Tuesday 11 March 2014

2 BY SEYMOUR SHUBIN


2 more from the shelves of the library this week are by Seymour Shubin - a household name surely?

Never heard of him?  There’s a bit of an author biography on the Hard Case Crime site which reads as follows……… In 1953, Seymour Shubin published his first novel, Anyone’s My Name. It quickly became a New York Times bestseller and went on to be recognized as a classic of the field, published in numerous international editions and taught in college courses on both literature and criminology. Subsequently, Shubin wrote more than a dozen other novels, including one, The Captain, that was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award and selected for the mystery reference work 100 Great Detectives.



Born in 1921 his most recent work The Hunch was published in 2009 when he was in his late 80’s! He's still with us, so what chance another new novel?

Most of his books seem to have a tag of psychological crime, which if I’m totally honest isn't always a strand that appeals to me……..maybe I have just read poor examples of it! 




THE GOOD AND THE DEAD

The good and the dead -- what does it mean? Don't even try to guess.

Ben Newman, a writer of true-detective stories, has written about scores of murders and thinks he has seen it "all" -- until he's confronted with the murders of adults from his old neighbourhood whom he hasn't seen since childhood. It begins with the body of his brother's wife found floating in the family swimming pool. Suspicion immediately centres, with good reason, on Ben's brother, a physician. But then Ben -- who has always looked on murder as something that happened to "other people," finds himself confronted with a series of strange deaths: among them a pharmacist he'd known since kindergarten, and a woman whom he'd kissed in the moonlight on a long-ago school trip.

In this, his eleventh novel, Edgar-finalist Seymour Shubin takes us on a bizarre journey through several murders that eventually come to reflect on our own humanity. This is a novel, a rarity in psych/suspense mystery fiction that combines truly unforgettable characters with pure action.


WITNESS TO MYSELF


A NEW NOIR MASTERPIECE BY THE AUTHOR OF THE CLASSIC 1953 BESTSELLER ANYONE'S MY NAME

Fifteen years ago, teenager Alan Benning jogged off a beach - and into a nightmare. Because what awaited him in the Cape Cod woods was an unspeakable temptation, a moment of panic, and a brutal memory that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Now a successful lawyer, Alan finds himself drawn back to the scene of the crime, desperate to learn the truth about what happened on that long-ago summer day. But even as he grapples with his own dark secrets, he finds himself hounded by a shadowy adversary - and by the forces of justice, drawing their net around him tighter by the day.





10 comments:

  1. Col - I'm not familiar with Shubin's work, so it'll be very interesting to me to see what you think of these.

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    1. Margot he has been on my radar for a couple of years now. He's not particularly high profile - no website and his output is sporadic, He had a couple of books published in the 50's, then a gap of nearly 25 years until the early 80's and 3 or 4 each decade since. I'd love to know what he was doing for all the time he wasn't being published. Hopefully, I'll get these read later this year.

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  2. Never heard of him, though feel I should, but The Good and the Dead sounds intriguing. You owe it to us to read and review it!

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    1. Ok, I'll go for that one first out of the two!

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  3. Nope, haven't heard of him so I will look forward to your thoughts on his work. I mostly enjoy Hard Case Crime novels. You should look up Christa Faust, "Money Shot," which rocked from the first page to the last. I know you're not adding anymore books to your tbr but couldn't help myself.

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    1. Faust - onto the list it goes, along with Durrenmatt!

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  4. I have not heard of this author or the books either. Amazing that his career has spanned so much time. I hope you like the books.

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    1. That interested me also. To keep getting published, his books must have merit, but also to not be more widely known than he is. Looking forward to them anyway,

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  5. Col, I'd be the fifth one to say I'd never heard of Seymour Shubin before which means you got yourself an "original" writer here, so to speak. I've enjoyed reading Hard Case paperbacks in the past. They come out with some good covers.

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    1. I'm looking forward to them both, Prashant. Surprising that he isn't better known considering the longevity of his writing career.

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