Rewriting History

I know you’ll think I am writing about this only so I can use artist Glen Orbik’s spectacular, sexy cover in The Rap Sheet (and, well, you wouldn’t be altogether off-base), but I also think that the concept of this coming novel from Hard Case Crime publisher and Edgar Award winner Charles Ardai (aka Richard Aleas) is pretty damn cool. The novel is called Fifty-to-One and it’s due out in December of this year--the 50th book from Hard Case. Here’s the synopsis:

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF HARD CASE CRIME!

Okay, not really. But what if, instead of having been founded 50 books ago, Hard Case Crime had been founded 50 years ago, by a rascal out to make a quick buck off the popularity of pulp fiction? Such a fellow might make a few enemies--especially after publishing a supposed non-fiction account of a heist at a Mob-run nightclub, actually penned by an 18-year-old showgirl. With both the cops and the crooks after them, our heroes are about to learn that reading and writing pulp novels is a lot more fun than living them …

Adding to the appeal of Fifty-to-One will be its “full-color insert section containing images of the first 50 Hard Case Crime covers!”

At least Ardai has refrained from the sales-gimmicky practice of tagging his book “a special commemorative edition,” as some other publisher might have done.

To read Chapter 1 of Fifty-to-One, click here.