GIL BREWER – The Girl from Hateville. Zenith ZB-7, paperback reprint, 1958. Originally published in hardcover as The Angry Dream: Mystery House, 1957.

   Originally one of the star-crossed Brewer’s few hardcovers, this one is not set in Florida but rather in a rural community at the cusp of winter. A young man whose father committed suicide after embezzling all the money from the local bank returns home to make some kind of peace.

   He’s threatened by the locals who go so far as to literally nail a dog to the wall to run him out of town, but he perseveres in his attempts to learn the truth. There are several women, an antagonistic father figure, an ambiguous cop, excellent atmosphere and the nagging question of whatever happened to all that money.

   Brewer’s pacing is more measured than usual for a good chunk of the book, but then he speeds up things at the end — did he have a tight deadline? — and he mashes together an ending featuring three elements every Brewer aficionado will recognize: insanity, a bagful of money and fire.