Framed in Guilt / My Flesh is Sweet
Hard Case Crime may be making a bigger splash with their line of pulp reprints and paperback originals, but tiny Stark House has also shown a discerning eye when it comes to worthy obscurities (Peter Rabe'sMurder Me for Nickels/Benny Muscles In, 2005). Keene (born Gunard Hjertstedt) was a prolific, workmanlike writer whose better books boast well-made stories, deft pacing, and sly humor. InFramed in Guilt, Keene reworks a hoary chestnut of a plot--a successful screenwriter wakes up from a bender to find himself the chief suspect in a murder he can't remember--and delivers it with enough elan to make us forget the cliches.My Flesh Is Sweetfeatures another wrongly accused scribe--this one a penniless pulp writer with literary ambitions--but has a rip-roaring potboiler of a plot that is almost epic by the standards of the genre. Interestingly, the aforementioned Hard Case Crime also recently reprinted a Keene novel (Home Is the Sailor, 2005). Can dueling Rabes be far behind?Keir GraffCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved