A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Day of the Moon - Bill Pronzini and Jeffrey Wallmann

As far as I can tell, DAY OF THE MOON has been published in only two editions, a 1983 British hardback from Robert Hale and a 1993 paperback reprint from Carroll & Graf. (No longer true. It's available in an e-book edition on Amazon.) It’s a dandy little crime thriller, tightly plotted as you’d expect from a couple of old pros like Bill Pronzini and Jeff Wallmann and written in terse, hardboiled prose that’s a joy to read.

Flagg (we’re never told his first name) is a troubleshooter for the mob, here known as the Organization. He’s headquartered in San Francisco. As the book opens, he’s looking for the loot from an armored car robbery which has disappeared following some sort of double-cross that left the planner of the heist dead. That job isn’t the only one Flagg has on his plate, though. He’s also investigating a series of hijackings involving trucks and merchandise owned by the Organization, including some moonshining equipment. That ties in with Flagg’s third assignment, which is to find the bootlegger who’s trying to muscle in on the Organization’s illegal liquor operation in the Pacific Northwest. Not surprisingly, the armored car robbery winds up being connected to Flagg’s other two jobs as well.

Flagg reminds me a lot of Donald E. Westlake’s Parker in his low-key professionalism and also in the fact that the reader winds up rooting for him despite the fact that he’s a criminal. He actually comes across as a private eye of sorts, except his only client is the Organization. He shies away from violence, although he’s plenty tough when he has to be, and prefers to rely on his brain rather than a gun. He needs both, though, to untangle this complicated plot. I’m not aware of any other books or stories featuring Flagg and don’t know if he was intended to be a series character, but he certainly could have been. DAY OF THE MOON is a fine, enjoyable novel. One of the reviews quoted on the cover of the paperback refers to it as a “good, old-fashioned page-turner”, and that’s exactly what it is.

(This post originally appeared in a somewhat different form on May 23, 2008. A few days later, on May 26, Bill Pronzini provided more information about the book's background.)

"You're right that Flagg was intended to be a series character. The novel was originally sold to Leisure here, but never published because of a change of regime and policy; Wallmann and I were lucky to sell it to Hale in the U.K. And to have Carroll & Graf do a U.S. mass market edition, all thanks to Ed G. (Ed Gorman)

Incidentally, MOON is composed of three novelettes, two from AHMM, one from MSMM, that we bridged together and revised into the novel format. There's one other Flagg novelette from AHMM that we planned to use as the basis for a second novel and that has never been reprinted or collected."

(And here's the listing of the original Flagg stories from the Fictionmags Index.)

Day of the Moon, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine June 1970, as by William Jeffrey
Murder Is No Man’s Friend, (ss) Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine November 1970, as by William Jeffrey
The Ten Million Dollar Hijack, (nv) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine January 1972, as by William Jeffrey
The Island, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine August 1972, as by William Jeffrey

(I've met both Bill Pronzini and Jeff Wallmann, one time each, on separate occasions. I'm sure some of you know them much better than I do. I found them to be fine fellows and excellent writers. In fact, I need to read more by both of them. In the meantime, I still highly recommend this novel.)