Wed 29 Oct 2025
LAINE FISHER – Fare Prey. Ace Double D-387; 1st printing, 1959. Published back to back with The Bikini Bombshell, by Bob McKnight. Cutting Edge Books, softcover, as by James Howard writing as Laine Fisher.
It starts out in fine fashion. Mike Gavin, deliberately down on his luck, finds a dead man in the stall next to his in the men’s room of LA’s Union Station, Needing a coat, he finds several thousand dollars and a ticket to Denver in the pocket. And more.
The dead man, he discovers, was a hit man, on his way to work. Who killed him, who was his intended victim, and who are he two women busting out of their clothes for Gavin? It’s formula fiction, and it almost works, but not if you ask the right questions.
— Reprinted from Mystery.File.4, March 1988.
October 31st, 2025 at 11:40 am
One of few regrets in LIFE is that I didn’t buy these non-SF ACE Doubles when they were inexpensive and plentiful.
October 31st, 2025 at 2:42 pm
I bought the Ace Double westerns when they came out new, but while at one time I had an almost complete set of the mysteries, I cannot remember how or when I came by them. No matter, really. I’ve sold all of them off again. Wish I still had them.
October 31st, 2025 at 8:06 pm
Steve, I suspected from the review that I would like this. I have just read it. Yes, it is a little bit dated, and the characterizations a little (but not too) cliched. But I thought it was great. I would put it up with the Narrow Margin, right up there with the best of the B noir.
October 31st, 2025 at 9:44 pm
It’s good to know that not only did this review inspire someone to find a copy of the book, but to actually read it, too.
Even better to be told that you enjoyed it. Thanks, Moe!