Fri 16 Jun 2023
RICHARD DEMING – Kiss and Kill. Zenith ZB-36, paperback original; 1st printing, January 1960. Armchair Fiction, softcover, 2016 (published back-to-back with The Dead Stand-In by Frank Kane). Wildside Press, softcover, 2017.
Two beginners in the confidence racket meet, join forces, get married and go on to bigger and better things. Including murder. Preying on lonely women with more money than sense, Sam and Mavis make a nasty pair, cutting a wide path through rural America.
They eventually get their comeuppance, of course, one that was obvious long before I caught on. It also makes an amusing social statement. Sam is boss in his family, you see, and it’s that double standard inherent in their operation that catches up with them.
June 16th, 2023 at 8:32 pm
While it’s nice to read this old review again (and I imagine it’s one of a very few this book ever had), I wish I’d said more about it.
It sounds very noirish to me, but whether or not it actually is, I couldn’t confirm that to you, one way or the other.
June 16th, 2023 at 9:15 pm
Sounds a bit like the film The Honeymoon Killers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honeymoon_Killers
June 16th, 2023 at 9:52 pm
Tony
There does seem to be more than a bit of similarity. I have found a few other reviews of this book online, all with a lot more detail. The second one pretty much confirms your thoughts on it.
First, from Paperback Warrior:
http://www.paperbackwarrior.com/2018/02/kiss-and-kill.html
then from Mr. Hardboiled
http://mrhardboiled.blogspot.com/2013/12/kiss-and-kill-by-richard-deming-zenith.html
and lastly but not least, from James Reasoner, who confirms that, yes, this is definitely noir fiction.
https://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2017/12/forgotten-books-kiss-and-kill-richard.html
June 16th, 2023 at 9:31 pm
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that cover reprinted. Deming did this sort of thing it was so well it was too often just expected and not as appreciated as it should have been.
June 17th, 2023 at 11:50 am
I read this several years ago because of the Paperback Warrior review, and it’s an absolute knockout. And, yes, it’s as noirish as they come. The ending will knock you right on your ass. It was the first thing I’d ever read by Deming, a situation I’ve been trying to correct. The edition I read was backed up with a so-so Johnny Liddell novel by Frank Kane that I read but don’t remember.
June 17th, 2023 at 12:46 pm
It is now obvious that this is a book I will have to read again, should the chance come around.