After reading J. Walt Layne‘s novel, Russian Roulette set in Champion City, I figured I should check out the prior ones. The first one is A Week in Hell from Pro Se Press.
It’s a shorter work, and don’t think it really qualifies as a novel, maybe as a novella. It was actually published 10 years ago. And it’s actually set about 10 years after Russian Roulette. A scene toward the end of that novel is noted in this one. But you can read these two in any order, it won’t affect things.
A Week in Hell is a police/crime novel that occurs over one day that seems like a week for police officer Thurman Dicke.
He happens to run into Candace Alice Pinkerton, who is manning the bar at a dive where he comes to deal with a fight. But there is no evidence of any such thing. She gives him an address for him to meet up with her later. He does, and they go out for dinner.
Then things go from there as they run into criminals, go to other places, etc. Officer Dicke tries to learn what is going on, how the Outfit might be tied in, etc. At the end, things won’t turn out well for someone.
This work uses a lot of slang, though I’m disappointed that none of the roscoes go ka-chow.
As noted, the subsequent stories set in Champion City are Breathless and Stranglehold, which were written as one novel, but broken into two volumes. Both again star Thurman Dicke and both are from Pro Se Press.
If you like fast-moving crime dramas, check these out.
