Seduction of the Innocent
Read Seduction of the Innocent Online
Authors: Max Allan Collins
Tags: #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #General
MAX ALLAN COLLINS!
“Crime fiction aficionados are in for a treat... a neo-pulp noir classic.”
—C
hicago Tribune
“No one can twist you through a maze with as much intensity and suspense as Max Allan Collins.”
—
Clive Cussler
“Collins never misses a beat...All the stand-up pleasures of dime-store pulp with a beguiling level of complexity.”
—
Booklist
“Collins has an outwardly artless style that conceals a great deal of art.”
—
New York Times Book Review
“Max Allan Collins is the closest thing we have to a 21st century Mickey Spillane and...will please any fan of old-school, hardboiled crime fiction.”
—
This Week
“A suspenseful, wild night’s ride [from] one of the finest writers of crime fiction that the U.S. has produced.”
—
Book Reporter
“This book is about as perfect a page turner as you’ll find.”
—
Library Journal
“Bristling with suspense and sexuality, this book is a welcome addition to the Hard Case Crime library.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“A total delight...fast, surprising, and well-told.”
—Deadly Pleasures
“Strong and compelling reading.”
—Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
“Max Allan Collins [is] like no other writer.”
—Andrew Vachss
“Rippling with brutal violence and surprisingly sexuality...I savored every turn.”
—Bookgasm
“Masterful.”
—Jeffery Deaver
“For fans of the hardboiled crime novel...this is powerful and highly enjoyable reading, fast moving and very, very tough.”
—
Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Entertaining...full of colorful characters...a stirring conclusion.”
—Detroit Free Press
“Collins makes it sound as though it really happened.”
—New York Daily News
“An exceptional storyteller.”
—
San Diego Union Tribune
“Nobody does it better than Max Allan Collins.”
—John Lutz
I went in and looked up the narrow flight of wooden stairs to the second-floor landing where,
I’ll be damned,
there she stood.
She was, as the 25-cent paperback writers are wont to say, stark naked.
Stood there pale and white as the flesh of an orchid, her legs endless, her hips flaring, the waist narrow, breasts high and sweeping outward like a threat paid off by her dark erect nipples, a mane of gypsy curls brushing her shoulders.
She seemed poised to come down the steps, apparently in a hurry, her dark eyes so wide they were almost popping, and she was one step down when a second figure flew out onto the landing, a male figure, small, compact, wearing a t-shirt and rolled-up jeans and a face contorted with rage.
He shoved her hard from behind, like the guy on the cover of that
Suspense Crime Stories
comic book at the hearing, and she was falling toward me as I hurtled up the stairs...
SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:
THE FIRST QUARRY
by Max Allan Collins
THE LAST QUARRY
by Max Allan Collins
QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE
by Max Allan Collins
QUARRY’S EX
by Max Allan Collins
TWO FOR THE MONEY
by Max Allan Collins
DEADLY BELOVED
by Max Allan Collins
DEAD STREET
by Mickey Spillane
THE CONSUMMATA
by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
FIFTY-TO-ONE
by Charles Ardai
KILLING CASTRO
by Lawrence Block
THE DEAD MAN’S BROTHER
by Roger Zelazny
HOUSE DICK
by E. Howard Hunt
CASINO MOON
by Peter Blauner
FAKE I.D.
by Jason Starr
PASSPORT TO PERIL
by Robert B. Parker
STOP THIS MAN!
by Peter Rabe
LOSERS LIVE LONGER
by Russell Atwood
HONEY IN HIS MOUTH
by Lester Dent
THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES
by Jonny Porkpie
THE VALLEY OF FEAR
by A.C. Doyle
MEMORY
by Donald E. Westlake
NOBODY’S ANGEL
by Jack Clark
MURDER IS MY BUSINESS
by Brett Halliday
GETTING OFF
by Lawrence Block
CHOKE HOLD
by Christa Faust
THE COMEDY IS FINISHED
by Donald E. Westlake
BLOOD ON THE MINK
by Robert Silverberg
FALSE NEGATIVE
by Joseph Koenig
THE TWENTY-YEAR DEATH
by Ariel S. Winter
THE COCKTAIL WAITRESS
by James M. Cain
of the
INNOCENT
by
Max Allan Collins
INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS BY TERRY BEATTY
A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK
(HCC-110)
First Hard Case Crime edition: February 2013
Published by
Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark Street
London
SE1 0UP
in collaboration with Winterfall LLC
Copyright © 2013 by Max Allan Collins
Cover painting copyright © 2013 by Glen Orbik
Interior art copyright © 2013 by Terry Beatty
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Print Edition ISBN 978-0-85768-748-7
E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-749-4
Design direction by Max Phillips
Typeset by Swordsmith Productions
The name “Hard Case Crime” and the Hard Case Crime logo are trademarks of Winterfall LLC. Hard Case Crime books are selected and edited by Charles Ardai.
Printed in the United States of America
Visit us on the web at
www.HardCaseCrime.com
For the real Seduction of the Innocent -
Bill Mumy
Miguel Ferrer
Steve Leialoha
Chris Christensen
“I am convinced that in some way or other the democratic process will assert itself and comic books will go.”
D
R
. F
REDRIC
W
ERTHAM
“Most of my major disappointments have turned out to be blessings in disguise.”
W
ILLIAM
G
AINES
Screw Hollywood.
In the spring of 1954,
New York
is the entertainment capital of America.
Sure, Hollywood has its movies, but lately it’s been stealing its scripts from TV—dramatic stuff like
Marty
and
12 Angry Men,
comedies like
Visit to a Small Planet
and
No Time For Sergeants...
all originally produced on live TV right here in Manhattan.
You know what they shoot out in Hollywood, for TV? Kiddie crap like
The Lone Ranger
and
Cisco Kid.
Sure, there’s the rarity like
Dragnet
or
I Love Lucy,
but for real quality TV, it’s
Studio One, The Philco-Goodyear Playhouse,
and
The Hallmark Hall of Fame.
And for laughs, you got Uncle Miltie, Sid Caesar, and Jackie Gleason, then on Sunday night, so stiff he’s hilarious, Ed Sullivan. Live television out of New York.
Your morning starts with
The Today Show
with Dave Garroway and your day ends with
The Tonight Show
with Steve Allen (local now, but heading for network this fall). In between you have game shows like
Beat the Clock
and
I’ve Got a Secret,
soap operas like
Love of Life
and
Guiding Light
, not to mention the news with Douglas Edwards (CBS), John Cameron Swayze (NBC), and John Charles Daly (ABC) ...dawn till dusk, dusk to midnight, live broadcasts from New York rule the airwaves.
Meanwhile, on the radio? Bob and Ray. Top that, California.
And where do the Hollywood producers look to find their next box-office bonanza? Broadway, where right now
Can-Can, Picnic,
and
Tea and Sympathy
are playing at the Shubert, Music Box and 48th Street Theatre respectively. And over at the Britt Building, any popular song that doesn’t come from a Broadway musical is getting pounded out on a piano by one tunesmith or another.
When Broadway isn’t providing grist for the Hollywood mill, the book publishing industry is. Do any of these ring a bell
— The Robe, Battle Cry, From Here to Eternity?
All major publishing resides in Manhattan, from class acts like Knopf and Random House to paperback outfits like Pocket Books (reprints) and Fawcett (originals). All the rags about Hollywood movie stars are published out of Manhattan, too, and so are the big-time news mags,
Time, Life, Look.
Then there’s that powerhouse publishing industry that nobody talks about, or anyway when they talk about it, it’s either in hushed tones or outraged yells. No, I don’t mean the skin magazines, though a lot of the guys in the biz I’m talking about started out there (and some still work sleaze as a sideline).
