He was disturbed,

still trembling, still vibrating

with the throes of the crisis,

but he was the master;

the animal was downed,

was cowed for this time,

at least.

But for all that, the brute

was there. Long dormant,

it was now at last alive,

awake. From now on he

would feel its presence continually;

would feel it tugging at its chain,

watching its opportunity.

Frank Norris
McTeague
1899

It would be fun
to cut Katsu,
to see what it felt like
to kill with a knife.
He'd already shot
somebody today;
if he strangled Kyle afterward
it would be like hitting
the murder trifecta.

Ken Bruen & Jason Starr
Slide
2007

She spoke broken, halting English,
but since I spoke Thai better
than she spoke my native tongue
we conversed in her language.
Though for the most part
we'd used body Thai,
which is something like body English
but more passionate.

William Knoles
Jade Brothel
1961

I'm not hard to hire.

All you have to do is

offer me money.

Robert Terrall

Kill Now, Pay Later

1960

I found it amazing

how many men,

when asked to supply

a photo of themselves

by a young woman

over the Internet,

responded by sending

a digital snapshot

of their penis.

Charles Ardai

Songs of Innocence

2007

Roger knew well enough

what he wanted to do,

but he wasn't certain if

he would know just how

to go about it.

In the end

that didn't matter,

however,

because Grace did.

James McKimmey

The Perfect Victim

1958

They said the leg was going

to be as good as ever,

but it wasn't.

You could see that by

the end of the first week

of practice.

I couldn't pivot and

swing fast enough to

go with the play even

when I saw it coming,

and they ran through me

like B-girls through

a sailor's bank-roll.

Charles Williams

"The Big Bite"

1956

As he took his woman,

the fire was solely his own fire

and there was the sordid and dismal feeling,

and finally the downright horrible feeling,

of being alone in the bed.

David Goodis

Cassidy's Girl

1951

The ghosts

of sad, cheap souls

live on

in sad, cheap furniture.

Ryu Murakami

In the Miso Soup

1997

(translated by Ralph McCarthy)

She was as beautiful

as only a woman

made for dirt can be.

P. J. Wolfson

Bodies Are Dust

1931

Money is no fun

to go to bed with.

Gardner F. Fox

Witness This Woman

1959

She gave me a smile
I could feel
in my hip pocket.

Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely
1940

Guards knew when the blue devils had

seized the inmates of these cages.

They couldn't eat.

And there were times, too, when

even the guards couldn't eat.

Theodore Dreiser

An American Tragedy

1925

She pulled off her brassiere and

held it aloft. There were cheers,

and she turned from one side

to the other triumphantly.

Her breasts looked enormously

distorted in the moonlight,

their hard, clean crowns gleaming

and the shadows they cast hanging down

like ugly sinister forebodings

of the ruin age would bring

to their strength, their thrust.

David Karp

Hardman

1953

If you want to know

the truth that much,

go out and commit

a crime yourself.

That's the only way

you'll ever know.

Asa Nonami

The Hunter

1996

(trans. by Juliet Winters Carpenter)

I looked down at myself.

It was like seeing

a technicolor rainbow shining

on a bushel basket full

of mangled bread dough.

Gil Brewer

The Squeeze

1955

He shook tooth powder into his mouth.

His grandmother could smell liquor

like a dry sourdough in the Klondike.

Patricia Highsmith

Strangers on a Train

1950

She leaned forward again

so quickly that

four things bobbed--

two of them earrings.

Robert Bloch

The Will to Kill

1954

He tried to hate them because

they were enjoying themselves.

He collected some hate,

aimed it, and tossed it,

then knew right away

it was just a boomerang.

There was no one to hate

but himself.

David Goodis

The Wounded and the Slain

1955

Brandy, he thought.

Actually, it was

carbolic acid.

Thus Philibert Faroux,

of Noroy, Oise,

outlived his spree by

a mere two hours.

Félix Fénéon

Novels in Three Lines

1906

(translated by Luc Sante)

I sat up at the counter and

pretended to look the menu over

but I was watching Stella.

I was never so glad

to see anybody in my life.

There was something about her

that got me.  She wasn't

all over you.  She had

that cool aloofness--

luscious figure, soft skin.

I watched her fill

two bowls of cereal.

Marty Holland

Fallen Angel

1945

It was a woman's gun,

a little pearl-handled automatic,

not as big as his hand

as he let it rest in his lap,

but there's no difference between

being killed with one of them

and with a .45 unless

it's prestige you're after.

Charles Williams

Hell Hath No Fury

1953

Morning sun stripes cell.

Five fingers feel my hard heart.

It hurts, hurts, like hell.

Charles Willeford

Miami Blues

1984

Her hair was falling over

her shoulders in snaky

curls. Her eye was all black,

and her breasts weren't drawn

up and pointing at me,

but soft, and spread out

in two big pink splotches.

She looked like the great

grandmother of every

whore in the world.

The devil got his

money's worth that night.

James M. Cain

The Postman Always Rings Twice

1934

Her voice faded off

into a sort of sad whisper,

like a mortician asking

for a down payment.

Raymond Chandler

The Little Sister

1949

He recognized the picture.

It was a snapshot,

blown up.  A picture of

Patricia that summer in Maine

when she had worn the Bikini

for the first and last time,

wearing it that once

out there on the rocks,

while they swam.  She had

large breasts.  She had been

unable to control them.

Gil Brewer

77 Rue Paradis

1954

The guy was dead

as hell.

Mickey Spillane

Vengeance Is Mine

1950

 

 Take me in some place

where I can't see them.

In away from

the open sky.

Glaring--

a thousand eyes--

Cornell Woolrich

Night Has a Thousand Eyes

1945