More Large Pleasures from Small Publishers

Is this the best job in the world, or what? Not only do I get to read big books from large publishers owned by German corporations, but I also get to enjoy tasty offerings from houses with higher aspirations, if also significantly smaller advertising budgets.

Hard Case Crime is a perfect example, a literary version of Proust’s madeleine, one bite of which takes me back to the pulp novels I used to read for 35 cents a pop. But publisher Charles Ardai does lots of new stuff, too--such as Christa Faust’s terrific book, Money Shot, about a former porn star who is talked into making one last appearance--and winds up running for her life.

Katharina Hacker’s The Have-Nots has won lots of prizes, raves, and sales in her native Germany, and now, thanks to the bold folk at Europa Editions, promises to shake up American readers who don’t see that many German thrillers as good as this.

Finally, James Sallis--poet, biographer of Chester Himes, author of the Lew Griffin series--has a new series going from Walker about a burned-out Memphis cop named Turner who has opted out and taken a job as a country sheriff’s deputy. The latest installment of that series is Salt River. Fine stuff, as are the previous books.