Finished 10-25-09, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 1934

“I’m not what you think I am, Frank.  I want to work and be something, that’s all.  But you can’t do it without love.  Do you know that, Frank?  Anyway, a woman can’t.  Well, I’ve made one mistake.  And I’ve got to be a hell cat, just once, to fix it.  But I’m not really a hell cat, Frank.”

“They hang you for that.”

“Not if you do it right.  You’re smart, Frank.  I never fooled you for a minute.  You’ll think of a way.”

Chapter 3

Frank is not the first man to fall for the damsel in distress and do things that he never would have though of on his own and he probably won’t be the last.  Frank is a drifter, catching rides when he can, and picking up jobs until he moves on and Cora is married to the Greek, Nick, who owns a roadside diner and auto shop.  It doesn’t take long for the sparks to fly and a plan of murder to be hatched.  When things go wrong the lies and double crosses make it hard to know how this short novel will end.

This is noir (“crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters and bleak sleazy settings“) at it’s best.  Cynical and bleak mark the setting, plot, and dialogue.  I loved that the dialogue showcased the feeling of the character rather that just putting words in their mouth to move the story along.  I had to read between the lines to figure out what was going on much of the time and I loved that.

That being said, I’m not sure that noir is something I can ever quite love.  I appreciate the fact that it was well done, but it is a little too dark for me.  I have the movie on my DVR and I’ll have see if that gives a different view of the book.

This was from my personal library.