When Mc Partland is good he's *very* good! And by chance you
get one of his bests, IMO his masterpiece: 'See You in Hell'-
hard-boiled, somber and violent. I still remember the efect
it had on me when I read it for the first time, long ago. His
best novels were always very violent but really griping and
leaning to Noir.
Second to this:"The Wild Party"
And another special one is "The Kingdom of Johnny Cool" with
a killer of the mafia as central character. Maybe less
achieved than the two others but still a hell of a book. The
book was adapted for cinema under the title:"Johnny Cool"
film by William Asher (1963) that was later forgotten and
underrated; this film is a real masterpiece of modern
HB/Noir, B style, with a fantastic performance of Henri Silva
in the title role.
Quite a number of his books were adapted for cinema and he
wrote himself also some scenarios as I recall.
Unfortunately all novels by Mc Partland are not reaching the
level of quality of the titles I mention here. But his top
works definitely give him a place amongst the best authors of
that period (he died in 1958)
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
--- Roy Epstein <
dortmunder2@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Just went a'hunting in one of my favorite used
book
> stores and picked up a HELLuva pair of old
Gold
> Medals:A TICKET TO HELL by Harry Whittington
and
> I'LL
> SEE YOU IN HELL by John McPartland. Looking
forward
> to
> spending some time in Purgatory. I know
> Whittington's
> been mentioned here numerous times but can't
recall
> any mention of McPartland. I've heard his
name
> mentioned in a couple of articles (I think one
of
> them
> was Ed Gorman's article on the Gold Medal
writers)as
> someone worth checking out. Anybody familiar
with
> McPartland's stuff? How does the HELL one
rate?
>
> Roy
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