Richard Neely (1) (1916–1999)

Shattered by Richard Neely, which was originally published in 1969 as The Plastic Nightmare is a terrific noir psychological thriller of a novel that takes place in a fog-shrouded Marin County where ala Postman Always Rings Twice married couple is pitted against each other in a world of distrust and suspicion. At its heart is an oft-used pulp plot involving amnesia such as Donald Hamilton used in 1954’s Night Walker. Amnesia is a classic pulp novel device and Neely uses it well here.
Dan Marriott had a New Years’ Eve accident on a foggy highway, with his wife thrown from the car, and he barely escaping death and ending up in a Santa Barbara hospital for plastic surgery and months of trying to recover from amnesia, not even recognizing people or anything. As he recovers and is brought back to his old life, he begins to get clues that things might not have been as accidental as he was led to believe. The couple has separate rooms with locks on the doors. There are hints of extramarital affairs, of possible threats of divorce, of private detectives, and more. Was it an accident or did Judith plot something more sinister with a secretive man who seems to be lurking in the background?

What is great about the novel is how Neely takes us into Dan Marriott’s mind as he tries to put the pieces together without anyone finding out how much he is putting together. As the reader, you feel his puzzlement and his suspicions. You also feel the growing tension an distrust between Dan and Judith as they spar with Dan always in the dark about what really happened or has he just lost his mind. Although there have been several movies made based on this novel, none of them manage to capture the tension between all of the major players or the mysterious, winding, fog-shrouded world of Marin County where dreams and reality all seem to merge together in the foggy mist.
This is a terrific novel and fits well into the world of pulp that Black Lizard republished in the 1980’s.… (meer)

After a terrible accident that destroyed his face, a man emerges from the hospital after months of recovery and plastic surgery. Only one problem: he has total amnesia about the accident and his life before. He does have a beautiful, ravenous wife trying to help him recover, however. They spend some time in a cabin by the sea getting to know each other again before returning to San Francisco, where we is some sort of stock broker. His wife continues to seem somewhat upset at the thought of his regaining his memory, however. Through a chance discovery at the office, he learns their life before may not have been so amicable. And there is the question of that locked bedroom.... So he begins to investigate and discovers some surprises...which get bigger and bigger. This is a fascinating story, but the author has to spend lots of pages at the end explaining the final twist. I can't help but think that it could have been woven into the story a bit more smoothly. This story will teach you not to take anything at face value--I can tell you that! The writing is pretty good most of the time, but when things get steamy, we end up with some pretty ridiculous passages that include phrases such as "phallic member". Yep, I know we men use that term quite a bit!… (meer)

Originally published in 1969 as The Plastic Nightmare, Shattered is a work of noir fiction that begins when Dan Marriott awakes in a hospital. His wife, Judith, is by his side, and he learns that he and Judith had been in a catastrophic car accident. Judith was thrown clear, but Dan wasn't so lucky. Most of the bones in his body were broken, his face was totally disfigured, and worse yet, he has no memory of who he is. After a series of plastic surgeries, he is ready to leave the hospital and to try to piece together his life. Judith takes him home and begins filling him in on their past life together, but little things Dan finds and remarks people make cause him to realize that something is just not right -- and after a few very strange occurrences, he finds it even more imperative to get to the truth. To say more would wreck the story.

Let's just say that this isn't the best piece of noir I've ever read, nor is it the worst. The plot is a good one, and I never guessed the ending (definitely a nice twist) but everything seems to happen so quickly. There's not a lot of time to really get into the characters, and while the story keeps you reading, it would have been better if it had been a bit more in depth. However, I liked it well enough to pick up another book by this author -- The Walter Syndrome, highly recommended by several Neely fans.

I'd recommend it to readers of noir fiction.… (meer)