Customer Reviews

Shooting Star/Spiderweb (Hard Case Crime)

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It has not been uncommon for writers to toil in the trenches of paperback originals, earning their keep by churning out potboilers quickly. It doesn't seem to happen as much nowadays, but back in the 1950s and 1960s, some big-name authors started out publishing this way: Lawrence Block, John MacDonald and Donald Westlake, for example. Then there was Robert Bloch, who would eventually be known primarily as the author of Psycho. A couple of earlier novels, Shooting Star and Spiderweb have been re-released by Hard Case Crime in a format from yesteryear: the flip book.

On one side is Spiderweb, the tale of Eddie Haines, an Iowa transplant to Hollywood, who has realized his dreams of being an announcer are not going to work out as he had planned. He is rescued from the brink suicide by the Professor, Otto Hermann. Hermann is a scheming con artist who has designs on Haines's soothing voice. Soon, Haines is transformed into sham psychologist Judson Roberts and counseling the rich and famous. As Roberts, he provides openings for Hermann, but Haines also has a conscience. Hermann, however, has got evidence that implicates Haines in a murder, making escape from a life of crime difficult for the fake shrink.

On the other side is Shooting Star, narrated by one-eyed private eye Mark Clayburn who is hired by old acquaintance Harry Bannock. Bannock has bought the rights to the movies of the late Western star Dick Ryan, which could be worth a mint if Ryan's reputation is salvaged. This requires Clayburn solving Ryan's murder and clearing the star of links to marijuana use. Of course, there are those who don't want the murder solved, leaving a trail of new bodies and endangering Clayburn himself. (The use of marijuana in this book has a bit of a "Reefer Madness" paranoia to it, but that's par for the course in this era.)

Neither novel is a classic (explaining why both have been out of print for a long time), but Bloch is a good writer. Obviously, these were churned out quickly for a fast paycheck, but Bloch has the skills to make even this pulpy fiction fun to read. Nowadays, when a short mystery is often 300 pages, these come off as almost novellas, totaling just 314 pages between them; so for the cost of a single (cheap) paperback you can get two short books for the price of one.

The editors at Hard Case Crime, Charles Ardai, has hit the jackpot. Years ago, Ace double novels were the ultimate collectible. Two great novels for the price of one, two great covers for the price of one, and today, if you can find the Lester Dent edition, you have a true treasure.

Dorchester/Harc Dase Crime presents "Shooting Star" and "Spiderweb" by Robert Bloch. Both were originally published by Ace (coincidentally) in 1958 and 1954. These seldom seen books are amazing. Arthur Suydam illustrates the "Shooting Star" cover in his inimitable style.

Bloch had a long career that included movies (Psycho), TV, and a respectable list of fiction. "Shooting Star" and "Spiderweb" are not his best work, but they are a good addition to the Hard Case line. Eddie Haine moves to Hollywood and is engaged by conman Professor Otto Hermann as Judson Roberts to use his soothing voice in therapy. Haines becomes a fakes psychologist and learns some secrets about his mentor that make him question his own life.

"Shooting Star" is the story of Mark Clayburn and his hiring by Harry Bannock. Bannocks' fortune is tied up the film rights to Dick Ryan, a down and out western star. With the murder of Dick Ryan, Clayburn must clear up the allegations of drug use, and in the wake of the investigation. The weakest of the two books, the cover is pure cliche. A one eyed detective, an underwear clad vixen, and one novel to pass an enjoyable evening of reading while listening to old Richard Diamond radio drama.

Look for these at www.hardcasecrime.com . More information on Bloch can be found at http://mgpfeff.home.sprynet.com/bloch.html

Tim Lasiuta
Waiting for the next double book edition.

SPIDERWEB starts out like a Jim Thomsonesque tale of a desperate loser, than shifts to a more conventional blackmail phony psychic tale. Nightmare Alley this isn't, but it's fast fun.

SHOOTING STAR is a pretty standard P.I. book with our one-eye hero hunting a killer in the world of Tinseltown reefer heads with an improbably high body count. This one isn't as interesting as the earlier book, but a little wittier with sharper writing.

A worthwhile twofer.

It's at first a little surprising that Hard Case Crime would reprint a Robert Bloch novel, let alone two, since he is best known for writing the novel that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Psycho. Though Bloch then became known as a horror writer, that book was just one of 20 he wrote throughout his career, covering other genres like science-fiction and, the appropriate one here, crime.

Shooting Star appears in this volume along with Spiderweb, packaged together in a form reminiscent of the old Ace Doubles -- two complete novels printed back-to-back and head-to-tail with a separate cover for each one. You read one novel, then flip the book over to read the other. Each one has its own copyright page and cover art. It's a gimmick, to be sure, but a great one.

This presentation is perfect when you consider that Shooting Star and Spiderweb actually both first appeared as part of the Ace Double line (each runs just over 150 pages). Not together, though: they were published in 1958 and 1954, respectively. (Spiderweb was backed by a David Alexander novel, and Shooting Star was backed with a collection of Bloch's short stories.)

When an old friend asks him to solve an old murder, a one-eyed, down-on-his-luck literary agent becomes a one-eyed, down-on-his-luck private eye. After Mark Clayburn had the accident that lost him an eye (and gained him a patch), no one came to visit him -- not even Harry Bannock, though they were pretty close at the time.

Now Bannock wants a favor: for Clayburn to solve the murder of Dick Ryan (Clayburn has a PI license and gun permit to help with research on true-detective yarns) so Bannock can cash in on a TV deal for Ryan's series of 39 Lucky Larry movies. (Ryan was found with "reefer butts" at the time, and the TV people are wary of closing the deal due to the scandal.) Clayburn only agrees because he could use the money. But the threats begin right away, and the police are less than helpful.

I often enjoy novels set in old Hollywood. In fact, just before beginning Shooting Star, I had just read two others -- What Makes Sammy Run? and Rude Mechanicals -- and I thought my brain was primed for the experience. But, as one might expect, Bloch shows a different side of Hollywood. No bright lights here, expect for the occasional muzzle flash. Clayburn can't trust anyone, not even the people he has to depend on most.

What I didn't expect was conventionality. Though few of them are genuine classics, all the other Bloch novels I've read were nonetheless intriguing in their pursuit of original ideas. But, apart from a couple of interesting details -- namely, the one-eyed protagonist and the antidrug message (with repeated talk of "reefer addicts") -- Shooting Star is like a lot of other private eye novels. Plus, the solution is so predictable that it's practically given away before the book begins.

Even Spiderweb offers a very typical noir-fiction plot: greed gets a guy in over his head with some shady dealings, and he has to find a way out. Eddie Haines had a promising career in Iowa. The star of the senior play, they all said, "You oughta be in pictures." When he got a crackerjack idea for a TV series, he headed for Hollywood. Two months and $300 to an agent later, after not a single bite, Eddie is standing in front of his bathroom mirror with a straight razor in his hand and shaving the farthest thing from his mind when a Peter Lorre lookalike knocks on his door with $100 and the opportunity to become someone else.

The only different between this and any other typical crime novel is Bloch's use of psychology as a theme. Fortunately, that difference goes a long way toward making Spiderweb the more entertaining of the two. My guess is that it was the novel actually selected to be reprinted but that it was too short by itself and Shooting Star was picked to fill out the page count. Either way, I still hope Hard Case Crime produces more dual volumes like this one and the one they published early on, collecting Max Allan Collins's first two novels -- I have to admit I like getting "two for the money."

In a throwback to the old "Ace Doubles," Hard Case Crime has elected to put two shortish Robert Bloch novels into one volume. Bloch was always one of the very best of the 1950s pulpsters, though unlike some, he had a genuine take on Hollywood. Both of the short novels in this volume have a Hollywood theme. "Shooting Star" is perhaps the more conventional of the two: it's a standard murder mystery set in Hollywood, with a not-entirely unpredictable denouement, but Bloch's observations on the film capital along the way remain unsurpassed. "Spiderweb" is the more interesting of the two short books, a tweak on William Lindsay Gresham's "Nightmare Alley" (a work Bloch admired), with a sly allusion to that old mother Hubbard's Dianetics in the mix. This one is a little more bizarre, but infused with just as many pithy lines about the film capital, and some delightfully Blochian characters. These two little-known Bloch novels together in one book make this a genuine bargain.

I love these Hard Case Crime books. They are exactly what I need after an exhausting day at work. Lot of plot, lots of fun, no political correctness. (To be fair, this particular book is from the 50's. But what I say is true of all sven or eight of the titles I've read.)

This was fast-paced fun and a great way to get back up to speed after reading "Zero Cool," the only dud put out by Richard Aleas at Hard Case Crime. What a wonderful idea -bringing back those old two-in-one, upside down cover paperbacks of my youth. Richard Bloch is always a sure thing. Thank you Hard Case Crime for putting me back on track. Do some more of these. This is cool! Too cool! Two-in-one action!