Max Phillips - Fade to Blonde

Rave Reviews

for MAX PHILLIPS!

A rip-roaring page-turner.

New York Newsday

Snappy dialogue, caustic characterizations, hot descriptive passages.

Esquire

A graphic satire of bedroom mores.

The New Yorker

Deft satiric wit.

The New York Times Book Review

Masterfully told... Phillips keeps it compelling to the end.

The Seattle Times

Irresistible.

J.D. Landis, author of Longing

Inventive, vividly written... highly entertaining.

Kirkus Reviews

High Praise for

FADE to BLONDE!

Sharp, savvy, and unapologetically raunchy... this taut, hard novel is a winner.

January Magazine

A dark, dangerous style.

The New York Times Sunday Magazine

A sleek ride... note-perfect noir.

The Haddon Herald

Its been said that Fade to Blonde could have been a Gold Medal novel. It certainly could have. Its easily one of the best books Ive read this year.

James Reasoner

A smash from beginning to end.

Pop Thought

Sure to thrill... They do write em like they used to.

Publishers Weekly

The one with the big watch put a hand on my chest, and I stopped and looked down at it.

Thats a mistake, I said. Undo it.

We need to talk a minute, Mr. Rose, he said.

You dont look like much of a conversationalist. Take that hand away.

Listen, friend, he said. We need to talk about how you talk to people.

Maybe its because I was such a lousy boxer, but I dont see the point of going move and countermove with people who ought to know the moves as well as you do. What Id rather do is upset the board. I gave out a sort of groan and began to sit down, as if I were tired or having an attack, and without thinking the pug tried to pull me back up again by the tie. All two hundred forty-odd pounds of me, one-handed. I almost felt sorry for him. But I came up again fast, grabbing the back of his neck as I went, and broke his nose with my forehead. The pug fell back clutching his face and screaming way back in his throat, and his buddy moved in, but glancing over at his friend instead of tending to business, and I kicked out sideways and broke the buddys knee. That would have settled me for a while, but he looked like he wanted to get up again somehow, and I kicked him in the belly, which made him more introspective. By this time the first guy had gotten out his gun and lit off a couple, clutching his face and firing half-blind...

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SHOOTING STAR/SPIDERWEB by Robert Bloch

THE MURDERER VINE by Shepard Rifkin

SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY by Donald E. Westlake

NO HOUSE LIMIT by Steve Fisher

BABY MOLL by John Farris

THE MAX by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

THE FIRST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins

GUN WORK by David J. Schow

FIFTY-TO-ONE by Charles Ardai

KILLING CASTRO by Lawrence Block

THE DEAD MANS BROTHER by Roger Zelazny

THE CUTIE by Donald E. Westlake

HOUSE DICK by E. Howard Hunt

CASINO MOON by Peter Blauner

FAKE I.D. by Jason Starr

PASSPORT TO PERIL by Robert B. Parker

STOP THIS MAN! by Peter Rabe

LOSERS LIVE LONGER by Russell Atwood

HONEY IN HIS MOUTH by Lester Dent

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THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES by Jonny Porkpie

byMax Phillips

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK

(HCC-002)

First Hard Case Crime edition: September 2004

Published by

Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark Street
London
SE1 0UP

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

Copyright 2004 by Max Phillips

Cover painting copyright 2004 by Gregory Manchess

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Print edition ISBN 978-0-85768-313-7
E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-763-0

Design direction by Max Phillips
www.maxphillips.net

The name Hard Case Crime and the Hard Case Crime logo are trademarks of Winterfall LLC. Hard Case Crime Books are selected and edited by Charles Ardai.

Visit us on the web at www.HardCaseCrime.com

For K, the most dangerous blonde of all

Well, maybe she wasnt all that blonde, but itd be a crime to call hair like that light brown. It was more sort of lion-colored. Lioness. It was heavy, shiny hair, and it fell straight down to her shoulders from a central part. She hadnt done much to it. She didnt have to. She got out of the big Studebaker convertible and walked across the red dirt where someday there was supposed to be a front lawn. I was up on the roof, laying tile for one of those little hacienda-looking breadboxes. The whole street was full of them, all half-built. She wore a pale blue dress with cream piping, a dark blue belt, and a silly little schoolgirlish collar. She had nice straight shoulders. There was nothing wrong between them and her open-toed shoes, so I guess the trouble must have been somewhere behind those blue-gray eyes. Thered be trouble, of course. She looked up and called, Is your name Corson?

I said it was.

Are you busy?

I didnt think she could be an actual movie star. She didnt walk right, and she was too thin for the work, with two notable exceptions. She looked up at me, shading her eyes. Id like to talk to you.

You are, I said.

I might have some work for you.