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Post by andydecker on Jun 4, 2020 15:05:46 GMT
Michael McDowell – Gilded Needles (Fontana 1981, original Avon Books, 1980, 315 p.) When you cross some people, you may wind up dead. When you cross those of the
GILDED NEEDLES
You wind up wishing you were dead.
She was the queen of The Black Triangle, the empire of the opium dens, gambling casinos and gaudy brothels. Sie led a ring of consummate female criminals, known as Satan's Circle.
He was the most upright judge, head of the distinguished, rich and most prominent family in the town. He worshipped the respectability of the family name.
He sentenced three of her family to death.
Not only he, but all his family, received a personal invitation – an invitation to their own funeral.
Can even their fabled fortune and power save them from her diabolical revenge?This is another of McDowell's original early paperbacks. This has no supernatural elements, but is a historical crime novel about New York 1882. It is pretty gruesome in places, a revenge story. I guess todays copy would describe it as The Alienist meets The Gangs of New York, which is nonsense of course, as McDowell has his own voice. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jun 4, 2020 19:00:38 GMT
Many years ago, I bought used copies of GILDED NEEDLES and several other first-edition McDowell books via Amazon's marketplace. Much later, Amazon had a campaign where if you had bought a physical book from them, you would get the corresponding Kindle ebook for free, and they promptly gifted me the shiny new Valancourt ebook editions of those volumes. I repeat, I had bought used books through them, and they gave me the ebook versions for free! It makes your head spin. Mind you, I am not complaining. The scheme appears to have been short-lived.
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Post by Knygathin on Jun 6, 2020 10:43:54 GMT
YIKES! One more author I never heard of! Looks like yet another King and Koontz bestseller clone. But what do I know ... I am out of here, running as fast as I can!
But but ... my feet are becoming heavy as lead. Looks like I need to have a look at Elementals and Cold Moon over Babylon at least.
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Post by andydecker on Jun 6, 2020 11:04:27 GMT
YIKES! One more author I never heard of! Looks like yet another King and Koontz bestseller clone. But what do I know ... I am out of here, running as fast as I can! But but ... my feet are becoming heavy as lead. Looks like I need to have a look at Elementals and Cold Moon over Babylon at least. As far as McDowell's prose work is concerned, I can't imagine a writer more different than Koontz. You are surely right that the rise of King and Koontz gave him the opportunity to sell his work, but Koontz will be always the Robert Ludlum of horror (or better weird suspense, I don't see Koontz as a typical horror writer) for me. While McDowell sits in the shadow of Shirley Jackson. |
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