Hard epilogue

All Kinds of Ugly, the 13th and final (for now) book in the recently-reissued 1970's Hardman action series, was a terrific end to the series I've been reading for the past year or so. Thanks to Brash Books, this long-out-of-print series by the late Ralph Dennis is now available to a new generation of thriller fans and All Kinds of Ugly ends it on a high note.

In some ways, the most recent book is the best in the series, because it's deeper, more serious and introspective, and willing to take on deeper, more melancholy themes than the other entries.  The prose is richer and more descriptive, too.  

However, in some ways, this tale of unofficial P.I. Jim Hardman searching for an old millionaire's missing grandson in London is not as good as the others because it's mostly missing the fun banter between Hardman and his friend and associate Hump Evans and a lot of the action and danger we're used to enjoying.

But those elements not being a big part of this book doesn't mean it's somehow flawed, but simply that the story being told this time out is a bit different. It's not the usual fun team up between Hardman and Hump as they solve a case in around 1970's Atlanta.  This is Hardman on his own in London as he's simultaneously attempting to get over some personal problems.  It's a dark, more serious P.I. story that actually would make for a nice, moody film.  I'm just glad we also have all those lighter, more fun Hardman adventures, too (Atlanta Deathwatch is the first book).

This most recent Hardman novel was completed by author and Brash books head Lee Goldberg, who found an unpublished non-Hardman novel that (as he convincingly demonstrates in an afterword) most likely began life as a Hardman book that Dennis then altered into a standalone novel with different characters but then abandoned. Goldberg then skillfully converted the book back into a Hardman, and a very good one.

And though the book feels like a natural end to the series, I wouldn't mind seeing more of Jim Hardman and Hump Evans (who, though largely absent this time, still has a couple of memorable scenes). After all, though Jim seems to be moving on to bigger and better things as the book closes, an occasional trip back into the muck of gritty P.I. work might not be out of the question. Might be a fun thing for Mr. Goldberg or one of his colleagues to think about.

But, if things are over, these 13 Hardman novels have been a great ride.

I'll murderlize you!

Murderlized, by Max Allan Collins and frequent collaborator Matthew V. Clemens, reminded me a lot of the movie Grindhouse.  That film, also by two frequent collaborators, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, celebrated the violent, sexy, over-the top world of drive-in cinema of years past: tales of rough men and beautiful, deadly women, monsters human and otherwise, extreme violence, and sexy hijinks that barely got the "R" rating it required for exhibition. 

Most of the stories in this fun collection reminded me of Grindhouse and the movies it paid tribute to, and even the couple of the more traditional Collins/Clemens crime thriller stories included here are still a little out there.

The lead story, for example, Murderlized, is a nice piece of historical crime fiction, except of all people the real-life person trying to solve a murder is Moe Howard of The Three Stooges. And that's one of the more normal stories.  From there we move onto stories about a werewolf terrorizing a sex-starved wife in the Bayou, a vampire P.I. taking on a particularly formidable serial killer, and a James Bond-type figure whose sexy night with his wife keeps getting interrupted by femme fatales from his spy career who want to bed him down, too, and- oh, yes- then kill him.  All over the top, but intentionally so, making all of them a lot of fun. 

A couple of down to earth crime stories, of both the historical fiction and modern crime investigation variety, are also entertaining.  But it's the crazy stuff that really shines, in part because it's fun to see examples of Collins and Clemens working ousidet of their usual, more polished and disciplined comfort zones.

Bookending these day-glo stories of supernatural monsters hiding in the fog, human monsters who are even scarier, and normal but clueless men being helplessly manipulated by gorgeous women, is an efficient, informative introduction on how the Collins/Clemens collaborative relationship came about and an index telling us where the stories originally appeared.  Both are interesting and helpful.  But it's the stories with all their craziness that you'll remember.  Grab some popcorn and curl up with them one night.