crime and spy fiction from Poe up to 1950

Charles Williams' novel Nothing in Her Way (1953) deals with a whole series of fascinating confidence tricks. 

Intricate and skilful plotting, ingenious confidence tricks, characters with some depth, taut suspense, an ambiguous hero and a femme fatale - what more could you want? Highly recommended.

Here's my review.

William O’Farrell’s Repeat Performance was published in 1942. Failed actor Barney Page gets to relive the previous year, so that he can avoid messing up this time. A bit of an oddity but it's a decent noir-tinged romantic melodrama. 

Here's my review.

William Fuller's 1954 novel Back Country is backwoods noir. A drifter gets mixed up with a shady political operator in a Florida hick town. The setup is promising but it's much too preachy and for me it just doesn't work.

Here's my review.

Lionel White's Clean Break

Lionel White's 1955 noir novel Clean Break was made into the superb 1956 Stanley Kubrick caper movie The Killing. The narrative innovations for which the film was praised are all in the book. Plenty of noirness here.

Here's my review.