Jonathan Craig (1919–1984)

First published in Manhunt Magazine in 1953, Dirge For a Nude is a fun and atmospheric little pulp noir story from Jonathan Craig, who became a writer through a very circuitous route.

According to online articles and sources, he was born in Santa Barbara in 1919. During the Great Depression, his family emigrated to Kansas City, and at a very young age he began supporting his family when his father became ill, eventually working at the Kansas City Star. He served in the Navy from 1942 — 1946, becoming head of a Pentagon research and analysis section for the Department of Defense. He even accompanied Truman to a Postdam conference in 1945. Quite a pedigree for a guy who began writing in the pulps in 1949, a decision which prompted him to leave government work to write full time by 1952.

He began by writing pulp westerns, but as the western cycle began to wane, he branched out to the detective side in 1953. Not limiting himself to genre, he even wrote some Gothic novels using Jennifer Hale as his moniker during his career. Apparently he wrote over 450 short stories for various pulp magazines. Dirge For a Nude is an early example of Jonathan Craig’s (Frank E. Smith) style, before he began writing the Peter Stelby and Stan Ryder novels, where he gained some notoriety.

Set around a piano player in a smoky new dive called the Cavern Club, one has to suspect Craig’s time in Kansas City, known for its jazz and blues music, influenced his pulp stories. It’s late at night when Dirge For a Nude begins, and Marty Bishop is itching to get off so he can show the auburn-haired hat-check girl, Julie Cole, a new bauble he’s bought for her. But then his ex-girlfriend Gloria Gayle walks in, with her blue-black hair and curves that stop traffic. Even though she dumped him for a light-heavyweight prizefighter, she is bored, and wants Marty back. She even has twelve grand to entice him to run off with her to Mexico. But Marty’s no sap, and he blows her off. Next thing you know, she’s lying across the front seat of Marty’s Caddie, as dead as she is nude.

Marty knows he’s been set up to take the fall, and drives around with Gloria’s body trying to find the killer. It seems obvious, but there’s a twist, and a terrific noir ending. At less than twenty pages, this is a fun one to read between bigger stories, and will make any fan of pulp want to read more from Jonathan Craig.… (meer)

Originally titled Frenzy - no doubt the publisher reprinted the book with the new title (EXCLAMATION POINT and all) to attract the soft-core smut crowd - JUNKIE! is a straightforward whodunit that follows jazz musician Steve Harper as he tries to prove his ex-prostitute (ex-JUNKIE!) girlfriend is innocent of murdering his close friend and jazz horn mentor by tracking down the real killer. In typical pulp fashion, the bodies start piling up and the eyes of the law start focusing in on Steve as gets closer to the truth. Yes, there are junkies in the book, and there is talk of drug use and - GASP - nymphomania, but there isn't much lurid detail on either of these fronts, just a tour of the seedy underground of 1950's Washington DC. Jonathan Craig is the pen name of Frank E. Smith, who worked as a research analyst at the pentagon, which explains the atypical setting and occasional references to pentagon secretarial pools. If you can look past the misleading TITLE!, JUNKIE! is a decent pulp read.… (meer)

I found this to be decent enough pulp fiction. Quality literature this is not. Even the publishers agree that it is not quality literature: it came out in 1962 and is already in the public domain. Generally, to be in the public domain, a book needs to be something like 40 years older than this. Whatever, I found it to be an interesting enough read.

It's about a policeman who pulled a nutty whilst interrogating a hot, red-headed suspect, and almost choked her to death. As a result, he gets kicked off the force. He vows to find the jewel thief, whose whereabouts the red head was shielding, so as to get back into the good graces of the force, and, thereby, be reinstated into the only job he's ever wanted. Over the course of his investigations strangles several more hot, red heads. Along the way, we have flash backs to his youth and find therein the seeds of his madness. It doesn't help his recurrent bouts of madness that he drinks a lot, an unimaginable lot, seemingly endless glasses of double whisky shots.

This is a guy's book, perhaps the male equivalent of harlequin romances. The attitudes toward women and toward sex in general would make any sensible feminist want to choke the first handy man they find. I wouldn't blame them. It's surely a reflection of our benighted past. It's also interesting how they have to dance around the sex issues implicitly, given that writing about explicit sex was still a no-no back in the day. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It seems quaint but veils to some extent the mindless, and not really necessary, crudity people feel compelled to inject into today's literature.… (meer)

Jonathan Craig is one of the great underrated writers of the great pulp era of the 1950s and early 1960's. It's unfortunate that more of his books aren't available in e-format. His books are generally easy to read and throughly pulpy.

Originally published as Alley Girl, Renegade Cool is filled with lots of pulpy goodness including the corrupt cop who plants evidence and preys on suspect's wives, the woman who is so gorgeous that no red blooded man can resist her charms, the innocent man being forced to confess, and the young drunken broad who can never seem to keep her clothes on. At the heart of the story is the juxtaposition between the good Boy Scout type cop and the corrupt bruiser type which reminds me of James Ellroy's LA Confidential which was written decades later.

This book is a solid, quick read but just misses being really good. The characters are great archetypes but could use a little more complexity. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read.… (meer)