Gil Brewer - The Vengeful Virgin (Hard Case Crime)

[One] of the most adroit plot-spinners of the paperback era.

Geoffrey OBrien, Hardboiled America

Gil Brewer has spent a long time in the shadows of his more famous contemporaries, but his best worka noir blend of James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett and Ernest Hemingwaygives his rivals a run for their money. Im delighted to see him making a comeback.

Allan Guthrie

There is a Woolrichian darkness and desperation in his best work. It stays with you a long, long time.

Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins, A Century of Noir

The prose is lean [yet] rich with raw emotion genuinely portrayed and felt.

Bill Pronzini

A short but full-packed story, pointed and restrained...an effective tale of an ordinary man trying to turn sharpie and destroying himself in the process.

Anthony Boucher, The New York Times

One of the most respected (and collected) of the Gold Medal writers.

Murder Mystery Monthlies

His style is simple and direct, with sharp dialogue and considerable passion and intensity; at times it takes on an almost Hemingwayesque flavor.

St. James Guide To Crime & Mystery Writers

Skillfully conveys the despair of a man with a lifelong dream after he succumbs to the temptation provided by a...fortune.

Publishers Weekly

One of the leading writers of paperback originals.

Contemporary American Authors

At his best, he hooked you in his first paragraph and never let you go.

Ed Gorman

She pouted. Please. Id like a fire.

She had the blankets spread all around the floor in front of the fireplace. I dumped the wood in a box, and set the fire with some old newspapers underneath the wood. It caught quickly, and the room became a chimera of fire and shadow.

When I turned around, she was naked, lying there on the blankets.

Get the money, Jack.

I didnt say anything. I got the money bag and brought it back.

Pour it out, she said. Here. She slapped the blanket between us.

I opened the bag and turned it upside down. The money fell there on the blanket between us, piling up and piling up. I threw the small suitcase across the room, and knelt looking at it.

It kind of makes you crazy, I said. Doesnt it?

Undress, she said. Like me. Take your shirt off.

The firelight was high now, and the flames danced across the ceiling and played like thin wicked fingers across the pile of money.

Jesus, Jackjust look at it, will you?

I felt a little crazy, right then. I couldnt help it.

Shirley knelt by the money. She reached into it with both fists and tossed it into the air, and watched it flutter down. I lay there, watching her. She was beautiful, Christ, they didnt come any more beautiful than Shirley Angela. Kneeling there with that big pile of money, and the firelight playing across her body, breasts, hip and thigh, her flesh sheened a little with perspiration from the heat so it mirrored the flamesthere was never anything like it...

SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:

GRIFTERS GAME by Lawrence Block

FADE TO BLONDE by Max Phillips

TOP OF THE HEAP by Erle Stanley Gardner

LITTLE GIRL LOST by Richard Aleas

TWO FOR THE MONEY by Max Allan Collins

THE CONFESSION by Domenic Stansberry

HOME IS THE SAILOR by Day Keene

KISS HER GOODBYE by Allan Guthrie

361 by Donald E. Westlake

PLUNDER OF THE SUN by David Dodge

BRANDED WOMAN by Wade Miller

DUTCH UNCLE by Peter Pavia

THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block

THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE by Ed McBain

NIGHT WALKER by Donald Hamilton

A TOUCH OF DEATH by Charles Williams

SAY IT WITH BULLETS by Richard Powell

WITNESS TO MYSELF by Seymour Shubin

BUST by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

STRAIGHT CUT by Madison Smartt Bell

LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark

THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins

THE GUNS OF HEAVEN by Pete Hamill

THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge

GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange

THE PEDDLER by Richard S. Prather

LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block

ROBBIES WIFE by Russell Hill

byGil Brewer

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK

(HCC-030)

First Hard Case Crime edition: April 2007

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street

London

SE1 0UP

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should know that it is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

Copyright 1958 by Gil Brewer

Cover painting copyright 2006 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 978-0-85768-374-8

E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-387-8

Cover design by Cooley Design Lab

Design direction by Max Phillips

www.maxphillips.net

Typeset by Swordsmith Productions

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.

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