Gregory Luce

Armchair Mystery is repackaging old pulps in homage to the Ace Double novels, together with refinishing the original cover art to these novels. This selection features an espionage novel by pulp author turned watergate burglar, a Howard Hunt, a man of many talents, a true renaissance man. This novel features a return to France decades after the Second World War and a search for missing gold bequeathed to partisans in he heat of war and then forgotten. Cafe singers, bodies dropping on doorsteps, and secret cabals fill the tale. Readable, although a bit stiff. The second Novel is a Hollywood production murder mystery that starts with a mysterious masked dame and a body. The part of the private eye is filled by one of the production executives. There are some real pulpy parts, readable, not great. Not a big fan of pulps focusing on the movie industry. There's also a short story written in the spirit of old pulps at its best with the opening featuring a brunette fleeing in the rain.… (mer)