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So Wicked My Love

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Within the framework of the suspense thriller, Bruno Fischer wrote about human relationships. In his 1954 book, So Wicked My Love, he gives us crimnals, chase scenes, shoot outs, and one of the more interesting and tragic figures in noir fiction --- Cherry Drew. But along with the high drama, there is a subtext that, to me, is more intersting than the actual plot, where Fischer examines sympathy and empathy and guilt and manipulation, and how it can drive people to desperate acts.

Ray has just been dumped by his fiance Florence when he runs into Cherry, a girl he knew back home in his youth. She catches him on the rebound and he is vulneable to her charm and the idea of escaping NY for a long weekend together. What Ray soon learns is she wants to escape from her partners in crime who have just held up an armored car for big bucks. And Cherry has the money.

There are some great scenes and dialogue, typical of the roman noir of the 1950's. Consider this scene where Ray and Cherry are surprised in her motel room by one of her holdup partners:

All of a sudden I was more angy than anything else.
Shorty glanced into the closet. He grunted. "Two bags. Guess it's in the bigger one." He waved the gun at me. "Punk, lug both them bags out and open 'em. I want to make sure."
He stepped aside to let me get by. Most of that small room was taken up by the furniture, so he couldn't put more than a couple of feet between us. I'd fought in Korea agianst a lot tougher killers than Shorty and had learned a few tricks. My left forearm slammed down on his gun wrist and with the same motion my torso twisted and my right fist smashed into his face.
I might be a punk, but when I hit the hard guys they felt it.
He would have gone all the way down if a corner of the dresser hadn't stopped him. He bounded off it and tottered toward the bed. The gun was still in his hand, but he wasn't doing anything with it. I couldn't be sure I'd paralyzed the nerve. With both hands I grabbed the wrist, and he uttered a gushing sigh and topple against me.
And behind him was Cherry and someting was flashing in her hand.
She leaned forward toward him, and over his shoulder our eyes met. There was a fever in hers. She pulled back, drawing out the knife, and he kept sinking. Then he pitched forward. His head struck the bed and he flopped over on his side.
Cherry slumped against the dresser and stared at the red wetness on the blade of the long, slender knife in her hand. She had stabbed him twice.
I looked up at Cherry. She was wiping the blade on a handful of face tissues.
The most shocking thing of all was her calmness.

The story spans a year, with Cherry in and out of Ray's life, each time more desperate for his help. Usually it is lust and sex that drives the protagonist in these hardboiled novels to do the will of the femme fatale. But here, Ray feels a responsibility for Cherry, one he doesn't totally understand, one that he fights, but can't quite win out against. So time and time again he comes to her aid, risking his life, motivated by guilt and a moral sense of responsibility. And this is what sets So Wicked My Love apart from so many other noir stories from the 50's. When we first meet Cherry she comes across as someone truly on the make, manipulative and someone looking out for herself. Her backstory shows us the reason for her behavioir. Fischer also presents Cherry as somone truly desperate for help in each dire situation, and there is a sense that she has a deep desire to have a normal life that has been out of her reach. She wants to be cared for and loved, but senses she can never have it. Ray appears to be the first person in her life who is not out to use her for selfish gain, and she clings to this bit of hope about herself. Yet she manipulates Ray, time and again, so we are always off balance as to her true desires and motivation. Here's an example:

"Ray, please! I'll promise to be good. Only let me stay. I'll cook and clean house for you and won't bother you. Just let me stay these few days. That's all I ask you to do for me."
"It's never all you ask. There's always more."
"Honest, I promise ---"
"You're getting off my back, and this time you're staying off."
"Then the hell with you!"
"Fine," I said. "The hell with both of us."
I put down the cup and went to shave and dress.
As I was getting into a shirt, she appeared in the bedroom doorway. Smoke curled over her small-featured face from the cigarette dangling on her lower lip.
"I know why you want to get rid of me," she said. "You're scared to spend another night in the same apartment with me."
"Uh-huh. I don't care for being slashed with knives and having bottles thrown at me."
"Don't give me that. You're worreid you can't keep yourself from crawling into my bed."

Cherry is trying to escape not only the past, but herself. But, she seems doomed. Does she eventually escape? Read So Wicked My Love and find out. It's a great read.

So Wicked My Love by Bruno Fischer is a great noir thriller with that special touch of sleaze one would expect from the author of House of Flesh, Fresh Fiancees For The Devil's Daughter (under his Russell Gray pseudonym), etc. So Wicked is a slam-bang rollercoaster ride that rockets the reader into one crazy twist after another right up until the end. This is easily better (and just as, if not sleazier) than House Of Flesh (see my review). Cherry, the femme fatale, is a first-class sexpot man-destroyer but is allowed to elicit a bit of sympathy due to her tragic backstory. This novel ranks as one of my all-time favorite noir stories, up there with Solomon's Vineyard and Black Wings Has My Angel (see my reviews).