The Gutter and the Grave
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A former PI returns to the field in this noir gem full of murder, deceit, and femme fatales—from the crime fiction legend whose 87th Precinct series set the benchmark for police procedurals.
Detective Matt Cordell was happily married once, and gainfully employed—and sober. But that was before he caught his wife cheating on him with one of his operatives and took it out on the man with the butt end of a .45.
Now Matt makes his home on the streets of New York and his only companions are the city’s bartenders. But trouble still knows how to find him, and when Johnny Bridges shows up from the old neighborhood, begging for Matt’s help, Cordell finds himself drawn into a case full of beautiful women and bloody murder. It’s just like the old days—only this time, when the beatings come, he may wind up on the receiving end...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published as by "Curt Cannon" under the title I'm Cannon For Hire (1958), this revised reissue reminds readers that the late McBain had some serious noir chops. Betrayed by a dame, former PI Matt Cordell has fallen hard and become a bum in New York City's Bowery district. Cordell's decision to help old friend Johnny Bridges, a tailor, investigate petty larceny at his store soon leads to a series of murders and some steamy encounters with the "fair sex," including a femme fatale. A strong cast of characters from rival private eye Dennis Knowles to tailor's assistant Dave Ryan creates a tangled web of deceit, with lies piling up faster than tokens in a subway station. But the best thing about the novel is the hard-boiled Cordell as the archetypal noir antihero, fated to failure even in success. Of necessity, the story is dated, but the pleasure of following the exploits of a forefather of such later icons as Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder more than compensates. Fittingly, McBain has come full circle with the re-release of this revamped early novel at the end of his long and distinguished career.
