Shooting Star/Spiderweb: Robert Bloch

Hard Case Crime, who everybody by now knows to be my favorite hardboiled publisher, puts out two complete Robert Bloch novels in one edition, Spiderweb and Shooting Star (and featuring awesome cover art for Shooting Star by Arthur Suydam. HCC should put him on retainer already).

Spiderweb introduces us to Eddie Haines, a down-on-his-luck voice actor who is about to kill himself when a hundred dollar bill is slid under his door. The money belongs to Professor Hermann, who promises Eddie a life of fame and wealth if he just goes along with the Professor's perfectly laid out play. All Eddie has to do is become Judson Roberts, brilliant psychologist, and start bilking his clients out of money. All goes well until the human elements of love and sympathy enter the equation. And when these unforeseen kinks develop, Professor Hermann may have to resort to murder to straighten things out.

In Shooting Star, notary, literary agent and PI Mark Claybourne is hired to clear the air around the death of movie star Dick Ryan. It seems drugs may have been involved and in order to sell his films for a healthy profit, it needs to be established that Dick Ryan was clean. Not a hard job, but when Claybourne starts asking questions and dead bodies start turning up, a simple job is going to get pretty bloody before the case is closed.

I never read any Bloch before, so sue me. So what I start with is a double-shot of hardboiled from the 50s and let me tell you, these were a hell of a lot edgier than I assumed they would be. Both have wonderful catchy first-person narration and you get absorbed quick. Add in the fact that the novels are short so there's no time for screwing around and going off on tangents and you've got yourself two solid reads. Plus there's so much discussion about pot in Shooting Star, it's almost ridiculous.

My only complaint is the fact that these books are so old, the slang of the time and the references to actors and places from almost 6 decades ago kind of impedes the enjoyment. It's a minor complaint, it can be easily overlooked, but I'm picky, what can I say? Still both are a good time and worth checking out.

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Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Leisure Books (April 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0843959606
ISBN-13: 978-0843959604