- Hardcover: 354 pages
- Publisher: Fedogan & Bremer; First Edition edition (October 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1878252259
- ISBN-13: 978-1878252258
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 626 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Wandrei was a pulpmeister of the 1930s and 1940s. Editor D.H. Olson has gathered 11 of his mystery short stories from publications such as Detective Fiction Weekly, Private Detective Stories and Detective Action Stories. An earlier compilation, Time Burial, collected some of the author's science fiction stories. A native of St. Paul, Minn., Wandrei, according to Olson, drew on his own personal adventures and those of his hometown for his fiction. His stories feature a variety of tough PIs, beautiful dames and deadly thugs. The stories show imagination and, despite their age, surprising freshness. Two stories feature an interesting hero with a rebuilt face of plastic and ceramics, which he can mold into convenient disguises. But the writing, when it forsakes the hard-boiled formula, is horribly overwrought. "The ripe fullness of (her figure) was sensuously enhanced by the position of her arms; the neat transparency of her skin was accented by subtle blue shadows... suggesting an attenuated purity of texture that conveyed somehow an idea of loveliness beyond actuality." Pulp aficionados and readers in need of a hard-boiled fix will more fully enjoy Wandrei's depictions of the Minnesota underworld.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tasty Tales & Spicy Stories, Dec 12 2001
By Louis A Irmo - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Last Pin (Hardcover)
Talk about long awaited! For those readers who ever encountered the writing of Howard Wandrei's stories as a pulp magazine colector, like myself, this first collection of his mystery stories is welcome indeed. The writing may not be "classic" in the sense that Hammett or Raymond Chandler are, but compared to other pulp writers it is definitely above average & surely very entertaining. Most readers will find themselves pleasantly surprised. The frosting on the cake is editor Dwayne Olson's fascinating introduction where you will learn what an interesting character Howard Wandrei himself was!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Twisted mystery and suspense., Mar 31 2001
By Scott Wyatt - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Last Pin (Hardcover)
This collection of pulp stories from the 1930s era is loaded with a bent outlook on the seamy side of life. Considered risque at the time of publication, they still read well today. Blazing guns, hard drinking PIs, crooked politcos, and vicious thugs usually surround a dame in distress and death is always close-by. Howard Wandrei was a versatile writer in several fields and these mysteries are no exception.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Guilty pleasure, Mar 16 2001
By John Woolley - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Last Pin (Hardcover)
I enjoyed this collection, far more than I expected to, but I'm a little ashamed of having enjoyed it. The writing is vigorous, the stories well-paced -- Howard Wandrei, for my money, writes much better than his more famous brother Donald --, and the plots generally preposterous in their details. Most of these stories are the kind that were called "spicy" back in pulp days -- lots of nudity, with the fact of the nudity but not the nudes themselves closely, even lecherously, described. Gunfights, car chases, nude girls, unmixedly evil villains, heroic rescues, more nudes, narrow escapes, and nudes. I say check it out, but don't expect timeless literature.
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