Baby Moll [Mass Market Paperback]

By republishing old, out-of-print crime novels, Hard Case Crime has given new exposure to some early works by really great writers. In this year alone, they've released books by, among others, Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake and Robert Bloch, not to mention a pseudonymous Michael Crichton. Baby Moll, by the less well-known John Farris, is another such reissue and is decent enough in its own right.

The narrator of Baby Moll is Peter Mallory, who years earlier had quit his associations with Florida mobster Macy Barr. Barr is an old-time mobster with both a vicious and paternalistic streak. It's this latter quality that allowed Peter to leave without being killed, but you can never leave the past fully behind. Macy needs Peter to track down a killer who is offing some of Macy's best workers.

These killings all seem to be tied to a family murdered decades earlier (prior to Peter's days with Macy) after the father resisted an extortion attempt. One child did survive, however, and Peter will spend much of the book trying to track this child down. He will also have to contend with a paid assassin, a rival mobster and various squabbles within the Barr household. It's not something Peter wants to do: he'd rather live his quiet, legitimate life with his soon-to-be wife, but Macy can coerce Peter through blackmail.

As stated before, this is a decent enough novel, though not on the same quality level as some other Hard Case Crime novels. It has the same lean prose style that you see in many of these pulpier mid-century mysteries, but it isn't quite as compelling as others in the set, making it clear why Farris isn't quite the name that a Block, Bloch or Westlake is. But it's good and a quick read, so if you're a fan of these books, you won't be disappointed.

Hard Case Crime's latest pulp offering comes from 1958, and from a writer who'd published the book under the pseudonym, Steve Brackeen. Today, however, John Farris is known more for his novels of unrelenting suspense and horror offerings. The book is dressed up in lethally sexy new cover by Robert McGinnis, the absolute master of paperback covers in the 1960s and 1970s (in my opinion). The cover caught my eye first and I knew it was a Hard Case Crime novel.

Most of those reprints are incredibly short by today's novel standards, and this one is no different. The book begins fairly quickly, showing our hero - Peter Mallory - in his present life with no indication of his violent past. Except for the back cover copy on the book, of course. He's quickly approached and strong-armed into working for his old boss/mentor, Macy Barr (and yep, the names sound like they come straight from old PERRY MASON reruns).

Farris's tale is simple and straight-forward, though he does throw in the odd curveball or two, like having Macy taking care of an adoptive daughter. But the first-person narrative drives from Point A to Point B without pause or distraction.

Macy's group was involved with a heist that went sour and ended up killing a family. They died in the fire that resulted in the aftermath. And now the butcher's bill has come due. Someone is methodically tracking down the men responsible for that heist, and they're saving Macy Barr for dessert. Macy's got a houseful of people, none of whom he particularly trusts, and the few he does trust aren't smart enough to figure out how to stop the unknown killer.

Mallory hits the bricks like a traditional gumshoe and tries to figure out who is behind the murders. He applies pressure indirectly and directly, never trusting anyone - including Macy - more than he needs to.

I really like the tough guy first person narrative. Farris does a really good job with it. Likewise, his pacing is first-rate. He uncovers the plot and the backgrounds of the characters at a controlled rate, giving the readers snippets of information that don't distract from the headlong plunge through the story.

But a lot of the rest of the story just feels too familiar. This is all old ground and any dedicated reader of pulp and noir is going to figure this one out long before he gets to the end. Still, at a little over 200 pages, BABY MOLL is a fun romp through the 1950s crime scene. There's even a bit about Elvis Presley on the radio, even though the singer isn't mentioned by name.

Fans of the hardboiled pulp era are going to enjoy this one more from nostalgia than from anything new offered. And readers that haven't sampled the wares from Hard Case Crime are encouraged to pick this one up. This is the popular culture I was raised on, and I love the chance to go back and relive parts of it.

In the 1982 reprint of his modern classic Harrison High, author John Farris mentions in passing some "other novels" he wrote during the time it took him to write that book: "suspense thrillers ... published by Gold Medal Books under a pen name."

Baby Moll was the second of five novels that first saw print under the moniker Steve Brackeen, and Hard Case Crime is publishing it under Farris's own name for the first time. Farris also admits that, at the time of their first publication, he "fondly imagined [they] rivaled the best of John D. MacDonald."

Baby Moll is the story of Pete Mallory, who used to work for gangster Macy Barr, until he got tired of Barr (and his "whole rotten business") and walked out. Pete then settled down with a nice girl named Elaine and spent six years trying to forget his past.

The trouble comes, though, when others don't forget your past, and Barr uses Pete's most closeted skeleton to get him to come back and protect Barr from veiled death threats. But no sooner is Pete back in town than it seems he's also on somebody's hit list, so he's then on the hunt for two potential killers.

If "the best of John D. MacDonald" includes one of my favorites, Cry Hard, Cry Fast, then the young Farris comes very close, at least in terms of characterization. In general its embarrassing to realize what a skilled and confident proseslinger he was right out of high school. Because, to read Baby Moll, you'd never know that Farris wasn't a world-weary 50-year-old spilling his disappointment on the page -- that he still had his whole career ahead of him.

Baby Moll offers up a rogues gallery of characters, dark underworld types and otherwise. Its not very predictable nature -- along with its fairly atypical, original style -- makes for an engaging read, and Farris offers an ending that is both touching and satisfying.

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