Sun 17 Mar 2024
Reviewed by Tony Baer: MALCOM BRALY – Shake Him Til He Rattles.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
Reviewed by TONY BAER:
MALCOM BRALY – Shake Him Til He Rattles. Gold Medal k1311, paperback original, 1963 (cover art by Harry Bennett). Belmont, paperback, 1971. Stark House Press, softcover, 2006 [published together with It’s Cold Out There].
Hip saxophone player loves his grass. Sick narco cop wants his ass. Tis the story of the cat and mouse between narco and hipster. Spoiler Alert: The hipster wins.
Pros: Told in legit Sixties beat lingo.
Cons: The story is too pat and neat and clean and happy for this noir fan. But hey, nice to see a Gold Medal with a happy ending now and then I guess.
March 17th, 2024 at 3:39 pm
Ed Gorman was a fan of Braly’s work, and I’m glad to see that his (Ed’s) blog is still online.
Here, for example, is his review of ON THE YARD, which also includes quite a bit about Braly and who he was:
https://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com/2009/05/on-yard-malcolm-braly.html
And of all places, Ed’s review of this SHAKE HIM can be read here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=47883#comments
March 18th, 2024 at 2:40 am
Yeah, man, that was one hep run-down on the book scene. Like cooool!
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:24 am
Probably worth a look at the time, but nothing ages worse than hip language from the past at novel length.