The Tease / Sin for Me

Long acknowledged as one of the pulp paperback greats, Brewer's two 1967 noir novels are collected here as a two-pack. Both novels follow through with themes that have long permeated Brewer's work- the ordinary innocent guy on the run, the red-hot temptress that bedevils him, and the suitcase full of money that everyone and their uncle is after. However, neither novel quite achieves the steamy obsessive pulpy lust and greed of Brewer's earlier work."The Tease" begins with a suburban couple on Florida's gulf coast fighting. After she leaves for her sister's, things get interesting with a naked bombshell running off the beach and asking for help. And, boy, is she in trouble, with a killing on her hands and a crew of hoodlums on her tail. You see there's a suitcase full of money and she's willing to share it if they can get away with it. It's an easy read, but our dear hero wavers between all out succumbing to the bombshell's machinations and going back to his humdrum life and angry wife. He runs between red hot moments and lukewarm and is never fully committed one way or another."Sin For Me" coincidentally features another real estate salesman, but he's nursing a bitter divorce from a femme fatale extraordinaire. Sunderland' ex-wife's new husband's ex comes to Sunderland with a scheme to get bank robbery money secreted in Sunderland's old house where his ex wife lives with the new husband. It's another story of an ordinary Joe with the law after him and a suitcase of money he can't seem to reach.Both are exciting action packed reads, although not quite extraordinary.

This is a reprint of two great stories by Gil Brewer. I couldn't put it down. Many thanks to Stark House for reprinting this and other novels in the genre. Highly recommended if you like 1960's tales of guys down on their luck and trapped by their greed and a pretty girl.

Although a bit formulaic (and badly in need of better editing), this reprint of a pair of crime noir paperback originals from 1967 works as a fine diversion. All the elements that made Brewer an excellent thriller writer are here - a dupe, the femme fatale who takes him in and a lot of money offered as bait (usually in a suitcase). A disagreeable cop who enjoys his freedom to rough up and/or kill people appears just to make sure there are sufficient threats to the hero. Rest assured, though: the worse things look the more satisfying the climax. These stories' differences do not really matter in the end. Brewer pulls everything together to make fun action-adventure tales. Nothing original from a storytelling viewpoint but excellent page-turners nonetheless.

Brewer was one of the best hard boiled/ pulp/noir writers of the fifties and sixties and these two novels are full of pouty broads, flawed good guys, sex, violence and crime. Just read and enjoy- they’re quick, escapist fun. Thanks to Stark House Press for republishing this and other classic crime novels from the past.