Prize Pulp, Fur Sure

Not until September will paperback purveyor Hard Case Crime bring out the first of its second-generation hard-boiled novels with business partner Titan Publishing. But already editor Charles Ardai wants readers frothing over the April 2012 release of Blood on the Mink, by Robert Silverberg, an author better known for his science fiction than his criminal imaginings. As Ardai explained in an e-mail message this morning,

Five-time winner of the Nebula Award, five-time winner of the Hugo Award, author of acclaimed, mind-bending fantasy novels that have won praise from people like Jonathan Lethem and Michael Chabon, [Silverberg] began his career writing under fake names for the last surviving pulp magazines. For the very last issue ever of Trapped Detective Story Magazine, the editor asked if he could supply a complete novel, and Bob did, an action-packed suspense thriller about a government agent going undercover in the Philadelphia Mob to root out a master currency forger from within. The issue of Trapped appeared on newsstands in 1962--and after it went off sale a few weeks later, this work by Silverberg vanished. It never appeared under the author’s real name, never appeared in book form--never appeared in any form for the past half-century.

And it's a great read.

So ... in April 2012, Hard Case Crime will be giving Blood on the Mink its first-ever proper publication, including a new afterword by Silverberg discussing the novel’s genesis and his work for the pulps, as well as two short stories he wrote for the pulps that have a connection to the novel, and that also haven’t seen the light of day for more than 50 years.

That sounds like tremendous fun. And Blood on the Mink will follow five other of Hard Case Crime’s forthcoming titles: Getting Off, by Lawrence Block; The Consummata, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins; Choke Hold, by Christa Faust; Quarry’s Ex, by Max Allan Collins; and The Comedy Is Finished, by Donald E. Westlake.

Welcome back to the publishing scene, Mr. Ardai.