My book Dark Places and Little Tramps out

I decided to break the silence here, because I have a new book out and it's in English! One day, over a year ago, I got an idea: I'd take all the blog posts here in Pulpetti that are about literature, crime or otherwise, and edit them into a collection of reviews and articles. It took me over a year, but the book finally came out last month. I edited the texts, took out some blogginess (is that a word? I mean stuff like where I was reading the book etc.), organized them in different genres and wrote a foreword. My friend and colleague JT Lindroos, the mastermind behind the now defunct PointBlank, also did the cover and helped with the back cover copy. The book came out under the moniker Pulpetti Books. 

I thought at first I'd publish the book via Amazon, but then I thought I should do it via Books on Demand (BoD), which is situated in Germany. I use it regularly with my own publishing house, Helmivyö, and I thought it would be the best way to make the book available to public, since through them I could also have  the international distribution. Here the book is on Amazon, though not as an eBook. The book is available on many other sites as well, for example in The Australian Booktopia. The book should be out also as an eBook, but I'll have to find out about that. Do check out also this, this and this. (EDIT: I thought at first that Dark Places isn't available in Amazon, but Tony Baer over at Rara-Avis list found it. There must've been a delay, and I didn't check the availability when writing this blog post.) 

Mind you, the title of the book isn't supposed to refer to Charles Chaplin (this didn't occur to me at all, and neither to JT!), it's a reference to Gil Brewer's novel which I mention in the book's list of essential noir. (Dark Places is the title of Gillian Flynn's novel, which I also write about.) (EDIT: In an earlier version of this post, I mentioned I write about Brewer's Little Tramp in the book, but that is not the case after all. But there are two reviews of other novels by Brewer.) 

Here's the back cover copy: 

Dark Places and Little Tramps collects Juri Nummelin's writings on noir, hardboiled, sleaze and other literary genres of yesteryear. The author has written extensively about genre fiction and popular culture for more than four decades, but this new volume is the first publication of his writings in English. Among many other subjects, it features a lengthy section on neo-noir and writers like Gillian Flynn, Allan Guthrie, Jason Starr and Duane Swierczynski. He also investigates British spy and crime fiction, and includes chapters on western and horror. Nummelin shines new light to many of these areas, such as the largely forgotten topic of sleaze paperbacks.

And also little something about me as well: 

Juri Nummelin is a Finnish writer and publisher, who has had a life-long crush on hardboiled and noir. His blog, Pulpetti, was for many years a steady source of news and opinions about pulp and paperback fiction and edgy new crime writing. The texts in this volume are culled from the blog, but they have been newly edited and organized by genre. In the book, Nummelin also reminisces about his experiences in attempting get new neo-noir writers published in the Finnish language.

You can find the whole table of contents here. 

More Finnish fantasy

Review of the first English-language collection of Jyrki Vainonen's silently surrealistic fantasy stories, out now. Recommended: Jyrki is a good writer (and a personal friend, but don't let that fool you).

Negative reviews on e-books?

I've been reading some stuff on my Kindle, mainly stuff I've picked free from Amazon, new gritty and noirish crime fiction from both side of Atlantic. I've liked a lot some of the stuff I've acquired, for instance Juaréz Dance by Sam Hawken and Tony Black's bleak novella The Storm Without (of which I didn't do a blog post). I also liked Lawrence Block's short story "Keller on the Spot" quite a bit.

But I've recently dropped two novels by new noir writers I was reading on Kindle. The other one was sloppily written and edited, and the other one had ridiculous characters and the police work depicted in the book wasn't believable. I was going to post a review of the books, but then I got to thinking I wouldn't be doing much of a service to the writers and their publishers (the other one of the two writers has just a book out from a small publisher working actively in the neo-noir business). Then I got to thinking that as a critic that's just what I should be doing: pointing out what these writers and their publishers are not doing very well and keeping readers out of the bad or mediocre stuff, but then I got to thinking again and then I decided not to post.

What do you think? I'm really an outsider in these circles, since I'm essentially a foreigner to all American, British and Scottish writers mining this area, but then again, someone might benefit from my point of view.

Michael Dirda on Chandler

Here's Dirda's review on a new biography of Raymond Chandler: "As this new biography by Tom Williams reminds us, the chronicler of Southern California corruption is in multiple ways a hyphenated man, constantly apart or between, neither this nor that, both charming and weird."

Nice things said about my book

Juhani Niemi uudessa Bibliophilos-lehdessä Tankki palaa! -kirjasta: "Juri Nummelin on kolunnut vanhoja lehtiä - muun muassa Hakkapeliitan, Hurtti-Ukon ja Seikkailujen Maailman numeroita vuosilta 1940-1944 - ja koonnut sota-aiheisista kertomuksista oivallisen valikoiman. (...) Pienimuotoinen kerronta tarjoaa aitoa mentaalihistoriaa, sellaisia sävyjä, jotka jännitykseen painottuneessa sotaromaanissa saattavat jäädä piiloon. (...) Eniten kokonaisuudesta erottuvat Aila Meriluodon kouluaineeseen perustuva, sankarikuolemala tunnelmoiva "Jääkukkia", joka julkaistiin Asemiehessä vuonna 1943, ja Raoul Palmgrenin jälkiviisaasti tiedostavat "Joel Valaksen talvisota", joka muusta aineistosta poiketen on ilmestynyt vasta sodan jälkeen Kiilan albumissa vuonna 1944."

Minireviews of my books

Here are two short comments on my recent books received in e-mail.

Boris Hurtta Tuhansien zombien maasta: "Zombi-kirjan sain luetuksi. Oli odottamattoman hyvä tai sanotaan, että pidin odottamattoman monesta kertomuksesta."

Tapani Bagge esikoisromaanistani: ""Novak-romsku oli oikein mukavaa luettavaa, sympaattinen pastissi. Tyyli piti hyvin, juoni ei ehkä ihan loppuun asti, mutta se tuskin oli tarkoituskaan."

A review of my war book

And the post # 1,503 is a link to a review of my book - in Finnish! This is getting worrisome. (No worries, though, I'll be reviewing Declan Hughes's The Colour of Blood next.)

So, here's a link to a newspaper review of my war book, Tankki palaa!

Review of Henkipattojen kylä

(Sometimes it feels pretty awkward to post these things in English, but...)

Review of the collection of Reino Helismaa's western stories, edited by me, in the local newspaper, Turun Sanomat. The book is still available for the measly five euros!

Review of the zombie book

Here's a review of my zombie anthology from the Portti magazine. It's pretty positive, for which I'm proud and happy. The main point: "Finland's never had her share of good trashy literature, so this is a step to the right direction!"

Review of Jarkko Sipilä's Against the Wall

Someone called Toby commented on my months old post on Finnish writer Jarkko Sipilä's Helsinki Homicide: Against the Wall, the English translation of his cop novel. Here's his review he wrote some time ago - it's not entirely positive, but still merits a look, as he's clearly knowledgeable and mentions having read one of David Peace's crime novels. (I haven't read Sipilä's book myself, so I can't really comment.)

Russel D. McLean's The Good Son

Private eye has seen a renaissance in the last few years. But the hero doesn't wear a trench coat anymore and he's not a wisecracking smartass, like Philip Marlowe or even Spenser. Instead, in most of the newer private eye books he's just as hurt as any of us. He's haunted by his actions and his thoughts. He can't be a hero anymore. I'm talking about writers like Sean Chercover, Dave Zeltserman, Reed Farrel Coleman, Dave White and Ken Bruen. There's lots of them around - private eye is all but dead.

Sometimes it feels, though, that the private eye's sadness and vulnerability becomes a bit too much. There's too much grief, too much sadness, too many broken lives. I mean, just how much can one man have in his own life? This is the case with Scottish writer Russel D. McLean's debut novel, The Good Son (Five Leaves 2008). It stars PI J. McNee whose life is a mess, mainly due to the fact that his girlfriend was killed some years ago and he hasn't gotten over it. He's a recluse and it seems no one really cares for him. His friends disappeared when he was thrown out from the police force. The Good Son puts him against some London gangsters, who show no mercy wanting something from McNee and his client, a man who found his long-lost brother hanging dead in a tree.

It's an interesting novel and the premise is intriguing, but the book is also flawed in many respects. First, there are several people in the book that I don't really buy. For example, McNee's client never feels like a Scottish farmer he is, even though McNee mentions many times that the man really looks the part. There are also some old school tough guys who I didn't find very convincing.

Second, I was a bit disappointed at how McLean tells important plot points, by narrating them through people who tell the stories to McNee. Some of them don't feel authentic and have some narrative conventions that don't fit in with the backflash structure. And this narrative device also makes McNee look like he's actually doing nothing to solve the mystery of the dead man hanging from the tree. (Which of course goes on to show how much of a loser McNee is.)

And I think McLean stresses McNee's personal grieves just a bit too much. Get on with it, for Chrissake! The ending especially has too much of this stuff.

But having said all this, I can say I enjoyed the book and am pleased to notice that it's been bought for an American release and that the same US publisher has bought also McLean's second novel, The Lost Sister (out in October).

And I'd really like to press a point here. Russel McLean has published lots of stories in the net, in publications like Spinetingler and Thrilling Detective. The Good Son was published in the UK by a small publisher, and now McLean is being published in the US by St. Martin's, which is a big (or biggish) publisher.

Similar things have happened with Dave Zeltserman, whose first novel was self-published and it became later Fast Lane, published in PoD by PointBlank, and who ran his own website, Hardluck Stories for short stories and to promote his own work, and Allan Guthrie who also published first through PointBlank. I'm sure I could come up with more examples (and I did, earlier today, but I already forgot who it was). Websites and PoD publishers and self-publications, not to mention e-publishing, which I think will be developing into something worthwhile in ten years, are the pulp magazines and paperbacks of today, a forum in which a writer can hone his skills and gather following and learn his trade. They are nothing to laugh about.

Tommi Aitio's review of Keikkakuski

Here's a quote from Tommi Aitio's very positive and knowledgeable review of Duane Swierczynski's Keikkakuski. It appeared in Kauppalehti on June, 23rd.

Älä ota kesäkissaa, hanki kesäkirja!

Kauppalehti luki puolestasi suven kiinnostavimmat kirjauutuudet - Duane Swierczynski operoi Jim Thompsonin, Charles Williamsin, Charles Willefordin ja Elmore Leonardin rajaamassa vaikutuskentässä, ja millä ketteryydellä!

Keikkakuski ei kenties luo kovan dekkarin perinteeseen mitään uutta, mutta tyylipastissina se on niin täydellinen, että sen soisi herättävän vaikkapa Tarantinon huomion. Virheetön suoritus, kerrassaan.

Hurmehommat Keikkakuski kuvaa kohtuullisen suorasukaisesti niin kuin valitun tyylilajin ilmaisulliseen perinteeseen kuuluu. Perinnetietoista on myös Swierczynskin tapa pyöräyttää luku luvulta tarinaan lisää henkilöhahmoja ja narratiivisia käänteitä. Lopulta porukkaa on paikalla lähes hallitsemattomasti, mutta tällaiset dramaturgiset haasteet Swierczynski voittaa tapattamalla muutaman tyypin pois juonenkulkua häiritsemästä. Autenttinen pulp-kirjailija, siis.

A review on Conrad Hirst

Jussi Katajala's review on Kuka on Conrad Hirst (in Finnish). Quite positive: gets four national states departed from Yugoslavia out of five!

Sarah Weinman's take on Spade & Archer

Sarah Weinman has a more positive view of Joe Gores's Maltese Falcon prequel.

Spade & Archer

Here's a review of a new novel, Spade & Archer, by Joe Gores: it's a prequel to Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. The review is not positive in all accounts, even though Gores is a very good writer. He's not very well known in Finland - perhaps because his translation history here is random at best: his first, A Time of Predators, came out in Finnish, then Hammett in 1977, then, after over ten years' silence, one of his later books. The Hammett book made him seem like a pastiche guy, even though it's his only pastiche work. Before Spade & Archer, that is.

(Hat tip to David Gustafson on the PulpMags group!)

A review on my Western anthology

Here's a recent review from Kirjavinkit on my two-author Western anthology, Töitä arkkunikkarille.