Sat 28 Jul 2007
The Compleat JOHN P. BROWNER.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Crime Fiction IV[5] Comments
I’m still on vacation mode, but as I promised I might, I’m posting a short piece on a book that I just discovered that I have but didn’t know anything about until just now. And I can’t wait until September to tell you about it.
It’s a private eye novel, one by John P. Browner, who is in Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, but about whom he also knows nothing more. The complete entry for the author reads like this:
BROWNER, JOHN P.
* -Who Killed the Snowman? (n.) Pocket Books 1979
* Death of a Punk (n.) Pocket Books 1980 [New York City, NY]
It’s the second book of the pair which I’ve just discovered that I own. I found it in a box in my garage that I opened this afternoon to see what was in it (the box, that is). At the moment there’s not a single copy of Who Killed the Snowman? up for sale on the Internet, and Google brings up not a single mention of it, so I have no idea what it’s about. There is one copy of Death of a Punk on Amazon.com with an asking price of $75.00, but unless you’re more resourceful than I am, all of the other copies you’ll find there or anywhere else will set you back $300 or more. And, yes, you read that right.
A word to the early bird. If the $75 one is gone by the time you read this, you weren’t early enough.
The blurb on the front cover reads as follows: “Beyond the Law, Behind the Eight-Ball, Trapped in a Drug War … and Framed for Murder!”
From the back cover:
Complete Discretion Assured.
Leonard Hornblower (212) 699-1848.
Lenny Hornblower. That’s me. $100-a-day plus expenses. Cash up front. Remember, this isn’t a licensed operation. I’ll trace anything, even runaways. For them it’s extra: $150 per, plus.
So when a Mrs. Perlont (“Call me Lisa.”) asked me to find her Blinky, it was just another penny-ante job .. until I started nosing around the East Village puck rock scene and ran into a hot snowstorm: a cocaine heist, a hijacking ring and a know-nothing kid who knew too much to live.
With friends like his, enemies were superfluous. Blinky was a punk rocker with a one-way ticket to Disaster Street. Trouble was, he wanted to take me along for the ride. And so did his stepmom who was willing to reveal everything but what I needed if I was ever going to find the one responsible for the …
About the “ZZZ.” That’s the first word in the ad that Hornblower puts in the Village Voice every week. Rather than having it show up at the top of the list in the classified section, he makes sure that it appears at the bottom.
There is a French version of this book, or at least I assume that it’s the same book, my French having disappeared on me about the same time I passed my last French exam, which would have been in 1964 or 1965. Here’s the bibliographic information from Amazon’s French website, along with a cover scan:
Description du livre: Gallimard, 1981. État : Bon état. NRF 248p. N̊1824, première édition. N̊ de réf. du libraire 1928.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:35 am
What’s the deal with making the cover star look like some tough version of John Lydon. I’d be more impressed if they went with a Darby Crash look a like.
I can’t stand the prices some people are willing to charge for a book that probably is not even worth it. I mean 300 bucks for a paperback by a no name.
But I’ll add it to my be on the lookout list for the places I go to. It’s the same way I’ve come across other over priced paper backs online. Usually only having to pay 3 to 4 dollars instead.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Bruce
I’ve just checked and the $75 one is still listed on Amazon. I might pay that much for this book, but if I did, it would have to be in awfully nice condition and the one on Amazon is only “really good.”
Good luck on the hunt. Some books, even from this era, early 80s, are simply not easy to find. The one I have is the only one I remember ever seeing, and I go to a lot of bookstores and library sales.
I know what you mean about online sellers, but if you really want a book and don’t want to spend the time and energy it takes to do the roadwork yourself, sometimes it’s just easier to buy online. Or wait for some unknowing seller offer one like this for $3 or $4. As you say, it really doesn’t look like it’s worth more than that.
The real gougers you have to look out for are the ones asking $1250 and $1500 for this book. If you buy it from them, what they’ll do is buy one of those selling for $350 or $400 and send it on to you. And pocket the difference.
Luckily (in this case) it’s quite academic to me. Considering what the other books in the box were, I’m sure I bought the one I have at a library sale. If I did, then you know how much I paid for it.
— Steve
PS. Bruce didn’t mention it, but he’s one of the more frequent reviewers at bookgasm.com. If you like obscure pop culture fiction in all genres, you should visit there often.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:34 am
[…] John P. Browner was the author of Death of a Punk (Pocket, pbo, 1980), a PI novel which as you may recall, was profiled here on the blog not so very long ago. […]
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
[…] Well, Death of a Punk seems never to actually die. I’m flattered that you went to such effort to track me down, although I liked the idea of being the 87 year old guy. […]
July 21st, 2013 at 10:21 pm
i have an original copy of this book..given to me by john many years ago in the city..he told me he’d written this book and wanted me to have it…i still do!…i enjoyed it very much..especially the parts about the clubs i used to go to back then..it was well written i thought..and thanks , john, for giving it to me so very long ago..i’m glad you did jenni