It's a Hard Case Life for Us...

USA Today correspondent Jacqueline Blais delivers the goods on the launch of Hard Case Crime, the line of tough-as-nails paperback crime novels that mixes classics from guys like Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake with a new generation that includes Max Phillips and Richard Aleas. Okay, so they're the imprint's co-founders; Aleas is a pseudonym for publisher Charles Ardai. You got to start somewhere, and Phillips' Fade to Blonde is a hell of a place to start, as I found out this weekend. I love everything about this book--the tightly wound prose, the painted cover's promise of sex and danger, hell, even the typeface meets the classic pulp standards. And if you think the picture you're seeing now is cool, be sure to check out that Aleas book, because the dame on that cover was painted by the same guy who did the poster for Breakfast at Tiffany's. Mark my words, these guys are going to become the Black Lizard of the 21st century...