Cover artist uncredited
Today, we turn to a life of crime.
Adventure
Horror
In the 1950s, there was a surfeit of writers who could turn out crackerjack hard-boiled crime stories on a regular basis. It was a Golden Age for the genre.
One of those writers is Gil Brewer. His story "With This Gun" is an example of how good he was. Published in the March 1951 issue of Detective Tales, the story is just eight pages long. Within that eight pages, Brewer introduces and defines the key characters, sets up the situation and brings it all to a satisfying conclusion.
Danny is a man who had done some petty thefts when he was young. His older brother Tad was already a crook, but didn't want Danny going down the same road. So he beat the crap out of Danny.
After a stint in the army, Danny opens a bar and does okay for himself. But then he meets the sexy bombshell Joan. Soon, Danny is in love with her, but she wants more out of life than what Danny can give her. The small bar isn't enough. But what if Danny robs the weekly receipts of a swanky beach club that's near his bar? THEN Joan will be happy and they can get married.
That Joan is a double-crossin' femme fatale is obvious to any reader. So you read along expecting her to either run out on Danny with the money or kill him. But her plan is actually more complex. And perhaps Danny's brother Tad might have a role to play in all this.
It's a great story, siccinct without being rushed with an unexpected twist at the end. It's a prime example of exactly why the 1950s was indeed a Golden Age for hard-boiled fiction.
I'm afraid I don't have a link to find this one online. It is included in the superb anthology of Brewer's fiction Redheads Die Quickly.
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