's good, but it isn't THAT good that it needed resurrecting alongside other tales from the Hard Case logo.

Say it with Bullets by Richard Powell is another great book in the Hard Case Crime series. Hard Case Crime releases the best in hard-boiled crime fiction from the classics to new books by current best-selling authors. Say it with Bullets is one of those that is over fifty years old. Its a classic, clean read, with no bad language, sex or gratuitious violence. If your read a current Hard Case Crime book, you may get all three.

In this book, Bill Wayne is taking a traveling tour across the country. He's just returned from China after getting shot in the back. While in China, Bill and five buddies started a air freight business. When the communists took over, they fled the country. But while trying to flea with one last load of cargo, one of his friends shot him in the back. Bill would have let it go, but just last month, he got shot again. Bill knows one of his "buddies" is behind it, and he aims to find out who.

The cross country tour will take him to all the cities where his friends live, providing the perfect cover. Except, there are problems. Bill just knows someone is following him. Also, the organizer of the bus trip, the young and beautiful Holly Clark, knew Bill as a teenager, and had a crush on him.

This is another good book in the Hard Case Crime series. It is witty and has a unique plot. A fun read.

Admittedly, the premise of "Say It With Bullets" is completely absurd and riddled with the kind of coincidences that would spoil other works begging more serious regard. The hilarity of the first chapter coupled with many tongue-in-cheek nuances peppered throughout is a clear signal that the author understands this, if not by all members of his audience. Bill Wayne, searching for the unknown army buddy who has twice shot and left him for dead, has booked a pre-packaged bus tour of the West that just happens to hit each of the cities his friends have settled in. Bill imagines this as the perfect cover for dodging the man who's after him while making his other pals talk, but he hasn't counted on the unwanted romantic attention of the beautiful tour guide who happens to be from his past. Bill is intent on deadly serious business while his fellow pleasure-seeking tourists are left confounded over his anger and intent to be left alone. Once you've laughed through this premise, the action moves breathlessly forward, delivering a unique blend of traditional noir mixed with humor and a grand finale reminiscent of Hitchcock. Though no one, obviously including the author, really aspires for this material to reach the status of a genre classic, "Say It with Bullets" remains satisfying entertainment and is a joyful rediscovery.

Back in 1949, Bill Wayne ran a cargo business with some of his buddies. As China falls to the "Reds", he asks his friends to load the plane with refugees. Instead, they find a black marketeer and a shipment of "medical supplies". Bill protests and someone shoots him. He's left for dead as the Communists come through.

Now, Bill's back. He's tracked down his so-called friends and he's determined to get the truth out of them by any means necessary. Happily, they're all distributed in the Southwest, so he can visit them all (and keep a low profile) by the simple strategy of joining a tour group.

Despite the book's constant movement, Say It with Bullets truly is a basic cozy. Bill surprises his first friend, only to witness (and be framed for) their murder. The pattern continues and the bodies pile up at regular intervals with a carefully measured portion of red herring meted out in every chapter. Can Bill and his Pretty Blonde Tour Operator sidekick/foil find the real murderer? Who knows Bill is back? Why are they framing him? And, most importantly, will Bill and P.B.T.O. ever kiss?

Despite being at the heart of a mass of slayings, there's never really any danger - Mr. Powell clearly preferring romantic tension to any other kind. The who of the whodunnit is also broadcast from the very beginning as the story follows the essential form of any mystery: pick the least likely suspect and wait for them to start monologuing. Say It with Bullets is also littered with slapstick moments - a straight out of Off-Broadway gambling spree in Reno topping the list. The book's real plot is plain to see: this isn't about Bill getting his revenge, its about Bill getting to the point where he doesn't care. Stop looking for the truth and smootch the girl in front of you. And eventually, banally, Bill does. Next stop, happy ending!

Say It with Bullets is lighter fare. There's something bizarrely counter-intuitive about wanting the protagonist to quit his quest. Not because he's wrong or because the mission is patently self-destructive, but merely because it is an obvious mess and Bill never seems competent enough to handle the disaster he's unleashed. Why exactly the P.B.T.O. falls for him is unclear (Mr. Powell settles on the "I fancied you when I was a little girl" non-motive that's the last refuge of the desperate entanglement), but Bill's clearly batting out of his league. This is by no means an unreadable or unpleasant book, but is a diversion without either the weight or the significance of many others in the Hard Case Crime series.

My initial impression, as relayed here in the Cafe, wasn't overwhelming positive based upon the first two chapters. Although written in the third person, which I appreciate as a rarity in the hardboiled subgenre, the book initially comes off as fairly pedestrian, setting the table with quite a bit of 'telling' rather than 'showing,' and seeming a bit self-conscious about *trying* to be hardboiled. Exhibit A: the first paragraph of Chapter 1...

"At the overnight stop in North Platte, Nebraska, Bill Wayne didn't copy the other tourists in the party when they bought postcards to mail to friends. He was running a little low on friends these days. Once he had classed five guys as friends but they had picked up a habit of doing things behind his back, like shooting at it. The only wish-you-were-here postcard he wanted to send them was a picture of a cemetery."

Okay; fair enough. Sets the tone and the overall feel of the book---and once I got Powell's rhythm, I'll admit I was happy to tag long with Bill Wayne as he fends off the attentions of a tour guide who had a crush on him when he was a high school football player and uses a packaged bus tour of the western states to hunt down four double-dealing former service buddies---one of whom presumably shot him and left him for dead in China in 1949...it's a nicely linear narrative with some nice tension in spots, but regrettably I had the actual perp nailed by the end of the first act. I hoped I was wrong, that Powell had folded my own expectations back against me...but no. Too bad.

Still, it knows what it's about, and aspires to nothing else, so I have to admire purity of intent. And the action is good. It's a marginal recommend from me, for hardcore fans of the genre who don't want to think too hard.

With friends like Bill Wayne's former army pals, enemies were an unnecessary distraction. Wayne's time in uniform ended with him being shot in the back by one of his so-called friends.

Now back in the U.S., Wayne wants answers. Playing tourist, he signs up on a bus trip that visits each of his former cohorts' home towns, and, to keep him company, he's taking along his trusty .45 automatic . . .

Richard Powell's 1953 story would probably have to be radically overhauled if it were to be set in the modern day. You couldn't really imagine a hero making his way through various action-packed scenarios via a bus in this day and age (Keanu Reeves excepted, perhaps). However, this is one road trip that you want to be on.

As you would expect from top-of-the-range pulp stories, there's colorful prose and snappy dialogue coursing through the pages. Bill Wayne's laconic patter when confronting his former friends is particularly pleasing. He uses a similar technique on the pesky Deputy Sheriff Carson Smith, a man who may put the mockers on Wayne's venture. Blonde bombshell, Holly Clark, the tour's hostess, is also taking a shine to the deputy, Much to Wayne's displeasure.

Hard Case Crime has published some real gems and `Say It With Bullets' is one of the best that I've read so far. I'd also recommend Gil Brewer's superb anti-hero tale, The Vengeful Virgin.

Say it With Bullets is a welcome addition to the Hard Case Crime library. This has, arguably, one of the best opening paragraphs to a book that I have ever read. It sets the tone for a book that ultimately is about reverenge, dames and has a great sense-of-humor about it. Richard Powell, who also authored "A Shot in the Dark" will hopefully be yet another name resurfaced to mystery fans via HCC.

Run - don't walk - to your local bookstore and pick up this latest installment. You won't be disappointed.