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Title: they call this a classic?
Review: I enjoyed reading this novel, all right-- parts are so bad they deserved to be enshrined in one of Pronzini's Gun In Cheek books. To say that the psychology in this novel is sound is akin to saying that an abandoned shack in the woods would pass building code inspection. And I'm not even factoring in Brown's homophobia (which, even as a straight guy, I found annoying) or the fact that a chronic alcoholic-- I'm sorry, _heavy drinker_-- could function as well as this reporter does. The ending, in which the reporter keeps the killer at bay (for several hours!) is deliciously bad in the best tradition of wretched pulp fiction. I recently read a few W. R. Burnett novels (Little Ceasar and Asphalt Jungle) which were written a decade or two before this but hold up a lot better. Brown has written some good stuff, but this novel doesn't deserve its "classic" status.
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