She took a man and made him a murderer.
Home Is The Sailor was written by Day Keene (author of My Flesh Is Sweet) in 1952 and has been republished in a paperback by Hard Case Crime. It takes place over a fast and furious few days and is packed with dark noir elements in the style of James M. Cain and The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Swede is a sailor who recently quit the sea after eighteen years, leaving for a place like Minnesota with his savings to buy some land and settle down. He remembers leaving the ship, but wakes up in the night outside a strip motel in San Pedro. It's hot. He can hear the sea breaking not far away.
As the night returned to him, he remembers a bar brawl at The Purple Parrot, and a rescue by Corliss, a young woman with hair the colour of honey. The police ask him to hang around while they clear up the details of who started the fight, and he takes a ride up the coast to a cliffside lookout with Corliss. Soon, they are in love and heading to Mexico for a quicky marriage.
The novel takes place over just a few days, and in that time, they've gotten married, Corliss has been attacked, and the plot to kill her attacker has been hatched. Corliss soon disappears and Swede is charged with her murder!
Meanwhile, radio reports update the strange case of a couple who swindled a quarter of a million dollars from a wealthy man who has disappeared. The FBI found the man involved in Europe, but the woman's whereabouts are unknown.
So many twists, motives blurred through the bottom of a whisky glass, deception and traps. It's a fast and fun read, dripping with noir fatalism. I haven't been so pleasantly surprised by a noir in a while. If you have a yen for a dark tale of passion and entrapment on a steamy Summer night, I'd recommend it. It packs the punch you hope for from a pulp crime novel!
1952 / Paperback / 204 pages
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