Charles Ardai, Fifty-to-One (Hard Case Crime, 2008)
Fifty-to-One by Charles Ardai is the latest novel published by Hard Case Crime.
When Patricia Heverstadt got on the train she hoped to find both excitement and a job in New York City -- two things that were in short supply in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She just didn't expect the job to be dancing in a gangster's club or for there to be quite so much excitement involved. You see, Charlie Borden had offered Tricia a penny a word to write about the criminal goings-on at the club she worked at. Only The Sun was the one club Salvatore Nicolazzo owned where nothing was going on. So Tricia made up a story about a gangster who'd taken Nicolazzo for millions and claimed it was a memoir.
The problem?
Someone has actually robbed the ruthless Nicolazzo, using the blueprint from Tricia's book and no-one, not the police and certainly not Uncle Nick, believes that she wasn't involved. Now Tricia and her publisher, the unpredictable and unreliable Charley Borden, are in a race against time across the unfamiliar New York streets to find out who robbed Sal. If they fail, their friends and family will pay the price.
Fifty-to-One is Hard Case Crime's fiftieth book, and is based on the idea that the company was founded fifty years, not fifty books, ago. Each of the book's fifty chapters are named after one of Hard-Case Crime's books, starting with Grifter's Game and ending with Fifty-to-One. The novel is also peppered with nods to characters and locations drawn from the Hard Case Crime catalogue. Even some of the authors are given a role to play in this re-invented history of the company. It's a publicity stunt, a self-referential bit of promotion by Charles Ardai on behalf of his company, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else.
That's not to say it isn't a good read too. Fifty-to-One is clearly a labour of love by Ardai and it shows; he's crafted a coherent, fast-paced story from the disparate elements he started with. The novel works as a clever, and effective, promotional tool, but it can stand also stand on its own merits. Tricia might not have been the sort of detective who starred in most Black Mask stories, but I think both she and the story are fine additions to the pulp canon.
The plot is clever and throws enough twists and red herrings in the readers' path to keep them guessing about who the robbers really are. It keeps the pressure on Tricia from the start to the end of her adventure, ratcheting the danger up a notch every few chapters.
One result of this is that occasionally the plot does creak in places, trying to balance all the tertiary characters who appear to complicate Tricia's life still more. It also struggles with the need to reference all of the chapter titles in the narrative, with some scenes seemingly created solely to justify the use of the title. Which, of course, they were. Mostly, however, the sense of momentum evoked by the narrative is enough to keep readers on the edge of their seat and not asking too many questions.
On the whole Fifty-to-One is an immensely enjoyable crime caper. Ardai is a gifted writer and has a clear love for, and appreciation of, the hard-boiled genre. Fifty-to-One is a book that sets out to do two things: celebrate Hard Case Crime reaching fifty publications and to entertain the readers. It does both admirably and I look forward to seeing what Ardai does to celebrate when he reaches his 100th publication.
