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She had no business being

so damned smart and

so damned sexually attractive

at the same time.

One or the other was fine.

A man could understand that

and cope with it.

Brett Halliday

A Redhead for Mike Shayne

1964

His eyes were dimming crescents,
straining upward into the starred

night sky,
as if trying to make out, to visualize,
some phantom face that no one else

could see.
And what is love anyway but the

unattainable,
the reaching out toward an illusion?

Cornell Woolrich

Rendezvous in Black
1948

She knew how.

Marvin H. Albert

Devil in Dungarees

1960

What the hell!

Two hundred bucks a week,

and all I'd have to do for it

was occasionally kill

somebody for him.

"When do I start?" I said.

Bruno Fischer

The Fast Buck

1952

Dead men

are heavier

than broken hearts.

Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep

1939

Ostensibly a lawyer, he maintained

a luxurious Hollywood office.

He even kept office hours.

But he hadn't appeared

in a courtroom for years.

He didn't have to.

He knew where too many bodies,

male and female,

had spent their lost weekends.

His was a nasty business

but he never had trouble

with his conscience.

He had none.

Day Keene

Framed in Guilt

1949

What was that line

about walking a mile

in another man's shoes?

Oh yeah:

By the time he figures out

you've screwed him over,

you're a mile away, and

you've got his shoes.

David J. Schow

Gun Work

2008

I'm not afraid

of dying.

Dying is

the easy part.

Jon Bassoff

The Disassembled Man

2009

He lay beneath a single white sheet

which still showed creases from the

shelves.

This sheet had not been slept with--

and neither had Halquist.

Gil Brewer

The Bitch

1958

Bookmakers have

remarkably little faith

in the inherent

nobility of man.

Charles Williams

Nothing in Her Way

1953

It sure is awful

to die in Arkansas

with this circus.

Jim Tully

Circus Parade

1927

His books don't sound

like he had any fun

writing them.

But you see ads,

you can buy every book

Zane Grey wrote and

fill up a whole shelf.

For people who

don't know any better.

Elmore Leonard

Up in Honey's Room

2007

It had been good.

He'd thought he loved her,

and she'd certainly acted

the part of loving him.

It was like getting cut

across the throat

when he found she was laying

not one guy, not even two--

but every beer-faced stud

in the county.

And then coming back to him

with her fine virginal face,

her just-for-you-honey body,

and her church-going, fine, clean

mind that manufactured

all the crazy promises

that had him standing

on his ear night and day.

And he never knew until

that time in a bar,

when a stranger began

bragging to him

about the quick piece

he'd knocked off

that afternoon

in a park

on the edge of town.

Gil Brewer

Little Tramp

1957

I don't mind if you

forgot my name.

It's about as ordinary

as a name can be.

Even I feel like

forgetting it sometimes.

It's not that easy, though,

to forget your own name.

Haruki Murakami

After Dark

2004

(translated by Jay Rubin)

Sometimes

words

are just

a nuisance.

John Farris

Baby Moll

1958

Sometimes

it is good

for a man

to be drunk.

Dorothy B. Hughes

Ride the Pink Horse

1946

She started a low

continuous moaning,

as though she had

just been branded.

James McKimmey

The Long Ride

1961

Did you ever stop

to figure that

there's all kinds

of ways of dying,

but only one way

of being dead?

Jim Thompson

The Killer Inside Me

1952

I had to see you,

honey,

or I'd go crazy.

Hurry.

Gil Brewer

The Brat

1957

It was an ancient house,

built in the late nineties

and constantly repaired

and restored since then.

There was nothing

but the look of money

wastefully squandered here--

a smell of money

even in the flower beds

where roses smelled like

sweaty fifty-cent pieces

instead of roses, and

the jasmine had the scent of

a disinfectant used in banks.

Harry Whittington

Hell Can Wait

1960

You can label almost anybody

by finding out what time

they go to work in the morning.

Robert Bloch

The Scarf

1947

New York and Hollywood

is full of her, she is

everywhere you turn,

and when you have reached

the ripe age of thirty-six,

you have learned it is

useless to try to warn

her of the pitfalls.

Because nothing can daunt her--

nothing except time,

years of batting her pretty head

against too many disappointments,

and her firm white fanny

against too many mattresses.

Steve Fisher

No House Limit

1958

I had seen

so many houses burned down,

so many cars wrecked,

so man corpses

with blue holes in their temples,

so many awful things

that people had pulled

to crook the wheel,

that that stuff didn't seem real

to me any more.

If you don't understand that,

go to Monte Carlo

or some other place

where there's a big casino,

sit at a table,

and watch the face of the man

that spins the little ivory ball.

After you've watched it a while,

ask yourself how much

he would care

if you went out and

plugged yourself in the head.

His eyes might drop

when he heard the shot,

but it wouldn't be from worry

whether you lived or died.

It would be to make sure

you didn't leave

a bet on the table,

that he would have to cash

for your estate.

James M. Cain

Double Indemnity

1936

It don't take

much brains

to outsmart

a man who

trusts you.

Jim Thompson

Nothing More Than Murder

1949

What can a man do

when a girl

grabs him like that?

A man has to be

polite.

W. R. Burnett

High Sierra

1940

"Don't move," he said,

in a voice that was

forty percent gravel and

sixty percent inert materials.

Donald E. Westlake

Somebody Owes Me Money

1969

There was now only

the process of taking away.

He wondered if

it was like that with everyone,

and he decided that

it must be.

And he wondered how

they felt,

and reasoned that

they must feel

about as he.

That was all

there was to life:

a gift that was slowly

taken away from you.

Jim Thompson

Heed the Thunder

1946