Blackmailer by George Axelrod

Blackmailer by George Axelrod

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I’m not sure if it is somewhat negative of the time period, negative of now, or what exactly, but I’m sure that my comment, which I’ll make in a moment, is negative – just not sure how. That comment: This book has a rather modern feel to it – in that it feels as if it was written in, say, 2007 and set in the 1950s (there are things that link it to the 1950s – mention of films; the somewhat causal mention of how a beautiful actress looks plain and unsexy in Technicolor (a film actress is one of the characters in this book – a new musical of hers came out during the course of this book – another character casually mentions that she looks bad in it – that Technicolor makes everyone look fake and overly painted – that kind of sounds like something someone from the 1950s could put in a book and people then would immediately have a reaction (good or bad) about it – someone could have a reaction to that now, but I’m not sure an author would think to make that comment (I’m not going by myself on this, but I will say that yes you can see Technicolor films today – as in the films from the 1950s that used that colorization process, and you can see how the colors kind of look . . . off)).

Mostly, though, I wanted to say that I had this vague feeling that this book felt somewhat modern with some odd little things here and there that seemed . . . off. Not the Technicolor thing, no it was everyone calling each other baby and darling. For the most part, the only think that I’d want to check after I finished the book – if it actually been written in 2007 and set in 1952, is when microfilm came out – but I do not need to check, since the book isn’t an historical – but a contemporary – written in 1952, set in 1952 (Microfilm came out in 1935 (well, Kodak began using it to put the New York times on it in 1935, and it was endorsed in 1936 by the ALA; the first actual ‘microfilm’, or as it was called ‘microphotograph’ came out in 1839 – but it was a ‘personal hobby’).

For example of one of the ‘off things’, and I’ll need to create the scene: Jean Dahl (sp?), one of the two main women in the story, enters Dick Sherman’s office to offer him a book by a prize winning author – someone up there with Hemingway. The guy is dead now, so any new book by him – something he wrote but didn’t get published before his death, would be quite valuable to a publisher – regardless of the books quality. Throughout Dahl seemed to use baby in every sentence. Something like ‘Hello, baby, I’m not an author’s wife. Baby. I’ve got a book. You’ll want it. I’ll sell it to you, baby, for $50,000.’ And this comment was responded to by Sherman with something like ‘You are out of your mind, baby. Submit the book through the normal means and we might take a look at it, baby. But there’s no way we’d give you a $50,000 advance, baby.’ ‘Ah, but baby, I know you’ll give me that. This is the last work of a Nobel Prize winner. Who is dead, baby.’ (for those coming along behind me thinking of reading or not reading this book – yes, that is something that keeps up, though it tended to only pop up when Dick was talking with women; though he tended to use ‘baby’ with Dahl (both used it), and ‘darling’ with Janis Whitney (sp?) (the other main female character – the actress) – though he used baby with her as well. There might even be a sentence that went something like ‘Janis, baby, you know I love you darling, I always have. We don’t change, baby. That will never change, darling’. *shrugs* take it or leave it if that would annoy you too much to read the book).

Right, so – this book is about a book publisher who normally deals with ‘author’s wives’ who have complaints. A woman drops by demanding to see Dick Sherman. Sherman, thinking it’s an author’s wife, allows her in and immediately launches into several ‘canned’ responses to normal ‘author’s wives’ questions (by the way, the bestselling author for their company is a woman, so that ‘author’s wives’ thing . . . is vaguely confusing). That woman, though, notes that Dick is a moron – she isn’t an author’s wife. She has a book. No, idiot, not her own – the last book written by a prize winning author. And she has proof – the first page in its original form.

By a weird coincidence, Dick Sherman used to work for a different publisher, one who dealt with and published that author’s work – so he would recognize that guy’s work. And he does – it looks like the product of that dead dude. So he is both excited and confused. Excited to be able to get that work. Confused as to why it is being offered to him; and how he can be sure that there actually is more than that one ‘example’ page. The woman tells him that he has until that night for a response.

Fifteen minutes later, Dick receives a letter. From an agent. Offering up the same book. Two different people appear to be attempting to sell him the same book – a book he didn’t know existed (and while the author had boasted of being in the middle of writing a book for six years before his death, no book was found in his estate after his death). Naturally Dick is confused.

Before he can think too hard, one of the authors comes by – the top one – and he has to deal with her. Then he spots an old love - the love of his life. So he is now drunk (that author’s meetings consist of going on ‘lunches’ and drinking, like, 800 glasses of .. .um, rum or something), and distracted by sighting his old love – who left him to become a movie star (which she succeeded to do (that would be Janis Whitney (not sure I have her last name correct)). So, like I said, distracted.

It’s past the time to respond to the odd offer from the woman, but he’s in luck. She turns up at his apartment. They promptly go back to saying stuff like ‘baby’, he acts like a dick (she asks for something to drink, he says no, tell me what the fuck is going on, she gets herself a drink, he slaps it out of her hand – see, a dick), but before anyone gets anywhere, two thugs turn up and do stuff. Like tear apart the apartment, strip the girl, beat into unconsciousness the man (Dick), stuff.

Dick, naturally, hasn’t a clue what the fuck is going on. So he attempts to 1) get back his health; 2) continue with his life. But he gets pulled back into things. He spots Jean at a party, then spots Janis, and then people are rolling around naked and stuff. Then the lights go out and . . well, you get it. Stuff happens.

It’s an interesting book. Seemed somewhat more competently written for a guy who seems to have mostly written screenplays – not weird ass noir stuff. There were some downright stupid stuff done by the guy – but then I recalled this wasn’t some private dick but a book publisher. He may or may not be smart, but he hasn’t been trained to be smart in this particular type of situation.

Rating: 3.4

December 2 2016




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