The Plunge E-Book

David Goodis

• Herausgeber: Black Cat Weekly
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 39

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Roy Childers is a detective who has tried to stay clean in a corrupt police force. He becomes obsessed with finding escaped convict Dice Nolan. But his stakeout leads him into an illicit affair and a fierce jealousy that causes him to lose control. When the truth about a murder emerges, Childers plunges into darkness, realizing that the line between right and wrong is not always clear. A gripping psychological noir exploring the fall of a moral man.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION, by Karl Wurf

THE PLUNGE, by David Goodis

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Originally published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Oct. 1958.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

INTRODUCTION,by Karl Wurf

David Goodis (1917-1967) was an American writer of crime fiction best known for his hardboiled novels set in his hometown of Philadelphia. Goodis studied journalism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Temple University before moving to New York City to pursue a career as a writer.

He found early success scripting crime serials for radio programs in the 1940s. His first novel, Retreat from Oblivion, was published in 1939, but it was his 1946 novel Dark Passage that brought him mainstream attention. The book was adapted into a classic film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall the following year.

Goodis wrote several more novels throughout the 1940s and 1950s, releasing books such as Shoot the Piano Player, The Burglar, and Street of No Return. His works were often bleak portrayals of down-and-out characters living on the fringes of society.

Described as the “poet of the losers,” Goodis exerted a major influence on subsequent generations of crime writers. Despite periods of success, he died in relative obscurity in 1967. Current readers are rediscovering his work, with many of his short stories being reprinted.

THE PLUNGE,by David Goodis

Seven out of ten are slobs, he was thinking. There was no malice or disdain in the thought. It was more a mixture of pity and regret. And that made it somewhat sickening, for he was referring specifically to the other men who wore badges, his fellow-policemen. More specifically still, he was thinking of the nine plainclothesmen attached to the Vice Squad. Only yesterday they’d been caught with their palms out, hauled in before the Commissioner, and called all sorts of names before they were suspended.

But, of course, the suspensions were temporary. They’d soon be back on the job, their palms extended again, accepting the shakedown money with the languid smile that seemed to say, It’s all a part of the game.

He’d never believed in that cynical axiom, had never let it touch him during his seventeen years on the city payroll. From rookie to Police Sergeant and on up to Detective Lieutenant he’d stayed away from the bribe, rakeoff and conniving and doing favors for certain individuals who required official protection to remain in business.

Of course, at times he’d made mistakes, but they were always clean mistakes. He’d been trying too hard or he was weary from nights without sleep. It was honest blundering and it put no shadows on his record. In City Hall he was listed Grade-A and they had him slated for promotion.

His name was Roy Childers and he was thirty-eight years old. He stood five-feet-ten and weighed a rock-hard one-ninety. It was really rock-hard because he was a firm believer in physical culture and wholesome living. He kept away from too much starches and sweets, smoked only after meals, had a beer now and then, but nothing more than that, and the only woman he ever slept with was his wife.

They’d been married eleven years and they had four children. In a few months Louise would be having the fifth. Maybe five was too many, considering his salary and the price of food these days. But, of course, they’d get along. They’d always managed to get along. He had a fine wife and a nicely arranged way of living and there was never anything serious to worry about.

That is, aside from his job. On the job he worried plenty. It was purely technical worriment because he took the job very seriously and when things didn’t go the way he expected, he’d lose sleep and it would hurt his digestion. When he’d been with the Vice Squad, it hadn’t happened so frequently. But a year ago he’d become fed up with the Vice Squad, with all the shenanigans and departmental throatcutting and, of course, the never-ending shakedown activity he saw all around him.

He’d requested a transfer to Homicide, and within a few months his dark brown hair showed grey streaks, pouches began to form under his eyes, the unsolved cases put creases at the corners of his mouth. But mostly it was the fact that Homicide also had its slobs and manipulators, its badge-wearing bandits who’d go in for any kind of deal if the price was right.