Monday, September 02, 2019

Coming From Stark House: Warped Desires/The Strangest Sin - Kay Addams (Orrie Hitt)


WARPED DESIRE

It has to be this way every weekend, Laura said as we lay side by side. How can it be? My father will be home. After he has gone to sleep I can come to you. What if he should catch us? He won't catch us. We'll be smart. He's a sound sleeper but if that doesn't work out we can always take a ride into the country. I sighed and closed my eyes. This was my father's wife. And my lover....

THE STRANGEST SIN

Sharon Doyle felt dirty when she woke up in Jimmy Slade's bed, but that wasn't unusual. She always felt dirty after a night of passion in Jimmy's cheap room... Sharon owns a bar and too often ends up blotto at the end of the evening, letting Jimmy take her back to his place. Her neighbor Carl Evans is a nicer guy, but he won't make a move. Between them is Bert Robinson, the local racketeer who wants Sharon all to himself, no matter what it takes. But Sharon is tired of them. She finds herself more attracted to her bartender, Lucy, who keeps the local guys satisfied in a room upstairs. It's a lit-fuse situation, and all it takes is a single act of violence to set it off.

I wrote the introduction to this double volume from Stark House that will be out later this fall, and I'm proud to have done so. Both novels are top-notch tales from a great storyteller, and I give this collection a very high recommendation.


2 comments:

Ron Clinton said...

Can't wait for this volume, James, and your introduction for it. Your reviews of Hitt's work were the impetus for me picking up my first Hitt volume a few years ago...and now I have 70-something Hitt novels on my shelves. Fortunately, though, neither of these two, so am very much looking forward to it.

James Reasoner said...

Ron,
You don't know how happy comments like that make me. If the blog helps people discover authors they like, I think it's all worthwhile.