Epitaph for a Tramp and Epitaph for a Dead Beat: The Harry Fannin Detective Novels

“The end, except that I still had the pail and shovel but all the sand was gone from the sandbox.”

That’s Harry Fannin, after his divorce. His ex-wife shows up unexpectedly on his doorstep and dies right there, slashed by a knife. Fannin wants to know why… It's a good story, dark and brooding, in the ballpark of Chandler and Hammett!

“Corpse impaled on a fence, accident while fleeing interrogation.”

“The car didn’t make anymore noise than flour flatulent drunks in a YMCA shower.”
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The second book was a bit different, more tongue-in-cheek comedy plus detective story.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book, as I just sort of picked it up randomly at the local used show more book store! A Beat story, a detective story, and just a sort of weird and wonderful story! LOTS of references to pop-culture, music, literature, and baseball! - show less

If you gobble up hardboiled tales like they are Halloween candy, you'll chomp this one to bits. Yes, it is purposefully filled with all the cliches about a down on his luck PI who is holding a torch for an ex who descended into a downward spiral of trampiness and chasing the next high. But, it is simply a terrific read. Fannin slings the one liners like any great PI and stays just friendly enough with the police to stay out of the clink - barely. Cathy is the one who slipped through his fingers, but she stumbled back into his life, desperately seeking his help. She's still so lovely that poor Harry can't even think straight. And now she's brought danger and knives and tough punks into Fannin's life.
This book is just plain old fashioned show more over the top hardboiled PI fun. Every page is an absolute joy to read.

"Epitaph For A Deadbeat" is the second novel in this double feature. It's the "B" side. It's a fun read, but not quite the story "Tramp" is. This one, too, features wisecracking PI Harry Fannin and some violent murders. Here, Fannin walks into the wrong bar and the trouble starts from there. This one is all about the beatniks and their crazy lifestyle in Greenwich Village. They are all nutty want-to-be poets and trampy women floating in a haze from bed to bed. Fannin doesn't exactly approve of the Beats and what goes on in the Village.

Together, the two stories are fun, good, and worthwhile. show less

"... there was enough ripe womanhood in her bare arms alone to melt nonferrous metals." These novels are full of phrases like that. Entertaining and fun to read. Recommended.

From the author of the wonderful and strange modern classics 'Wittgenstein's Mistress' and 'This is Not a Novel' comes a re-issue of some early work written "to pay the rent" in the late 50s. These are straight beatnik-pulp-noir detective stories with lots of booze, tough talk, broads, and touches of high brow literary references (Ginsberg! Gaddis!) Get your kicks with the cook kids! -Steve