Nothing in Her Way / River Girl (Stark House Noir Classics)
Sixty years ago, almost every American small-town pharmacy and sandwich shop offered a revolving rack of paperback novels. Many of the titles were noir paperback originals published by Gold Medal Books. Williams, now better remembered in Europe than in the U.S., was one of Gold Medal’s stars. Stark House has bundled two of Williams’ early novels into their Noir Classics series. Nothing in Her Way offers a convoluted revenge-via-con-game executed by a former husband and wife. Published in 1953, it shows the rapid evolution of Williams’ style. River Girl, one of three novels Williams published in 1951, is country noir focused on a bent sheriff’s deputy in a small southern city. Jack Marshall is a reluctant bagman for the thoroughly corrupt sheriff, but he needs his taste of each collection to narrow the widening gap between his income and his willful, demanding wife’s spending. His only respite is fishing, and while angling, he encounters Doris, a beautiful young woman who immediately becomes his obsession and, possibly, his salvation. Old-school crime for a past master. --Thomas Gaughan