Gil Brewer wrote noir novels where events plunged the characters into an inferno of danger and deception.
Lee Baron returns to his hometown in Florida to take over his father’s private detective agency. Unfortunately for Baron, his first client is Ivor Hendrix, his old girl friend. She begs Baron to help her deal with her abusive husband.
When Baron enters the Hendrix trailer, he finds a dead body. Here’s a sample of Lee Baron’s thoughts on his situation:
“I never knew what trouble was until she came back into my life and started fanning the flames on an old torch. ‘I need you, Lee,’ she said. Then she looked up at me with those wonderful, burning dark eyes of hers and I fell into them just like I always did – like it was yesterday and we were crazy in love on Cloud 13. Only it was today. Only she already had a husband. Only he was missing. She wanted me to find him before he found her – and killed her. There were holes in her story. There were holes in my head, too. Because I bought every word of it. Bang! The next thing I knew I was head over heels in a mess of corpses, killers, and wild, wild women.”
Baron finds himself threatened by the police for his involvement and tempted by his old flame’s sexy sister. Wild takes the reader into a world of betrayal, lies and deceit, where everyone is hiding something and death is just a bullet away. GRADE: B+
MY OTHER GIL BREW REVIEWS:
FORGOTTEN BOOKS #185: REDHEADS DIE QUICKLY & OTHER STORIES By Gil Brewer
FLIGHT TO DARKNESS/77 RUE PARADIS By Gil Brewer
FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #497: THE RED SCARF/A KILLER IS LOOSE By Gil Brewer
Brewer could be justifiably charged with misogyny, but with him, it’s misogyny on an epic, heroic scale. In his novels, women aren’t just femme fatales, or merely sirens luring men to their doom; they are the personification of a grim fate that is inexorable and inescapable.
Dan, Gil Brewer wrote about dangerous women. I found them fascinating and alluring!
Brewer’s father, who also published as Gil Brewer, was a prolific writer of pulp air adventure stories, including the legendary “Gorilla of the Gasbags” from the June 1929 issue of ZEPPELIN STORIES. (He appeared in all four issues of that long-forgotten pulp.) I wish someone would reprint THAT story — I’ve been wanting to read it for decades!
Jerry, I’d love to read “Gorilla of the Gasbags,” too! Maybe Steeger Books would be interested…
I included two of Gil Senior’s hardboiled stories in my collection of Gil Junior’s stories DEATH COMES LAST: THE REST OF THE 1950s. I tried really, really hard to get a copy of “Gorilla of the Gasbags,” but no luck. The only person I know of who has a copy of the June 1929 ZEPPELIN STORIES did not respond at all to my queries (and I sent several in various ways).
David, I was contacted by an editor a few years ago who was assembling Elmore Leonard Western short stories who was looking for missing stories. I didn’t have anything he was looking for.
I think Bill Crider did a version of that “Gorilla” story Jerry referenced.
I’ve been reading a lot of Brewer’s short stories. The last collection even had a couple written by his father.
Favorite lines: “There were holes in her story. There were holes in my head, too.”
Jeff, I love that line, too! Gil Brewer could be glib at times!
I have never read Brewer, father or son. If I come across one at a used bookstore I will buy it.
Patti, I’d be happy to send you a copy!