Pick Up A Pulp [43]: UNDERSTUDY FOR DEATH by Charles Willeford

The synopsis for Understudy for Death reads like it should be a hard hitting dark piece of crime fiction where a journalist becomes entrenched in a horrific crime involving the murder suicide of a housewife and her two young children. 

However, the long lost 1960's pulp novel by Charles Willeford is anything but, with the murder suicide little more than a byline into newspaper reporter Richard Hudson's freewheeling, male chauvinistic, sex-obsessed life.

Don't get me wrong, the book is a fun read; pitch perfect pulp for fans of the likes of sleaze-pulp authors Orrie Hitt and some of the earlier, more risque' novels by Lawrence Block (writing as Sheldon Lord). 

The plot largely centers around Hudson as he drinks and sleeps his way through a series of newspaper articles whilst digging around for a window into the deceased life leading up to the unfortunate event. 

My rating: 3/5 stars.

Related pulps:

As Bad As They Come by Orrie Hitt

69 Barrow Street by Lawrence Block