A
Goodis-like noir full of lust, desperation, and an overwhelming sense of
hopelessness. For Orrie Hitt’s characters, there is no way out of the slums he
so deftly portrays in THE CHEATERS, only a less painful way to make ends.
Cheating is
commonplace, an accepted pastime in The Dell, one that has kept young woman off
the streets and in beds on their backs, and hapless men without coin to feed
their families for favouring sins of the flesh. Clint, a bartender who also
runs a small prostitution business on the side takes full advantage of this,
much to the dislike of his pregnant girlfriend.
Wanting to
live as straight and narrow as able given his occupation, Clint easily succumbs
to the curves and pretty face of his bosses wife, before long he’s paying off
cops, contemplating murder, and leaving his girlfriend.
THE CHEATERS
is a highly addictive novel that emphasises all that is noir through a whisky
stained glass. It’s brimming with bad people in a bad place with little or no redeeming
qualities. Much like Goodis, Orrie Hitt is fast becoming one of my favourite
noir/pulp authors.
This review
is from THE CHEATERS as appears in the Starkhouse double feature THE
CHEATERS/DIAL M FOR MAN: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14741760-the-cheaters-dial-m-for-man
See my 5
star review of UNFAITHFUL WIVES here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/338390037
Sounds interesting
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