He sucks on mints, sees a doctor pal for his upset gut, and still likes to hoist the bottle when he’s not puffing away. A street savvy and relentless sleuth, Marty complies and tangles with the organized crime elements. Marty’s ex-wife Dot asks for his aid to investigate and pry the brutish goons off Lawrence’s back. Before long, Lawrence is waylaid and beaten up in an alleyway. Lawrence brings to Marty a fishy story about a local butcher ( Men is set in NYC where Lacy lived and worked as a full-time writer) who was robbed of fifty gees and then turned around and recanted his robbery claim. Of course, the cynic Marty is dead-set against Lawrence’s police career ambitions. Lawrence is a volunteer auxiliary cop responsible for directing things after they drop the big one, an almost hysterical fear in the 1950s. He also oversees a stable of working ladies and refers to himself as a “pimp.” Trouble starts when his young stepson Lawrence shows up at the hotel. Marty Bond, 54, is an ex-cop pensioned off and now reduced to working as a hotel detective in a genuine dive called the Grover. Well, it’s not without its warts, but I still found it a compelling and worthwhile enough title to say a few words about here. Several years ago after my first reading, I felt lots of enthusiasm for Men, and I decided to give it a second read and see how my impressions held up. Lacy’s daughter from his interracial marriage. Men is dedicated to Carla who I believe is Mr. From what I could find, he adopted the pseudonym as a way to evade the Communist witch-hunts blackballing authors and writers throughout the 1950s. I wrote a long profile on his life and literary output for Mystery*File ( ). He’s quite a character himself: WW II hero, playwright, Communist Party member, The New Yorker contributor, and MWA stalwart. Harper & Row.Įd Lacy (1911-68) is an old-line pulp fiction writer whose hardboiled and noir oeuvre I’ve enjoyed reading over the years. Purchase links for Lake Charles on Amazon: Kindle: Or if you like it soft-boiled, his small town cozy featuring two senior lady sleuths QUIET ANCHORAGE is also out now. Ed Lynskey’s new Appalachian noir LAKE CHARLES from Wildside Press is available in Kindle and paper in June.

Quiet Anchorage by Ed Lynskey